Tales on Film

A couple of weeks ago, we got some film to test from Revolog. All different types of film from revolog have a different effect applied during development of the film. How they do it, I don’t know. All film is 200 iso and is most of the time rebranded ferrania film. This also means you can develop the film in standard C-41 checmicals.

The film I review today is the Revolog Lazer film and had it loaded in my Yashica Electro35 GSN. The special thing about this film is that there is a green and/or blue laser-like line showing up on the photos. The lines are random and different in every photo, but also every film is different.

Because of the randomness of the laser lines it can become a bit funny, like in the above film where there is one of my friends crossed out by the lines. But most of the time I don’t think they really add something to the photo.

The lines are a nice gimmick and if you are lucky they can add something to the photo, but most of the time I just find them a bit distracting. This is probably because of my personal taste as a photographer who likes to know what he’s getting before shooting the shot. However I look forward to using some of the other revolog films as they look promising.

More reviews of the 6 other types of revolog will follow in the coming weeks, as we get through all rolls. Stay tuned if you are interested

I noticed in the search results of this site, that there is a huge interest in the different film types you can find. I’m only reviewing the film I have used till now and keep in mind that these are my personal opinions

A couple of weeks ago, Sara and I went to the 48th annual Bièvres international photofair, it’s a photo fair, specialized in film photography. It’s a 2 day event in a very small town located just a bit below Paris for antiques and second hand film photography gear. There is a massive amount of gear in all types of conditions, the sellers range from amateurs selling of their collection to big shops bringing there most valuable stuff.

As you can see in the photo above, you can literally find anything there. There are definitely good sales to be done at the market, Sara got herself a Caniom or Hasselblad clone with 2 backs in an leather case, for a very reasonable price. I found a strap for my RB67, a lens for my Leica R4 and a lot of info about some cameras. It was basically a 6 hour long film fest. See some more photos of the fair below. Next year, we’ll probably visit again and hopefully we’ll meet some of you guys there.

This camera is a legend in its own right, famed for its use by journalists covering Vietnam, Cambodia and the general disquiet of the 1960s and 70s. Probably the most famous user was Don McCullin whose Nikon F suffered a direct hit whilst he was covering Cambodia. It probably saved his life and is a testament to the build quality of the camera.

I’ve been after one for a while, specifically a black one, which adds a premium if you want one in usable condition. It was worth it for me, as the black version allows a certain degree of discretion that is needed for documentary work that the chrome variant just doesn’t have. However, if you want your own Nikon F, the chrome version is absolutely identical mechanically and you can get them far cheaper, with a standard prism.
So I realised the other day I had a respectable amount of money in my account and took the plunge. I decided to go for a kit which had a body, 50mm f2 (I needed a manual 50mm) and the Photomic FTn finder. The whole thing cost £206.99 including postage.

Ergonomically, for me it is a goddess of comfortable form. I’m not going to say that it’s for everyone, as we all have very different sized hands and digits, but for me everything is in the right place. The only problem I have is that the photomic head adds an extension to the shutter speed wheel, which means it’s 25mm above where it normally is. Nonetheless, it’s still a pleasure to use.

Mine is a late model, so it has a few little features which affect the ergonomics that the earlier models don’t have. Later models have (slightly) more space on the top plate to accommodate the Photomic FTn finder’s larger bulk. Also, the advance lever has a plastic tip over the steel which is designed to aid comfort, but stops the lever from clicking in as closely to the shutter release as in earlier models. If you are one of those that are left-eyed it’s a blessing as it stops the advance lever from stabbing you so badly in the eye and from scratching your glasses if you wear them.

Accessing the all controls is fine as a rule, the exceptions being the re-wind control and the mirror lock-up(MLU). The MLU is found on the lower left of the lens mount. If you’re not careful you can make quite a mess of your nails from this flat control, but it’s ok once you have the knack. The re-wind control is used when the film is finished and for shooting a double exposure, it is a little collar around the shutter release and you need to pull back the advance lever then twist the collar to indicate ‘advance’ or ‘rewind’. This is probably made harder with the tall photomic finder.

The FTn finder does add a lot of weight to the body, but black standard prisms are expensive, chrome versions are far cheaper. It’s huge inside, easily the widest viewfinder I’ve ever used. It has a 100% coverage, which is pretty good for a camera of its vintage. It also has a ‘data display’ which shows the exposure on a scale of dark to light and the shutter speed. You need a reasonable amount of light coming down from on top to see this clearly, especially the shutter speed indicator.

One of the useful features that made this camera popular was the interchangeable view-finder system. There was a standard un-metered prism, waist-level finder (remember, people were still getting away from the TLR mentality), large action finder and no less than four types of metered prisms (to my knowledge) of which the FTn was the latest. There were also external finders, of which more later. This allows for a great deal of flexibility when considering how to shoot, the waist-level finder could make it a brilliantly subtle street camera and so on…

The film counter does what it is supposed to, which is count the number of frames you’ve shot, but a useful feature is that you can set it to remind you how many frames your film has, 20 or 36. If you suffer from amnesia, or even just a bad memory this can be pretty helpful. It doesn’t have a feature for the 250 frame automated back though.

