Trying out Ilford HP5+ in some new developer……….

I few weeks ago I bought some new developer and last week I shot a roll of 120 Ilford Delta 400 and a roll of 35mm Ilford HP5+ with the intentions of seeing what the resulting negatives where like.

I posted the 120 Delta images last week and was extremely pleased with the results so this week I am posting some of the 35mm HP5 shots which I am also very pleased with.The Grain that I love with HP5 is still there in the negatives albeit a little more smooth to my eyes but the detail and sharpness is far more evident.

I diluted the developer 1+9 and processed it for 16 minutes as per the Massive Dev chart app and can definitely will be using this combination as my standard routine from now on.

Also as the developer is in liquid form I only have to mix what I need when I need it rather than mixing up a batch and storing.

I even took a shot of my wife’s hand while cooking @f1.8 which I rarely shoot at such a wide aperture on film but even then the detail was great.I would therefore thoroughly recommend this developer to anyone, I will shoot a roll of Tri-X and some T-Max next just to see how they fair.

  Thanks for looking…..  comments always welcomed  🙂

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Mamiya 645 as my new walk about camera……….?

Loaded up the Mamiya 645 with some Ilford Delta 400 yesterday and decided to do a spot of Landscape photography with the intention of some nice shallow DOF shots as well as the traditional views.

After the first mile and a half I began to realise that the Mamiya is not a walk around camera its built like a tank and weighs like one too.

Nevertheless I was determined to get some shots and to try out the new B&W developer I recently bought …. Ilfotec DD-X.

The results from the camera and film/dev combination were lovely, I shot  most of the closeup detail at f2.8 – f4 and stopped down to f11 for the views.

The detail captured was great all these shots had minor touchup in Photoshop mainly dust and a few hairs and a little curves adjustments.

I so love this camera, I bought it with the sole intention of portrait work but the stunning negatives I am getting from it means I am going to try to use it as an allround camera……

I think I may try a bit of street photography next ….  🙂

Please click on an image to view larger ……..

150mm f4 and a new scanner…….

Since getting my Mamiya 645 the other week I have been on the lookout for a 150mm lens to shoot portraits with. A facebook friend who just happens to run West Yorkshire Cameras  http://wycameras.com/ messaged me after reading my last blog post to say he had a Mamiya Sekor 150mm f4 for sale if I was interested at a very, very reasonable price :-).

Needless to say I bought it immediately and when it arrived it was a lovely piece of kit. The only problem now was that my scanner an Epson v330 photo would only scan 35mm not medium format so more expenditure was need, luckily there was a sale on in PC World and I managed to pickup an Epson v500 http://bit.ly/VvbQBZ

The scanner is an awesome machine I re-scanned some of my recent negatives which I was very happy with originally and there was a noticeable difference especially in the highlight and shadow detail captured.

I eagerly shot a roll of Fuji 400H pro and rushed into the darkroom to see the results the lens produced.

What I did notice after scanning and viewing in Photoshop was the extreme shallow depth of field even at f8 when using the longer focal length which when my focus was spot on really made the subject appear almost 3d.

To get the best results at F4 I would have to use a tripod and spend a bit of time making sure that what I wanted to be in focus was spot on because there is little margin for error when wide open.

The type of look this camera and lens gives me is exactly what I want when taking a portait and something I cannot come close to using my crop sensor digital slr’s.

I can get something similar using a film slr and a 100mm f2.8 but the quality of the negative is so much better at 6 x 4.5.

I now have taken over two shelves in the fridge with my films since stocking up on Kodak T-Max 100, Portra 400 and some Ilford Delta 400 in 120 format.

click on an image to view larger…….

New camera and this time its not a charity shop cheap one………..

Finally bit the bullet and got myself a proper camera… a Mamiya 645 1000s and as soon as it arrived I knew it was love at first sight….lol.

It is built like a tank, pretty heavy but not difficult to handle. I was really eager to try it out just incase of problems so I could return it to the shop … http://www.ffordes.com/home

I loaded up a roll of Kodak T-MAX 100 so that I could process it here at home easily but by the time I got in from work the light was rubbish so after learning how to use the mirror up facility on the camera and a tripod I dragged Ben out the garden and shot off 15 frames.

The settings were 1/30 sec @f2.8 so I was praying that I got something off the roll, I processed it in Perceptol 1+3 for 19 minutes as stated in the Massive Dev Chart iphone app and was astounded at the clarity and tonal range of the images.

There was a few where my focus was not totally spot on but the DOF is so shallow at f2.8 that I was not too bothered at least I know the camera and lens are keepers and that I like the look of T-Max, the grain was virtually non existant processed in Perceptol.

I will be shooting a roll of Fuji pro 400h on the weekend and getting it processed and scanned by AG photographic http://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/ hopefully to get better quality than I can at home.

Next on my list is the 150mm f2.8 and an AE Prism Finder ….  🙂

Click on an image to see full size

Thanks for looking………

 

Elvis has left the building … and is going to Porthcawl ……….

Popped along to the annual Elvis Festival held in Porthcawl last weekend armed only with my trusty Nikon F90x and some ilford HP5+.

Even though we were down there quite early there were plenty of characters walking about all very willing to have their photographs taken.

I was a bit worried taking the shot above due to the Gold jacket and the very bright sunlight but the camera and film coped very well (no instant feed back from the back of the camera with film….lol).

