Bridgend – tim dobbs photography

Rollei Retro 400s … almost the whole roll

Over the last few months I have shot a few rolls of Rollei’s RPX range which I really liked the look of.

So a few weeks back I was trying to decide what film to shoot that day and came across a roll of Retro 400S which I have shot once before and was not really that happy with how the roll came out developed in Rodinal.

I checked the Massive dev chart app and saw that I could also develop it in ilfotecHC so I thought I would give it a go and compare it to the RPX 400 and the previous roll.

I have been trying to post complete rolls of film recently and this was my plan for this one but whilst out on my walk my Pentax Super A sort of developed a problem.

Nearly every time that I half pressed the shutter to activate the meter nothing happened so I was trying to press the shutter button at different angles with my finger until it worked.

The problem was that on a few occasions I fired the damn shutter giving either totally blurred/black or over exposed frames so this roll only had 31 keeper which you can see here.

I have since used the Super A again and have found that I need to rest my finger towards the front of the shutter button for a second or two and the meter activates every time now.

By using ilfotecHC rather than Rodinal the images were far more like what I have seen on the interwebs … Great Blacks, contrasty and sharp with highlights that didn’t blow out and a really nice grain.

My 1st roll seemed muddy and excessively grainy so if I buy anymore of this stock it will be getting souped in ilfotecHC for sure.

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 🙂

Eventually trying my 1st roll of Silberra Ultima 200 …….

It must be a year or two back that I supported a Indiegogo campaign for Silberra where I received 2 rolls of film … Pan 200 & Ultima 200.

You can see my Pan 200 results here .. Silberra Pan 200 …

So here is the 2nd roll Ultima 200 … I shot it using my Nikon F100 and processed it using Rodinal at 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes.

The film was a a bugger to load onto the reel in the darkroom and was also a pain to scan due to how very thin it was .. that said once scanned I was pretty happy with how it looked.

The contrast and sharpness was nice, not bad tonal range either and to my eye the grain didn’t seen as pronounced as the Pan 200 I had shot before.

I doubt I will be shooting any more as it doesn’t really bring anything new to what I shoot that HP5 or plenty of other stocks that I regularly use, also I won’t miss the loading/scanning problems.

So here are a selection of images ….

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 🙂

Forgotten roll of Lomo CN400 from the summer ….

I have been getting really behind with my blogging … I have loads of rolls that I have shot over the last few months that I have scanned but have only edited one or two frames that I have then posted to social media but not done anything with the rest.

This roll is a case in point … last August there was an event in Bridgend town centre with stalls, street entertainers and live music.

The weather was pretty good and I took my Olympus OM2s which was already loaded with my favorite colour negative film stock Lomography CN400 which I had shot 2 frames already from a trip to Cardiff.

I only shot about half of the roll during the event as I somehow found myself in the pub so I finished the rest the following day which is why there is a strange juxtaposition of images here 🙂

The Lomo film worked great as usual I love the colours it produces especially if you slightly over expose it 1/2 to 1 stop but process as normal.

Here is a selection from the roll

Click any 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 🙂

My 1st roll of the New Kodak Ektachrome … all 36 frames

I have shot most of the available and discontinued slide films over the years and processed them in E6 and cross processed in C41 and it never fails to give you a great feeling holding up some slides to the light.

So obviously when Kodak announced that they were bringing back Ektachrome I couldn’t wait to get some to play with.

Once I bought a few rolls I decided to load the 1st roll into my Nikon F100 as it gives me pretty much spot on exposures when I shoot slide film.

As you can see from the 1st shot on the roll I began shooting on March 30th and I took about 4 months to complete the roll as I wanted to try it on a range of subjects and lighting conditions.

I had the film developed & scanned by AG Photographic as I didn’t want to mess up the developing and get unreliable results.

I have to say the film lived up to my expectations … colours and sharpness were great and even shooting into the sun worked, also portraits came out good too.

