More Pinhole Fun

 My ability to properly frame my pinhole images still needs some fine tuning.  However my exposure guesses with this last roll of the new Kentmere 100 are in the ballpark.  I think the film performed very well in regard to tonality and grain, and the reciprocity error is as good as claimed, very similar to Tri-X.

The Den

The Den With Denizen (and Durer's Rhino)

The Desktop

The Front Corner With Plants and Pictures

Across The Street

A cloudy day gave me a good opportunity to test the film's capacity to handle long exposures.  The inside shots were about 2.5 minutes and the outside ones were forty seconds.  I probably could have given the inside shots a bit more time, but I was already close to blowing the highlights.

Dusting Off the Retina 1a

 It has been four years since I last shot my Retina 1a.  Perhaps partly because of that neglect I had difficulties with framing, focus and exposure.  In spite of my inept performance the Xenar lens brought home a few nice images.

The focus was a little stiff, so I'll attend to that and try to get out with the Retina 1a again before another four years goes by.

The New Kentmere 100 in 120 Format

I think it is very nice stuff.  I'm looking forward to seeing what others are doing with it.

I shot the first of the five rolls I got from the Film Photography Project in my Mamiya C330.  Processing was in PMK Pyro for ten minutes at 75F.

I'll likely give the 400 speed version a try soon and I'm also looking forward to using Kentmere 120 for some pinhole work.  

Arista

 I have had somewhat inconsistent results from my Arista Edu Ultra 200 with Rodinal and in this last roll with PMK Pyro.  I'll likely try to give it a minute or two longer in the developer.  I have a hundred foot roll, so plenty of time to get it figured out.

We are having some cool overnight weather in Albuquerque, but still a lot of sun most days and some great light along the river.

Coming Home to Pinhole

 I spent some time recently going through the 900+ photos I have posted on the Flickr photo sharing site over the past sixteen years.  One thing I decided after that review was that the pictures of mine that I think are most unique and among the most valued by me are those made with my pinhole cameras. I like the fundamental simplicity of the pinhole process.  The fact that I can make a pinhole camera as good as anything I might buy is also very appealing.  While such a camera can be made from little more than a cardboard box and piece of beer can aluminum, I have made all of mine from modified film cameras.  That strategy has several problem-solving advantages including taking care of issues like film holding, frame spacing and shutter operation.

Most of my pinhole pictures have been made with a hacked medium format Agfa folder.  I removed the bellows and associated hardware from the camera, hacksawed a hole on the camera's front cover and mounted the shutter there, replacing the lens  with a pinhole.  The distance from the pinhole to the film plane on the camera is about 38mm which gives me a wide-angle look I like for my pinhole images, and the relatively large negatives allow considerable enlargement.

I have also made several pinhole cameras from simple little plastic point-and-shoot thrift store finds.  My first color pinhole images came from a Vivitar PN2011.  That camera was easily modified for pinhole use, but the shutter was a little awkward in use.  I got better results from a no-name-made-in-China 35mm camera that has a paddle-type lens cover that is operated by the shutter release. I poked a pinhole for it in a disk of thin sheet brass which I found at an art supply shop and the images it makes are quite nice, though they are not as enlargeable as those from the Agfa.

So, the upshot of all this rumination about squeezing light through tiny holes was that I was impelled to load a roll of Fomapan into the Agfa and take a walk through the neighborhood and another beside the river to make some pinhole images.  What I discovered on developing the film was that the exposures were fine, but I had forgotten the first rule of pinhole photography -- you need to get close as you can to the subject -- and then get closer.  Still, I got a couple pictures that were ok, and I'm looking forward to doing more.

my house, pinholed

a bridge to the bosque at Tingley Ponds

My pinhole outings were facilitated by fine sunny days, which is a good fit with Fomapan.  On such days a full sun scene needs just a second or two of exposure.  With an overcast sky or in the shade, however, the need for some patience and a sturdy tripod come into play as Fomapan's light sensitivity nosedives.  Under those lighting conditions a meter reading indicating a need for an eight second exposure requires a small compensation of a couple extra seconds with something like TMAX.  With Fomapan in the same low light you may need to give your pinhole a full minute of exposure for a usable image on the film.

Luckily, for impatient penny-pinching pinholers like me, there is an imminent answer to Fomapan's reciprocity failure problem.  Ilford has announced that is now making Kentmere 100 and 400 in 120 format and it should be available very soon at B&H and elsewhere.  Both speeds of Kentmere will be priced at $5.80, which makes it the cheapest medium format film on the market. So, that will introduce some healthy competition into the currently crazy film scene, and Ilford's film has a reciprocity failure profile that is an order of magnitude better than Fomapan.  That same low light scene that calls for a minute exposure with Fomapan will only need about fifteen seconds with Kentmere in the camera.

