Equipment testing – Page 6 – tim dobbs photography

First 2 rolls with my Fuji GW690iii ….

I recently managed to get one of my dream cameras into my collection the awesome Fuji GW690iii.

I have been looking for ages at a bit of a step up from my 6×6 and 6×4.5 medium format cameras with the possible idea of eventually getting into large format further down the line.

A good twitter friend gave me a stunning deal where by we swapped … I gave him my Fuji X-T10 and in return I got the Fuji and also a Samyang 8mm f2.8 fish-eye for my X-T20 …… suffice to say I am so sure I have had the best end of the deal.

Apart from the battle scars to the built in hood the camera was in excellent condition and I was excited to get out and use it.

I shot the 2 rolls over 2 weekends … the 1st was at my local beach of Porthcawl and the 2nd was up in the forestry here in the garw valley.

The camera was a dream to use even though it is big compared to my Leica rangefinder it handles very well and as the body is made up of quite a bit of plastic (very solid plastic mind) the weight is not too bothersome.

I even manged to hand hold down to 1/30th on 2 of the forest shots.

Anyway here are all 15 images ….. ( I managed to leave the lens cap on for one frame in the Reala set …. idiot)

First Fuji Reala …

Second Kodak Ektar …

The size of 6×9 negs is something to behold … it’s a bit strange just seeing 8 frames when you get it out of the tank and the level of detail you get even when scanning on my getting old Epson v500 is lovely.

I am going to get my next roll lab processed and scanned just to hopefully see just how good this lovely camera is.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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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 🙂

1st time shooting Rollei RPX 100 ….

Over the past year I have managed to pick up quite a few rolls of different film stocks that I have never shot before … Rollei RPX 100 being one of them.

Slowly but surely I am trying them and seeing what I like or don’t like with them and whether or not I would buy more.

I have a small selection of B&W developers that I use and after reading up on the web about which may be the best for this film stock and decided on Rodinal at a dilution of 1+25 which should give good sharpness and contrast from the images that I have seen especially as I pushed it to iso 200.

The day was pretty rubbish with grey clouds and sleet so I used the Leica M2 with the 7 Artisans 50mm f1.1 with the hope of trying to shoot a few images wide open.

I was very impressed with how the film performed giving tons of detail with excellent tonality and I will definitely be buying more of this stock that’s for sure.

I need to try the RPX 400 just to see if the extra grain you may get with a faster film will lessen how sharp the images may appear especially if pushed a bit.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

Snow day …… part one

In the past couple of weeks we have had a few days of quite heavy snow … the images here are from our 1st encounter with the “Beast from the East”.

The camera/film combination were Mamiya 645 & Fuji Acros 100 and Yashicamat 124G on expired ilford FP4+

The subject matter for both sets of images are mostly the same so that you can make some sort of comparison of the 2 different films.

Firstly the Mamiya 645/Acros :

Next a few from the Yashicamat/FP4+

Both films worked well exposure wise with all the snow with the Acros probably coming out on top sharpness wise but considering the FP4+ was long expired it also looked pretty good.

After this snowfall cleared up we experienced another un-seasonal snow storm last weekend which will follow in the next blog post … this time with colour negative stock.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

It goes all the way to 1.1 …..

A twitter friend posted the other week that he was selling a recently purchased lens for a really good price that I could not refuse.

I have the Voigtlander 35mm Ultron f1.7 for my Leica M2 so the chance to add a 50mm to my bag was welcomed.

The 7 Artisans 50mm f1.1 is a pretty impressive piece of kit to be honest, it felt really well built and is pretty heavy to boot.

And when attached to the M2 it felt well balanced but it was noticeably heavy when carrying but was great to shoot.

I loaded a roll of Kodak Ektar and set out to test how well it performed.

The viewfinder on the M2 is lovely and bright normally but maybe it was in my head but it did seem brighter and the focusing patch was very easy to get focus quickly.

