creativity

Lomography Lomochrome Purple Review

 
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Hello friends!! It’s been a little while since I did an out and out film review but fear not!! Today I shall make amends for this by giving the first of THREE (that’s right THREE) film reviews - gosh aren’t you lucky (don’t answer that)! These were all brand new films to me that I hadn’t used before each with their own unique look, so while they may have been shot on the same shoot they definitely have their own story to tell. First up we’ll begin with some purple otherwordly strangeness in the form of Lomography Lomochrome Purple XR 100-400 (my goodness what a mouthful)!!

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I’ve had a couple of rolls on ice for some time and so with Lockdown restrictions easing here in the UK making photoshoots ‘a thing’ again I defrosted one roll and loaded it up into my Nikon L35AF point and shoot which accompanied me on a shoot with the very talented Monika - check her out on IG for more evidence of her awesomeness!!

As you can see Lomochrome Purple does exactly what it says on the tin - Blue becomes green, green becomes purple, yellow becomes pink! It’s an effect that is possibly as near to shooting old school aerochrome colour infrared that us mere mortals will get these days (proper colour IR film is STUPID expensive) what I love about the film is it can introduce an entirely new angle on a shoot - alongside the Lomochrome I shot some ‘normal colour’ film stocks but it was great to have this additional creative film along for the ride.

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According to the box this film can be shot anywhere between 100 and 400, but looking around online I think it’s best to stick to the 100 side of things as this will give you the most pronounced purple colour shifts, of course your mileage may vary but this film isn’t cheap and I very definitely erred on the side of caution with my metering!

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These were taken on a very bright sunlit day - in fact I had a reflector with me that I didn’t use and I wish that I had for one or two of these a: to balance the hard shadows and b: to give the film some extra light to work with - as you can see this film does not record shadow detail very well and the drop off is quite pronounced, that being said but I do kind of like the effect in the background elements as it gives you quite a punchy, contrasty look but I thinkI’d have liked to have kept some more detail around Monika as my subject!

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The grain structure is visible and I quite like it. The film resolves quite a lot of detail especially in the highlights and where it does fall off the grain has a gritty feel - this is most definitely not a smooth film so be prepared to embrace the grain! What I did notice in the film scans and I confirmed this with Exposure Film Lab who developed the film for me was quite a few thin lines across the image possibly from dye running off through the development, it was easy to remove in lightroom but certainly expect to do a bit of post processing removing weird artefacts in Photoshop or Lightroom (I felt like a digital shooter for a minute)! UURGH!

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I picked the above image out as it shows a few things worth taking note of:

1: This was probably the most extreme example of the lines that were apparent on more than a few frames

2: My sadness at the big bloody STUPID line spoiling the shot was lessened because clearly the little Nikon L35AF wasn’t feeling the strong backlighting here (even though it has a little lever to compensate for back lighting) clearly there are limits to what you can expect - and in this situation you can expect to see a big increase in grain and lack of contrast

3: Which moves onto point number three - The lomo purple clearly didn’t enjoy this lighting either - you can see the purple shifting to a more muddy, muted, brownish colour, and the grain structure kind of falls apart a bit too and loses contrast - meh!

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I tried my best to make the most of the greenery around, at the time of the shoot most of the trees were still bare but there was enough evergreen ivy around for us to work with and Monika did a great job of diving into the spiky Ivy branches! Skin tones were very much on the pinky/red side of things despite Lomographys assertions that this film keeps skin tones looking natural but to be honest my advice is to just embrace the colour shifts and go with it, I really love how these shots came out - Lomochrom Purple is a great way to add an instant creative edge to a shoot and works well when shot alongside some more traditional colour/black and white stocks.

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So in conclusion then what can we say about Lomography Lomochrome XR 100-400 (aside from the ridic long name) well my completely subjective and unscientific analysis is: I absolutely love it! (‘What a fucking surprise’ I hear you cry)!! Fair comment - I am yet to meet a film stock that I didn’t fall in love with one way or the other…. although with this one I was especially uncertain with it being such an unusual film to begin with and then first time shooting it.

One of the things that I enjoy about film photography is that many of your creative choices are made up front when it comes to choosing films stocks etc Lomo Purple gives you a really ‘out there’ trippy vibe right off the bat. It’s not a cheap film and based on my experience it really does need good lighting so while I have another roll on ice, I’ll be waiting for the right opporutnity to bring it out. I have to say that it was great shooting the little Nikon L35AF loaded up with this bonkers film - a great little camera that will have a blog of its own one day I promise!!

