The Uniomat is a bit of a contradiction. It feels heavy yet delicate to me. The film advance is a smooth, single stroke lever. The meter moves an orange pointer in a window on the top plate, and the exposure ring adjusts a green needle to match it.
The shutter fires easily, with a smooth press and a neat mechanical “ZIP” sound. The rangefinder was clean, bright, and easy to focus. The meter functions as designed, yet it’s design makes it very hard to meter for a specific portion of a scene.
I like it, but its bulk keeps me from carrying it as often as I might.
My Tri-X was a disaster. It was the last of a batch of unknown expired film I found at a flea market. There was nothing usable. I loaded up a roll of Portra 400 at the RISD museum and set the ASA for 1600. Interestingly the roll performed wonderfully inside without a flash, but my later excursion to Salisbury Beach on a cold grey afternoon did not fare as well.
These were developed at my local pharmacy minilab and were not pushed during development.
Notes from Mosquito Hill 