The lens barrel did creep into the finder but not into the 50mm framelines so it was not a problem.

Anyway here is a selection of images shot at various apertures … only the one of my son at the end was shot wide open at f1.1 as it was too bright when I was out and didn’t have an ND filter with me.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the lens, it is not as sharp as the Ultron wide open or even at f2.8 but how it renders the out of focus areas is lovely so its a keeper for me for sure.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

“There’s mist on them hills” .. testing my New/Old lens …

A few months back I picked up a Nikkormat FTn from an old photographer who was selling a few bits and pieces, I bought it without a lens as I have plenty of Nikon F mount lenses ( or so I thought ).

Once I got it home I mounted my 50mm f1.4 only to find that I couldn’t meter properly as the lenses that I had with an actual aperture ring didn’t have the little aperture lug thingy that is on the older Ai lenses which tells the camera meter what aperture was selected.

I did however find out that there is a way of using the stop down metering method which I tried and it worked fine but I wanted to get one of the older Ai lens just to use it properly.

So 2 weeks ago I was in Cardiff visiting the David Hurn “Swaps” exhibition in the National Museum of Wales and I paid a visit to a few of the little camera shops only to come across this Nikkor 35mm f2.8 Ai which was in excellent condition and just as importantly it was in my price range.

To test the combination I loaded up some ilford XP2 and went out into the wonderful welsh weather and shot away.

The lens was great to use, very smooth and I love the 35mm field of view so all was good.

I developed and scanned the film and here are the results.

I am very happy with how they both performed especially the lens which is sharp and contrasty given the condition that I was shooting in.

The camera shop that I purchased this lens also had 2 Nikon F3’s and a Nikkor 28mm Ai which I played with a bit but held my nerve and left them in the shop … until next time I am in Cardiff (I don’t have an F3 in my collection) 🙂

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

1st time shooting Bergger Pancro 400 …

A few weeks ago while buying my usual selection of film stock I also bought a couple of rolls of the new Bergger Pancro 400 to try and see how it compares against my favorite ilford HP5+.I loaded up my Leica M2 and went out for a quick walk hoping to miss the rain that had been forecast.

I rated the film at box speed and processed it in Rodinal 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes.

When it emerged from the tank I was happy with the overall look, pretty good exposure and contrast.

The 1st scans confirmed my initial thoughts and the film scanned very well.

I always try to scan as flat as possible and then increase the contrast in Lightroom.

The level of detail was very good as was the grain and what was really impressive was how much detail I got in the shadows while also retaining the highlights.

Overall I was very happy with how this film performed at box speed but I think I would like to push the next roll which is something that I nearly always do with HP5+ with brilliant results.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

New film stock to try out … Agfa APX 400

I was recently sent a lovely little package from a twitter friend Sandeep @Givemeabiscuit that contained a bunch of different films stocks.

He kindly sent me the films due to losing a bet that we made last year in regards to Liverpool FC ( who I support) finishing higher than Manchester UTD (who he supports) .

We both agreed to send each other a pile of film which ever one of us lost the bet, I won but to be honest I forgot all about it but Sandeep being the gentleman that he is reminded me and suffice to say he sent me a excellent pile of films some of which I have never shot before.

The 1st film that caught my eye was some Agfa APX 400 which is a film that I have not tried so I decided as the weather last weekend was total pants and my rugby match was cancelled due to a waterlogged pitch I though I would get wet anyway so loaded up a camera that I have had a while but never shot the Minolta Dynax 500si (more about this at the end of the blog) and went out up the mountain in the mist and rain to see how the film/camera performed.I tried to test the film/camera with a variety of settings and subjects from wide open closeups to stopped down wide shots all in aperture priority at iso 400 and developed the roll in Ilfotec HC 1+31 dilution for 8 minutes.

The camera performed really well I did switch to manual focus for some of the shots as it did struggle in the light a little but other than that it was great. The film itself was also a revelation with lovely contrast and excellent sharpness which really showed in some of the images where I stopped down to f8 and more.

