Digital and Film: drive-by shooting

On the way up to Arkansas, I had all cameras at the ready… I often forgot about one or the other, and I almost always forgot about the iPhone, bit I did get a few similar frames from all three… Continue reading “Digital and Film: drive-by shooting”

Digital and Film, part 1

Back in December, I took a few days of vacation and travelled to see Mom up in Northwest Arkansas. In the days leading up to the trip, I hemmed and hawed over which camera(s) to take along, which lenses, films, what sort(s) of project(s) I might want to start/continue/pursue while there, etc., etc., etc.

In the end, I decided to pit the D7000 against the FG in as fair a match-up as I could muster. Given the differences, this wasn’t going to be easy, but I came up with a few limitations:

  1. As far as possible, keep focal lengths equivalent.
  2. Manual focus lenses only.
  3. Set D7000 ISO to match the ISO of whatever film was in the FG (I took Porta 160 and 400 along).

For example, on the D7000, the 24mm f/2.8 ai becomes, pretty much, a 36mm lens, and on the FG, the 36-72 f/3.5 E Series is, at 36, pretty much exactly 36mm; the 50mm f/1.8 E is 75mm on the D7000, and the 75-150 E is, on the FG, 75mm.

With focal lengths an ISO closely matched, I could set the apertures the same (ignoring the differences in aperture caused by the cropped sensor) and *hopefully* compare the output of the digital sensor (plus any processing) with the imprint on the film (plus developing, scanning, and processing).

I had some expectations and some hopes, especially once I got there and started processing the last roll of film. (I planned to do some hiking and wandering around the town, but it rained hard most of the time I was there, and so I spent much of the time processing a backlog of film.) Interestingly, once I returned and started processing, I found some unexpected things. Continue reading “Digital and Film, part 1”

Load Film in Subdued Light!

As far as I can tell, most commercial color negative film can be loaded under whatever lighting conditions you like: I’ve loaded Lomography Color 100 & 400, Fuji Superia XTRA, and some others under cloudless skies at high noon in August in North Texas with no problem. Sure, some of the more niche and limited edition films (Rollei Digibase, the Kono films, Lomography’s Cinestill 200, etc.) and some black & white negative film—pretty much anything that comes in a black film canister or wrapped in heavy black plastic—still calls for loading in subdued light, usually on the package somewhere in big, bold letters. With the Digibase, I think the clear polyester base is a bit more sensitive to light than orange cellulose, and with the limited edition, handrolled films, I think they’re using recycled film canisters that (they’re afraid) might leak a bit. I have no clues about the black & whites, and so maybe my suppositions about the others are incorrect… Allahu alim, and probably some more tech-minded people.

Anyway, it’s probably best to go ahead and shade the camera with your body (at least) when you’re loading film.

But, if not, if I’m wrong, or you just don’t care, please don’t go opening the back of the camera in broad daylight unless, of course, the film has already been rewound into the spool. If you do, you might just end up with some fun pictures like these… Continue reading “Load Film in Subdued Light!”

Lunchbreak!

I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but over on my tumblog, I’m running an ongoing series of pictures taken with the iPhone, while wandering up, down and around the parking garage or the various strip malls, or down in the strange, brand new, bright and shiny soccer/cricket/lacrosse fields near the creek and wooded area nearby, on my newly (as of November 2015) enforced lunch breaks. So far (and for the foreseeable future), the project happens with the iPhone 5 and Hipstamatic in its shuffle mode. I shoot 20 or 30 or 40 pictures of whatever catches my fancy, pick the best one, maybe massage it a bit more with the fancy Hipstatools, and try to post it before I get back to work.

It’s a fairly quick procedure, usually, and one that won’t really work with the (slightly) slower and more deliberate film process. But that’s fine, as it gives me more opportunities to shoot and more things to share here, so Alhamdulillah. Continue reading “Lunchbreak!”

Free-Lensing and Filthy Film

One great thing about interchangeable lens cameras is the ability to pop the lens off and hold it a bit away from the camera to add some interesting zoom-type effects or flip it around for some quick and dirty macro. Fun stuff.

One horrible thing about the water in Irving is the strong variability in its quality: it’ll be decent for awhile (read: the finger-squeegee trick plus some gentle dusting is plenty) and then all of a sudden, without warning, it’ll become some filthy, hard, calcium-and-other-mineral-filled stuff that leaves caked-on gunk all over your negatives, no matter how insistently you finger-squeegee it or how much Photo-Flo you pour into the Stabilizer bath. Continue reading “Free-Lensing and Filthy Film”