While I love my Nikon Zf most of the shooting I do, and the processing, is film. I develop all my film at home and have a black and white darkroom in the garage for when I want to make a print but if I’m sharing my work online there’s no other option but digital processing.
So, what formats do you shoot, what gear do you use, what to you enjoy and what don’t you like, what software do you use for processing?
These days I primarily shoot large format, with my 35mm being replaced with digital and my medium format cameras coming out when the mood strikes. My absolute darling is my Tachihara Hope, a beautiful light and compact field camera.
Awesome camera and very nice shots. I have always been interested in film, but for me it seems like 35mm is not worth it when digital cameras can replicate it so easily (debatable). Larger formats seems to be a place where film can shine, even cheap cameras like 6x6’s which can be easily developed at home.
At other end of the scale to your camera, I found a Fujifilm Pet 35 “toy camera” on eBay, sold as a prop for a few pounds and it seems to work fine. Not that I’ve run any film through it yet. Supposedly the lens is ok for a cheap plastic and aluminium body.
I get the argument, but a large part of the appeal of film is the disconnection from the output in the immediate. I do still love 35mm and the look it can produce, especially with slide film, that’s hard to replicate in digital.
I love all cameras! I’m sure you could make some great photos with that. I played around a bit with 16mm film in these micro cameras for a while, all it takes is the right scene.
My favorite is a Zeiss Super Ikonta 531/2 6x9 from the 30’s, as I understand it’s was one of the nicer model of the line. The camera itself is really nice, opening it is always super cool, the only issue is the framing guide that yellowed and is a bit hard to see through. It has some bloom wide open but it can get sharp stopped down. If Zeiss went crazy are re-issued a modern version with a few tweaks I’d buy it, it’s almost the perfect rangefinder imo.
I develop B&W at home and scan with a digital camera and process with RT.
The Super Ikonta 531/2 is lovely! They have a stellar lens. I had the Soviet equivalent, the Moskva 5, for a while and they’re a really fun camera to shoot.
First ‘big-boy’ purchase, got a bit of a discount working in the camera department of a department store. The only image from it I’ve digitized so far is a railroad station, for scale modeling purposes.
1903 Eastman 8x10" view camera, procured from a photojournalist friend, later sold it to another friend that gifted it back to me just before he passed. I just want to do a couple of exposures just to experience the soup-to-nuts workflow.
Beautiful camera there, good luck with it! I’ve never shot 8x10 but would love to give it a go. Contact prints look phenomenal off them.
In the world of weird cameras I’ve been playing with a Kodak Stereo and making wiggle gifs. I need to take the cameras apart and service the shutter but it worked well enough to run a test roll through.
I had a purchasing problem…
This is my current collection of paperweights. I only call them that because I haven’t been using them for nearly a year. But I am going to start taking them out more, as I’ve got nearly two dozen rolls of expired film to get through. All I need to do is commit to purchasing the developers I need.
Hey there
Always fun to show off some kit…
Dug this out a while ago and have had a blast. That lens died with a terminal fungal infection but the camera fully works with my ‘digital’ lenses. Its absolutely hilarious with the Sigma 150-600.
Develop in the bathroom, camera scan with a variety of lenses on an extension ring, invert with filmvert or negadoctor and adjust to taste in darktable. Slowly learning that another bit of contrast doesn’t hurt.
This thread reminds me that I first found Darktable because I wanted to digitize some film negatives and didn’t want to go back to the Lightroom subscription plus an additional sub for Negative Lab Pro.
Edit: Jeez. Just realised how big I left those files when I uploaded them. Sorry!
That Mamiya has such a gorgeous design, how are the photos?
@AdamFromCanada my pick of the bunch there would be the Minolta 450 they are stellar cameras, but I’m most interested in the big timer and stack of prints, are you wet printing?
Dug through the archive to find a pic off the Moskva 5, this was shot on Foma Ortho which is a fun film. It has no antihalation layer so you get glowy highlights and it’s a very contrasty film without special management.
Yes, it’s beautiful. I wish digital cameras had a bit more of that. I haven’t taken any shots with it yet. Bought it fairly recently. It’s the exact camera in this video as I got it from Jeff’s Tokyo-based Etsy store. It was his other video on the Fuji Pet 35 that led me to searching for that camera on eBay.
That’s a magnificent shot there.
Regarding the timer… It’s just part of the collection of items I’ve picked up from random second hand shops. The prints are from my photo printer. They currently just sit and collect dust. I need to still secure some plate glass and some good, straight grained hardwood before I start matting and framing them up.
Got my changing bag, Patterson tanks to hold 4 rolls of 35mm, some basic chemicals, toner (if necessary), wetting agent, negative strip hanging clips, and a random black bottle.
I’ll be picking up a few more items today for measuring… But otherwise, I’m going to get some black and white film developed for scanning this week.
A question for any film folk that might care to share…the negatives I hope to develop this week, they are all B&W but two of them require C41 processing; though I have found that the Ilford HP2 Super will process correctly with the Ilfosol 3 that I have.
The other one I have is a Kodak BW400CN C41 process…a discontinued film that I am getting much conflicting info about.
What my question is is whether or not I should try the Kodak at the same process as the HP2 Super…as my limited knowledge on the materials has me considering that they may be able to be processed in a similar manner.