It was good to see Porthcawl busy and vibrant especially after the pretty poor summer weather we have had this year.

All in all I shot just 48 frames all day where as I would have shot hundreds if I had took my DSLR so the editing process was so much easier.

Even though the day was full of colours I am glad that I shot B&W I don’t know what it is but it gave me more of the feel of the day without any distracting colour elements in the frame.

All comments very welcome …….  thanks for looking  🙂

 

My 99pence camera………

99pence I hear you say……well actually it was £5.99 because the postage was £5 but what a cracking bargain it is.

I am now getting seriously hooked on ebay and charity shops for old retro cameras I have just won another as I type this blog post up… A Yashica Minister-D an almost mint rangefinder.

Anyway, this little camera blew me away when I opened the parcel on the weekend it was an excellent, solid piece of german engineering (well metal not plastic…lol) only problem was I did not have any batteries to try it out so had to wait till yesterday to get them.

Luckily the sun was still out when I got home from work and I quickly loaded the batteries and a roll of cheapo Kodak Colorplus (just incase the camera was a dud) and rushed out to snap a few photos.

It took a bit of guess work with guessing the focus distance but I was shooting at f8 mainly so I was not too fussy.

I was really pleased with the photos, sharp and contrasty and the huge viewfinder was a pleasure to use, I am going to be using this little beauty a lot and would recommend anyone interested in film photography to check out eBay as there are a few about.

All these shots are straight scans un edited even for dust and hairs……lol

I love getting new camera’s especially when they are FREE………….

A few months ago a photographer friend who knew I was getting back into film photography sent me a message to say he has a Canon A1 he has never used and I could have it if I wanted it. Obviously I said YES! PLEASE! but we never got around to meeting up until last week.

After a little clean up and a visit to Camarthen Cameras   http://www.carmarthencameras.co.uk/   to get a lens, a Canon FD 35mm for a princely sum of £30 I loaded it up with some expired Agfa Vista 400 and went off to Porthcawl to try it out..

The variation in the colours of the film gave the photos a vintage sort of feel but as you can see here the camera and lens performed excellently and for a total outlay of £30 I couldn’t go wrong.

I would like to Thank Gareth for his generosity and even though I really like this camera (my 1st Canon) I will not be turning to the dark-side just yet as I am too heavily  invested in my Nikon equipment.

Street Shooting with Film…………

Last weekend we popped down to Porthcawl for an hour or so with my F90x loaded with ilford HP5+ thinking I would capture some gloomy shots of dark clouds and wet holiday-makers but as soon as we parked up the sun came out and so did the people.

It’s a bit of a challenge to shoot candid street photos on film as you cannot just shoot loads and find the good one’s later you have to be very patient and when a shot shows it’s self make sure you get it right.

As the sun was pretty bright and most of the times I found myself shooting into it I was not really sure whether or not I got the shots even though I deliberately over exposed trying not to get silhouettes but the camera and film combo worked great.

 

It was quite a nice walk around the seafront and we popped into Coney Island on the way back to the car, I could have done with a roll of Colour Film then but they say its going to be a Sunny weekend so we may pop down again, its great to have the seaside right on your doorstep.

 

Vintage looking photos from Vintage Cameras ………

Here are a selection of test photographs using the 3 vintage cameras I was loaned (see last blog post).

First one is with the Agfa Isolette using ilford Delta 3200….

The next 2 were with the Zorki 4 using expired Agfa Vista 200 as you can see with the 1st shot the shutter was sticking…..

And the last selection was with my favorite camera to use the Yashica Mat using expired Fuji Neopan 400…….

I have really enjoyed using all 3 cameras especially the Yashica and considering the film  used had expired I am very pleased with the results, I am going to have to get myself a nice medium format camera very, very soon………. Thanks again to Mike and Andy  🙂

click on an image to view larger………

 

My film addiction is getting worse……….

As anyone who has viewed my blog over the last few months would have guessed that I have been smitten with shooting film again after years of digital DSLr’s.

I have been very lucky that I have a few photographer friends who have vast vintage camera collections and are very trusting to loan me a few cameras to feed my addiction…..lol

The 1st camera I tried was the Agfa Isolette from Andrew Beveridge an excellent Wedding and portrait photographer http://www.silverbirchphotography.com/ I struggled with the 1st roll as I am not used to using a light-meter or the zone focus system employed by this camera but the 2nd roll was far better after using a tape measure to make sure of the subject distance.

The Yashica Mat and the Zorki 4 were from Mike Stokes  http://www.flickr.com/photos/opobs/  also  http://www.opobs.co.uk/ He has had both cameras for many years and informed me that he has never had much luck with the Yashica Mat as it was always over exposing so he resorted to using tape on his light meter to change the exposure reading to compensate for the problem.

The very same thing happened with my 1st roll but after scanning the negs I managed to save a couple of frames, next roll I will set my meter to at least 2 stops under to see what happens.

I found out that the Zorki 4 had a sticking shutter as it has not been used for years and 1/3rd of every frame was totally burned out but after loads of clicking of the shutter over the weekend it seemed to have done the trick as the 2nd roll exposed fine.

Using all 3 of these cameras has been a pleasure and I would like to thank Andrew and Mike for letting me try them out. I will post some photos from these cameras in my next post.