Thanks to all for saying hello and the kind words. I am really surprised and delighted by your responses.
I'm shooting with an MP. The first two images I shot with my Summilux 50mm, which is likely to be my go-to street lens for candid photography; the next two I shot with a Noctilux I borrowed from a friend (now I'm not sure if I'm going to give it back to my friend.) 😀
I'm sorry I didn't record what settings I used. This being the first roll, I wanted to get a feel for how the MP meters. For the indoor shots, I set the shutter speed at either 1/15 and 1/30, which is the slowest I can trust myself holding the camera steady; for the shots with the Noct, I shot either wide open or close to wide open to isolate my subjects and/or go for some light falloff on the side, which I felt suited the mood I was trying to capture.
The film used was a Kodack BW 400 CN. I picked it because ... it was the only B&W film at anything other than ISO 100 I could find at the nearest photo processing lab chain. I know it must be criminal shooting B&W without even putting any thought into the choice of film, and not developing the film myself, but I don't know how. I hope to learn in due course.
To friends who said I seem to be adjusting fine, thank you for the encouragement. What you didn't see was the rest of the roll which I almost had to throw away in disgust, because either the exposures were way off, or the focus is all wrong. One thing I have discovered is that I am awful, awful at estimating distances. For a lot of the candid shots I made, I didn't have the luxury of taking time to focus, so I tried to pre-focus a lot, and the first attempts were very spotty. I hope it would improve with time.
Just some personal sharing on one of the pictures. My favorite is picture #4 with the couple. I saw this couple while walking along the side of Victoria Harbour, and something about them made me just stop, stood behind them, and watched them for a long time talking with each other. I put the camera up, but somehow I didn't want to pull the trigger, and I couldn't explain it, I didn't even know what I was waiting for. Finally, they stopped talking, moved a little closer to each other, and the man slipped his hand around the girl's waist. So I took the shot. The moment I snapped it, I knew it would be the photo I liked the most, because of the feeling and emotion I invested into it.
Thank you again for indulging me sharing my joy with you.
