120 film ... a reprise.

DaireQuinlan

Some of you guys answered a plea for help I put out a couple of weeks ago, about sticking a roll of 120 film into an old (85 yo !) pocket kodak. Finally got around to doing it and getting them developed. I think I'm a convert ... Despite the generally crappy nature of the shots themselves ( it was a sort of 'use up the film so I can see whether or not the thing still actually WORKS' vibe) I love the results. Put a few up on flickr, unfortunately they're crappy scans of crappy digital prints that I got when I got the roll developed but still ...

I also had a few ... teething problems ... with guesstimating exposure and focus. Sunny 16 only helps out so much :-)

hadn't worked out quite how far to wind the film ...

ok .. so if overcast is one stop then overcast in shadows is ... uhhh ...

Halfpenny bridge

Abbey street.

The last one I really like. Just a normal shot of Abbey street but I think its got a bit of 'zing' for some reason ...

But Man oh man do those 6cmx9cm negatives have a lot of punch. They're huge ! So thanks all for the advice. I'm itching to get another roll in and get off somewhere photogenic :-)

D.

Valentia

Yep! I had forgotton what film looked like There is so much more depth to them. Digital still has a way to go. Fair play Daire. More please.

DaireQuinlan

I don't know what it is that gives that abbey street one its 'look'. I think it might be the wierd focus effects this camera gives me (the lens after 85 years is probably a bit off) which gives it a sort of 3D effect or something. I like it though. The underexposed watcher one actually has a pile of detail in the dark areas of the negative, the printer obviously decided not to blow out the sky instead. I may just pick up a cheap medium format flatbed scanner over the weekend and mess around directly from the negs. Anyone have any recommendations as to medium format scanners ? cheap cheap cheap ! I can't really justify spending a lot on a MF scanner having blown 600 euros on my nikon coolscan for 35mm scanning ...

D.

Redundo

Consider switching to B&W Daire! A friend of mine has several of these cameras and loves that same special 'look' they give. Using B&W film should only accentuate that.

As for film scanners, the one I use is an Epson 4490. There might be a newer version of it out now, but i find does all i could ask of it. Watch out though, scanning in films is time consuming!

DaireQuinlan

Yeah ... Think I might do that saturday. The underexposed shots for example have a lot of detail visible in the negative. I spend ages messing around with my 35mm negs (one of the reasons that negative scanning takes so long sometimes ... ) . Cheapo MF scanner looks like the way to go.

B&W ? never really considered it. One of the advantages of scanning film is that you get much better latitude over conversion to B&W. When I was shooting pure film I used to stick a red filter over the lens for example to darken up blue skies. Nowadays its simpler to shoot colour, scan, and channel mix to your hearts content. Hardly traditional I know but still :-)

magicbastarder

i prefer shooting film. limited ammo means you put more thought into each shot.

DaireQuinlan

magicbastarder wrote:

i prefer shooting film. limited ammo means you put more thought into each shot.

Between buying the film and processing, each of those shots cost me about 1.50. Yikes ! 35mm though I tend to just shoot away like its going out of fashion. I often only get a couple of usable shots from each roll and, frankly, sometimes even they aren't the best. I used to have an okay eye, it'll take a while to get it back into practice I reckon.

magicbastarder

where did you get the film, and get it processed?
i think it works out at about €7 for film and processing in gunns, if you get dev only b&w.

DaireQuinlan

Film was 4.99, development was 7.50 or thereabouts. I plan get do dev only processing from here on in and pick up some cheapo flatbed MF scanner, but I was dying to see how these things were going to turn out so I got prints this time round.

On a related note I've just bought a yashica-mat 124g TLR from EBay. So there'll be a whole pile more MF to come !

D.

georgey

These shots scream film to me, the detail and dept is great, I still use my old rangefinder a lot I think I like the feel the silky smooth action and using the hot shoe exposure meter really keeps you thinkin, wot I want to say is that if I put a selection of 4 photo's on screen one of which is film my wife will always remark on the look of the film shot, Mmmm.... and all the money I have spent on digital:rolleyes: