Cameras – tim dobbs photography

Kodak Vision 3 50D on a sunny day ….

Ages ago I bought some hand rolled Kodak 50D from a twitter friend and as I was also given a new kit of ECN-2 chemicals also from a different twitter friend I dug a roll out of the fridge and loaded my Nikon F100 with both the 50mm f1.4 and 24-85 VR and shot the roll over one whole week.

I really like using 250D as I find it a bit more versatile that 50D due to the poor weather we seem to get more often or not here in Wales but the week just gone has been great so using 50 iso has been pretty easy for a change.

Developing using the QWD ECN-2 kit is a breeze but I find that scanning Vision 3 films quite a pain compared to C-41 as my Epson software seems to find strange colour casts on about 50% of the frames so my scanning times are probably doubled.

That said I do like how Vision 3 films look and 50D has pretty fine grain compared to both 250D and 500T which makes sense due to the lower ISO.

Well here is the whole roll warts and all … comments most welcome

You can find my previous blog about using the QWD ECN-2 kit here if you are interested …

New QWD ECN2 developer kit for Motion picture film .. Mini review .. My first 3 rolls …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store as well as some hand made film canister keychains … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Sheds & Stuff on Acros 100 …..

I came across a solitary roll of expired Fuji Neopan Acros mixed in with some of my other B&W film stock in the fridge the other week.

I have not shot a lot of Acros before but I do really like how it looks so I wanted to test the new light seals in my Mamiya C330 so I decide to shoot it.

It was a nice bright day with just a few clouds so I set my meter to 50 iso and went for a little walk.

Most of the shots were shot at f5.6 to f8 and I developed the film in ilfotec LC29 1+47 dilution for 8 minutes.

Firstly the light seals worked and secondly the images were great …. the amount of highlight/shadow detail that was captured was excellent and the sharpness was impressive.

I need to buy some of the newer Acros to try just to compare to this old stuff.

So here are all the images … click to view larger

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store as well as some hand made film canister keychains … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Sunny day for a change … Shooting Kodak Portra 400VC …

As to be expected here in Wales the weather has been pretty up and down … mainly down but a week ago we had a fleeting glimpse of the sun, so as I had not shot any colour film stock this year I grabbed a roll of Portra 400VC from the fridge and loaded up the trusty Yashicamat 124G and went out to make the most of the light.

I only went for a short walk as I bumped into artist Kevin Sinnott outside his gallery and popped in for a chat as I had not seen him for a while.

To make the most of the light I managed to take his portrait outside before I left for the rest of my walk.

Even though the film had pretty long expired I rated it at 200 iso and was not disappointed with how the images came out.

As I don’t have any C41 chemistry here I sent the film off to the trusty Filmdev who did a great job as usual.

So here are the images …

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Snow day ….. Fuji GW690iii with ilford Delta 400 …

A week or two back we had heavy downpour of snow here in the valleys and I had a snow day from work.

I wasn’t a particularly nice day, really grey with poor visibility but later in the afternoon before we lost the light I popped up to my favourite tree and shot a roll of Delta 400 in my 6×9.

I hand held the camera so I was hoping that I got a couple that didn’t suffer from camera shake as I was shooting at 1/60th.

I developed the roll in DD/X 1+9 dilution for 10 minutes.

I was pretty happy with the results and managed to get 5 frames out of 8 that worked for me.

I don’t shoot Delta very often but the amount of detail the GW690 gives you shows even more when using it over my fav HP5.

Here they are ….

Click on an image to view larger

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Fomapan 400, Canon AV1 and infosol 3 ….

I have 2 Canon AV1’s … Chrome and Black versions, I prefer the AV1 to the AE1 as I shoot mainly in aperture priority so it works much better for me.

I have not shot with any of my Canon’s for an absolute age so dug out the black version, put on the 50mm f1.4 and loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 which is a film that is growing on me especially the cost ha ha!.

It was a pretty gloomy day but I didn’t want to push it so rarely even got to f8, mainly shooting f2.8 to f5.6.

I had some infosol 3 that was gifted me so I decided to see how Fomapan 400 looked compared to my usual ilfotecHC.

The results were pretty nice, there was quite a bit of grain but the images were contrasty and reasonably sharp considering the apertures I was using.

From memory the previous rolls of 400 I developed had slightly less grain when using ilfotecHC but nevertheless I was happy with what I got.

So here is the whole roll minus 2 shots that were accidents …

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Short walk with the Mamiya 645 & Rollei RPX 400 ….

The last roll of RPX 400 in 120 that I shot a while back had some weird artefacts and strange grain, it was expired I grant you but I have never had that problem with this stock before.

I bought a few rolls of fresh film after this problem and got around to shooting some last weekend.

Suffice to say it worked fine, I really like the look of this film in medium format.

It has a great range of tones, nice and sharp with minimal grain.

I shot it using my Mamiya 645 & 80mm f2.8 developed in ilfotecHC 1+15 dilution.

