Tag: 35mm

Hi-Matic!

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Been a while since I’ve done one of these…

Last year I accidentally bought a Minolta Hi-Matic F (it came with a light meter I wanted, so that’s my excuse!) and put a roll of film through it. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it and actually forgot about the film until a couple of weeks ago, when I developed it.

Now, there’s a tangent here. I’ve been fed up with using my scanner (a canoscan 8800f) to digitize my negatives. It’s slow and I’d rarely get the quality of images I was after. My brother suggested digitizing with a copy stand and my Z6 (I also used an 18mm extension tube). I already had a light board and the 35mm negative carrier / mask from my Kaiser enlarger was just what I needed.

The copy stand was cheap, and it shows in the mount bending, with the weight of the camera. Live and learn, but at the time I wasn’t even sure if this method would give me the images I was after. Well… it did.

Two people tending a war memorial.
Tending:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

I left the number window on the negative carrier open, for easy reference, and along with the slight bowing caused by the bending copy stand, I felt it gave a somewhat whimsical and interesting to the photos. Therefore, I’ve decided to not crop the images from this film, and may do the same for future films.

Domineering Tree:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

As for the Hi-Matic F itself, I enjoyed using it and it’s my first rangefinder camera. I did however find, that it was quicker and easier to guess the focus, dial it in and quickly shoot. Trying to focus just slowed the process down.

Perambulating:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

When I bought it, I had been looking for something light and relatively wide, to try my hand at more street photography. It really has filled this niche for me and I’ll be taking it out and about more. My one caveat is that it chomps batteries and you can’t actually turn it “off”. While you can’t get the original batteries (as far as I can tell) you can double up LR44 batteries and it will work, though it may be worth taking them out when not in use.

Booster Queue:
Minolta Hi-Matic – Ilford Delta 400 @ 400 in DD-X 1+4 for 8 mins

If you can pick one up for cheap, I’d really recommend getting one. Also, I’m converted to digitizing film with my camera 🙂

Time and a plethora of scans later…

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So, last time I said that I didn’t know how to scan film properly. Well, I’m not saying that I now know how to do it properly, but after 2 days of going through old negatives I’m getting a feel for it. Vuescan is now a friend.

Zeiss Ikon Nettar, Ilford Delta 400 @ 400, Ilford DD-X, 1+4, 8 minutes @ 20C, Canoscan 8800f, Vuescan x64, Exposure X5

I’m surprised by how many scans I like, for negatives I’d forgotten all about. I suppose they got developed, given the once over and then I went on to other shiny things.

Taken with my Diana F+, Ilford Hp5+ @ 400, Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 at 20C for 9 mins. Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64, Edited in Exposure X5.

It has however, given me a new taste for film photography again. I love the results I get from my Zeiss Ikon Nettar. A lovely little camera. It doesn’t lend itself to quick photography, but that’s not necessarily bad thing. Also, the Diana F+ is a bit of fun. In some ways, medium format is where it’s at for me, being the middle ground between small negatives and really bloody heavy cameras!

Nikon f100, Probably Tokina 19-35 Lense, Ilford Delta 400 @ 400, Ilfotec DD-X, 1+4, 12 mins @ 20C, Canoscan 8800f, Vuescan x64, Edited in Exposure X5

I’d love to do some more street photography, with film. For me, it’s a matter of confidence. I can take photos of people walking away from me, no probs, but if they’re heading in my direction, I chicken out!

Taken with my Diana F+, Ilford Hp5+ @ 400, Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 at 20C for 9 mins. Canoscan 8800f and Vuescan x64, Edited in Exposure X5.

I also can’t forget my old friend, the lensbaby. It adds a new approach to street photography, isolating a subject. I also lament the fact that my Petzval 55 MK II is a Z mount lense. It’s great on my Z6, but I’d love to be able to use it on my f100. That would be fun!

Anyway, I’ll be shooting more film and scanning it now. Once my darkroom is up and running again (I’ve not really been in the mood to sort it out) lith printing will resume too. I’ll finish with one last scan:

Nikon f100, Lensbaby Composer, Sweet 50 Optic, Ilford Delta 100 @ 100 Ilfotec DD-X 1+4, 20C, 12 min, Canoscan 8800f & Vuescan x64, Exposure X5.

Things I have learned

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These past few days, I have learned some things.

You can’t always win…

After shooting a roll of film, it doesn’t mean that that’s the end of it. I shot a roll. I developed it. And after developing it, I found there were major light leaks at some point. Could barely make out the frames and there were no details on the negative. Bugger. Had to shoot another roll to check it wasn’t the camera. It wasn’t. Either I’d cocked up, or there was a problem with the film.

I don’t know how to scan film…

I really don’t. Today I’ve spent some time scanning films with Vuescan. Sometimes I’ll get a good scan, sometimes I won’t. The silverfast demo gave me some better scans, but again, very hit and miss. This is something I’m going to have to teach myself. It doesn’t help that my scanner is getting a bit long in the tooth.

My darkroom isn’t clean enough…

When scanning my film, you notice all the blemishes. Lith printing is my preferred printing process, and it’s very forgiving of crap negatives. Scanning negatives however, is less forgiving. There’s dirt on the scanner, for sure, but there’s also dirt on the negatives. After drying the last film, I noticed there was a lot of dirt. Hairs even. Time to sort out the darkroom I think!

