March, Nikon RF Month!

[Tom A]

That settles it. Once I have used up my Pyrocat I should mix up some 777. I have a package of it sitting in the darkroom. Could be a good "summer" developer. I used it many years ago - and more or less forgot about it.
Nice tonality and shots.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

You may be glad to know we are getting towards the end of the Portra rolls, monochrome will resume shortly. So going out with a blast of "Rocky Street" recently opened in Lancaster, posted recently in BW but not with this impact.

And a bit more subtle. Queen Victoria watches over Lancaster Town Hall in Dalton Square.

Olympic S3, Voigtlander S Nokton 50mm f1.5 Asph. Kodak Portra 400

 

[Jan Pedersen]

That settles it. Once I have used up my Pyrocat I should mix up some 777. I have a package of it sitting in the darkroom. Could be a good "summer" developer. I used it many years ago - and more or less forgot about it.
Nice tonality and shots.

Tom, Thank you very much.
Harvey's 777 is a great developer, i know many consider it esoteric but once you find the sweet spot it does give great tones.
Another treat is the archival properties, the jug i am working on was mixed two and a half years ago.
Last week i had a chance to mix a bag that was stored for around 10 years. Solution A was almost black when dissolved so i did not have much hope it would work but to my surprise it works very well with no signs of degradation. It might not store as well as fresh chemicals but time will tell. I intend to keep the 1 gallon jug just for testing.

 

[jondotkom]

To Chris: I am adoring the color!

Okay, granted I personally prefer shooting and viewing B&W and all things monochrome, it has been a rruly pleasing experience checking out the "polychromatic" tones offered-up by you and Jon.

Good show!

 

[Rodchenko]

Victoria's looking a bit more green than when I used to walk past her to work at The Duke's. Nice shots - I love your use of colour.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

To Chris: I am adoring the color!

Okay, granted I personally prefer shooting and viewing B&W and all things monochrome, it has been a rruly pleasing experience checking out the "polychromatic" tones offered-up by you and Jon.

Good show!

Jon, your generous comments are appreciated. It must be 100 ish rolls of B/W before these colour ones ( excepting a few digital ones that don't count as proper images 😀) After that the eye suddenly sees colour again, and the spring weather helps . I see no reason just to shoot a scene in colour for the sake of it the colour,for me, must be one of the reasons for the shot. The portra is supposed to be quite subtle so it must be me as reviewing they are a bit TECHNICOLOUR they are straight scans B T W from the mini lab. I think though my colour eye needs a rest now and as Tom says these cameras should shoot BW really. That Voigtlander Asph does a lovely job with the colour though. I think the bite is down to the glass.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

Victoria's looking a bit more green than when I used to walk past her to work at The Duke's. Nice shots - I love your use of colour.

Thank you, appreciated, my middle name is subtle 😀

Strangely although I have worked in Lancaster and indeed in Dalton Square itself, for many years I have very few shots of the Queen. I am delighted it brought back memories the memorial matches the colour 😀

 

[Rodchenko]

Although I only worked there for six months twenty seven years ago, I recognised it immediately, and memories flooded back, thanks.

 

[Range-rover]

Great shot's Chris, Glad to see your using that Nikon S3, One day I'm hoping to cross
the pond to see the great country.

Range

 

[slidesandthecity]

Jan,

is the Harvey's 777 you are using from Bluegrass or is it Germain's Finegrain as sold by Photoformulary ?
If it's the latter: I heard, it needs to be used and replenished regularly as it otherwise will die a 'sudden death'. Can you comment on that?

Kind regards,
Philipp

 

[VinceC]

The weight of the Nikkor 105f2.5 makes it ideal for handholding in low light. I've taken lots of tack-sharp images at 1/15 and 1/30.

The size and weight are just about equal to an S3 or SP body, so it is an excellent match. When walking around, I tend to carry the camera by the lens barrel because of the weight.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

I promise these are the last two in colour, for this month 🙄,. Up to over 100 now on the Flickr set, but nowhere near Tom's (Nikon Rangefinder month).

Spring is official but not yet warm enough to bring out the Costa umbrellas from their hiding place. This one a touch under hence a bit of noise top RHS but the colour was a bit more saturated as a result and I preferred it. Yeas an actual bracketed shot, it was gloomy in there.

Liberal use of blue and yellow makes this a stand out for colour.

Olympic S3, Voigtlander S Nokton 50mm f1.5 Asph. Kodak Portra 400

 

[Jan Pedersen]

is the Harvey's 777 you are using from Bluegrass or is it Germain's Finegrain as sold by Photoformulary ?
If it's the latter: I heard, it needs to be used and replenished regularly as it otherwise will die a 'sudden death'. Can you comment on that?

Kind regards,
Philipp

It is the Harvey's 777 from Bluegrass that i use.
If interested please email lori@bluegrasspackaging.com They are considering making a new batch of 777 and i think the more people that are showing interest to purchase, the more likely it is that they will make it.
Thanks.

 

[filmtwit]

S3 + 50mm f1.4 Nikkor Millenium

 

[Tom A]

My Lightroom and my Flickr decided to fight it out. Flickr won and deleted about 2000 shots from my Flickr stream. This, of course includes about 300 shots from Nikon Rangefinder Mont 2014!!!!
I can re-upload them, but tagging them is a daunting task - so my shots will be what has gone up here on RFf.
Adding another one here, Nikon SP, Nikkor 35mm f2.5, Fomopan 400 in FX 37 for 7,5 min.

 

[Jan Pedersen]

Tom, That is indeed bad news and a lot of effort lost. Maybe my decision not to use Flicker is the right one after all.

Nice collage.

 

[Jan Pedersen]

Chris, Good to see some colors here, the last two are very nice, I like the color combination in the last one of the handicap parking.

 

[Tom A]

Just in case the Flickr/Light Room battle continues - This is with under appreciated Nikkor 35mm f3,5 (this is a late version # 440066) and it also shows why my chrome Nikon's loaded with 100 iso have been sitting idle for a while. Totally flat, grey light and drizzly rain.
Nikon S3, Nikkor 35mm f3.5, Legacy Pro 400 in FX 37, 1:5 for 7.5 min.

 

[jondotkom]

Hey! Exciting news! I recently acquired a Nikon S3 (complete with 5cm 1.4), and just got back my first three rolls of B&W.

And I got two words, for ya baby: What fun!

This has been the most enjoyment I've had shooting in ages, more than even with my M2 or CL. Granted, the novelty factor is at play here, but it has been fun nonetheless.

Okay, there is a pretty steep learning curve. Handling is slower. And the viewfinder is not in the same league (or heck even the same time zone or universe for that matter!) as a good Leica's.

But at the same time, I really like the 1:1 magnification. And the stock 5cm truly has that proverbial "Nikon Glow." And the camera feels nice and comfy in my hands since an ancient Nikon FTN was my monogamous photographic squeeze for years.

And while I often feel like I'm shooting by the seat of my pants all the time, forced to think my shots through a bit more, all this truly amounts to a recipe for fun. I am once again longing to get out and take pictures.

Hope the weather holds up this weekend. Then I can get out there and shoot!

 

[Jan Pedersen]

Congrats on your S3. I really enjoy mine and have been out shooting a lot more than I normally would just because of this March RF challenge.
The S3 certainly does not have the snappy focus of a Leica but the results I get with mine really makes it hard to keep it down.

Now let's see some images.