Would i use Lomo Purple as a stand alone film stock for a portrait shoot? No… I feel it’s more of a creative addition to your colour pallete rather than the main focus or at least that’s how I used it, which brings us nicely to a reminder to watch this space for parts 2 and 3 of this film review trilogy - I’ll be bringin you another Lomo film this time a more traditional stock Lomography colour 100 in medium format! I bet you can’t wait…. but you’ll have to, I haven’t written the damn thing yet…

Creating colourful dramatic portraits with LED lights on film

 
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I’ve been experimenting with LED lighting and coloured gels in my portraiture, in particular I’ve been exploring new creative themes taking inspiration from some of my fave Sci fi movies as a way of experimenting with lighting to evoke the mood of the original films and it’s also been wonderful to play around with characters, settings and stories.

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I was fortunate to collaborate once again with Charlie and Jony to create two really distinctive looks. Firstly Charlie channelling her inner ‘Ripley from Aliens’ and Jony doing an amazing job with a ‘Deckard off of Bladerunner’ look. We finished the shoot with Charlie joining Jony in a Dark Future Dystopia by reprising her role as ‘bad ass Terminator Cyborg’ from our previous shoot HERE.

Once again this was an all Kodak Portra 400 affair, I rated the film at 800 and had the lovely folks at Exposure Film Lab push development two stops. Camera gear used:

  • Nikon F3 / 85mm 1.4 / 50mm 1.4

  • Pentax 67 / 105mm 2.5

We shot both of these looks in their cellar using a simple lighting set up involving one LED panel light and two small LED pads with some coloured cellophane for ‘gels’. Jony provided extra atmosphere by streaming the background music to Aliens during the Ripley shoot too!! ACE!

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For inspiration I rewatched Aliens which is one of my favourite films paying particular attention to the lighting and colour pallete used in the film - I picked out blue/green and yellow as the main colours and then tried to replicate that multi million dollar budget movie with a few cheap LED lights and 99p worth of coloured Cellophane! You know what? I absolutley love the results!!

I searched out a suitably sci-fi looking rifle for ‘Ripley’ and Charlie did an absolutely stellar job creating the look with an awesome outfit, hair and make up - she really is one of the most creative souls I have had the pleasure to work with, she’s amazing! :)

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Interestingly (well i think it’s interesting and it’s my blog, so get lost) for the Ripley images the 35mm frames look the best, they have a grainy/grittyness which is very appealing and truth be told I missed focus quite a bit on the Pentax 67 shots for Ripley and even those shots which I didn’t just don’t have the same feel as these 35mm shots.

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Now we move on to a look inspired by Deckard from Bladerunner another of my all time fave movies!! For inspiration I watched both the original film and the recent 2049 movie and actually took my lighting inspiration from both films - I decided I wanted to combine the darker/noir feel of the original movie with some of the colour palette of the later film.

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Jony did an awesome job not only with his outfit but also bringing that noir detective/bladerunner vibe - very very cool! I was so happy with how the lighting worked out giving a very dramatic effect.

Interestingly (yes! it IS interesting - now shush) the Pentax 67 shots look best on this look (if I do say so myself) I was shooting this handheld at 1/30 and wide open at 2.5 so Depth of Field is razor thin and there is a little bit of camera shake creeping in on one or two frames but I care not! Love these shots! Huge thank you to Jony for absolutely nailing the look here!

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Props wise I bought a custom nerf gun and also some ‘neon bullets’ which are actual (empty) bullet casings but with a blue LED light inside! There really are some randomly specific/amazing things available in the internet aren’t there?! I think they look great on the shot - definitely add to the sci fi vibes.

In fact the whole Dark Future look is created by the lighting on this one as without the LED lights or the neon bullets then Jony’s look could be from any time period - this is one of the things I love about experimenting with coloured lighting, it really is transformative!

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As if that wasn’t enough creativity for one shoot using the exact same location we then stepped it up a gear and brought Charlie and Jony together for a few final images. On these I really wanted to push the lighting to see what was achievable - and wow!! We created a set of promo images for an imaginary Sci-fi Cop show!

