Bill Smith's Photography

Long time ago I had a Kiev 3 rangefinder, my brother Alex was on former Soviet Union camera kick and since we're each other's enabler, I wound up with a Kiev kit. Shot with it for a while, and then traded whole thing off for a Nikkor 105 2.5 Ais telephoto lens. Decade rolls by and a friend had some surplus Soviet rangefinders, Zorkis, a 2S and a 4 he wanted to re-home. So I took them, a few more years roll by and I pop some Svema 100 I was gifted by Alex Luyckx to try it out. Ok first off I'm not a fan of Ukranian polyester based film which feel tissue thin, in fact tissues have more backbone, and Rollei Retro and Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400 are thick in comparison. They are a royal pain to load onto Patterson reels and can wrinkle easily. Rant concluded. The Zorki 4 had a long production run with roughly 1.7 million units made from 1956 to about 1973 by  Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod near Moscow. Over the course of its production run the Zorki 4 had many va...

Rollei Retro 400S is a unique film, made by Agfa in Belgium (yes they are still around but they make for other companies like Maco Direct), it's super contrasty, you don't need yellow filters and it's almost an infrared film really. Originally an aerial survailence film Retro 400S is great for the gloomy weather Toronto gets between October and April. I've never used it on a sunny day. It rocks, and I should try printing with it in the darkroom. Camera: Canon F-1, FD SSC 50 f1.4 lens, FD 35 f2 chrome nose lens. Film: Rollei Retro 400S, ID-11 Stock.

I belong to a small group of photographers from the Toronto Photowalks Community with really flexible schedules. We seem to visit the western edge of Riverdale, the Don Valley and Cabbagetown a fair bit. It is full of photographic inspiration. We started at the Rooster on Broadview (a great coffee house) which across the street you have one of the best skyline views of the city. The path took us through Riverdale Park. My Canon F-1 (first Gen.) was brought out for a workout, I don't use it often, I should, it's a great camera. I did find something unsettling, it might be the thin polyester base of Retro 400s, I was getting random wide spacing between frames. I had this camera overhauled a year and a half ago,   so I'm going with another roll of film with a thicker conventional acetate base to rule the film out. Camera: Canon F-1 (first Gen.), FD 50 f1.4 SSC lens. Film: Rollei Retro 400S, ID-11 Stock.