Pontycymer – Page 16 – tim dobbs photography

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……………

Found my new Favorite Film Compact 35mm Camera……..

I have over the last 12 months been buying cheap film cameras from various places like ebay and charity shops etc hoping to come across a camera that may be comparable to my various SLR’s image quality.

I know that its not really the camera but lens that gives the quality so I searched the web for some information on compact cameras and found a lot of recommendations for the Nikon TW20.

I found a couple on ebay ranging in price from 99 pence to £50 so I bid on one and managed to get it for £8 inc postage……… Bargain 🙂

It arrived quite quickly but to my complete annoyance didn’t have a battery and as it used a type that I have not got in any of my other cameras I had to wait a few more days to test the supposed image quality 😦

As soon as the battery arrived I immediately rushed out with a roll of Kodak T-MAX 400 and shot away on a nice mountain walk up here in the lovely Garw Valley.

The results from this cheap and rather ugly little camera were totally amazing, the sharpness was stunning.

I am so pleased with this purchase I cannot recommend this camera more highly, its not the most compact of things in fact its quite large for a so called compact but the images this produces really makes you forget what the camera looks like.

I would have quite happily paid £50 for this beauty and its going to be in my camera bag every time I go out.

click on an image to view larger………

Thanks for looking 🙂

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…………

Another camera added to my collection……..

You can never have to many cameras, well thats what I believe anyway.

I picked up a lovely Kiev 4 this week from my favorite camera dealers West Yorkshire Cameras.

It came with a 135mm f4 and a Jupiter 8, 50mm f2 lens which surprisingly is reasonable sharp wide open, both the shots above were taken at F2 using ilford HP5.

The only problem I had when first using it was the arrangement of the rangefinder window as it is where my hand goes to fire the shutter instead of over the lens like other rangefinders I have tried.I popped out for a walk to give the camera a run out.

It has a selenium meter but after a quick glance at the manual to try to understand how it works I got a bit lost so I used my Zeiss Ikon Ikophot lightmeter instead.

The camera was a joy to use as long as I remembered not to put my finger over the rangefinder window, the focussing was very quick and easy due to the really bright viewfinder.

I tried most of the shots at f4 to f8 as it was rather bright and the shutter only went to 1/1000 sec.I was extremely impressed with the sharpness and contrast from the lens from f4 and up. And even at f2.8 the look I got was really nice, I am so pleased with this camera.

I love my Zorki 4k but this really puts that in the shade especially when trying to focus in low light.

I cannot use the 135mm yet as I need an external viewfinder but the 50mm is so good I am not in a rush to get one yet.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/

Cross processing Fuji Provia 100f…….

I decided this weekend to try my hand at cross processing some 120 slide film, I have both Velvia and Provia in the fridge and decided to try Provia first.

I have never shot slide film before let alone cross processed it so after a bit of reading up on the good old internet I set forth to give it a go.

This was the first roll through the Mamiya with the new AE Prism finder so as I didn’t know if the meter readings were actually correct I also metered by hand just to make sure the exposures were spot on.

Once the developing was complete I opened the Developing drum to be greeted with an extremely purple looking negative.

As I have not done this before I was very eager for the film to dry so I could scan them and see what I managed to get.

Once scanned I was surprised to see the subtle muted colours, from what I have seen on the web I was expecting high contrast and distinct colour shifts but instead got very smooth sharp images that suited the subject matter I shot.

Maybe if I was shooting on a bright sunny day then the effect may have been a little different but all in all I was very pleased with the results.

I will try the Velvia next just to compare them both.

Thanks for looking……………..

click on an image to view larger

Zorki 4k with Cheap Agfa 200 film……..

I saw that my local pound shop were selling new rolls of Agfa 200 iso film at £1 a roll (obviously) and picked up a load just to use when testing any old camera I pick up.

I loaded up the Zorki 4k and went out looking for anything slightly colourful on a really drab day here in the South Wales Valleys.

After developing the film and scanning it in I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Agfa film performed, there was a slight magenta look to the images but apart from that I was pretty pleased with the overall look.