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With Red light as the main lighting and blue just in the background and picking out little details and reflections - the high grain just adds to the lo-fi/low key appeal! An awesome end to an awesome shoot! It was a real pleasure to work with Charlie and Jony again, such lovely creative folk to work with :)

As for the lighting, I am really enjoying exploring the creative possibilites which coloured lighting brings to my photography. LED lights are a game changer for the film shooter because what you see is pretty much what you get which allows you to control and adjust your lighting by eye. I continue to be amazed at the flexibility of Kodak Portra 400 it really is wonderful stuff! I would urge anyone reading this to introduce some dramatic colour lighting into your film photography and push your creativity to the limits! It is such an enjoyable experience!

Kodak Pro image 100 & Portra 160 review - Portrait shoot out

Now that I have FINALLY settled on some camera kit that I’ll be keeping around for the long term I can focus my energies on exploring different film stocks - not that I wasn’t doing that anyway but I was finding flitting from one camera to the next a bit of a distraction, for the record the cameras which have won my heart are the Nikon F2 and Pentax 67 - today’s blog features a portrait shoot on the F2 shooting with a shiny new portrait lens and using two different film stocks Kodak Pro Image 100 (a new film to me) and Kodak Portra 160 (a film I have used a few times before)

Whilst the main focus of the conversation will be on looking at the two film stocks first up I’ll take a moment to show you the kit I used on this shoot, I’ll then take you through the shoot itself.

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I have just bought the very wonderful Nikkor 105mm 2.5 a lens which has a HUGE reputation as an amazing portrait lens, when i bought it the focus ring was quite stiff so I sent it off for repair to a chap called Miles Whitehead who did a great job of fixing it and it now has silky smooth focus action - I would highly recomment Miles if you have some camera kit in need of some TLC check his site out HERE. In fact as I write this I am reminded that Miles also serviced my F2 when I bought it so double thanks!! :)

I was originally going to include a few thoughts on the 105mm lens in todays blog but I loved using it so much that I think I’ll reserve that for a dedicated blog all of it’s own - suffice it to say that it’s reputation is very well earned, an amazing piece of glass!

Ideal for portrait, weddings and social events dontcha know…..

Ideal for portrait, weddings and social events dontcha know…..

I think most people will be familiar with Kodak Portra 160 which is a mainstay of Kodak’s professional line up, but what’s this Pro Image 100 all about? I’ve been shooting a lot of Portra 400 and 160 recently and whilst I love both film stocks I am always interested in trying new things and the results I’d seen from Pro Image appealed to me - the other great thing about Pro Image is the price! I got this for £25.95 for 5 rolls!

This film stock has only recently come to the UK/European market - despite being around since the mid 90’s, the stock was only sold in warmer climates, big thanks to the good folks at Nik & Trick for being instrumental in making the case to Kodak for getting this film available in Europe :)

Ok so I have a lovely film camera - check, a great portrait lens - check, a shiny new colour film - check, a beautiful location to shoot in….check! What’s next? I need someone to photograph! Fortunately I’m part of a great facebook group for photographers and models to network and arrange shoots - Danni is someone I met through this group and we’ve shot together before when i was testing out my Pentax 645, you can see those images HERE.

Also worth mentioning at this point that i had my films processed and scanned by the good folks at Exposure Film Lab who I must thank again for their brilliant work, I use them for all my colour films these days because I just love the results I get from them - check them out HERE

The vibe for this shoot was a really natural summer look to make the most of the bright sunshine, we had a beautiful location filled with light, flowers, tall grass and trees - let’s GO!

First up i loaded Kodak Pro Image 100…

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Ok then at this stage in the proceedings the word at the forefront in my mind is wow! Danni is a very talented Model which makes my job much easier and the Pro Image film is just lovely :) Let’s move on to the Portra 160 which I loaded up next and we’ll do a bit of a comparsion at the end, here’s the Portra shots…

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The entire shoot lasted about an hour (if that) we went for a stroll through some lovely scenery and together we created some properly beautiful portraits full of light and life! Danni is a great model she did a brilliant job on this shoot, she puts lots of character into her work and is just a natural in front of camera, this really shines through the images - we’ve worked together before which I think always helps so we’re relaxed and comfortable working together and meant we were able to just get right into it and enjoy the shoot. I’m over the moon with the photos we created together - thank you Danni :) Check out her portfolio HERE.

