Royal Cresents by Rabea G taken with a Lomo LC-A+ on Lomo x-pro Chrome

Coffee and Cars (VW) by LostNClueless taken with a Hasselblad 500C/M on Kodak T-Max 400

March Fog 1 by Scott L. taken with a Olympus XA-2 on Kodak BW400CN

Dad (2) by xnedski taken with a Fuji GF670 on Kodak Tri-X

Untitled by sprklg taken with a Leica M3 on Kodak Tri-X

Since I learned about the revival of polaroid instant film by The impossible project, I’ve wondered why you need to shield a impossible film from light. I mean I’m still quite young and what I remember from Polaroid was that you could see it develop. Now about a week ago, the impossible project had dr. Love explain it all over at their blog. I’ll try to give you a simple recap here.

So most of us will know that a developed Polaroid type image is a negative with chemicals applied so that it leaves an imprint on the positive paper. Now the film constist of a couple layers and because you can’t have an image without a reaction to light, there is a light sensitive layer. Polaroid films had an opacification layer, upon spreading the chemicals, there was a component that reacted with the layer, so that it kinda acts as a blind on your window. It immediatly blocks out most light to the film.

Apparently this layer contained Titanium Oxide, which happens to be really rare and expensive. It also wasn’t perfect, that’s why Polaroid included the frog tongs on their cameras, to protect the ejected film from light in those very first instances.

The Impossible project is working on a new solution to this problem, but it takes a lot of time and testing to get it right. Keep in mind that it took Polaroid 17 years to perfect their film and The Impossible project is only working on it for a couple of years. I think it is already great that they have some very usable film out there in that short of a time without having the recepices from Polaroid.

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Untitled by falcaomalzbender taken with a Nikon FM2 on Kodak T-max 400

783734 by marcin.kubiak taken with a Lomo LC-W on Ilford XP-2

Snowy Fields in Hancock County by mat4226 taken with a Eastman Commercial B 8×10 on Agfa Green Latitude x-ray film

coming attractions. by tumbleweed.in.eden taken with a nikon f100

Sienne by frenchconnector taken with a Hasselblad 503CW on Kodak TMax 400

Untitled by falcaomalzbender taken with a Nikon FM2 on Kodak T-max 400

Untitled by Marixian taken with a Pentax MX

Jackie Olympus by Dave.Rowswell taken with a Nikon F100

Sci-Fi Cosplay by Paul Glover taken with a Canon F-1 on Kodak Ultra max 400

Blast Furnace by SeanGalbraith.com taken on 4×5 Fuji Astia

Untitled by RaedAG taken with a Hasselblad 501cm on Ilford HP5+

СТУЛъ (antique chair) by zinnober2010 taken with a Linhof 13×18 on panchromatic glass photographic plates

Heart Broken by Paul Glover taken with a Canon F-1 on Legacy Pro 100

Old Fiat 1 by Goloby taken with a Nikon EM on Kodak Portra 400 NC

Kodak320TXP-film2-pic6 by Focaldesign taken with a Yashicamat 124G on Kodak TXP 320

The Agfa Rapid ISO I is a camera as simple as it gets. The Agfa Iso Rapid I sports a 42.5mm lens with a fixed aperture of 8.5 and a shutter capable of two times: 1/40 second for clouded weather and flash an 1/60 second for sunny weather. It’s very small, light but still pretty sturdy. It produces square photos on 35mm film in an agfa rapid cassette. The agfa rapid system cartrigdes aren’t sold anymore, but we have an tutorial on the website for putting regular 35mm in agfa rapid cassettes.

Because of it’s fixed focus, you can only get sharp pictures if you keep at least a distance of 1,8 meter, which is pretty far. It’s an ideal camera to take with you on summer trips during the daytime. Because of it’s square format it gives you a different look, which is fun. There isn’t much more I can say about it, except they are dirt cheap on flea markets here in Belgium

Lucy on film by andrew-lynch taken with a Mamiya RB67 on Kodak Portra 400

Untitled by neamoscou taken with a Pentax SP 1000

Sweet sunday by Hilde

Youkfou- Minolta SRT 101 by yOuKfOu taken with a Minolta SRT 101

Look Dad, curls by Georgie M’Glug taken with a Mamiya RB67 on Ilford FP4 pluss 125

Yesterday, one year ago, I wrote the first post on this blog to share everything I know and find about photography on film. Let’s look at some numbers of the last year

• 213 published posts, that makes for 4,1 posts a week
• 18201 visitors in total, an average of 49,86 per day
• 11564 unique visitors, an average of 31,63 per day
• 6662 returning visitors, an average of 18,25 per day
• 159 facebook fans
• 155 members of our flickr group
• 412 tweets
• 301 followers on twitter

Our most read post was the one when I reviewed the Kodak Portra 400 film, so I guess you guys really love the reviews of film. There were also 171 comments made in the last year, which is very remarkable with all the channels available to us through social media

To be honest, these numbers are way bigger then we ever could have dreamed. So thank you all for the trust you have in us and the value you seem to put in our knowledge.

This blog can only be possible because of all of you reading it, so THANK YOU. I promise to keep on blogging and as always everybody is still welcome to post your own content. It would be lovely if the selection from the flickr group would be made by somebody else then me from time to time.

Normally with an anniversary the one having it’s birthday gets presents, but we would like to do it the other way around. There for we will be giving away lot’s of prices during the month of February, including cameras, lenses, film, unique prints,… Today we start with…

drum roll

For our aniversary we are giving away one Zenit E with a Helios-44M 50mm f2 lens, tested and in good condition (only the lightmeter is not reliable) and that’s not all to make sure you can start shooting, we also add 3 rolls of slightly expired (2011) Fuji Superia 100.

Because we only have one, you’ll have to do a couple of things to win. Choose one of the three options.

• Like our page on Facebook
• Tell us on facebook why you would like to win the Zenit E and Tag Tales on Film in it
• Join our flickr group and post at least 3 photos
• Post a comment with your name, a link to the facebook-post and your flickr name

or

• Follow us on Twitter
• Post a tweet where you tell us why you want to win the Zenit E and mention @talesonfilm
• Join our flickr group and post at least 3 photos
• Post a comment with your twitter-name, a link to the tweet and your flickr name

or

• Write a blogpost about Tales on Film and link to our website
• Join our flickr group and post at least 3 photos
• Write a comment with your name and a link to your blogpost and your flickr name

The contest runs till Friday 10 february 2012 23:59 CET, every comment after that time will not be able to win. The winner will be drawn totally random by me and my girlfriend afterwards he will be notified through e-mail, so make sure you’re e-mailadres in your comment is correct.

Good luck all and Keep shooting Tales on Film