aperture priority – Page 10 – tim dobbs photography

My Pentax K1000 out & about in the Garw ………….

Following on from my last blog where I shot my Canon AV1 this is the 2nd camera I picked up at the same time from my local charity shop.

A lot of people say that the k1000 is what they 1st started their photography journey, I myself until now have never used one I began with an Olympus OM1.The first thing that I noticed was the focussing screen was not a split prism like all my other film SLR’s so initially I found foccussing a little hard but got used to it as long as I took my time.It’s quite a heavy camera and slightly larger than most of the others I have but still felt nice in my hands, simple to use with the exposure needle in the viewfinder.It was quite a miserable day so I shot some ilford Delta 400@800 and the results were fine, the camera came with the Pentax 50mm f2.0 which performed great I was going to put on my 50mm f1.7 but to be honest I don’t shoot many frames wide open on film so I stuck with what came with the camera.All in all the camera was very enjoyable to use and I can see why it was the goto camera for teaching students, basic but a great tool for learning (excellent picture quality too). Thanks for looking….. more film stuff on my other blog

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com

click on an image to view larger.

Canon AV1…. My 1st roll………

A few weeks ago I managed to pick up 2 cameras from my local charity shop for the princely sum of £20 each.

They were a Pentax K1000 and a Canon AV1. I have a couple of other Canons A1, AE1 Program and a T90 along with quite a few FD mount lenses so I decided to test the AV1 first.I loaded up with some ilford HP5 and used my Canon 50mm f1.4 for all the shots going from f1.4 through to f11.

I must say I really liked using this camera much more than the AE1 as I shoot mainly aperture priority or manual this camera was more in line with how I shoot, to be honest I don’t really like using the AE1 much.

I popped along to a local derelict factory to see how things performed and the results were great, all the shots here are straight scans which brings me to another point.

I updated my iMac to the new OSX 10.9 Mavericks which seemed to go well except when I went to scan my negatives my Epson Scan software that I use with my v500 scanner said “Not Compatible” so I went to the epson site to update only to find that they have not yet updated their program for any of their scanners.

Luckily I have Windows 7 installed on my mac and scanned using that while I wait for Epson to pull their finger out and update the software (1 week later and still no update…Epson support are pretty poor indeed, a lot of people with scanners as doorstops I expect).

Anyway thanks for looking, comments most welcome 🙂

Click on an image to view larger…….

More film loveliness at my other blog….http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

Ilford SFX200 and Black Skies in the Garw Valley………….

I have had a roll of Ilford SFX200 in the fridge for months and decided to give it a try yesterday.

The skies here in the Garw Valley were lovely and blue with large white clouds moving about and a rich green landscape which from most of the infrared shots I have seen was going to be quite dramatic.

Sadly I don’t own a infrared filter as recommended (Hoya R72) so I made up a sort of replacement using my HOYA/COKIN filter kit and a piece of Red Gel filter from my flash filter set.I was not to sure how to go about getting the correct exposure, wether to just let the camera do it as I didn’t know if they would be under-exposed or over-exposed so I took a mixture bracketing as I went.

I also shot some without the filter just to see the difference and boy what a difference 🙂This is without……..and this is with the filter…………

After scanning in the negatives most of the frames were under-exposed but not by much the Canon T90 coped pretty well and nearly all the images came up well using Lightroom 5.The dramatic skies are what really pleased me, I love contrasty images thats why I use Ilford HP5 as my goto film most often but SFX200 really pops its such a pity it’s so damn expensive almost double the price of HP5.I will be buying some more nevertheless and also a Hoya R72 filter too as the results were just my cup of tea.click on an image to view larger……..

Thanks for looking

Garw Valley Railway & Heritage Fair….. and my 100th post to :)

On saturday it was my local Railway & Heritage societies fair here in the lovely Garw Valley, so as good local citizens we popped along (with my camera in tow).

I have never really had any interests in trains before but thanks to a great young guide called Stephen the tour of the railway shed was a very interesting way to spend a Saturday morning.

There was loads of stuff to point my camera at and luckily I took along the D600 as the light was pretty dim in places but the camera performed excellently at iso’s up to 4000 without a problem.

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

All the people involved with the running of the Railway society were very enthusiastic and helpful, eager to explain in detail what was going on and their plans for the future (and didn’t mind having their photographs taken either)

All in all it was an enjoyable time and nice to see something like this going on in the Garw Valley.

Toy camera time……..

I have a few older film cameras that sort of give the Lomo effect which I sometimes like the look of but I wanted to get a proper Lomo camera so managed to pick up this Holga 120gn off ebay for just £6.

I wasn’t really expecting much when I opened the parcel but it was still a slight shock to feel how cheap the camera was. Nevertheless I proceeded to load her up with a roll of Ilford Delta 400 only to find out it did not have the film masks so I was only able to shoot 6×6 but that was ok.12 extremely quick frames later and into the darkroom I went wondering if anything was going to appear on the film. It felt a little strange shooting every frame at 1/100sec @f11 as that was the only setting when sunny but every frame came out albeit slightly up and down in exposure but nothing that could not be tweaked while scanning the negs.

Here are the 12 shots in all their glory….lol

ps. the double exposure portrait of me was shot by Ben, a happy accident which is one of the reasons to shoot this Lomo style 🙂 click on an image to view larger……….

