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In: Musings
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Developing your film at home is both rewarding and frustrating at the same time and to add on an extra layer of complexity there is a lot of developers out there that you can use, especially in the black & white field. While certainly not as much as there used to be, there is still an excellent selection of developers to suit almost every person’s need, without having to dive deep into building your developers from base chemicals. Ultimately every photographer has a different taste but if you’re starting out with home development the choices may seem a little overwhelming so I’ll be breaking downRead More →

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I’m coming back for more, especially after being pleased with the results I got from the Formulary version of Kodak D-19. Like Formulary, Flic Film’s MQ-19 is a perfect clone of the classic high-contrast, fast-acting developer D-19, and while I am limited by what film stocks can be developed I did manage to find a few more options to run through the developer this time around include a few classic films that I did not include in the first time around. Like any good review, having a second chance with a developer gives a better chance to explore other options and get a better pictureRead More →

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In: Photography
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Like many film photographers we have a tendency to collect not only cameras, lenses, and accessories but also film. And recently I was looking at the massive collection of film sitting in my storage area and thinking that I should shoot this all now before it all gets so expired it is no longer useful to anyone. In this post I’ll be sharing my selection of black & white films that I had laying around in my collection although one C-41 roll did get included but because I decided to develop it in a traditional B&W developer it got stuck into this post. The firstRead More →

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In: Optical Review Blogs
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If there is a single focal length that I rarely use, it is the 135mm focal length. I can count the number of these lenses I’ve had on a single finger. I’ve used the Minolta and Nikon ones in the past, and of those two, I only have the Nikon copy because I’ve divested from the Minolta manual focus kit. It’s not that these are bad lenses; they are a focal length that I already have covered in a zoom lens, or I prefer something shorter or longer. But I also didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on my small FD-Mount kit,Read More →

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What makes this camera interesting is that while it fits in the general size and theme of the digicam realm, but it also is a little too new to fit into that first decade of the 21st century and it uses a CMOS rather than a CCD sensor. Now in full disclosure some of I have written about some of the ‘digicams’ that I have used in the past when they were still new. But they had long passed from my toolkit, so when I got my hands on the WX7 I decided that I would give this lovely piece of kit the proper treatment.Read More →

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In: Film Review Blogs
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Last year, when Foma announced the release of a new film, I’ll admit, I was immediately interested. What drew me into the film is that it was an orthochromatic film and not sensitive to the red end of the visual spectrum. I’ve worked with these films, notably Ilford Ortho+ and Rollei Ortho 25 plus. The trouble with these is that they are slower films, rated at ASA-80 (or ASA-40) and ASA-25, respectively. I’m not one to shy away from slower films, but it can get rather dull and grey here in Ontario during specific points in the year. So, having an Ortho option rated atRead More →

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In: Developer Review Blogs
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I have far surpassed one hundred and fifty camera reviews and one hundred film reviews, my other two reviews being lenses and developers have only made it to the big fifty this year. If you read my previous post on lens reviews these are my least favourite. And while I rather enjoy creating film and camera reviews the most, developer reviews come in as the third favourite. The reason being is that I have the most amount of freedom connected to their creation. And while I’m working on a full post on how I write developer reviews, this post is about looking back at theRead More →

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The third in the Elan series of semi-professional cameras released by Canon and the direct successors to the original EOS 650, but why not call it the Elan III? Well, that’s because Canon makes weird choices with their camera names. In the case of the Elan 7, the number seven has nothing to do with the number of models but rather the seven focus points in the new AF module installed in the camera. Unlike my previous Elan camera, the IIe, the Elan 7 I’ll feature in the review is the model without eye control. But the difference between the IIe and the 7 isRead More →

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In: Film Review Blogs
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Shooting X-ray films has been relatively niche in the still photography field, but it can often be a lower cost per shot when shooting sheet film. This isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed or used a former medical X-ray film stock; the first was Washi F, which produced some magical results. The second was a non-medical X-Ray film, Washi I. So when I was offered a chance to try out the FPP X-ray film in 35mm, I wasn’t about to say no. This is a reasonably fast film for what it is, rated at ASA-200 but can be shot up to ASA-400. It is uniqueRead More →

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In: Developer Review Blogs
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I first discovered a package of Kodak Microdol-X in the back of an old camera shop in Pittsburg, PA. Microdol-X was Kodak’s original fine-grain developer before being supplanted by Kodak Xtol. Although both But Microdol-X was much loved by those who used it and I’ll admit, it’s an excellent developer. Thankfully as a powder developer even those old pouches have a long shelf life, but the supply is limited. Thankfully the fine folks at LegacyPro have an answer, Mic-X, a complete clone of the original Microdol-X that uses all the original times and dilutions. Technical Details Manufacturer: LegacyPro Name: Mic-X Primary Developer: Metol Type: Reusable/One-ShotRead More →