@lomography – tim dobbs photography

Last blog of 2022 … Lomo Berlin 400 .. the whole roll

This year has not been the best if I am honest and my photography has suffered as my desire to shoot all but deserted me.

I have only shot 25 rolls of film this year which is a fraction of what I normally shoot and even though I have developed and scanned them all, many of the rolls have just sat in my lightroom catalog un-edited.

As the weather this week has been horrendous ( I did get out and shoot one roll last weekend) I have been going through the images in the catalog and started to edit as I have had a week off work.

Here is the first roll shot on my Minolta 600si and developed using ilfotec DD-X.

I shot this back in April. I have tried Berlin before and new the images would be pretty contrasty.

I think the subject matter here was not the best for this film as the excessive contrast in busy images tends to muddle the scene unless viewing large.

Nevertheless I was pretty pleased with the results.

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

Short Tenby break on Lomo CN400 & CN800 ….

A few weeks back we managed to get away for a few days for the first time since last August.

We visited one of our favorite local places … lovely Tenby.

I took along 2 cameras my Minolta X700 and Minolta XG9 with 2 lenses .. the 35-70 f3.5 and 50mm f1.4.

It was my intention to load one camera with 400 and the 2nd with the 800 for the evening.

You may notice by the lack of night shots that plan didn’t really work due to the lack of tripod and my shaky hands after a few drinks.

The first day there it was lovely sunshine while day two was overcast but my favorite images were on CN800 in the early evening sun.

I never finished both rolls while in Tenby and completed them back home but I have only posted the Tenby images here.

Lomo CN 400 is my favorite colour negative stock but CN800 is a close second.

The film was developed and scanned by the wonderful FilmDev who always does a great job at a great price.

So here are the images … Lomo CN800 first followed by CN400

Click on an image to view larger … there is a 3 shot pano of St Catherine’s Fort

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

I also have some zines over on my Etsy store if anyone wants a look .. or message me to buy direct ..

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Lomography Babylon 13 Kino film .. Overcast day and no tripod .. let’s go for it ….

Everytime there is a new film released onto the market I always try to get a roll or two to try.

So when Lomography announced the Babylon 13 and Fantome 8 kino films I immediately purchased some.

As they are 8 & 13 iso respectively and as I have a slight aversion to using tripods I have been waiting for the brighter weather to return here in Wales.

Last weekend the weather was looking pretty nice for a change so I dug out a camera that I have not used in ages .. my Ricoh X-RX and the Pentax 50mm f1.7 & 35mm f3.5 and proceeded out to my usual haunts here in the Garw valley.

By the time I was ready to leave it began clouding over but I had loaded the film so I went up the mountain anyway hoping that I would have enough light to be able to had hold at reasonable apertures.

As it turned out I only got to f5.6 once with most of the shots either wide open or f4 at best.

On my return I checked the massive dev app to see what I could develop it with and decided on ilfotecHC 1+31 dilution for 9 minutes.

The negatives looked fine out of the tank if slightly underexposed at first glance.

When dry and I cut them into strips for scanning it was apparent that this is a very curly film stock so I was imagining problems with my Epson v500 but apart from a few frames that I had to manually locate rather than the thumbnail scan method it went well.

Once into Lightroom the film was a revelation .. I was expecting soft, dark images due to not being able to stop down and hand holding at 1/30 sec but no .. the images had bags of detail and plenty of tone in both highlight and shadow areas.

The grain was pretty much non existent which is expected from such a low iso film but still it was nice to see.

Would I recommend this film stock? … definitely I would but with the caveat that you need good light or a tripod to get the best results even though I seemed to get lucky on this occasion I think as the Pentax 28mm f3.5 is a really sharp lens even wide open and the metering on the Ricoh did an excellent job too.

Well here is almost the whole roll as I bracketed a few frames so had multiples of certain images.

Click on an image to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

I also have some zines over on my Etsy store if anyone wants a look .. or message me to buy direct ..

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

More Lomography CN400 with the Mamiya C300 … the whole roll.

I have said before and I will say it again that Lomo CN400 is my favourite colour negative film stock that is currently still being made.

I love Fuji Reala 100 but as it is not made anymore and I have a limited stock of it in my freezer I have tried most of the current films to try and get a goto film that I can rely on and that gives me the look that I like when shooting in colour.

Both Lomo CN100 and CN800 are also lovely films but I prefer the 400 iso version as it gives me a good balance in most lighting conditions.

I dug out my Mamiya C330. the other day and as I hadn’t shot colour with it for a while I loaded the lomo 400 and went out for a little walk on a nice bright but slightly cloudy day.

I developed it using the Tetenal C41 kit and scanned it with an Epson v500 using the epson scan software .. removing the dust and tweaking the frames in Adobe Lightroom.

As usual the film didn’t disappoint and neither did the C330, the colours popped and were lovely and sharp.

So here is the whole roll .. I would recommend any other film photographers to give this film a try if they have not already done so you won’t be disappointed.

