Bill Smith's Photography

I have to shoot more colour film in my Leicas, what I get out my M4-2 with the Japanese Summilix, even what started as an overcast day impressed me. Camera: Leica M4-2, Canon 50 f1.4 LTM lens (the Japanese Summilux). Film: Kodak Ektar 100

April in Toronto can be hit, or miss or March continued on. When I planned the photo walk at the beginning of the week, the weekend forecast called for a decent Saturday and a cold damp Sunday. Well, things got reversed and Saturday up until 2 PM was overcast and felt like March continued on. I wanted to shoot both my Leica's with Kodak Ektar 100 and Kosmo Mono 100, Saturday morning I was committed and it became a 1/125 of a second F8 kind of day. Which brings me to the choice of cameras, my Leica M3 and M4-2. Even though it has been my camera for the past 14 years I still consider it Dad's M3. I bought the M4-2 off my brother eight or nine years ago and it was a smart purchase. I'm from the school of thought even if you're a camera collector (guilty as charged), you should use your gear. Leicas for some reason in some quarters induce what could be best described as Leica derangement syndrome. People either obessesively love, loathe and in some cases fetishize thes...

I don't shoot slide often, last year I grabbed a box of Fuji Provia 100 for kicks and giggles, Kodak's Ektachrome 100 wasn't released yet in 35mm. I shot two rolls up North and had my friend James process them. Fast forward to this spring, I went up with my friend John Meadows from Classic Camera Revival and The Toronto Film Shooters to Elora to wander around. The trails were still super icy so our wanderings were almost exclusively in town. I loaded my Rolleiflex with Fuji Provia 100 slide film. By the time we got up there, the skies became overcast and hindsight being 20/20 I should have rolled with Kodak Portra 400, I went with what I loaded and I'm happy with what I got This time out I sent the slide film away to be processed to Borealis Photo Lab in Montreal because there's no one in Toronto is processing slide film in volume with a dip and dunk line. I want to thank Rachel Labreche and her team for doing a fabulous job on my slides and if you are looking...

Sunny days in the first half of spring are rare, usually, the skies are distressed pewter and it's an endless drizzle, or threatening to drizzle. I just got back one of my Nikkor S 50 f1.4 lenses, it needed a good cleaning with some haze, a spot of fungus on one of the elements and dust. I was auditioning a new to me camera repair tech and the lens overhaul came to about $100 which is fair. Of course, I wanted to test the lens out, what better than a miserable spring day. My travels took me through the downtown campus of my Alma Mater, University of Toronto, I cut through along Philosopher's Walk to Bloor St. and made my way to Prince Arthur to grab a very late lunch/early dinner at one of my go-to pubs, the Duke of York. Camera: Nikon F2 Photomic, Nikkor S 50 f1.4 lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400 pushed to 1600. HC110 B.

If anyone has been following Lomography recently, they released a film called Potsdam 100 which is spooled German black and white motion picture stock ORWO UN 54. Hard core analogue photographers have been using motion picture stock as still film for years, the most famous being Eastman XX. ORWO based in Wolfen made photographic and motion picture film back during the cold war when the Iron Curtain fell, so did the firm. Under new ownership, ORWO continued making dual purpose film that could be used for black and white still film and motion picture stock and the only way you could buy it was in "short" 30m/100ft rolls or longer. For those of us who like to roll our own film into canisters, this is quite economical. I love ORWO UN 54 for the tonality and fine grain, and it processes well in Rodinal at 1+50 dilution. This film is only available through ORWO North America, I should get another bulk roll at some point, we'll see. Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko 28 f2.8 le...