Bill Smith's Photography

I needed to get out of town for a few hours and spring weather this year has been all over the place, a drive up to Belfountain and Forks of the Credit was in order. My pre-order of Kosmo Mono 100 in 120 arrived this past week and I wanted to shoot a roll of that too. Of course mother nature had other ideas and the skies started to cloud over. Well, you make the best with what you have. The camera of choice was my Mamiya C220F Twin Lens Relflex and in the grand scheme of things isn't that heavy, a Nikon F4S and some lenses weighs just as much and lets not talk about a Hasselblad kit or Mamiya RB67. My reply to those thinking it's too heavy, get your no muscle toned ass to the gym. Now what I love about the Mamiya C series Twin lens reflex cameras is they have interchangeable lenses, and with the built in bellows negates the need for macro or close up lenses. If you want to grab some rolls of Kosmo Mono 100, they are well stocked on the Kosmo Foto site shop.  Camera:...

Bloor St. has many personalities, ranging from neighbourhood main drag, major east west corridor in the city, Toronto's Magnificent Mile and secondary business district filled with head offices for advertising and PR agencies, insurance companies, law offices, and a consumer packaged goods conglomorate along with condo towers some with interesting architecture, some not. The headquarters for  Manulife intrigues me as it reminds me of the old Sun Life headquarters in Montreal. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Kentmere 100, ID-11 1+1.

Bloor St. is full of photographic opportunities particularly for architectural fans due to the mix of building styles. I was out a few Saturday's ago with Toronto Photowalks on a walk organized by Mike Ishlove. The route was simple, go east on Bloor from Bedford St. to Sherbourne and make our way down to Cabbagetown for lunch. I shot with Kentmere 100, it's a cheap and cheerful film, it's nice but I prefer Fomapan 100, it has a more pleaseing look to me and I travelled light with an Olympus OM-2n and a couple of lenses. Camera: Olympus OM-2n, Zuiko lenses. Film: Kentmere 100, ID-11 1+1.

Camera: Type 3 Rolleiflex 3.5 F Planar Twin Lens Reflex Camera Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B. I parted company with my Hasselblad kit, I really haven't been using it for a while and while I love Zeiss optics, it just wasn't getting used. I pondered selling, even had an ad up on Facebook for a while, priced to move because I wanted to put together a fund to buy a second Rolleiflex to compliment my Series E 3.5 Planar. Nobody bit, I took the ad down, and the Hassie sat for another year until last week. Niagara region based photographer Bryan Capaoricci had a type 3 Rolleiflex 3.5 Planar F TLR he wanted to trade for a Hasselblad kit. Some messages were exchanged and we met up at a Starbucks off the QEW in Grimsby to do the exchange. Twin lens reflex cameras weren't Bryan's thing but medium format SLR systems were and I love TLR's so everyone is happy. My new camera was recently overhauled by Mark Hanson and has a Maxwell bright screen along with the removable...

I finally got my chrome Nikon FM fixed by Service Camera Pro, namely a shutter transplant. It looks almost brand new considering it's a 41 year old camera. I gor this camera a few years back at the London Camera Show, the shutter speeds sounded fine and the price was right. Well, lesson learned. Check the shutter because a shutter curtain wasn't opening properly if at all. One repair tech did a sort of repair and the camera worked for a while but it started to mis behave again. I sent it to another tech, he sat on it for six months and returned the FM back to me saying he couldn't find a replacement shutter. A quick Google search found me a replacement shutter assembly in five minutes. Then both camera and part went to Service Camera Pro in Quebec City. The FM is now working just fine. I wandered west on Harbourd from University of Toronto into Little Italy. Part of it was a dry run for a possible Toronto Film Shooters Photo Walk. I still haven't quite figured out t...