So here is the complete roll in the order that I shot them … 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 🙂

Bargain compact point & shoot of the year … Pentax Espio 140M & ilford XP2

A year or so ago I took part in a Camera challenge on twitter where you had to buy a cheap camera and shoot a roll of film and post the results.

I blogged the post here

Camera-challenge blog

That was the 1st and last time that I shot the camera but I was looking for a small compact camera to keep in my bag just to shoot as and when I came across anything vaguely of interest so I went through my collection and decided to revisit this little camera but this time load it with a decent roll of film.

So I loaded it with some ilford XP2 and used it over the last two and a half months, finishing it off on christmas day.

Obviously this roll has quite a varied subject matter that tested this camera … Landscape, Street, Macro and flash and once I developed the roll and saw the scans I was so impressed with how the camera performed … the exposures was spot on and the sharpness of the lens was superb, the only downside was the fairly slow aperture especially if you use the zoom but to be fair it didn’t hinder me at all.

The most useful feature for me is a spot focus mode and a Landscape mode which lets you focus at infinity both modes worked like a dream.

There are a few different flash modes, a Panorama mode which just crops the frame I think (not tried that yet) and a remote control to fire the camera.

All in all this is a right little powerhouse of a compact camera that works well in every situation I threw at it and also handles an looks good too.

I picked this up for less than a fiver and if you look on eBay you can still get it at a bargain price.

Anyway here are the images …. 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 🙂

First time shooting JCH Street Pan …. at the wrong iso!

A new online film store opened up recently at Analogue Wonderland which as a film shooter I was keen to support.

I bought a varied selection of films some of which I have never used before … this roll of JCH Pan Street 400 being one of them.

I have seen loads of images online of how this film looks and I loved them so I was looking forward to seeing what I could capture.

As you know I develop my own film and when using B&W I use the Massive Dev app on my iPad to get the dilutions and developing times.

For the developers that I had to hand that were featured in the app database I used Rodinal at 1+25 dilution for 11.30 minutes which was 1 minute over compared to the app because somehow I managed to shoot most of the roll with my OM2S set to 1000 iso.

I have no idea how and it could not have been accidentally knocked to that setting as you have to lift up the ring quite high to set the iso.

Anyway I was not holding out much hope for the 1st half of the roll that I shot in poor light and rain at a local event in Bridgend where the town centre was sent back to the war years featuring soldiers, vehicles etc.

To my surprise when I got the film out of the tank the images looked ok, maybe a little underexposed but I was confident that once scanned I could get useable photographs which was the case in fact they were really good … the contrast/sharpness and especially the grain were excellent.

So here is a selection of the photos that I liked …. I will be buying more of this film for sure … it’s look is right up my street 🙂

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 🙂

and finally I have a new zine for sale if anyone is interested featuring the incredible “Merlin Maddock” friend and neighbour for over 20 years and inventor extraordinaire.

DM me on twitter or email me for more details ….

My new zine hot off the press featuring "Merlin Maddock" & his final project .. DM for details if interested .. very limited quantity @EMULSIVEfilm @FfotonWales #Wales #zines #printyourstuff pic.twitter.com/kUfQpQPzZV

— Tim ….. (@timdobbsphoto) July 9, 2018

Fujifilm Zoomdate …. a Bargain Point & Shoot ……

I am always looking in charity shops and on ebay for camera bargains but unlike 18 months or so ago , bargain finds are few and far between.

It seems that the prices of old cameras is rising (due to demand as more people seem to be getting into film).

A few weeks back I bid on a little Fuji point & shoot on ebay and to my surprise I picked it up for £3, I wasn’t really expecting to much from it but when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes it was plastic but the handling and overall feel of the camera was really nice in fact it was very reminiscent of my 1st ever Fuji digital camera.I loaded it with a roll of expired XP2 and shot with it over a 3 week period, mainly snapshots but I tried to give it a varied runout.When I got the scans back from @film_dev I was very pleased, I know that they are not going to win any awards but as a test of how the little camera performed they were great.

I think if I use a good, fresh roll of something like Ektar the images would shine, the lens seems pretty sharp at both ends of the zoom range.