In summary then both film stocks are clearly capable of wonderfully sharp, textured images with great skin tones, colour balance, contrast and detail - I therefore love them both! They each have their own look so whilst they’re comparable I think there are some differences to take into consideration. This was never intended as a ‘one film versus the other’ contest in which we have a winner and a loser but rather an opportunity to look at how these two film stocks worked under the same conditions - to that end I simply invite you to make your own mind up which you like best - or maybe like me, you like them both?!

Here’s a few of my thoughts on each stock:

Pro Image 100 - it has a wonderful grain structure, punchy contrast and I love how it handles the greens and yellows, shadows perhaps not holding as much detail as portra, it has a classic film ‘look’

Portra 160 - minimal grain as you’d expect from portra, slightly muted colour palette although in these images it produced stronger contrast than I’d expected, Portra definitely holds on to more shadow detail and also perhaps slightly sharper.

What does all this show us then? Well they’re very close actually, much closer than I’d have thought! One aspect which does create an opportunity for comparison is the price with a five pack of Portra 160 retailing at around £35.99 and a five pack of Pro Image around £25.95 then clearly if budget is the deal breaker then Pro Image is your winner, if you absolutely must squeeze every bit of detail out of the shot then perhaps Portra is the one to choose - ultimately we’re all winners here as we in the UK now have access to the lovely Pro Image and I’ve got 4 more rolls sat waiting to go! I can’t wait to shoot it again.



Pentax 67 review

Ever since I first picked up a film camera and got slowly drawn deeper into the wonderful world of film, I’d heard tell of a mythical monstrous machine called the Pentax 67, today dear friends I am happy to report that my long held dream of owning such a mechanical marvel is realised - behold! the behemoth!!

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So… another new camera eh? yes dear friends - let me take a moment to explain… I’ve sold all my Digital camera equipment!! I’m officially now full time film only! regular visitors to the website will have noticed a different look/format - no more commercial/events/wedding pages, in fact I’ve completely re-imagined my photographic practice so that it’s more in line with my passions and interests and one thing that i had realised for some time was that my digital gear only ever saw the light of day for commercial/events work - having decided to forgo that area of work my digital kit was effetively rendered redundant - i loved my Canon 6D, it served me very well in the 33,000 ish clicks that i made with it.

Having decided on this course of action and sold off all my digital kit and studio lights i was in the market for a suitable main battle camera to replace my 6D and of course in a very short space of time my attention rested upon the Pentax 67!

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I’ve spent the last couple of weeks putting the Pentax 67 through it’s paces,adding a few more lenses and accessories to the set up, just generally getting to grips with it and starting a complete overhaul of my portfolio with the resulting images, let’s take her out for a spin and I’ll show you around….

A BIG part of the draw towards this camera was this lens - the Super Multi Coated Takumar 105mm 2.4 - it is properly LEGENDARY!! able to simultaneously render dream like out of focus areas alongside super sharp and crisp details, giving a wonderfully 3D effect - it’s my favourite lens ever, ever, ever! Here are three of my fave portraits shot with it so far :)

The 105mm fulfills the ‘standard’ focal length on 6X7 format giving an equivalent field of view to a 58mm lens on standard 35mm format, what’s even better is that thanks to a cheap adapter I can also use this amazing lens on my other Pentax medium format camera the Pentax 645 (see review of that camera HERE) when used in this way thanks to the smaller negative size of the 645 it works as an 85mm portrait lens :)

Anyway back to the Pentax 67 - in use it’s actucally a very simple and surprisingly ergonomic experience for such a large camera, as usual the internet is rife with ill judged, misinformed claptrap perpetuated by people who’ve never even held the camera - first and foremost being the “you can’t shoot it handheld” to which i say (insert swear word of choice) I’ve had sharp results hand holding this beast consistently at 1/60 of a second with no problem at all and with a bit more care and attention 1/30 is totally doable too, the mass of the camera is such that any mirror slap is soaked up by the sheer weight of the camera body, plus most of the vibrations/noise comes from the mirror returning to it’s start position i.e. after the shutter has closed and the frame has been exposed so total myth about handholding.

