Back in January, I ordered up a mess of Compania Imago film. I was especially excited by their recycled wood and plastic film canisters and the (exceedingly remote) possibility of reusing them to roll some whatever whenever. I’ve shot through most all of that film now, and just have one roll of ancient Ansco left in the fridge. I’m saving that one because it’s so old; I was saving this one because I had such trouble with it the first time (largely due to my own errors, but still: once bitten and all). This time, I was sure to get my settings all set, and I think I got it right, or right enough.
The negatives are ludicrously dense, probably fogged by age and poor storage or something. God knows. But at EI 200, everything came out fine, though I did have to ‘scan’ them with a ridiculously long exposure. B/W negatives usually get something like f/8 and 1/60th; Color usually goes more like f/5.6 and 1/30th. I scanned the Orwo NP7 at f/5.6 and 1/8th: thank God for sturdy tripods.
I shot this roll the week after shooting 10 rolls of film and getting a bit fogged, creatively and emotionally speaking. I felt like I was phoning it in, but I got some nice-enough shots out of it. The weather helped, and the LC-A cooperated, and I just kept looking and trying to see, and somehow I shot through the roll, mostly at work. The sky was dramatic, and the office provides a nice view…
That was also the week I finally pulled the trigger on the XA…
What does that have to do with this picture of my coffee and messy desk? Well, that video is Eduardo Pavez Goye’s review of the XA… I think I had already ordered it at the time and was just doing a congratulatory tour, but maybe I was just getting ready to pull the trigger. Anyway, yes, I was watching YouTube and shooting while at work…
Life is good, Alhamdulillah.
And wow, does the LC-A have some serious pincushion distortion. I’ve seen it before, but I’m usually not square enough to share… Alhamdulillah, I’ve been working on framing lately, shooting a bit more carefully, so GoGo.
So, no more Orwo NP7. It’s a nice enough film, a bit grainy, but capable of decent shadows and midtones. I think I’ll be sticking with HP5+ and FP4+, with some forays into Polypan F 50, if I can find some more (or maybe I’ll try Ilford’s Pan F… I wonder how it compares to the old Polypan).
Compania Imago looks to be out of the canister manufacturing and film re-rolling business. As of October 2017, they’ve completely disappeared from the internets, so it looks like my $7 coupon is worthless. Oh well. I had some fun shooting their film, and maybe one day I’ll start bulk loading film and I’ll have some nice re-usable, bio degradable canisters to use.
This is weekly roll #7 for the week ending 11/26/2016, and I’m still going strong.
