Tag: #Believeinfilm

Rollei Retro 80S … It’s Sharp

I have shot quite a bit of Rollei film and have not been disappointed with any of the results.

My main goto is RPX 400 or Retro 400 due to their versatility so as it was a pretty bright day I loaded up some Retro 80S in my old Nikon EM for a change and went out for a little walk in my usual locations.

Even though it was pretty bright I only managed to get up to f8 a few times with most of the images shot at f2.8 to f5.6 which goes to show how sharp this film stock is.

The contrast is really nice and the film grain is very smooth.

I developed it in ilford DD-X which suited the film.

This is the whole roll including a 8 frame panorama stitched together in Lightroom.

Overall if you have either plenty of light or a tripod this film stock is excellent and I will be shooting it a lot more when situations are right.

So here are the images … click 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

Kentmere 400 in 35mm @ 800 … the whole roll …

I have been shooting ilford Kentmere film stock quite a bit recently and it has really impressed me with how it performs especially as it is a very affordable film in this day and age.

I wanted to see how it looked when pushed compared to HP5 which I really love when pushed one or 2 stops.

I loaded my Minolta XG9 and set the camera to 800 and went for a little walk, it was really overcast so 800 was ideal.

I developed it in ilford DD-X and scanned using my Epson v600.

The images were great, no problem with the exposure and even though the grain was pretty noticeable it didn’t spoil the look and was on a par with my usual HP5.

This has to be the best value, quality B&W film stock on the market as it is less than £5 per roll here in the UK and is so versatile.

Here is the whole roll, nothing special but it gives an idea how this film looks …

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

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

New/Old Camera … Zeiss Ikon Nettar & HP5 ….

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

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

Eventually finished a roll in the OM1 & tried Cinestill C41 kit ….

I loaded my trusty Olympus OM1 with some Lomo CN400 way back at the beginning of June and even though I took it with me most of the time I only managed to finish it last week.

As luck would have it I had bought the Cinestill 2 bath C41 kit to try so this was the first roll in it.

The whole process was pretty easy compared to the usual Tetenal multi bath kit that I have used previously and the results were fine.

It has been ages since I last developed colour negatives and I forgot what a pain it is to spot out and colour correct as I have been sending my C41 stuff to Filmdev lab.

It will be interesting to see how long the chemistry lasts as I shoot far more B&W than colour.

It says that it should develop 24 rolls which makes it very good value for money.

Any way here are the images .. all a bit random as it was shot over weeks rather than days.

Click on an image to view larger … Ignore the grumpy old man in image 2 .. I do smile most of the time honest ha ha!

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

Testing a new camera .. Olympus XA with kentmere 400 …

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

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

Fomapan 400, Canon AV1 and infosol 3 ….

I have 2 Canon AV1’s … Chrome and Black versions, I prefer the AV1 to the AE1 as I shoot mainly in aperture priority so it works much better for me.

I have not shot with any of my Canon’s for an absolute age so dug out the black version, put on the 50mm f1.4 and loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 which is a film that is growing on me especially the cost ha ha!.

It was a pretty gloomy day but I didn’t want to push it so rarely even got to f8, mainly shooting f2.8 to f5.6.

I had some infosol 3 that was gifted me so I decided to see how Fomapan 400 looked compared to my usual ilfotecHC.

The results were pretty nice, there was quite a bit of grain but the images were contrasty and reasonably sharp considering the apertures I was using.

From memory the previous rolls of 400 I developed had slightly less grain when using ilfotecHC but nevertheless I was happy with what I got.

So here is the whole roll minus 2 shots that were accidents …

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

Kodak Ultramax 400 ….. the whole roll

This year I am going to shoot more film and also blog more.

Last year I was way down on both due to various reasons I won’t go into so my first blog of 2023 is a roll from last year.

I have shot 2 rolls already this year but I have a few rolls from last year that I had not even bothered to edit until now.

This was a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 that I shot using my Pentax ME Super a few months ago, I have not shot much Ultramax before and was very happy with how it looked.

The detail was plentiful and I was particularly happy with how it rendered the greens especially as it was a pretty overcast day, I imagine this film would really pop in the sunshine.

The development and scans were done by the excellent Filmdev.

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

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