Bill Smith's Photography

In my last post I noted I was having issues with my new to me Pentax K2 dying on me during the day, screwing the battery cover in and and out sort of solved the problem but wasn't the permanent solution. I cleaned the battery box on the bottom of the camera with a q-tip and some pure alchohol (don't try this with the kind you drink as it will leave a sticky residue). The q-tip came out a mid grey colour. So I go to where I usually test cameras, Bronte Harbour in the west end of Oakville, the K2 performed flawlessly. While I was down there I ran into and chatted with my brother Alex's former art teacher while she was painting one of the boats. Camera: Asahi Pentax K2, SMC Pentax M 50 f1.7 lens, SMC Pentax K 28 f3.5 lens, Takumar (bayonet) Film: Fomapan 100, Tmax Dev 1+4.

Mid 1970s, Pentax was getting a little concerned, sales of its screw mount camera line were dropping off, M-42 was a great mount circa 1958, held its own in the mid 1960s but by 1975 was getting long in the tooth. Pentax collaborated with of all companies Zeiss Ikon to design the K mount in the late 1960s to come up with a joint lens mount The German partners decided to get out of the camera business altogether by the mid-1970s and Pentax made the K mount an open source technology. In an alternate universe if Zeiss Ikon kept making cameras, they would have K mounts but I digress. Pentax dropped onto the market three cameras, the entry level KM which was a Spotmatic F with a K-mount for all intents and purposes (want to get one at some point), the KX which had a much better meter and the top of the line K2 which had a Seiko vertical Copal shutter which was electronically controlled with the ability to do aperture priority like the Nikkormat EL Minolta XE-7 and the Olympus OM-2, Cano...

Kodak Tri-X 400, a stalwart black and white film, Tmax developer originally designed for T-grained films. I never tried them together, oh boy do these photos look great! I shot around Oakville Harbour and the old part of town two weeks ago. The camera of choice was the classic Pentax Spotmatic F and of course the Takumar glass is amazing. Up until recently I always processed Tri-X in either Xol, D76 or HC110 dilution B, what I got from my Fomapan 400 roll by using Tmax developer blew my mind so of course I have to experiment. What you see below I would print in the darkroom. Of course I bought another bottle of Tmax developer. Camera: Asahi Pentax F, SMC Takumar lenses. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400, Tmax Developer 1+4

Port Dalhousie was a port town on the south shore of Lake Ontario but these days is a suburb of St. Catherines. It was the starting point of the first and second generation Welland Canals and is now a harbour for recreational sailors and powerboaters. One place I can't reccomend enough is the Lock St. Brewery, it's a cool little spot in "downtown" Port Dalhousie and they make great beer. In some ways I was rushed with my visit and I want to go back with more time to wander around. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko 50 f1.8 lens. Film: Ferrania P30, HC110 B.

Film Ferrania, a storied Italian film manufacturer back from the dead. They made a big splash a few years back with a Kickstarter campaign with a crazy idea to bring their slide film back. Well, with that old cliche the road to hell was paved with good intentions, Ferrania got a six lane Autostrada for their troubles. The old factory had a ton of environmental issues (asbestos) which distracted the brain trust. Out of the blue they got a coating machine going and produced an Alpha Run of P.30, a black and white motion picture stock rated 80 ISO in daylight beloved by Italian filmmakers like Fellini. I was gifted a roll of P.30 by Alex Luyckx to shoot and later talk about in an upcoming Classic Camera Revival Podcast . I used a recently overhauled Olympus OM-2n, and processed in HC110 B, yes D76 was the preferred developer but I didn't want to mix up a fresh batch as I'm halfway through some Xtol I mixed up recently. I exposed this film on a less than ideal morning down in P...

My game plan is to get back up here much more often than in previous Summers. Camera: Canon F-1N, FDn 28 f2.8 and 50 f1.4 lenses. Film: Kodak Max 400