Bill Smith's Photography

  Been ages since I shot medium format colour, and with a bright sunny August Saturday morning, it made sense to load the Rollei up with some Agfa Optima 100, I was gifted a couple of bricks in 120 that was freezer stored since about 2004, the film itself expired in 2005. The story goes this came from Agfa Canada's inventory and they shared warehouse space with Bayer Phramaceutical and the Oakville Camera Club member gifted it to me to clear up room in his chest freezer for food.  The punchy colour of Agfa Optima 100 is neither Kodak or Fujifilm, said it before, it's something else, and I'm going to be sad when my stash is depleted. I'll probably switch over to Lomo Colour 100, I've seen good results from that.  Tough call on favourite shots from this set, a tie between the 40 year old Corvette and the variety store at Arlington and St. Clair. It was a great photowalk, we started at Krave Coffee and ended at True History Brewery at St. Clair and Dufferin. The weathe...

  Never shot medium format in Niagara on the Lake before either in colour or black and white. Oh wow! In some ways the perfect camera for puttering around Niagara on the Lake on a nice spring day is either a twin lens reflex camera or a rangefinder. But medium format colour, I'm still dealing with blown mind looking at these scans.   Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5 F Planar Twin Lens Reflex.  Film: Agfa Optima 100, expired and freezer stored since 2005.  

 For colour film coated 20 years and freezer stored, Agfa Optima 100 in 120 format just delivers, and I got another brick of it from a generous friend. Now, I have shot a bit of this film and gifted two rolls to my brother Alex so he can enjoy this film. Of course I shot it from my Rolleiflex 3.5 F, and I plan to shoot more with this film. I want to shoot this combo down in Niagara on the Lake when there's a bit more greenery.  Camera: Series F Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex Camera, 75 F3.5 Zeiss Planar Lens.  Film: Agfa Optima 100, expired in 2004 and freezer stored. 

What a magical combination Mamiya Sekor lenses, and freezer stored Agfa Optima 100 from almost 18 years ago. My Mamiya C220f is getting a fair bit of use this spring and I'm shooting more colour film now that C-41 processing at Burlington Camera is more accessible.  I've shot a bit of Agfa Optima 100 last Summer and was  in love with the film. A friend name Larry had chest freezer full of medium format Agfa colour film, his daughter made off with all the APX 100 and APX 400, that would have been fun to shoot with in a trip down memory lane. I never shot Agfa colour film when it was fresh so getting regular access to frozen inventory is a gift I'm not passing up. So far the film has been through my Rollei's but not the Mamiya so here we are. What I love is the colour palette is neither Kodak or Fuji, it is what one friend coined "very European" and I like it.  Camera: Mamiya C220f, Sekor 80 F2.8 and 55 F4.5 Blue Dot lenses.  Film: Agfa Optima 100.  ...