I have a soft spot…

I do love the Pentax ME Super. It was my second camera and when my old one died, I got a refurbished one from a popular auction site. Bought a 28mm lense for it, so I could go walkabout with it (not that I can now, with another lockdown in sight). I’m not sure if it was a good investment, as I seem to get very contrasty negatives from the SMC lenses.

Taken with a Pentax ME Super, with 28mm f/2.8 Pentax SMC-A lenses. Scanned with Canoscan 8800f, vuescan x64. Edited with Exposure X5.

The past, or the future?

I’ve started scanning my back catalogue of negatives too, as what often happens is I’ll choose a shot or two for lith printing, then abandon the other shots. Worth a punt anyway!

Taken with a Nikon f100, Lensbaby Composer and Sweet 35 Optic. Ilford Delta 400 @ 400, Ilford DD-X 1+4 @ 23C for 6 minutes. Canoscan 8800f, Vuescan x64. Edited with Exposure X5.

Developing Black and White Film, Part 1

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I’d like to preface this series of posts by saying, I’m not an expert. I’m self taught, through books, the internet and by making many, many mistakes. If I get something wrong, I’m happy to be corrected. I wanted to create something that a young me would have found helpful, which could also help someone just starting out.

The first step is quite simple and very complicated. You need to settle on a film and developer. When I first started developing my own, I wanted to try every film and every developer. The problem with this is, you don’t learn what works. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting, it just helps to focus down for a bit and find what gives you the results you’re after.

So, how do you choose a film and developer? There are many places that can explain this better than I. I would highly recommend “The Film Developing Cookbook”, which, while a bit out of date, is very helpful. To start off with, it may be worth sticking with a film and developer of the same brand, which are designed to work with each other. Don’t get me wrong, you can use most developers with most films, you can even mix your own developer, but as I said, sometimes focusing in is a good way to start and will remove unwanted variables.

Price may be an issue, especially if you shoot a lot. but budget options aren’t necessarily bad. Foma film is very usable and a hell of a lot cheaper than some of the other big brands. I shoot Ilford, but am moving to Foma for cost reasons.

What you need…

So, we’re now getting closer to the actual process of developing a film. There are yet more options: Steel tanks and reels for your film, or Paterson (or JOBO) plastic ones? Film extractor or bottle opener? This or that? I’m going to go with what I use.

  1. The changing bag. It’s worth getting a good quality one, so you don’t risk exposing your film to the light. This is a large Paterson one.
  2. The developing tank, where all the magic happens. Your film goes in on a reel and you pour the chemicals in. This is also a Paterson tank. You can get tanks of differing sizes. This tank takes 2 x 35mm films or 1 x 120 film.
  3. This is a Mod 54, for developing 4×5 film.
  4. This is a Paterson reel. Your film spools on here.
  5. This is another Paterson reel, extended to develop 120 film. This is an advantage of the plastic reels over the steel ones.
  6. Your 35mm film!
  7. A bog standard bottle opener. You can buy special openers or things that retrieve the end of the film from the canister, but to be honest, this is cheaper and works just fine.
  8. Scissors. Handy.

This is all the dry side kit you’ll need. The tank and changing bag are light tight, so you don’t need a darkroom to develop your film.

I highly recommend practising the process of loading the film on the reel, with an expired unexposed film, or film you don’t care about! Firstly with eyes open, secondly with your eyes closed. If you use the following instructions, you shouldn’t have too much trouble loading the film .

Step 1, use the bottle opener to take the bottom off the film canister.

Step 2, snip the end of the film leader off.

Step 3, snip the corners off the end of the leader. This makes it easier to load the film onto the reel.

Step 4, locate the guide notches (red) on the reel and slide the film between them. Then pull the film round until it passes the ball-bearing (yellow).

Step 5, where things get interesting. You need to hold each side of the reel and turn them in the opposite direction to each other and then back again. This will pull the film onto the reel. Keep doing this until you reach the end of the film.

Step 6, Snip the end of the film off the reel.

Step 7, Put the centre column from the developing tank through the reel and place the reel in the tank. Put the light-tight top into the tank and turn it clockwise to lock it in place. Then finally push the lid on.

That’s it! You’re ready to develop your film, which is covered in part 2.

Why Film?

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Firstly, it’s where I started. It was several years before I tried a digital camera and even then, I kept using film. But nowadays, digital is so easy to access. I’ve been guilty of trying to decide whether I shoot one of the other that day and going for the digital camera for ease of use. After all, I just download the photos and edit them in Exposure X4.5. Easy, right?

But here’s the thing. There’s magic in shooting film. I love opening the developing tank to see if I have got images. Not whether they’re any good… whether I’ve cocked up and not developed them properly (and I’ve been doing it long enough to not mess up). There’s a rush when I take the film off the reel and see negatives. After that, it’s all gravy!

OK, so once the magic of getting some negative is out of the way, what makes film so appealing? For one, it’s tactile. Holding your negatives and looking at them on a light table feels good. A print, made on good quality paper, has weight… has presence. There’s the process itself too and creativity.

It also leads to my love of lith printing, where I feel I can be creative. Where I can build and trust my instincts to get a certain type of print. I can’t do that with digital. I can edit an image, get it how I want it, but I don’t “feel it”.

Maybe all these reasons are superficial, maybe not. It all boils down to “because I like it”!