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UPDATE Dec. 6, 2022

The Film Photography Project has Kentmere 120 listed on hand and priced at $4.99.  No free shipping like B&H, but I went ahead and ordered five rolls of 100 speed with  $10 for shipping.

Old Dog, New Trick

 Over the years since I got back to shooting film I have enjoyed opportunities to explore the possibilities of many different film and developer combinations.  The soaring prices of most films have made that an expensive proposition and have prompted me to look at alternatives.  One obvious one to consider was bulk film.

I don't recall when or why I acquired this Watson Bulk Film Loader, but it seemed time to give it a try.  I mentioned the possibility to a couple film shooting friends and was offered some helpful advice on use as well as a partial bulk roll of Arista Edu 200 to get started.  I bought a four-pack of plastic reloadable cartridges from Adorama and loaded 12 frames into one for a trial run.  To eliminate any camera variables in the test, I shot the short strip in my Retina IIc with the Xenon lens which never disappoints.

I took a long walk with the Retina through a part of the neighborhood I seldom visit.  The setting sun cast some nice light and shadows which made it easy to quickly finish the test roll.

I had not used any Arista film in some time and I was pleasantly surprised at the nice tonal palette and fine grain when developed in RO9 1:25.

So, I ordered a 100-foot bulk roll of Arista Edu 200 from B&H.  The hundred-foot roll of film costs $68 and yields about 18 36-exposure rolls; so around $3.77 per roll.  That is a nice savings over the individual 36-exposure cartridges at $5.99 each, as well as some inflation protection for the duration of the bulk roll.

Ersatz 828

 I walked through the neighborhood and into Old Town with my Kodak Flash Bantam.  The camera was built for paper backed 828 roll film.  That is the same size as 35mm without the double row of perforations, so I just rolled a strip of 35mm onto the little reels in the dark bag and covered the ruby window with tape.  One and one half rotations of the advance gave me pretty good frame spacing. I had a few overlapping frames and a couple double exposures, but the camera got the job done pretty well.

The film was some Agfa Vista 100 dated 2007.  I gave it a little extra time in the Cinestill C-41 developer, but there were still some pretty pronounced color shifts requiring photoshop correction.

Following The Cranes

 The cranes at the river have mostly been beyond the reach of my longest lenses.  This morning I went a few miles north to the Los Poblanos Open Space where it is often possible to get closer to the birds.

I have had mostly poor results from the Vivitar Zoom I have been using with the Nikon F.  I may go back to the Open Space with my Pentax and the Yashinon zoom.

Albuquerque Autumn

 I was able to get back to shooting my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim thanks to the gift of a roll of Agfa Vista 100.  The use-by date was 2007, but I thought the colors looked pretty good with a little PhotoShop help.

I found I had forgotten a few things about shooting the little wide-lens Vivitar.  It is necessary to frame scenes tightly as the viewfinder shows less than what will appear on the film.  Keeping the camera level is also important to avoid out of control verticals.

I have another roll of the Agfa Vista.  I'll probably give it an additional minute or two in the developer to compensate for the film age as well as the depletion of the Cinestill C-41 which will be on its fourteenth roll.

At The River With The Nikon F

 Cool Fall weather has brought the Sandhill Cranes back to the Rio Grande Valley.  I've taken a couple long walks along the river to photograph them with my Nikon F and the Vivitar 70-210 Macro Focusing Zoom.

The Vivitar lens seems a versatile performer, though I found it challenging to get it well focused at maximum extension.  I think I likely just need more practice using it.

In The Neighborhood

 Our local film photography group met at a park near our home and then went to one of the Old Town coffee shops.  I took along my Leica IIIa with the Elmar 3.5/50.

I finished off the roll of Kentmere while walking the dog the next day.  

I haven't used the Elmar 3.5/50 much, but it always performs well and I intend to start using it more often.  The Hektor 4.5/135 is also a fine lens.  Mine looks like it might never have been used, and I think I understand that having tried to get pictures with it a couple times.  The telephoto needs a lot brighter rangefinder than I have on the Leica IIIa, and the accessory viewfinder seems just too awkward in use to be practical.  I should probably find a new home for Hektor.

San Ignacio

 I took two cameras to photograph the interesting little San Ignacio church about a mile from our home.

The No.3A Folding Pocket Kodak was again loaded with a sheet of postcard-size photo paper.  I made an eight second exposure at f64 under a lightly overcast sky.  I developed the paper negative in HC110b, stopped in some water with a little vinegar and fixed for about five minutes.

I also shot a roll of Fomapan 400 in my Bentzin Primar Folder.  I was pleased with the results from the film and the sharpness obtained from the Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan lens.  However, the open frame viewfinder on the folder will need some adjustment so that it more closely shows what will end up on the film.

Update

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I have made some small changes to the images in this post, increasing the contrast slightly.  I recently got my old Dell XP computer running again, so am getting back to using my preferred CS2 and Silverfast programs.  I have also made an effort to better match the screens on my Windows and MAC computers.