This is the second roll I got from the Silberra Crowdfunding campaign. The first was Silberra PAN200. After developing I found some strange yellow streaks on the film, but they don’t show up that much on black/white film. Film base is very very thin.
Leipzig, Germany – May 2018
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panchromatic negative black/white film, ISO 200, fine grain, wide tonal range, very sharp
In 2018 I supported a crowdfunding campaign to help establish another film manufacturer. Based in Saint-Petersburg, Silberra produces film stock, photo paper and chemicals. There were different levels of rewards, I chose to get two Iso 200 films.
With a bit of delay they finally arrived in summer and I was quite curious how they would turn out. During development I noticed that the film base is very thin. There were also some yellow marks on the film, which were not on another roll developed at the same time. Strange… but it didn’t really show up in black/white.
If there wasn’t import tax or more importantly high shipping costs I’d gladly order more of this film, but as it stands, I’ll leave it at having tested it.
Leipzig, Germany – May 2018
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panchromatic black/white film, ISO 200, fine grain, wide tonal range, quite sharp, moderate contrast
Olympus XA2 (Olympus 35mm / f3.5 lens) + Silberra PAN200
Developed in Ilford ID-11 (1+1) at Mühlstraße 14 community lab
Scanned with Epson V550
Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom
Only recently I started shooting a single kind of film stock over a longer period of time. I think it really helps to focus more on the actual picture-taking and less on the technical side. Also there’s some sort of consistency.
It’s a bigger investment up front when buying a 10-pack of film instead of individual rolls, but usually you get a (very small) discount. So for much of the summer I had my two cameras (SLR with 50mm lens and compact rangefinder with 35mm lens) loaded with Delta 400.
Leipzig, Erfurt, Usedom (Germany) / May – September 2018
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35mm black/white t-grain film, ISO 400, 36 exposures
Nikon F80 + Nikkor 50mm 1.8D
Olympus XA2 (Olympus 35mm / f3.5 lens)
Developed in Ilford ID-11 / Ilfotec DD-X at Mühlstraße 14 community lab
Scanned with Epson V550
Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom
Adox CHS 100 II (Black/White, ISO 100, 36 exposures)
Back in May I went on a Lichtküche e.V. photo walk. We crawled through abandoned buildings, walked along a disused railroad track and ended the evening in a small pub.
“Lost places” was something I didn’t shoot in maybe a decade. It was quite nostalgic to walk through the different levels and look at bare pillars once again. But I’m glad I moved on from that.
Leipzig, Germany – May 2018
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35mm black/white film, ISO 100, 36 exposures
Nikon F80 + Nikkor 50mm 1.8D
Developed in ID-11 (1+1)
Scanned with Epson V550
Minimal post-processing in Adobe Lightroom
ORWO UN 54 / ISO 100 / 35mm black and white cinema film
There is quite a bit of film stock, that I already shot, but didn’t upload to the blog. Maybe I should prepare some posts ahead of time and schedule them, so that there’s a steady flow of new material. I’m still a bit unsure about what to do with this project.
For now here’s some East-German black and white cinema film, that I quite like. Sadly it’s somewhat hard to get. As I understand it, the manufacturer only offers 122m as minimal order volume. So your best bet is to hunt for already hand-rolled cartridges on eBay.
All images were taken during a FoDo photo walk around a big shopping mall called “Paunsdorf Center”. / The history of ORWO is a good read as well.
Leipzig-Paunsdorf, Germany / June 2018
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35mm black/white cinema film, ISO 100
Nikon F80 + Nikkor 50mm 1.8D + Yellow Filter
Developed in A49 (1+2)
Scanned with Epson V550
Edited in Adobe Lightroom
Rollei Vario Chrome (35mm, 36 exposures, ISO 200–400)
Last year (or the year before?) I bought a 5-pack of this slide film. Only through testing by other people it was revealed to be old expired film stock. So it’s nice packaging, but you’ll get mixed results.
I think I’ll try to sell the other 4 rolls I have left. The colors are quite moody and can be nice, but I’m kinda over the expired look.
Edit: After a couple of days I’m not so sure anymore. I start to like the colors. Maybe I *will* use the rest myself.
