Bill Smith's Photography

 March is a crazy month weatherwise in Southern Ontario, middle of the month Winter gave us "I'm not done with you yet" blast of weather starting with wet snow and then on the Saturday with our walk around the neighbourhood. It got bitter cold as Saturday afternoon went on with windchills around -18c. My Nikkormat FT2 even struggled, my guess the damp windchill was to blame. Usually Nikkormats can take the cold, not this mid March weekend even my go to winter camera fleet was done with winter.  With Spring here, that's no longer the case. Walking around the neighbourhood will no longer be a bone chilling experience for a few months, and this is from someone who likes winter.  Camera: Nikkormat FT2, Nikkor Pre Ai 50 F1.4 (K Series), N 28 F2 lens.  Film: Ilford HP5 400, Ilfotec HC 1+31. 

 I sent my Canon F-1 to be sorted out, it had frame spacing and shutter bounce issue. Well my tech solved one issue and tamed the other by 60%. The big challenge with the shutter bounce was it was caused by the shutter brake. The obvious solution would be to tear the shutter brake down and rebuild. Well, easier said than done, some hack stripped a tiny screw critical for the disassembling the shutter brake long before I got the camera. Same said hack also was probably responsible for the mystery light leak the bugged the hell out of me for a few years until that was solved.  So the shutter bounce has been tamed by 60% and I'll have to live with that. Considereing I own an F-1n and a pair of New F-1s, I can survive with what I have unless a really good early F-1 crosses my path at a price I can't refuse.  Camera: Canon F-1, FD Chrome Nose 50 f1.4 lens.  Film: Eastman XX, Ilfotec HC 1+31 @ 6.5 min. 

 Shanghai GP3 has been the butt  of many jokes from their historically bad quality control. At some point a few years ago senior company executives moved production to ORWO's plant in Germany to tighten up quality control. In some quarters people wander if it's rebadged UN54, I don't think so, that said they do share development times for D76.  I was gifted this particular roll a year or two ago and I recently loaded up one of my Olympus OM-1's to do some local shooting around the neighbourhood. Am I going to buy more Shangahi GP3, maybe, I just love ORWO UN54 (Lomo Potsdam) and Fomapan 100 more if I"m after a classic medium speed film that's not Ilford FP4.  Camera: Olympus OM-1n, Zuiko lenses.  Film: Shanghai GP3, D76 1+1.