I have not blogged for ages for various reasons, mainly because I have not shot a lot of film recently so I am trying to motivate myself.
Sticking with Kentmere 400@800 theme which I really like the look of I loaded my FM2n and for a change I have an old Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm f2.4 which is an M42 screw mount lens that I have a Nikon adapter for and it works great.
It took well over a week to shoot the whole roll so the subject matter is pretty varied ….
I developed the roll in Rodinal this time which gave a far grittier look than I had with the last roll.
So here are the best of the roll as I had a few duplicates …
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
I was watching a youtube video a few weeks back … it was “Shoot film like a boss” which is a great channel for anyone interested in film photography and darkroom stuff … Where an old Zeiss Ikon Netter was featured and I was impressed with the results it produced considering its age and especially as it can be picked up pretty cheaply for a medium format camera these days.
There are quite a few different models of this camera, the one I bought was the 517/16 with the 75mm f4.5 lens.
Once the camera arrived I couldn’t wait to try it just to see if there were any problems with it as it looked in excellent condition but looks can be deceiving.
I loaded it with some expired ilford HP5 that I use when testing cameras and went for a quick local walk.
I set the lens to the marked red dots so I didn’t have to mess about as this isn’t a rangefinder and I am useless at guessing distances.
I processed the roll in ilfotecHC 1+31 dilution for 6.30 and scanned with my Epson V600.
The results were great, very sharp and contrasty and also in focus ha ha!
I would highly recommend anyone interested in getting into medium format film photography to consider getting one of these especially as if you set the aperture/focus like this you more or less have a point & shoot.
Here is the whole roll …
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
A few weeks ago I bought my first camera this year from a Twitter friend … I have wanted an Olympus XA ever since using my Olympus XA1.
The XA1 is very limiting with very little control over the camera other than point and shoot which is still fun and I am not knocking it but being able to have a pocketable little camera that has full control of all of the variables was very tempting.
As most people who read this blog probably know that film cameras have sky rocketed over the last few years especially the better more sought after models like the XA so I didn’t buy one until I was offered this one for and excellent price.
Anyway once the camera arrived complete with the flash which I was not expecting I was eager to try it out so I loaded it with a roll of Kentmere 400 and went out for a little walk.
The camera was a joy to use even the rangefinder focus was pretty bright and easy.
I developed the roll in ilfotec LC29 1+19 dilution for 8 minutes and the results were just as I hoped, nice sharp and contrasty images , OK nothing special to look at as I just wanted to make sure that the camera was working but as they were all in focus and exposed ok I was well happy.
I have a roll of Agfa Vista loaded as I blog this so I may add them to this post once I have finished them.
So here are the images …
Click on photo to view larger ….
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
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 …
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
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
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
Please click a photo to view larger
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
This year I really want to push myself and get back to shooting more so even though the weather was pretty poor I forced myself to go out and get the first roll in the bag.
I have not shot any ilford Delta for ages and as luck would have it my @emulsivesanta gifted me a roll of Delta 400 which I loaded into my Yashicamat 124g and went out.
I debated whether to push it to 800 but decided against as I wanted to see just how sharp Delta 400 was when shot at less than f8 .. nearly all the frames were either f3.5 or f4 .. I did manage f5.6 on the Graffiti container image.
To be honest my walk only took about 45 minutes and luckily the rain held off.
I developed the roll in ilford DD-x 1+4 dilution for 8 minutes and scanned with my Epson v600.
I was very happy with just how sharp the images were and that I managed to pretty much nail the focus on the wide open frames, Delta 400 is very sharp and with very little grain compared to my beloved HP5 ( I do like grain mind ).
Maybe it’s the way I like to scan ( I scan pretty flat and boost contrast in Lightroom ) but the images seemed less contrasty than HP5 even with my usual boost but it didn’t matter as the look suited the compositions.
Overall I would say that Delta 400 is a great film I should really get some more especially in 120 format as it costs only 50 pence more per roll compared to HP5 in Analogue Wonderland’s store.
I bet if I shot this at f8+ on a bright day in my Fuji GW690iii the scans would be scarily sharp.
So here is the whole roll .. nothing really exciting (I did like the sheep shot thought)
Comments most welcome .. click image to view larger
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
The Mamiya C330 is a camera that I always seem to get great results with no matter what film or subject matter but it seems that this year this is only the 2nd time that I have shot with it.
I was going through my camera bags trying to sort out what cameras were stored where and I came across the trusty C330and decided to take it out for a change as I have been neglecting it.
I have a few rolls of Acros that I was kindly given that had expired back in 2019 so I wanted to see how they performed.
I have a couple of lenses for the C330 55/65/80/180 and 250 .. I mainly use the 55mm when I am out shooting landscapes but I decided on the 80mm f2.8 as it was very overcast and shooting 100 iso film meant I was probably going to be shooting shallow DOF stuff pretty much wide open.
After my little walk I developed the roll in ilford LC29 1+19 dilution for 5 minutes and scanned with my new Epson V600.
Considering I shot most of the frames at f2.8 the images were lovely and sharp with good contrast .. I have shot very little Acros in the past but I can see why everybody likes it.
Very smooth grain and punchy sharp images I will have to get hold of some of the new Acros to compare.
So here are the images .. comments most welcome
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
I have loads of cameras all of which produce technically excellent images due to the metering/lenses and the ability to choose how you want the image to look as you can determine the aperture to control depth of field or the shutter speed to control the exposure.
I have always liked panoramic images and have in the past shot 35mm in my Fuji Gw690iii to get a sudo pano look and as I am very unlikely to find an Xpan in a charity shop I am going to have to make do shooting multiple frames and sticking them together to get my panos.
The other day I was going through my camera drawers and various camera bags and came across a little plastic camera that I didn’t know I had.
I am sure I never bought it so I must have been given it at some point.
Not knowing anything about it other than it said PN919 on the front I checked out Google to find that it was a rebadged Vivitar by the Readers Digest magazine from years ago.
It gives you the option of shooting straight 35mm or with a flick of a switch it gives a fake pano by just exposing the centre of the frame ( you could just do this in Lightroom on a full frame but where’s the fun in that”.
What I like with this camera which is also the same when I shoot my Holga and Diana cameras is the fact that I can just worry about the content and composition of what I am shooting and let everything else be what it will be.
I loaded it up with a roll of trusty ilford HP5 and went out for a walk to test it out.
When I got home I went to rewind the film and it was very loose and didn’t seem to be rewinding, I thought that the film take up spool had let go of the leader and I had not shot any frames so opened the back in very dim light only to find that it had fully wound on to the take up spool.
I quickly closed the back and attempted to rewind again and eventually it did start to rewind albeit very stiffly.
I developed it in ilford LC29 1+19 dilution and when I opened the tank I was pleased to see that only the last few frames had been affected with the back being opened.
Overall I was pleased with how the images look, they are not all that sharp but the pano effect coupled with the gritty HP5 look made me smile.
Would I recommend this camera if you could find one? .. in a word Yes! as it’s a fun thing to try, I wouldn’t pay a lot for it but if a cheap one came up then give it a go.
Here are all the images along with some images of the camera showing the pano mechanism.
There are also one or two full frames images there just to see the difference
Comments most welcome ….
All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email
tim dobbs photography 