The only thing that I don’t like about this stock is that it is a bit curly so is not the easiest to scan using my Epson v600.

Well here is the whole roll warts and all

Please click on an image to view larger …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Last blog of 2022 … Lomo Berlin 400 .. the whole roll

This year has not been the best if I am honest and my photography has suffered as my desire to shoot all but deserted me.

I have only shot 25 rolls of film this year which is a fraction of what I normally shoot and even though I have developed and scanned them all, many of the rolls have just sat in my lightroom catalog un-edited.

As the weather this week has been horrendous ( I did get out and shoot one roll last weekend) I have been going through the images in the catalog and started to edit as I have had a week off work.

Here is the first roll shot on my Minolta 600si and developed using ilfotec DD-X.

I shot this back in April. I have tried Berlin before and new the images would be pretty contrasty.

I think the subject matter here was not the best for this film as the excessive contrast in busy images tends to muddle the scene unless viewing large.

Nevertheless I was pretty pleased with the results.

Anyway here is the whole roll, comments most welcome.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Trying Kentmere 400 in 120 format …. the whole roll

My favorite B&W film stock has got to be ilford HP5 due to how versatile it is.

I have pushed it to 3200 and still got great results, I have also used Kentmere 400 in 35mm on quite a few occasions and was pretty happy with what I got but it never pulled me away from using HP5.

So when all the you tubers I follow suddenly started putting out videos about the new Kentmere in 120 format I was a little taken aback as I was unaware that ilford were releasing a new film.

As I am not one of the ilford chosen few I had to buy my own to try so I got a few rolls of Both 100 and 400 iso from the excellent Analogue Wonderland.

I loaded the 400 in my Yashicamat 124g and popped out to burn a roll and see what it was like.

I developed it using ilfotec DD-X 1+4 dilution for 11.30mins and scanned using my Epson V600.

First look at the negatives and they looked very flat with minimal contrast.

When scanning that is exactly how they turned out but that isn’t a bad thing because once they were in Lightroom the dynamic range was excellent and with just a few tweaks the images looked fine with great tonal range, minimal grain and nicely sharp.

Overall this film is a winner for me as it is only £5 a roll and gives great results .. I will have to try pushing the next roll to 800 or even 1600 to see how it copes, I regularly shoot HP5 pushed and love how that looks.

Anyway here is the whole roll, comments most welcome.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Lomo Lady Grey 400 & Pentax Espio 140M accident …

I have not been shooting too much recently and have been trying to force myself to get out to get back into the swing of shooting most days.

It was a reasonably bright day but quite cloudy so for a change I decided to use a point & shoot for a change hoping that the limitations would get me going.

I loaded up a roll of Lomo Lady Grey 400 in my Pentax Espio 140M and we went out for a walk.

After about 3 or 4 shots my wife pointed out that she thought that the flash was going off when I was shooting which seemed strange given that I was using 400 speed film on a bright day but it was.

It was then I realised that Lomo Lady Grey does not have a DX code and the little Espio defaults to iso 25 if there is no code.

So I disabled the flash and just continued with the roll hoping that I could salvage something while developing.

I did a search on the internet for the best development times but there was not a lot but a few twitter friends recommended stand development in Rodinal.

So I mixed 3ml of dev with 297ml of water, did 4 inversions and left to stand for 30 minutes followed by 3 more inversions and another stand for 15 minutes.

And surprisingly I got images albeit quite over exposed but nevertheless it seemed to work.

After scanning there were a few images that I couldn’t use due to the exposure and quite bad camera shake but here are the ones that worked.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Trying Kodak Gold in 120 format … the whole roll

When I heard that Kodak were producing Gold in 120 format I was pretty excited .. not because it was Gold as I haven’t really shot too much of it in the past and to be totally honest I had to look on the internet for samples just to see what it was really like .. I was excited because I shoot film 95% of the time I was happy that there was another film stock on the market.

I pre ordered a 5 pack from the brilliant https://analoguewonderland.co.uk/ and eagerly waited for it to arrive which wasn’t all that long to be fair.

As it was a 200 iso film I didn’t want to rush out and just shoot the film I wanted to try it in nice light so it was a fortnight before I eventually shot it.

I used my trusty Yashicamat 124G and went out on a nice long walk in the sun.

I had the roll dev/scanned by https://filmdev.co.uk/ and was very happy with the results.

The film was lovely and sharp and considering how bright it was on the day the latitude was great with no blown highlights and plenty of detail in the shadows and very little grain.

Like many of the examples online that I have seen the film gives a nice warm look which obviously helps if you shoot it in the sunshine.

My usual colour negative film is Lomo CN400 which I love but Gold 200 really impressed me, the only thing that I would like is is the extra stop that CN 400 gives but for my next roll I will push it to 400 just to see how it performs.

I would thoroughly recommend this film and the best thing is the price compared to others on the market … it’s great value

Anyway here is the whole roll …. comments welcomed