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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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In: Frugal Film Project
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I will be honest, I’ve been trying to get out to Westfield Village all year because this year marks the 60th Anniversary of this hidden gem of a living history museum. While it isn’t staffed as often thanks to the changes that came down the pipe but they still maintain the property and make it accessible to the public while keeping site staff to a minimum. But I’ll let you in on a secret, I like the village when it’s quiet, it lets me soak in the history of the place. Like many other living history museums around Ontario, Westfield Heritage Village is a builtRead More →

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In: Developer Review Blogs
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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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November 2024 marked a special birthday, that being Kodak Tri-X! Tri-X is one of those iconic films from Eastman-Kodak that has made a mark on both photography and photographers with a classic black & white look, contrast and versatility. Ever since I first shot Tri-X, I loved the results. While I don’t use it that often, primarily due to the cost of a roll of the film, I got a roll with my AM/FM membership re-subscription and decided to take it out to the historic town of Dundas, Ontario, with my Maxxum 9 and the 20mm f/2.8 lens I rated the film slightly over atRead More →

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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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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 →

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In: Camera Review Blogs
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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: Frugal Film Project
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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 →

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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 →