Another nice little feature is the shutter release button. It does several jobs, obviously it releases the shutter but you’ll also notice that it rotates when you wind on and re-wind. When it makes one full revolution it means that a frame has passed the shutter fully. What’s so good about this then? Well it allows you to accurately double-expose a frame for creative purposes and when re-winding a film it stops rotating when the tail of the film passes it, allowing you to keep the tail out of the canister. This is good because you can then stop using a film part way through and change over to a different type, then go back to the first film later. It also means that you can process your film without having to break open the canister if you want… One problem with the shutter release is that it doesn’t accept a standard mechanical shutter release without a converter, which sits inside the collar.

The self-timer and mirror lock up are located on the front panel, left hand side as you look from the front. These can be useful for landscape work as it reduces the shake causes by the mirror reflex action. The self timer has three options, 3, 6 and 10 seconds, and markings so you can gauge the time accurately.

There is no film door to open at the back, instead the whole back comes off. This allows it to be completely replaced with a variety of different backs such as the 250 frame hi-cap (see above) and the motor winders. There are two main types available, the F36 being the main one, which can achieve up to 4fps when the MLU is engaged. Obviously, you can’t see through the prism with this setup so you will need the appropriate external viewfinder to frame your shots. There are several other auto-winders with faster FPS but these need external power packs to supply them with enough energy.

In terms of metering you’ve a selection of options, either a hand-held meter or four types of metered prism. The F Photomic was the first and worked as a reflected or incident meter, depending on how you set it up. It didn’t meter through the lens.

The Photomic T came next. As it was slightly larger, at this point (1965) they slightly enlarged the top plate to accommodate it. This meter is TTL and is essentially an average metering system. The Photomic Tn was a centre-weighted 60/40 meter, this clever setup is aesthetically nearly identical to its predecessor but has a little ‘N’ behind the ‘on’ indicator. The Photomic FTn came last, but not least. It is the most popular of the metered prisms and differs in that it automatically detects the maximum aperture, allows you to see the shutter speed inside and has a lever on the front to release it when changing prisms. It is also reputably the most likely to be found not working, as is mine. This can be a fault with the electronics or mechanics.

To conclude, I love this thing. It’s not excessively big, is comfortable, subtle and provides lots of modular options for all purposes. A master of all* trades.

There will be some shots taken by the F coming soon!

I think I’ve covered everything now… here are some useful links:

An extremely useful site on the F
A rather fun page on the special versions of the F

Nikon repair manuals (I’m not responsible for you using these):
http://arcticwolfs.net/
http://arcticwolfs.net/data/servicemanuals/F.pdf
http://arcticwolfs.net/data/servicemanuals/F%20Photomic%20FTN.pdf

The Wikipedia page (which also has photos of the F250 hi-cap back)
My Nikon F

*most

I really wanted to try the new Kodak portra 400 film, but in Belgium I could not yet find it in the stores, because Kodak first wants to exhaust the Kodak portra 400NC stock. So I just called Kodak Benelux and asked where I could buy some. The rep of Kodak, that I got on the phone, was kind enough to send me a sample pakket, an unexpected but nice surprise. So a couple of days later DHL rang the doorbell and handed me a pakket with 2 rolls of 120 film and 1 roll of 135 film.

Because I already saw a lot of people review the film itself, I decided to find out how the 135 film behaved when pushed to its limits. So, I loaded the film in my Pentor Super TL and set out during the last day of carnival in Aalst to shoot at boxspeed of 400 asa and up to 3200 asa. Back home I developed the whole roll in Digibase C-41 and pushed it 3 stops in development, as if the film was rated at 3200 instead of 400. One thing I can tell you, I was very surprised by the results.

This was shot at asa 400 (correct exposure) and developed with 3 stops extra. As you can see it handles overexposure very well.

This was shot at 800 asa (underexposed 1 stop) and developed the same as above.

Shot at 1600 (underexposed 2 stops), same development as above

Shot at 3200 (underexposed 3 stops), same development as above

As you click on the images, on flickr you can look at them on a 2400 dpi scan, you’ll notice that not only is the grain very small. It is about the same as when you would develop a kodak portra 400NC at normal speed. The overexposure adds some more saturation and a bit more contrast, but I kind of like the look of it, so I will definitely shoot this film again at 3200

Not only does the portra 400 has a small grain even when pushed, it also has a high dynamic range. This picture is taken at sunset, which you can see on the building. The lights at the bottom of the photo were shining so bright, that it was hard looking at them directly. But even under those conditions you still see detail in the highlights and in the shadows.

Just a small disclaimer, I did do a bit of adjustment on these pictures, because my scanner did not handle the colors very well. Mainly because the Silverfast software that I’m using doesn’t has the appropriate profile to scan the new portra. I did not use any noise reduction tool or setting.