Bill Smith's Photography

 I was two weeks too early for fall colours at Boyne Valley Provincial Park, if you have a good year, the vistas are downright stunning. I want to revisit the north end of the park inside the Valley, when I shot it, the colour was green.  Seeing the scans from the weekend has me rethinking my colour workflow, the magic of matrix metering with C-41 film (haven't shot slide in a while, I have go shoot a roll before fall colours wind down. There some advantages shooting with the F90(x) body and its descendent the legendary F100 (more on that next week). Again Boyne Valley while officially classified as "moderate" a hike, there's a lot of topography to navigate and if you have been out on semi technical hikes, this will be nothing, those used to flatter pathes and more infrastructure will find it tough.  Camera: F90, Nikkor AF-D 28-105 F3.5-4.5 lens.  Film: Kodak Portra 400. 

 Boyne Valley is considered "moderate" in terms of Bruce Trail hikes, depending on your level of physical conidtioning it could a be a serious 8.5 km long trek with a lot of up and down through some of the most beautiful landscape in Southern Ontario. My friend Nicole and I had a good long walk through some pre-fall colours landscape on the first cool fall day. The big thing with this hike and I like to put the fear into anyone coming along for the first time, because once you start, you are committed to the whole loop which takes a couple of hours. If you're in decent shape, you'll come out the other end slightly achy but in a blissful state of mind from all the forest oxygen.  I took my Nikon F90 and AF-D 28-105 zoom lens. with me on this hike and used Kodak Portra 400. I was pleasently surprised, I usually struggle with this film in terms of scanning and colour correction. I had the F90 on 3D Colour Matrix metering and apertuer priority. Everything looked almost pe...

Bergger Pancro 400 is fast becoming one of my staple films and I've been experimenting with the developers on hand. In Rodinal 1+25 it was meh, Pancro 400 shone in HC110 dillution B, and now, the stalwart, D76 or American ID-11. I used the one part water one part D76 stock solution and followed the 17 minute developing time with the recommended inversion protocols from Bergger. The end results you see below. I showed my friend and fellow co-host from the Classic Camera Revival john Meadows a few of the shots. There's grain, but it's a pleasing grain. His comment was some of the photos had a three dimensional tonality, especially the Mercedes AMG supercar. You want to test the limits of a film find and example of this car in the matt black finish and see how your film handles it. Bergger Pancro 400 processed in HC110 B and D76 1+1 was shot in bright harsh sunshine so I can't comment how it would handle duller light, you will have to stay tuned for that. Overall in 3...

The only thing in the first photo I paid for was the coffee. The AF 50 f1.8 lens was a Christmas present from my brother Alex, the F90 was a recent gift from my friend and fellow co-host of Classic Camera Revival Alex Luyckx  . My old N90S/F90X died on me last fall and has been nothing but a door stop. I missed this camera. The F90 (N90 for the Americans in the studio audience) was a prosumer body released back in the early 1990s, considering this camera is going on for 30 years old, I didn't get a bad shot at all on this roll. So what's the difference between the F90 and the replacement F90X? Weather sealing and and upgraded autofocus sensor, that's the short answer. I would love a replacement F90X with the battery pack and the portrait shutter release button. The other thing, these cameras are still a steal. The big bonus, Nikon went with AA batteries, same with the F4. While other autofocus cameras of the era went with more exotic batteries. Camera: Nikon F90, Nik...