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

1st time shooting Lomochrome Metropolis 35mm … the whole roll

I love trying new films whether they are new emulsions or just a film that I have never shot before.

Lomochrome Metropolis is an actual new emulsion developed by Lomography that according to the write up on their site can be exposed between 100 and 400 iso without any change in development.

Link … Lomo Metropolis

As it was £13 per roll and I only bought one to try I decided on the middle ground and went with 200 iso.

As some of the shots involved the sky I did use some exposure compensation .. the camera of choice was the Minolta X700 with the 50mm F1.7.

The roll was developed and scanned by FilmDev just to get accurate colours so that I can judge if I like the desaturated look that I have seen.

I shot the roll over a week so the beginning of the roll was a bit of street and the rest was a mountain walk here in the South Wales valleys.

At first sight I loved how this film looks, yes it did have a desaturated look which worked well on the street images but when you went out into the countryside it still had that look but the greens seemed to pop probably because the rest of the colours were subtle.

The film was pretty sharp and contrasty, the grain was there to be seen but at 200 iso it was very pleasant maybe at 400 it would be a bit more pronounced.

I am a bit gutted that this film is so expensive as I would be shooting it quite a bit if it were £10 or less a roll that being said I will be buying more but using it now and again depending on what I am shooting.

Well here is the complete roll … click to see an image 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 🙂

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 🙂

Enjoying my Pentax Super A with some Lomo CN 800 …

I blogged a while back how I managed to stupidly lose my 1st Pentax Super A after only shooting a few rolls with it.

Since buying another one I have been shooting it quite a bit and being extremely careful not to take it (or any other camera) out whilst partaking in some alcohol .. this isn’t a problem at the minute due to this worldwide Coronavirus lockdown.

I love the Lomo CN400 colour film stock and would go as far as to say it’s my favourite colour film by a country mile.

When I replenished my Lomo film stash a few weeks ago I also bought a few rolls of CN800 just to compare it to CN400.

I have shot CN800 at night before and blogged it here .. Lomo CN800 at night

I am pleased to say that when it’s shot in good light that it gives excellent results too.

The colours are lovely and very comparable to CN400, the grain is definitely more pronounced but not so much as to be distracting and to be honest you have to zoom in to really notice.

I would be happy to shoot this film any time as it gives you the added bonus of using it when the light is less than good without having to push the film.

Here are a selection of the best frames ….

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 🙂

Lomography F2/400 ….. What’s it like then?

I had seen this film advertised for a while but never seemed to be able to get my hands on any as it was always sold out.

Lucky for me a few months back I got a roll sent to me by a fellow twitter photographer along with various other eclectic film stocks.

I was pretty excited to try it out and loaded my Olympus OM1n as I had not shot it for ages and managed to get quite an array of images over a 2 week period … Grey day/Sunny day, Night time and some close ups too.

I had the roll developed and scanned by Filmdev

The images were really punchy with quite a bit more grain than I was used to with Lomo CN400 which is my current goto colour negative stock.

Even though the grain was present I was really happy with how they looked, the colours were lovely and had an almost X-Pro/vivid look where the reds and greens popped and pretty sharp too.

I think the images in really good light or night time scenes with lights worked the best for me, in fact if I can get hold of some more I would definitely go night shooting.

Here is a selection from the roll ….

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 🙂

Lomography Color Negative 400 at the car show ….

A couple of weeks ago there was a small classic car show here in Bridgend town centre and as we were blessed with a bit of sunshine I loaded the Nikon F100 with my favourite colour film stock .. Lomography Color Neg 400 along with the Nikkor 50mm f1.4 and went down with the intention of getting closeup and detail shots as well as the normal car shot.

This film always gives it’s best when shot in good light and didn’t disappoint this time with lovely popping colours along with excellent detail.

I had the roll developed and scanned by Filmdev which as usual gave great results.

If you have never tried this film before then get your hands on some and give it a go I am sure you will be happy.

Anyway here is a selection of images ….. well to be honest it is almost the whole roll 🙂

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 🙂

1st time shooting Lomo Berlin 400 Kino film …..

I love shooting B&W and when I saw lomography had release 2 new film stocks recently I couldn’t wait to try some and compare it to my all time favourite B&W film … ilford HP5.

The 1st roll I tried was the Berlin 400 Kino which I loaded into my Nikon F4s with the 50mm f1.4 and tried to shoot a varied selection of subjects.

I processed the roll in Rodinal at 1+50 dilution for 13.30 mins.

I was very happy with how the scans came out, quite a chunky grain structure but I like grain and it did not distract from the image.

It is pretty contrasty with nice blacks but also held the highlights well.

I always find whatever film I process with Rodinal seems to get stronger grain and contrast so when I shoot the next roll I will develop in a different dev.

Overall I will happily use this film again … I won’t replace my HP5 but I really do recommend that you give it a go … I will push the next roll just to see what I get so watch this space.

Here is a varied selection from the roll …