Medium Format – tim dobbs photography

Kentmere 100 in 120 format .. the whole roll …

I have not been shooting much recently for various reasons but mainly because I have lost my photography mojo.

I have 4 cameras that have half shot rolls of film still in them that I really need to finish.

I was going through this years lightroom catalog the other day and came across this roll that I shot back in March that I totally forgot to blog.

I have shot quite a few rolls of Kentmere film but mainly 400 iso and 35mm so when I loaded this back in march it was to compare what 100 and 400 look like in medium format.

I do like Kentmere especially as it is very affordable and I have never had any problems when using it as it look great.

I shot the roll in my Mamiya C330 with the 80mm f2.8 lens and developed it in ilfotecHC.

I was really pleased with how it looked, low grain but not quite as fine as FP4 and nice contrast without much tweaking in lightroom.

I probably wouldn’t shoot this as much as 400 only because most of the time here in Wales 100 is not fast enough as I am not really a tripod person.

Here is the whole roll …

Comments most welcomed ….

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

First time shooting Kosmo Foto Mono in the Mamiya 645 …

I have a few rolls of Kosmo film in my fridge and until recently I have not got around to trying it out for one reason or another.

So a few weeks back I was going through my film stash looking for something to try and get my shooting mojo back and came across a roll of Kosmo Foto Mono in 120 and as it was a pretty bright day I thought it was about time that I tried it out.

I loaded my Mamiya 645 for a change as it gives me 15 frames to play with and popped out for a nice walk.

When I goto back I looked up a few different developing options and went for Rodinal 1+25 dilution for 3 and a half minutes.

Once developed and even before the film was dry I could see that the negatives looked crisp and sharp and with good contrast.

When I scanned the first frame I was very pleased with how it looked, the tones and contrast were really nice and the sharpness was excellent.

Even though I used Rodinal the grain was very subtle and didn’t stand out unlike most of the time I use it.

Overall I really like how this film stock looks especially in medium format, I have a couple of rolls in 35mm to try next and will use the same development just to see how it compares.

So here is the whole roll warts and all …

Comments most welcomed, 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

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

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

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

Expired Kodak Portra 160 VC .. the whole roll …

Ages ago I bought quite a bit of expired film from MrCad which comprised of mainly Kodak Portra VC in 160 and 400 in both 35mm and 120 format.

I have used the 400 speed quite a bit and had great results so I decided to give the 160 a go in my Yashicamat 124g as it was a particularly sunny day a few weeks back.

I metered with the Yashicamat as I forgot my light meter and I rated the film at 100.

The film was developed and scanned by Filmdev.

The images were lovely and warm with good contrast … very similar to my previous blog post when I tried the new kodak Gold 200 but a bit sharper and almost no grain to speak of.

I have another 14 rolls of this so I am really happy that even though expired it works great.

Well 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 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

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

ilford XP2 in B&W chemistry … the whole roll …

One of the things I want to do this year is try different things with my photography as I feel that last year not only was my film roll count down compared to previous years it was also very samey.

Out of the first six rolls shot this year I didn’t really do much different to usual so with number seven I decided to see how ilford XP2 looked in B&W chemicals compared to C41.

I did a bit of research on the interwebs and decided to shoot the roll at 640/800 iso in my Yashicamat 124G and process it using ilford DD-X 1+4 dilution for 13.30 mins.

Once out of the tank at first glance the negs seemed rather thin and quite under exposed with the base looking a pale pink colour.

But on scanning I was really surprised how they looked, yes they were a little under exposed but nothing that Lightroom couldn’t handle and the images had bags of contrast and sharp as a tack.

The grain was pretty noticeable and I did have some weird effects in the sky but that was probably due to the fact it was expired film rather than the B&W chems.

Overall I was very happy with the roll and would develop XP2 in B&W again, most probably at box speed and fresh rather than pushing it.

I have experimented before shooting XP2 at various iso’s on the same roll then developed in standard C41 and got excellent results .. see here :