Bill Smith's Photography

 My Chrome Nikon FM was purchased almost ten years ago has been off and on a problem camera, with a dodgy shutter which is rare for Nikon. If there's ever a teachable moment, don't be enamoured with beautiful looking cameras at camera shows and buy on impulse, open the back and see if the shutter works properly, I didn't, and two overhauls later, it's finally working properly(touch wood). I also had my black FM in for service, the shutter works great, meter on the otherhand is pining for the fijords of Norway to quote Monty Python.  I got nice results on a very gloomy couple of days when I shot the test roll and stuck with the Nikkor Ai 35 F2 lens aside from the one telephoto shot where I used the Ai 135 F2.8 lens. So far, the camera is behaving nicely. That said, I plan to rehome the black Nikon FM and my Canon A-1 at some point.  Camera: Nikon FM, Nikkor Ai 35 F2 lens.  Film: Bergger Pancro 400, Ilfotec HC 1+31.  ...

 I had to make my back home back to Oakville Wednesday morning and decided to walk down Mt. Pleasant, cut my way over to the Davisville Subway Yards via the Belt Line Trail and hop the subway at Davisville. I only used the 35 F2 lens, I love my 50mm lenses but fast 35mm lenses come in a very close second. I didn't even bother pulling out the 85 F1.8 when I was shooting the Line 1 Subway trains. I guess that's why I own an example of a 35 F2 lens in my Nikon kit from the Pre Ai O series up to AF-D. It's sharp glass with low distortion and gives you just slightly wider than normal perspective.  Wound up using a roll of Iflord HP5 400, probably should have gone with slower film like say Eastman Double X or Fomapan 100. The thing with HP5, you can abuse the hell out of it and still get a great printing negative, while not as cheap as it used to be, HP5 still comes in cheaper than Kodak Tri-X and has the added feature of drying flat. I plan to buy a pile more at some point for t...