Bill Smith's Photography

When the temperature seriously drops, the only camera I reach for is my Nikon FM2n. It just doesn't quit when the temperatures bounce around -30c. Camera: Nikon FM2n, Nikkor Ais lenses. Film: Lomography F Squared 400

Lomography put out a limited run of expired and freezer stored Ferrania (hence the F) Solaris 400 cut down from a master roll purchased over a decade ago. I had the opporunity to shoot ten rolls over the past year, and now, we're at the end of the line. I had fun shooting this film on overcast days as well as sunny ones. Now if only Film Ferrania can get its act together and make some new Solaris 400..... Nikon FM2n, Nikkor Ais 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Lomography F Squared 400.

I'm really loving what Kodak Max 400 can do. Camera: Nikon F2A, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens, Ais 28 f2.8 lens. Film: Kodak Max 400

I was gifted some freezer stored expired film by a former classmate of mine from the Ryerson Public Relations program, she moved up to Nanavut with her husband, they are both with the RCMP. She got tasked of cleaning out an unused forensics lab, and in the refridgerator was a whole stash of film including 20 rolls of Kodak Max 400. Freezer stored and in the Arctic, can't go wrong. Oh wow, this film is in great shape! Thank you Dionne Allen! I shot this in Caledon Ontario a few weeks ago just before the Polar Vortex hit, Kodak Max 400 was exposed at 200 ISO and metered carefully. Camera: Nikon F2A, Nikkor Ai 50 f1.4 lens, Ais 28 f2.8 lens. Film: Kodak Max 400.

New Year's Day at the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto's east end, it was bitterly cold. The weather shifted and we got sunshine, but my F2 was already loaded with Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400, a very contrasty film in bright sunshine. Exposed well, you get decent, and in my case grainy results. I went along with my friend John Meadows who does an annual solo New Year's Day photo shoot. My camera today wasn't quite so bad in terms of the cold weather. Camera: Nikon F2S, Nikkor Pre Ai 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400, HC110 B.

As per my last post I was at my brother's place over the new year, and it as cold, as in dark side of the moon cold. I chose a Nikon F2S and a three lens kit and in the end I just shot with the Pre Ai 50 f1.4 lens because it was too cold to change lenses. Everyone has an opinon but I found from personal experience my mechanical Nikons are sturdy workhorses for less than wonderful weather, even then I found the F2 and Nikkor 50 f1.4 lens struggled below -20c windchills. I saw the same situation a few years back the last time I took a F2 into the cold over March Break that coincided with a polar vortex and I saw the same symptoms. Moral of the story this camera is great above -10c, below not so much. I noticed the end results were a little more dreamy then planned call it a happy accident. That said the cameras I would recommend are Nikon FM, FM2n, and the mechanical Nikkormat series. Vertical copal shutters I found work well in bitter cold temperatures. In fact, the Canadia...

There's a flood of new photographic film out there over the past few years, like Bergger Pancro 400 (still have to figure that film out), Ferrania P30 black and white film and Kosmo Mono 100. Steven Dowling is the brains behind this film. I would call this a traditional emulsion along the lines of Kentmere 100, Rollei RPX 100 on an acetate base. When the film was launched last year I placed my $75 CAD down seeing only one sample image and waited. Once the film was ready for delivery, it became the Holiday postal rush, where Canada Post becomes even more inefficient with international packages and I got it two days before Christmas after notifying Steven. I packed the film with me for my annual NewYears house and dog sitting stretch at my brother's place in Toronto. Daylight is short this time of year so I needed a super sunny day if I want some usable images and I had a couple of days of that with one caveat a record-setting polar vortex cold snap where daytime temperat...

This is the one and only post for the New Year's week and we'll back to regulary scheduled programming on the 9th I hope. I was gifted a Minolta MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 by Mike Bitaxi, one of the co-hosts of the Classic Camera Revival podcast. Optically it was in great condition but there were some mechanical issues that needed addressing, and I finally addressed them by having my repair tech do an overhaul. I'm glad I did because this is dreamy glass. The MC Rokkor went through its paces with a test roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 pushed to 1600 ISO because it was December and the light was dodgy as we got closer to the Winter Solstice. I love how this lens handles subjects stopped down around F11 and wide open around F2.8 with portraiture, especially wide open at 2.8. If you roll with a manual focus Minolta system, the MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 is a must have, you don't really need shutter priority on your X-700 or XD body anyway. Camera: Minolta SRT 102, MC Rokkor 58 f1.4 lens. Fi...