DownUnder
Gone walkabout
An update - from home in Australia, so far without any immediate bush fire danger in our area. Touch wood. Summer is not yet over and this year the heat waves are worse than I've experienced in my 44 years Down Under.
I have now processed my 20+ rolls of B&W film, mostly FP4, TMax 100, and some TMax 400 and HP5. All expired - 2012 to 2015.
So far so good. My negatives are medium contrast (.5-.55 Gamma, does anyone here remember Gamma?) No visible Xray effect. A little base fog on the TMax, easily printed/scanned through. No fog at all on the Ilford.
I used a Contax G1 with mostly 45 and 28 lenses and shot my films at box speed less half a stop, to allow for age - and as I do when in places I'm not likely to return to soon, I took a second shot of important subjects at half speed less a third stop. Everything taken at f/5.6 or f/8. UV filters, occasionally a Polarizer for landscapes or to cut the glare on white buildings or sandy beaches.
Now for all the scanning... Wet prints will wait til winter, when the weather is better and I have more free time to devote to all those hours in the dark, with only good music and occasional glasses of vintage wine to dispel the monotony. Not looking forward to all that time - the tyranny of the darkroom looms large.
Six rolls of color negative film (I last shot slide film in 2009) will be processed next week when I've had time to pick up a C41 kit from Melbourne. This film is fresh, so results should be very satisfying. Film images have a certain 'pattern' I find lacking in digital images. These can be added by fiddling in post-processing, but oh, all that work.
A few conclusions. Lessons learned.
Old film is perhaps too risky (at least for me) to travel with and shoot subjects I would not be able to easily return to. Also, shooting two of everything (the Noah's Ark syndrome, as the great GB Shaw wrote) is wasteful and, over two months or longer of travel, a waste of resources.
In my case, for the shooting I do, best results will be achieved digitally, not with film. If in future I travel with a film camera, it will most likely be a Rollei TLR (a Rolleiflex T or a Rolleicord Vb, both of which I own) as a back-up, to be used for very select shoots, and with a good selection of medium- and fast-speed B&W film. No color.
Time has passed, my requirements have changed, I'm older - and I reluctantly accept that the optimum I want from my photography will be best achieved with my Nikon D800.
I'll continue to shoot film closer to home - at least until the few hundred rolls I have in the freezer have been used up. After then, well - who knows?
I have now processed my 20+ rolls of B&W film, mostly FP4, TMax 100, and some TMax 400 and HP5. All expired - 2012 to 2015.
So far so good. My negatives are medium contrast (.5-.55 Gamma, does anyone here remember Gamma?) No visible Xray effect. A little base fog on the TMax, easily printed/scanned through. No fog at all on the Ilford.
I used a Contax G1 with mostly 45 and 28 lenses and shot my films at box speed less half a stop, to allow for age - and as I do when in places I'm not likely to return to soon, I took a second shot of important subjects at half speed less a third stop. Everything taken at f/5.6 or f/8. UV filters, occasionally a Polarizer for landscapes or to cut the glare on white buildings or sandy beaches.
Now for all the scanning... Wet prints will wait til winter, when the weather is better and I have more free time to devote to all those hours in the dark, with only good music and occasional glasses of vintage wine to dispel the monotony. Not looking forward to all that time - the tyranny of the darkroom looms large.
Six rolls of color negative film (I last shot slide film in 2009) will be processed next week when I've had time to pick up a C41 kit from Melbourne. This film is fresh, so results should be very satisfying. Film images have a certain 'pattern' I find lacking in digital images. These can be added by fiddling in post-processing, but oh, all that work.
A few conclusions. Lessons learned.
Old film is perhaps too risky (at least for me) to travel with and shoot subjects I would not be able to easily return to. Also, shooting two of everything (the Noah's Ark syndrome, as the great GB Shaw wrote) is wasteful and, over two months or longer of travel, a waste of resources.
In my case, for the shooting I do, best results will be achieved digitally, not with film. If in future I travel with a film camera, it will most likely be a Rollei TLR (a Rolleiflex T or a Rolleicord Vb, both of which I own) as a back-up, to be used for very select shoots, and with a good selection of medium- and fast-speed B&W film. No color.
Time has passed, my requirements have changed, I'm older - and I reluctantly accept that the optimum I want from my photography will be best achieved with my Nikon D800.
I'll continue to shoot film closer to home - at least until the few hundred rolls I have in the freezer have been used up. After then, well - who knows?