Bill Smith's Photography

Asahi Pentax Spotmatics, I have a soft spot for. I picked up a Spotmatic SP after my brother suggested I get one, they were dirt cheap (at the time) and the Super Multi Coated Takumar glass was something else. About six months later I picked up a Spotmatic F from the Henry's Clearance Outlet. It was the used camera department manager's personal camera.  I shot a lot of film off and on over the years, replaced a light meter (same part as a the one in a later K1000) Fast forward to about early pandemic times, the mirror was starting to seize up, the camera needed servicing. Which I got to finally a few years later.  The Spotmatic F was the last mechanical M42 screw mount in Asahi Pentax's line, there's the ES and ES which were aperture priority bodies but they were different animals, even if they cosmetially looked the same. I dropped the camera off at Halton Camera Exchange in Georgetown at the end of the ski season and it took a few weeks for the camera to work it's...

Bergger Pancro 400, a dual layer black and white film that looks beautiful in medium and large film formats, the tonality is gorgeous. In 35mm, the tonality is there but we got grain, a fair amount of it. I decided to give it the college try to crack the cold of Panrco 400 in 35mm, the first roll you seel below was processed in Rodinal 1+25. Yup, grain, reminds me of J and C Classicpan or Fortepan 400 from 15+ years ago. Great tonality but grain you can play nine innings with. My Portrait with Alexandria has the depth, and I like what I got out of it, the shots during the rain on Kerr St. look great but downtown Oakville was dark and lacking in shadow detail which is hard to come boy. Not sure I'm going to process again in Rodinal, I have shot a roll of Pancro 400 up in Elora a few years back with some success with it being processed in HC110 B. Now the big proviso, I shot this roll at 320 ISO which usually gives me shadow detail I need, I may have to expose at 250 ISO and see w...

Let's go back in time 14 years to a hot July afternoon in 2006, deep in the time before. I remember this day, it was humid, and the skies opened up at some point in the afternoon. I remember getting an ice cream cone from an Ice cream stand at Bloor and Brunswick, I grabbed a shot of the woman who served me, I wonder where she is now? The Ice Cream spot, I have no idea if that's still going or not, I don't visit the Annex all that often, I know the used book store on the corner just west of UofT's St. George campus is long gone. The other thing about this particular roll of film is up until now I was getting my film processd through Henrys, and it got to the point the economics were killing me and with some up front investment I could do it myself. I took the plunge after getting set up at Downtown Camera. I remember that night, I was prepping like it was a space shuttle flight. I was giddy when the negs came out of the tank post rince and Photo Flo bath. Going back ...

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