Bill Smith's Photography

I made a promise to myself to shoot more with my Spotmatics this year and so far I'm keeping to it. Considering I'm shooting on a 46 year old camera, I'm blown away at what I get from the lenses. Pentax knew how to make really nice glass on par with Leica. Most of the time I shoot black and white film through my Spotties and kicks and giggles I ran colour film in for a change. Now the 50 f1.4 lens in both the Super and Super Multi Coated Takumar lenses had slightly radioactive rare earth lens elements which meant they went yellow over time. That's the way life goes, great for black and white, not so much for colour. I gave my lens the UV treatment which counteracts this process but even then I still get a warm cast, that could also be the film too, Lomography 400 is made by Kodak Alaris so, yeah, I don't mind it. Camera: Asahi Pentax Spotmatic II, Super Multi Coated Takumar 50 f1.4 and Super Takumar 24 f3.5 lens. Film: Lomography 400 C-41.

Camera: Canon FTbn, FD 50 f1.4 and 28 f2 SSC lenes Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

Canon FTb's I love them, I even wrote an article on the Film Shooters Collective regarding this body. I never really bonded with Canon A-series bodies, I learned on a AE-1, sold it, bought another one years later, sold it again. Canon FTb's and F-1's stick around, both are built like tanks and easy to work with. Camera: Canon FTbn, FD 50 f1.4 SSC lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

My Hasselblad 500 C/M is a camera that can make utterly brilliant photos, at the same time being a frustrating platform. I bought mine off my brother a few years ago, the lens needed some tweaking which I covered in blog posts a few years ago. Now last fall I was shooting with this camera and had some blank negative frames, my worst fear being the leaf shutter in the 80 f2.8 Planar lens was acting up again. It would be an expensive fix and an even more expensive to replace. So I went out a few weeks ago to determine was the lens in trouble or was it user error. Thankfully it was just user error. I'm very happy with what I saw with this roll I shot around Oakville and plan to take this camera with me up to Bella Lake in the fall. Camera: Hasselblad 500 C/M, Zeiss 80 f2.8 Planar lens. Film: Ilford HP5 400, HC110 B.

I was gifted a roll of expired Fortepan 100 at a Classic Camera Revival Podcast recording session a few months ago. I dabbled with this film and Fortepan 400 under the J and C Classicpan label 10 years ago. Both brands are long gone. I know the film is roughly the same age as my nephew so I overexposed slightly at 80 ISO and processed in Rodinal 1+50. I shot around Oakville checking out the Glenorchy Conservation Area for a little while until the mosquitos got so bad I hightailed it out of the park and wend down to 16 Mile Creek. Camera: Olympus OM-1md, Zuiko lenses Film: Fortepan 100, well expired last decade, Rodinal 1+50.

I shot my last roll of Kodak Tmax 400, technically it's a brilliant film, processes nicely in Tmax developer, but for some reason while it's great, I didn't bond with it, I like my 400 ISO films with traditional grain structure. I have shot kilometres of Ilford HP5 and Kodak Tri-X over the years, speaking of which I just picked up ten rolls from Downtown Camera and will be exploring this classic over the next few months. Now if I was stuck with only Tmax 400, I'll shoot it, from my experience the film starts to sing being exposed around 250 ISO when processed in Tmax developer 1+4 dilution. Again depending on developer and your shooting style, results may vary. What bugs me is the fact Tmax 400 just kills fix solution which does not happen with Ilford Delta films. I love my Ilford Delta 100, and someday I'll figure out Delta 400, probably when I finish off the Tri-X. Camera: Canon P, Canon 50 f1.4 M-39 lens. Film: Kodak Tmax 400, Tmax Dev 1+4. ...

The Canon P (Populiare)is a Leica screw mount rangefinder made from 1958 to 1961 with 35, 50, 100 frame lines, I bought it off my friend John Meadows a few months ago and it was a wise purchase. I took the Canon 50 f1.4 M-39 lens off my Leica M4-2 and it felt like the perfect marriage. Anyone who has shot with a Leica III series screw mount camera will appreciate the stupid easy film loading, just open the back like a SLR. I only have two Leica (M-39) screw mount lenses, my Canon 50 f1.4 and the Voightlander 35 f2.5 Color Skopar lens. On my immediate acquisition list is a 1960s production Canon 50 F1.8 which from what I read is a "Double Gauss" lens design and 100mm F3.5 telephoto. Ok, if some really well paying project work rolled in for my day job in marketing communications, a Canon 35 F2 wide angle lens. Wandering around Toronto I was happy with just the Canon 50 f1.4 lens which has earned the nickname "The Japanese Summilux" with Leica shooters. Shooting wi...