Medium Format – tim dobbs photography

Fuji GW690III and Rollei RPX 400 in the mist ….

During my holiday last week I planned on trying to shoot a roll of film everyday which due to the rubbish weather I didn’t manage but I did shoot some Rollei RPX 400 in the Fuji GW690III.

As I said the weather was pretty grim here in South Wales so I decided to push the film to 800 iso so that I could at least stop down the aperture to attempt to get some decent DOF.

I developed the roll in ilfotec HC at 1+15 dilution for 5.30 mins and scanned using my Epson v500.

Overall I was impressed with how the film performed especially as I pushed it a stop, the level of detail was excellent and the grain was pretty smooth.

I have done a few prints from this roll and they really look good on paper, so much nicer to have a print in your hands than just on the screen ….. Print your stuff I say.

Anyway here are the 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 🙂

The “Littlest Holga” comes to visit part 1 …

On Twitter for quite a while there has been a sort of shared project going on arranged by a fellow twitter photographer Sandeep @givemeabiscuit where a Holga 120 camera along with a box of accessories like filters/special effects lens stuff has been passed around various photographers worldwide who get to keep the kit for a couple of weeks and then share the resultant images on twitter.

Last week it became my turn to have an adventure with the “Littlest Holga” … it has its own twitter account by the way 😉

I already have a pretty beat up Holga which I have never managed to get very many images that I was happy with so this chance to play with another model which has yielded excellent results by other photographers was quite exciting.

This is the results from my 1st roll which was some ilford FP4+, I tried using a Red filter on the lens to give the contrast a bit of a boost as the day I shot the roll was very bright and sunny.

I am not sure if it made a big difference but I was happy with the roll which gave me 11 images out of 12 that I am happy to share.

So here are the images and I will blog every roll that I shoot good or bad in the next few weeks … next roll will be some Kodak Ektachrome E100VS so fingers crossed for that one 🙂

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 🙂

HP5 shines when shot in 6×9 …..

I have probably said loads of times on this blog that ilford HP5 is by far my favourite B&W film stock.

I love the contrast and grain especially when pushed to 1600 iso and beyond.

I mainly shoot it in 35mm with the odd roll in 120 now and again so when I got my Fuji GW690iii I was eager to see how it looks in 6×9 format.

I shot it at box speed and developed it in ilfotecHC at 1+31 dilution and I was not disappointed with the results.

Here are all 8 frames …. click on an image to see 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 2 rolls with my Fuji GW690iii ….

I recently managed to get one of my dream cameras into my collection the awesome Fuji GW690iii.

I have been looking for ages at a bit of a step up from my 6×6 and 6×4.5 medium format cameras with the possible idea of eventually getting into large format further down the line.

A good twitter friend gave me a stunning deal where by we swapped … I gave him my Fuji X-T10 and in return I got the Fuji and also a Samyang 8mm f2.8 fish-eye for my X-T20 …… suffice to say I am so sure I have had the best end of the deal.

Apart from the battle scars to the built in hood the camera was in excellent condition and I was excited to get out and use it.

I shot the 2 rolls over 2 weekends … the 1st was at my local beach of Porthcawl and the 2nd was up in the forestry here in the garw valley.

The camera was a dream to use even though it is big compared to my Leica rangefinder it handles very well and as the body is made up of quite a bit of plastic (very solid plastic mind) the weight is not too bothersome.

I even manged to hand hold down to 1/30th on 2 of the forest shots.

Anyway here are all 15 images ….. ( I managed to leave the lens cap on for one frame in the Reala set …. idiot)

First Fuji Reala …

Second Kodak Ektar …

The size of 6×9 negs is something to behold … it’s a bit strange just seeing 8 frames when you get it out of the tank and the level of detail you get even when scanning on my getting old Epson v500 is lovely.

I am going to get my next roll lab processed and scanned just to hopefully see just how good this lovely camera is.

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

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 ……..

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………

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.