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My version of the Pentax 67 is the thrid version and dates from about 1989 - 1994 (I have no idea how to specifically date the camera by it’s serial number) and to my mind is the best version; earlier models had some mechanical issues present within them from the outset and of course are also much older, there is also a later model the 67ii which is the pinnacle of the range but… it’s EXPENSIVE! and really the only thing it adds is a built in grip (I don’t need this) and an aperture priority mode (I don’t need that either)! so if you’re looking for one of these cameras then go for one that says ‘67’ on the front of the body (earlier models have 6x7 written on the front)

It’s a modular system which means that you can change the prism finder to a wasit level if you like or a metered/non metered head - mine came with a metered head. looking through the prism the finder is about 90% of the actual image which is a bit of a shame but i guess having a 100% finder on a camera this big would have rendered it too unwieldy, it’s not the brightest viewfinder in the world but it’s good and pops into focus well, remove the prism and the focussing screen is HUGE and wonderful!!

let’s get this out of the way… it’s heavy… no denying that, you’ll notice that you have this camera slung over your shoulder!! it’s also big, no getting away from it - although considering the format of negative you’re working with it’s actually smaller than other 6x7 cameras, I really like the straight forward SLR format too - this makes it very easy to transition from your 35mm manual SLR camera and just start shooting straight away.

My latest fave camera combo - the P67 alongside the lovely Nikon F2 a perfect match

My latest fave camera combo - the P67 alongside the lovely Nikon F2 a perfect match

My camera came with the wonderful 105mm 2.4 lens already- i swiftly added the very cool looking lens hood to this and then started casting about for more lenses to try out, the great thing about this system is that these lenses are generally very large and so aren’t really coveted by the mirrorless digital camera crowd, this means they are pretty cheap! By shopping around (in the case of the 200mm that meant importing from Japan and in the case of the 55mm it meant not being too picky about cosmetic condition of the lens body) I was able to put together a selection of three amazing additional lenses for my 67 for less than £250 in total! here they are:

From left to right:

55mm f4 - a wide angle lens equivalent to about 28mm on 35mm format

165m f2.8 - a short tele lens equivalent to about 85mm on 35mm format

200mm f4 - a medium tele equivalent to about 100mm on 35mm format

I’m still testing these lenses out and deciding which to keep in my line up, since I love the 105mm 2.4 so much the two portrait lenses don’t get much of a look in at the moment, despite being fine lenses in their own rightonly time will tell if they will remain in my collection; the 55mm on the other hand is a keeper! Just to prove that the P67 is a flexible camera and suitable for landscape as well as portraiture here are a few shots I got on a short hike in the wonderful West Yorkshire Moors near my home and all shot on the 55mm f4.

It’s a bloody brilliant landscape shooter - I don’t know why this surprised me since it is basically an oversized 35mm SLR, but i was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was to shoot on this walk, it’s weight is a bit of a limiting factor for longer walks and as someone who enjoys the great outdoors I’m not sure I would i regularly take the P67 on a long hike as it is a heavy beast to lug up hill and down dale but I’d definitely take it on shorter walks or to shoot specific scenes with the intention of darkroom printing the results, the 6X7 negatives are wonderful, lots and lots of lovely detail and the 45mm lens is amazing, I’m looking forward to getting into the darkroom soon and printing some of these!

So there we have it, my dream camera is living up to expectations (if not exceeding them) the P67 has helped me to transform my portfolio in a way that no other camera has, it’s flexible enough to shoot on location for portraits and is a very capable landscape shooter too - as with any camera nothing is perfect, but the Pentax 67 is the next best thing!

Pentax 645 medium format camera review: My new favourite portrait camera

Some cameras attract your attention because of their sleek industrial design others with their classic style and charm - the Pentax 645 is not one of those cameras!

Seen here lurking in it's natural environment -the pentax 645 sneaks up on an unsuspecting roll of Fuji pro 400H.....

Seen here lurking in it's natural environment -the pentax 645 sneaks up on an unsuspecting roll of Fuji pro 400H.....

At first glance the Pentax 645 looks like a big plastic box with a lens sticking out of the front and at second glance it also looks like a big plastic box with a lens sticking out the front, but hey this ain't a beauty contest! it's a camera and a bloody awesome one too! in fact (and yes I know that I say this a lot) it's my new fave camera and i really, really,really-really-really mean it this time, honest.... no, really....

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I think I've reached that point in my film camera tomfoolery where I'm looking for my cameras to do different things or have specific purposes - I've shot loads of different cameras so I can speak with some experience that most 35mm film SLR cameras are a variation on a theme - they have various control layouts/feature sets etc but ultimately they are much of a muchness so whilst I am thinning out my collection of 35mm film cameras which all do pretty much the same thing I am also expanding the collection to include cameras which do things a little bit differently - and therefore in my warped Gear Acquisition Syndrome afflicted brain I can be justified in purchasing...the Pentax 645 which is a medium format film camera and it's amazing, let me introduce you..