I also have a dedicated film blog over at http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

feel free to pop over and have a look

Testing the Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG…………..

Last week I rented a lens from Lensfettish.com as I had a 30% discount code so I decided on the Sigma 35mm f1.4DG as I had read reviews about it and wanted to see if it was as good as I had heard.

On opening the box I was surprised at the size and weight of the lens compared with my DX Nikon 35mm 1.8 and my Sigma 30mm 1.4, it was a bit of a beast.

The first shot I took in the kitchen (above) was wide open at f1.4 and I was blown away even looking at the camera screen. The lens was razor sharp 🙂

I proceeded to shoot loads of random stuff around the house before popping out for a quick walk.

The sharpness and contrast of this lens was astounding even wide open the point of focus was so sharp and at f8 the detail was stunning.

The following day we popped to Cardiff and I did a little street shooting mainly between f2.8 and f4 and again the lens performed great.

On the Sunday (my last day before returning the lens) we went along to the Bridgend Show where I gave it one last run out and again the resultant images were so pleasing.

I must admit that if I had a spare £699 in my pocket I would buy this lens in a shot, the 35mm focal length was very nice as a walk around lens just a bit more versatile than my Nikon 50mm f1.4 afs which is my usual goto lens.

I also tried it on my Nikon F80 and shot a couple of frames but am yet to finish the roll to see how it performed ( I bet is good 🙂 )

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……………

Ricoh XRX comes home…………..

Years ago after my 1st couple of cheaper slr’s I was lucky enough to have been given some Pentax mx and a few cracking lenses.

After using the Pentax mx for a while I decided to upgrade but instead of getting another Pentax the new camera out at the time was the Ricoh XRX which was all singing and dancing and also had the Pentax K mount so I didn’t have to change my lenses.Last week I came across one on ebay with the starting price of 99p so as I have still got a few Pentax k mount lenses I decided to bid and see how it went.

To my amazement I was the only bidder and got it for the starting price (postage was £6 though).

Eager to be reunited with an old friend I loaded it up with some Fuji Superia 400 and using the 50mm f1.7 and 70-210 f4 went for a walk.

I was really nice to use and to be honest all the modes the camera possessd were really not needed as I have always shot Aperture Priority or Manual.

The lenses performed really well and as my C-41 chemicals were shot I tempted fate and took the film to Tescos but for a change the negs were pretty good no scratches for a change (mind you it was not the Bridgend store it was the Talbot Green one).

I am not sure how often I will be using this camera but it is really nice to have one again after all these years.

Click on an image to view larger…………

Thanks for looking 🙂

Trying out some Kodak Ektar………….

I mainly shoot B&W film and process it myself but bought some Kodak Ektar recently and was waiting for a reasonably bright day to go out and give it a try.I have looked at images on the web shot on this film and read how sharp it was and I was not disappointed.

As it wasn’t a sunny day, it was pretty overcast I was shooting from f1.8 – f4 for the whole roll and the images really popped.I am not totally pleased with the colours but I am putting that down to my chemicals coming to the end of their life, I am sure if I change them the colours will be a bit more vibrant.

Mind you my subject matter wasn’t the most colourful in the first place 🙂

I also have some Kodak Portra 400 and will be giving that a try soon to, I love the look Portra gives to people. Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger…………

Mountain walk with FP4 instead of my beloved HP5………

I bought 20 rolls of Ilford FP4 the other week with the intention of shooting some still life and portraits but popped a roll into my Nikon F4 and went out to shoot some landscapes first.

I developed the roll using Ilfotec HC hoping to get a bit of punchy contrast in the images and I was not disappointed.FP4 does not give me the feel that I like in my images but it is still very nice, the still life stuff I shot on the walk were very nice, plenty of detail and great highlight and shadow tones.Since trying shooting some still life with HP5 I am a little torn between the 2 films for that subject. I love the contrast and grain of HP5 but the smooth tones and detail of FP4 are great.

I am going to try pushing the film next time just to see what I get grain and contrast wise and will post the results.

Landscapes do look good though I must admit and I am well happy that I have another 19 rolls in the fridge waiting to be shot 🙂 Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger………..

A Digital day……for a change……………..

I decided to shoot digital this weekend for a change, I have a friends wedding coming up in a few weeks and apart from shooting my Rugby I am not using my DSLR’s all that much so I thought I would give them a runout using my Sigma 30mm f1.4.

I really love the look I get from the Sigma wide open, it really pulls the object in focus out of the frame, it does vignette a little at f1.4 but all these photos were processed in Lightroom and the lens profiles do a really good job.

I must admit that I felt like a bit of a cheat shooting digital and looking at the back of the camera checking shots, I seemed to shoot far more than I actually needed to when checking the results in Lightroom.

I would recommend the Sigma highly, it’s very sharp especially when stopped down a bit and even at f1.4 as long as you nail the point of focus the image pops.

The shot at the top of my better half was shot at iso 3200 @f1.4 focussing on the eye and with a little noise reduction in Lightroom the results were great considering it was a quick test snapshot.

Anyway after the rugby on Saturday I am back to film again until the “Digital” wedding that is but I will also shoot plenty of film there too.

Thanks for looking………..

Also please check out my Film only blog over at …..

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/