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Showing posts from March, 2017

More On Agfa Vista 400 in the Beaches

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This was my only roll of colour film I shot in the Beaches during March Break. What I found with Agfa Vista 400 or the Fujifilm stock used, when it's bright and sunny, it pops. When you get cloudy skies, it looses it's sizzle compared to Kodak Ultramax 400 and Lomography 400 (pretty much the same stuff) which I've shot in utterly dismal lighting in the past. I do have some Lomography F Squared film coming my way which is cold stored expired Film Ferrania Solaris 400, and I heard really good things about that. Camera: Canon FTb, FD 50 f1.4 and 28 f2 SSC lenses. Film: Agfa Vista 400

Agfa Vista 400

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 I ordered a couple rolls of Agfa Vista 400 c-41 film on a recent order from Argentix.ca to experiment with. Ok first off, someone out there owns the Agfa name after the German part of the company went bust ten years ago. Vista 400 is made in Japan and the safe bet that manufacturer is Fujifilm. Photographers speculate it's rebadged Superia Extra 400, I don't know, it could be an industrial film. The thing with Fuji products is they tend to go towards the blue and green part of the colour spectrum, Vista 400 pulls in red. To a point, I would be a little scared to use this for portraiture because it would make people look ruddy. I see this film for what it is, a cheap and cheerful C-41 film, I would be using Kodak Portra 400 for critical work. Camera: Canon FTb, FD 50 f1.4, FD 28 F2 SSC lens. Film: Agfa Vista 400.

March Break in the Beaches: Walking in the Sort of Snow Storm

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March Break can be hit or miss for weather, last Tuesday we were under a winter storm advisory with upwards of 30 cm of snow, well that was a little optimistic. It was cold, windy and dismal, and of course, I went out for a photo walk along the boardwalk and looped back up to Queen St. Sometimes the best photographic work comes from the most truly awful weather and it was a mean cold damp wind that went straight through me. The other big with crappy weather, being able to get what you want in terms of an image without photo bombing your shot. If anyone is interested in checking out the art installations along the Beaches, they come down I believe at the end of the month. Camera: Canon EF, FD 50 f1.4 and 28 f2 SSC lenses Film: Rollei Retro 400S, HC110 B.

March Break in the Beaches, The First of Many

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I was back house and dog sitting in Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood at my brother's place, of course,  I like to do a lot of shooting here because I get never get tired of this part of the city. For some reason, I felt off last week. The film shots are coming, I have no idea what I'm getting because the weather for half the week was awful. That said I got around to exploring the Upper Beaches for a change For now, I have some quickie shots taken on my iPhone of the art installations along the water. Every year students build large sculptures around the lifeguard chairs. Each in some way provokes some thought, especially the one with the discarded plastic water bottles. The installations are up until the end of March, after that they and the storm fences come down as the city preps the beaches for the Summer season. Camera: iPhone SE, native photo app.

Medium Format Cinestill 800T Alpha Roll

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I got silly lucky to get access to an alpha roll of Cinestill 800T through the good folks at Downtown Camera a month ago. I had to shoot and get it back to them for processing as soon as possible as this was the very first production run and we had to document all the defects to work the kinks out of the manufacturing process. Life got in the way, or more accurately a cold that I managed to dodge for the longest time this winter finally caught up with me, so after a two week delay, I shot it off after an Oakville Camera Club meeting on Monday, February 27. I wanted a dead quiet downtown Oakville to get that one shot of Bru, a favourite local of mine, thankfully no one parked in front of it. The thing with night photography is reciprocity failure, that point where the film just gives up. General rule of thumb if I'm shooting a roll of black and white Ilford HP5 at 400 ISO if I get a meter reading of eight seconds at F16 (we want lots of depth of field). the actual exposure time w

More Back Half of Winter in Toronto

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Note the lack of snow, this ain't good..... Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens. Film: Rollei Retro 400S, HC110 B.

Back Half of Winter In Toronto

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I love shooting with Rollei Retro 400S, and on a sunny day a few weeks ago I wanted to see how far I can go. If the Inuit have a thousand words for snow, we should have at least 500 words for the grey skies we've experienced this past winter (pewter anyone?). This film is great for those kind of days but how does it handle in the bright sun? Not too bad provided you expose at 200 ISO and develop normally. On this little trip I tested out the MR9 battery adapter in my Olympus OM-1md, I rescued from the recycling bin. The camera itself was mint, everything worked perfectly including the meter but it was off due to the fact the camera tool the old 1.3volt mercury 625 battery. This is a handy solution and I'm quite happy with the exposures. Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko 50 f1.8 and 35 f2.8 lenses. Film: Rollei Retro 400S, HC110 B.

New to Me Canon P

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I had a lightening strikes once opportunity to get a late 1950s vintage Canon P rangefinder camera. Back then it was considered an entry level camera into Canon's M-39 screw mount rangefinder system. The camera body itself is built like a tank, unlike the Leica M3 and M2 it was easy to load. Now the lens itself that came with the camera is going to need some TLC, there is oil on the aperture blades and I was told there was a small spot of fungus which isn't good for the lens. I still got the below images. The lens itself is going to be cleaned and overhauled soon. Camera: Canon P Rangefinder, 50 f1.8 Canon Serenar Lens. Film: Rollei RPX 400,  HC110 B.