The grain is pretty uniform and tight which helped in the large areas of mist in the pictures.

Overall I am very impressed with this film and will certainly look into buying some more in the future.As I said earlier in the post … more about the Minolta Dynax 500si …

I have been thinking about how to give back to the film community in some way.

I have given a few cameras/film away in the past but I was thinking about how to get others to join in the absolute joy that is “film photography” so as a start I am going to give this camera and AF35-70mm lens away along with some film to a newbie film shooter.

I will do a follow up blog post in the next few days with details about how I am going to do this as I am not really sure how to target newbie photographers.

Hopefully my fellow film togs can spread the word somehow and I can get the ball rolling soon.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images 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 🙂

1st time shooting Lomography Colour Negative 400 35mm….

I love trying new/old film stocks, usually its some old expired stuff I find on eBay but for a change I picked up a 3 roll box of Lomography Colour Negative 400 35mm last week and was interested in seeing what the film was like compared to some of my favorite films like Portra 400 vc or Fuji Reala.Luckily for me it was a nice bright day which after viewing the scan really showed the best side of this film.

I decided to use a camera that I have not shot for an absolute age … my Canon AE1 program with the 50mm f1.4 which was such fun to use again. The sharpness of the film was quite impressive as so were the colours.

There seemed to be a slight green cast to most of the shots which did not detract from the image in fact I really liked the look. The brighter the light the more saturation I seemed to get which was great.

I am not sure what I was expecting from this film but its fair to say I love it.

I have since bought another pack but this time in 120 format so I can’t wait to give that a try …. so watch this space.

Thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images 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 🙂

Summer Velvia 50 colours ….

Last week I did my good deed of the month by giving away a camera to a twitter photographer friend who was happy to pay the postage but also gave me a lovely surprise by also sending me a little Lomo camera along with a selection of films one of which was some Fuji Velvia RVP50 which I have not had a great deal of experience with. I have shot plenty of Fuji Velvia RVP100 in both 35mm and 120 with lovely results but the RVP50 was quite a new experience.

I loaded up the Nikon F100 as I find the metering to be the most accurate and rated the film at 25 iso as it had expired back in 2006 and processed it using the Tetenal E6 kit. When opening the developing drum the colours were popping even before holding up to the light and once I got the scans into Lightroom I began to understand why photographers rave about this iconic film stock. The day that I shot the film was bright and sunny which obviously aided the look of the images with the Reds and greens almost aglow.

Obviously I will have to add a few rolls of this to my film fridge very soon and I will look forward to loading it up the next time we get any sun here in the South Wales Valleys.

Thanks for looking ….

Click on an image to view larger

All images 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 out a new film stock …. Orwo N74

Quite a while back I was gifted some film by a Twitter friend which I have steadily been trying out … all of which have been film stock that I have never used before.

This week was the turn of some Orwo N74 which is a 400 iso motion picture stock and after looking it up online it was described as having an excellent tonal range and great contrast which sounded right up my street for a B&W film look.

I rated it at box speed and decided on using my Nikkormat FTN and Nikon 35mm f2.5 as the trial camera, as I don’t have a lens with the aperture coupler prong so I used the stop down metering way of setting my exposures which seemed to have worked out well.

The film has a good exposure latitude and I didn’t get much shadow blocking or highlight blowout given that I was not 100% sure that the metering method was totally accurate.

I developed the roll in Rodinal 1+50 dilution for 13 minutes inverting twice every minute.

Overall I was pleased with the results more so with the closeup/shallow DOF shots than the Landscape type shots.

The grain didn’t lend itself to sweeping skies to my eye in fact it was a little distracting while the sharpness and contrast was great.

I may buy some more and either try stand development in Rodinal or use some IDII/D76

Here is the link to the film stock here in the UK .. https://ntphotoworks.com/shop/product/orwo-n74/

So here are the shots … click on an image to view larger Approx 100% crop