The first thing that is obvious is what era this camera hails from - this thing is so 80's it hurts!! the buttons and the chunky design are total give aways and i love it!! despite it's brick like subtlety the 645 is actually very ergonomic and I love the button placement, there are loads of hokey reviews out there on the net talking about all sorts of nonsense about this camera like the viewfinder being dim (it's not - it's VERY bright and HUGE) and there is an even larger amount of claptrap out there about the shutter being VERY LOUD (it's not.... yeah you can hear it but it's not THAT bad) what else... oh yeah people complain about the button placement, for me this is just not an issue at all....this thing is so easy to shoot with!! it has a full range of shutter priority, aperture priority and full manual modes (there are also people out there claiming that the 645 doesn't have a full manual mode, erm yes it does)..... the great thing about all these crap reviews and internet forums recylcing this duff info about the camera is that nobody wants to buy it - so it's CHEAP!!! like REALLY cheap!! hurray!

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These cameras are not particularly common in the UK these days so I imported mine from Japan and even with shipping and Her Majesty's rip off merchants at UK customs it was still a good deal! If you think you want a Pentax 645 then buy one - you will not be dissapointed! Mine came with the standard 75mm 2.8 lens attached already and I very quickly added a 150mm 3.5 lens too - the pentax 645 glass is AMAZING! it's a totally manual focus system and that's the way (a ha a ha) I like it! very smooth focussing action and a lovely bright viewfinder to nail focus - Love it!!

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Above you can see my set up - the Pentax 645 itself sporting the 150mm lens, a spare film back which can be preloaded with film making it much easier in the field to load a new film, a light meter which I've just started using to help nail exposure and of course a few rolls of film - the 645 is a bulky beast, but it's not mega heavy, I use my Joby slingstrap with it and I've carried around for a few hours at a time during a shoot with no bothers.

Anyway enough with the camera review stuff - I don't shoot film just so I can review cameras, in fact the real reason I shoot film is in no small part becuase as a photographer what I like to do is take photographs!! yes i know! crazy! what I mean is I'd like to spend a little more time on the photograph taking side and a little less on the sitting in front of the computer editing side of the euqation - I fully believe that editing and processing is an important part of the photographic process but with film it's a much more hands on process, film also gives you some constraints to work within and I like that too, oh and it looks flipping awesome too - did i mention that already?

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Anyway for someone who is trying to reduce the amount of camera review waffling I don't half bang on about cameras - let's call it a work in progress, now let's talk about the photos instead though shall we? These images were created on a modelshoot with the amazingly talented Pandora Belle - for the shoot we took a walk in the woods on a bright sunny day just outside Bradford in a place called Judy Woods, a beautiful setting with soft light filtered through the trees, the bluebells were in full swing and Pandora suggested a goth look which I think works great in this setting. Over the moon with how these turned out - this is how I want to work from now on, spend more time being much more intentional about visualising the shot and getting the compostion and exposure right during the shoot so that the images look how I imagined right off the bat - beautiful!

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I've been wanting to incorporate film into my professional work for some time now - in particular for portraits, but to do that i first needed to build some experience of shooting portraits on film and at the same time build my portfolio in that direction so i have something to show people, this is where working with models on a TF (Time For) basis is a great option as it helps us both build our portfolios so it's mutually beneficial - it's also a good creative outlet and you can test out new ideas (like shooting with film) without the pressure of a paying client.

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These images were shot on Fuji pro 400H film and wow!! I love how they look - i intentionally overexposed the film which is a way of creating a more light and airy feel to the images and I think it's worked great, what this means is I rate the film as 200 speed so in effect treating it as though it requires twice the amount of light and voila! amazing tones and lovely feel to the photos - I did next to nothing with the scans I got back from Exposure Film Lab because to my eye they look exactly how I'd envisioned things, fantastic stuff :)

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Exposure Film Lab did such a great job of developing and scanning the film - it was my first time using these guys but I have to say they did a wonderful job and I cannot recommend them highly enough, and also a huge thank you to Pandora Belle for working with me on this shoot - she's a very creative and talented model and I'm sure we'll work together again soon!