As its a fully automatic camera I have no idea what the aperture/shutter setting were so these may all have been shot at f8 and above. I usually keep my Nikon L35AF in my bag as my goto point & shoot as its a brilliant camera but compared to this its quite big and a little bulky, this little Fuji is nice and compact/light while still feeling good in my hand.

So I think I will keep this in my bag and put a few more rolls through it.

The fact that it has a zoom gives it the edge for versatility over the Nikon.

Thanks for looking ……

click an image to view larger……..

Thanks for looking … I also have a “Film Only” blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want to take a look

Shooting Ilford HP5+ at 1600 iso……..

My favourite B&W film is ilford HP5 and I rarely shoot any thing else when it comes to B&W.

I love the contrast and grain it produces and depending on which developer I process with I can get plenty of looks from one film stock.

I have been reading quite a few blog posts and watching some youtube videos where various other photographers recommend shooting HP5 at 1600 iso as it don’t seem to loose any sharpness and the increase in contrast/grain doesn’t impact on the image.

I like grain and contrast so I was not all that bothered if they increased but as a test I was interested in how sharp the images were, so I shot a roll with my Nikon F100 and 50mm f1.4 which is a very sharp lens and processed it using ilfotec HC 1+15.

The results were great, the sharpness was impressive and the grain didn’t impair the look at all.

Rating HP5 at 1600 may become my standard from now on as it gives me extra versatility to be able to shoot in more lighting situations while keeping the look I like from using this film stock.

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……

You can find more lovely film stuff on my film only blog at ……..

https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

Expired Agfa HDC plus and my Nikon F4……..

Ages ago I was kindly given a bag full of film, all expired ranging from 2000 to 2009 and the friend who gave it to me didn’t know how it was stored as he himself was given it by 3rd party.

I have been using some of it to test any old 35mm camera I managed to pick up and to be honest it has all been ok but I have not shot it with a decent camera/lens combination and had it processed professionally so the other week I loaded up my Nikon F4 with some Agfa HDC plus 200 that expired back in 2002.I deliberately set my iso to 100 and also over-exposed quite a few shots hoping to get a bit of contrast and colour in the film as what I have found with the other rolls that I shot at box speed and camera exposure have all been a little flat.As with most Agfa colour films I have used before the images had a magenta tone to them which I don’t mind.

I was impressed with the contrast and sharpness too, it really made a difference shooting this film in the F4 with my nice 50mm f1.8. After our little walk I still had a few frames left and my better half had a go with the F4 while we relaxed outside our local pub shooting my happy face.All in all I am very happy with how the film performed, it really made a difference using it in a good camera and the processing was done by AG Photographic and not at home by me.

I have another 10 rolls of this as well as various other Agfa/Kodak mixture so now I know that the film works fine I will shoot these in my better cameras rather that just as test rolls in the many point & shoot/rangefinders I seem to pick up in charity shops “I have a GAS problem 🙂 “.Thanks for looking….comments most welcome 🙂

Please click on an image to view larger……

also check out my “Film Only” blog at Using Film

Fuji X-Pro & my Canon FD 50mm f1.4 testing…….

Today’s weather is pretty poor so just for a change from shooting film I put my Canon FD 50mm on the X-Pro and popped out to see how it performed in the real world of a walk about test.I have used it before but only as a closeup, short DOF type test so shooting it on a walk and only manual focus was going to be a bit of a challenge.As the camera does not know what aperture the lens is at (well at least the exif does not say) I am not sure exactly what aperture I used for each shot was but apart from the container shot which I know was F8 all the others were between f1.4 to f4.0.I was a bit awkward shooting manual focus but the focus peaking on the X-Pro helped greatly but any fast street style shooting was out of question unless I used zone focusing.The results were very pleasing overall, I am not sure I totally like the Bokeh this lens produces with the X-Pro unlike what it produces when I use my Canon T90 but that aside the images came out fine.I have a shed load of FD mount lenses so I am going to try each one just to see which if any I prefer and will blog the results. All the images were shot Raw and processed using Adobe Lightroom 5