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 →

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 →

It all started with my friend Andre Domingues’s question: are you going to the CineStill photo walk in downtown Toronto? I went through the various social media sites for CineStill and found no mention of it, even their website. So I then asked when it was happening, and the answer was the 26th. I still had no idea when the 26th was happening and simply assumed it was during the day, like the Toronto Film Shooters events. But after finding out it was after my morning commitment, I decided to attend. Hopping a train out of Oakville, I got into the city a little earlierRead More →

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 →

I love visiting museums, especially living history museums. While I would have loved to include more in this year’s project cycle, I’m glad to have a chance to visit one of my long time favourites. I first visited the Halton Radial Railway Museum when I was in Kindergarten and was taken in by the collection. The Museum is home to the largest operating fleet of light-rail vehicles that operated on the inter-urban lines and mass transit services that once dominated Ontario and beyond. From a vast collection of TTC vehicles and predecessor operators to smaller services the museum this year is celebrating seventy years inRead More →

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 →

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 →

You may have a couple of questions when looking at this review. First, haven’t I already reviewed Kodak Tri-X? To answer that, yes, it was one of the earliest films I reviewed, but this isn’t 400TX. This is Tri-X Pan or 320TXP/TXP, a more classic version of the modern classic emulsion. The second is, how can it be a classic review if the emulsion is still being made? Again, the sheet format of 320TXP is still in production, but the roll film was discontinued in 2010. But I quickly learned that I shot this film a lot more in sheet format than roll film format,Read More →

In all fairness, McMaster University is an excellent institution but the title came to me as a bit of joke and play on the phrase, Jack of All Trades, Master of None. I honestly had other plans for August’s roll in the Frugal Film Project but due to various scheduling difficulties I found myself in the middle of the month without having shot the roll. Now I usually get the roll done as early as I can so that I have time to develop, scan and write. But life happens, plans change, and I ended up needing to get the roll done. So rather thanRead More →

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 →