 

Nikon FE Review

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I have been on the look out to join the Nikon film camera gang for ages - it's a proper gang with hats and handshakes and everything - and now I have! Welcome the Nikon FE!! Is this another case of Gear Acquistion Syndrome you ask? yes, probably! Does this camera do anything special that my other 35mm SLR's don't? no. not really? do I love it anyway? Damn straight I do!! here's why!

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So upon handling the camera the first thing you notice is the build quality it's really well put together, feels solid and the mechanical components feel smooth and sounds great (the all important shutter 'schtick' noise is present and correct) but obviously you'd expect that since back in the day Nikon were undisputed purveyors of quality cameras.

In fact (at least initially anyway) the only fly in the ointment is the lens - or should i say the action of the lens, coming from a line up of OM and Pentax cameras I have to say that at first glance the basic Nikkor 50mm 1.8 lens didn't pass muster with me in terms of the focus ring which manages to feel loose and notchy all at the same time and makes fine focussing a bit of a faff to be honest.... I've gotten more used to it having shot a few rolls of film with it now so perhaps it just takes a bit of getting used to, the flip side of this is that now all my OM and Pentax lenses feel a bit stiff! (will the madness never end)?!!! :P

I'll have to see how I go with this lens though it is more likley is that my copy has seen one too many turns and is literally a bit worse for wear - it's ok to use but it doesn't exactly scream 'quality' when you're using it, and achieving fine focus is a bit of a chore twisting the focus ring back and forth so I'm now actively on the look out for it's posher older brother the 50mm 1.4

A juicy red apple is nice, but not every apple is red..... super sharp shooter Nikkor 50mm 1.8

A juicy red apple is nice, but not every apple is red..... super sharp shooter Nikkor 50mm 1.8

You cannot argue with the quality of the optics on the 50mm 1.8 thought - seriously very good! The next couple of images were taken on a short walk around my village - the people's republic of Slawit, shot on Lomography 400 Colour film, unfortunately some of the frames have what appears to be a light leak across one side with a band of blue ish light affecting the image, bit of a pain really, or maybe that'sa special 'Lomo' feature for the film!! I'll change the light seals and see if there's an improvement - otherwise I like the Lomo 400 film it's a cheap alternative colour film, in fact I'm going to be shooting a LOT more colour film as I've been totally focussing on Black and White for ages and feel like a change. The weird thing is that I don't think it's the camera as the roll of HP5 i shot doesn't have any of these issues - ah the joys of shooting 40 year old cameras I guess, comes with the territory!

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Focus ring faffing aside shooting with the FE is otherwise great, the controls are well placed (although at the risk of offending my new Nikon gang mates) I still prefer the OM2n layout - being able to control aperture and shutter with one hand whilst not taking your eye away from the viewfinder is a dream! again - it's probably just my technique having grown accustomed to the Olympus 'way'

These next three images were shot on Kodak Portra 400 with my recently added Series E 100mm 2,8 lens and I have to say that I love this combination! the lens was very cheap for how well it performs and of course Portra 400 is a fantastic film to play with, I took it for a spin around Huddersfield town centre and also grabbed a portrait of my friend Marco too.

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My Nikon FE is in great condition - it's clearly been used over the years with a bit of brassing and the odd dent/scrape here and there but in my experience that's a good sign! Mechanically the FE is smooth as silk and runs really well, whenever I've bought cosmetically 'mint' cameras they can often have internal issues as the reason they are 'mint' is they've sat in uncle nobheads cupboard since 1972 and never had a roll of film put through them, it's usually much better to have a camera that has been used as intended although it may have picked up a bit of battle damage along the way.

I bought mine from West Yorkshire Cameras - a big thank you to Howard and Hattie for being super helpful and for running such an awesome shop, if you're ever in Leeds I highly recommend a visit!

The following black and white images were a good test of the Nikkor 50mm 1.8 focussing whilst trying to get my little boy to sit still for half a second (an impossible task)! I shot HP5 rated at 800 and developed semi stand in Rodinal and I'm really happy with how they came out, the 50mm 1.8 lens really is very sharp and contrasty so I can forgive it's wobbly focussing!

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So in short I flippin love this camera, it's very well put together, the lenses are sharp and contrasty just the way I like! I'm now on the look out for some more of the legendary Nikon glass to put in front of the FE so watch this space as the next few blogs are likley to be all about those!

In the meantime if you've enjoyed today's blog post why not subscribe to the blog and get updates on new posts - see you next time! :)