Leipzig, Germany – November 2018
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35mm slide film (36 exp.), originally ISO 400, but long since expired
Praktica LTL2 + Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 2,8 / 50mm + Rollei Vario Chrome Film bought for way too much at can’t remember Developed and scanned by NimmFilm Postprocessing in Adobe Lightroom
I’m currently attending another HGB evening academy workshop. The theme is “city/landscape” and I’m looking for something to shoot long term-ish. At the moment I’m thinking about the transition between the city and its surrounding landscape. Either geographically (edge of town), or in spirit (allotment gardens). We were asked to take some preliminary images of our interest or to collect (visual) ideas.
Here is what I got so far. Shot with my new Canonet rangefinder. Somehow I love the portrait orientation. Not sure if I’ll continue this thread or rethink my approach… we’ll see in the coming weeks and months.
Markkleeberg / Leipzig, Germany – November 2018
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
Fuji Superia Premium 400
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Canonet 28 (40mm / f2.8) + Fujifilm Superia Premium 400
Film sponsored by Caro.
Development + Scan by NimmFilm
Edited in Adobe Lightroom
Ted Forbes’ Photo assignments are a set of challenges designed to improve creative thinking. Mostly by providing a theme or some sort of restrictions. This time it’s based on the Holga:
no Autofocus and no Viewfinder
f8 only
fixed shutter speed (1/30 or 1/60)
fixed ISO (100 or 400)
The Video:
Since I actually own a Holga and had not shot it in years, I finally used it again. There were also two rolls of 15+ year old expired b/w film, that I had no idea what to do with for years. And I also had a little bit of ID-11 developer left, that wasn’t enough for a 1+3 development ratio, so I had to guess times for a 1+4 mix.
Not worrying too much about anything felt really good. Am I framing the scene correctly? No idea! Is the exposure good? Probably not! Can I do anything about it? Nope! Are the leaves in focus? Who knows, I sure don’t.
Using the 6 x 4,5 mask gave me some more images per roll (16 instead of 12). I think it also reduced vignetting on the long sides of the photo. And I’m super in love with the format of 6 x 4,5.
All in all it was really a fun experience. I bet the Holga will return one day.
Leipzig, Germany – Oct / Nov 2018
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Holga 120 GCFM (cheap glas instead of cheap plastic lens)
2x Kodak T-Max 400 (expired 2003 / 120 Medium Format)
Developed in ID-11 (1+4 with guessed time, development table only had 1+3)
Scanned with Epson V550
Postprocessing in Lightroom
Last week I met up with Isabel (Farbstich – Natur im Blick) and got this lovely Canonet 28 as a gift. Thanks again! It’s a fixed lens (40mm f2.8) rangefinder – a type of camera I’m increasingly interested in.
While focusing is different from a SLR, it’s still just a box that captures light. But I somehow really like the 40mm focus length. For years I mainly shot with a 50mm lens, then I had my “one year of 35mm f8+” project. Now the 40mm is nicely in the middle of it.
Maybe I’ll use it for the current photography workshop I’m attending…
Leipzig, Germany – November 2018
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Canonet 28 + Kentmere 400 / Developed in Ilfotec DD-X (1+4)
Scanned with Epson V550 / Edited in Lightroom
This month I had the chance to test the Fujifilm X100F (thanks Matthias!) during a short trip to egapark Erfurt (german website). It was overcast, rained a little bit, but we had fun trying out new cameras.
I didn’t have the camera long enough to write a full review, so I’ll just list some random thoughts and images. In the end I felt like it was just another metal box, that made images – not the over?-hyped camera I’ve read lots of articles and watched lots of youtube videos about. But I did want to shoot it more at the end of the trip, so who knows…
I liked the optical viewfinder with frame lines, I’m not quite sure about the electronic viewfinder – but I haven’t really used one so far. It’s nice you don’t have to go into the menu to change things – you can turn actual physical knobs on the camera itself. Battery life is a bit challenging.
Somehow I don’t think I shoot differently then with my current always-with-me camera: the Olympus XA2. Also with a fixed 35mm lens. If you want to compare the following shots with my usual analog output, you can take a loot at my instagram.
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egapark / Erfurt, Germany / July 2018
Fujifilm X100F / Fujinon 23mm f2 / 24,3 MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS III Sensor
Post-processing in Adobe Lightroom.
The Sun Itself Shall Draw My Pictures 