Bill Smith's Photography

 Ilford Ortho Plus 80 is not a new film in Ilford's line up, but new in the sense it's available in 120 and 35mm to the delight of black and whtie photographers everywhere. I bought a few rolls to try out while staying at my brother's place but in the end only shot one of them, after being on a tear with my Rolleiflex. In terms of developers I had D76 mixed up and since it and ID-11 are pretty much the same developer, I used the ID-11 1+1 time and went to town.  So, what I found, this film LOVES bright sunshine. I shot with my Olympus OM-2n, with Zuiko lenses and they are plenty contrasty without requiring a filter. I shot on day that had a mixture of sun and cloud, and when the sun was out, the film popped. However, when the sun went behind the clouds it got a bit duller. You definitely want a bright and sunny day.  Ortho Plus 80 is my first experience with orthochromatic film, in terms of handling I found Ortho Plus 80 low maintence compared to Ferrania P30 which requir...

 Fuji Neopan Acros 100 is a classic film, I haven't tried the mark two version yet so I can't comment with that at the moment. I found my sweet spot developer is D76 or ID11 at 1+1 with Acros 100, through in bright light and you get this.  Camera: Rolleiflex 3.5 F Planar TLR Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100, D76 1+1. 

  Kodak Ektar always delivers, even in a camera made by the same company that made Reala 100.  Camera: Fujica GW690III, 90 F3.5 Fujion lens.  Film: Kodak Ektar 100. 

I want to thank Ori Carmona, a friend and fellow Facebook Group adminstrator for Canon Film Photography for me to try out. So, my first serious camera was a Canon Rebel XS, your classic plastic fantastic from the late 1990s, once I went to manual focus, I never really used that camera again. Fast forward 20 years and with collection of camera gear from a variety of brands, I sort of saw myself as a Nikon fan boy with a soft spot for Canon FD mount gear and really loved shooting other brands like Minolta, Olympus and Pentax. I never shot with a pro grade Canon EOS mount camera, I do own a Nikon F4 which sadly has developed really bad LCD bleed on both displays so she's toast. Ori loaned me his camera to try out. Yes this camera made Nikon's life very difficult, and probably the reason why the F5 came along.  First I did was consult the owners manual, Canon does things differently than other brands, so Auto Exposure is Av, Shutter Priority is Tv (why I have no idea, it goes back ...

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...