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If there’s one thing that is always uncertain these days is the availability and quality of photochemistry. At the same time, some companies have had no issues with maintaining their normal level of quality. As manufacturers of the materials and chemistries shift away from the originals, things get a little grey. Thankfully some are willing to take a chance and help keep things going, and one such company is Adox. While most of their chemical offerings are based on formulas from other firms, Rodinal, FX-39, and Atomal spring to mind. Adox XT-3 is a new offering, backwards engineers from Kodak Xtol a well-loved Ascorbic AcidRead More →

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When it comes to metering for precision, there is nothing better than a spot meter, but most spot meters these days are expensive, both new and on the used market. The first and only spot meter I’ve used is the Pentax Spotmeter V. This analogue 1° spot meter has become the accessory that always gets thrown in my bag when I’m out with my Crown Graphic Hasselblad or Mamiya for precision tripod-based work. The meter served me through almost my entire War of 1812 project, Canadian Confederation and most recently, the Railway project. A simple easy to use device that allowed me to execute aRead More →

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When I first started into the Minolta Maxxum system, my first two lenses were zooms, the iconic duo of f/4 classics, the 35-70mm and 70-210mm. A trip to Burlington Camera yielded a couple of prime lenses that would be perfect additions to my kit; they were the classic 50mm f/1.7 and the lens I’m reviewing today the 28mm f/2.8. The Maxxum 28/2.8 is a great lens and a perfect fit. Doesn’t take too much space. It is close to the same size as the 50 and even the 35-70 and is my favourite prime lens for my Maxxum 9 system without a 35mm prime. AndRead More →

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I remember not being overly excited about Rollei Paul & Reinhold when it was first announced in September of 2020. I mean, yes, it is great to see a special edition film released to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of a premier and historic camera maker (Franke & Heidecke later Rollei). There was little data on the film at the time, and there are still many gaps. Given that the actual film stock is unknown, it’s either a limited edition run (made in Italy, not Belgium) or a found stock that has been rebranded. Either way, Rollei has been tight-lipped about the film’s source. Given thatRead More →

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And now for something completely different. I know I’m better known for my reviews of film-based cameras, but I have reviewed a digital camera here before, back when I got the camera that this one replaced. In fact, the Nikon D750 marks two, not three things. First, it marks a return to an SLR as my digital camera; second, it marks the return to the Nikon Digital system. And finally, a digital camera that I like using a lot. It’s not to say the a6000 was an unenjoyable camera to operate; the only complaint was that the system continued to be limited. Yes, I couldRead More →

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It has been far too long since I got together with this amazing group of people in-person since all of this started in March 2020. And while I was unable to make it out to the first meetup since our last meetup in February 2020 (at least it was the largest meetup to date). And through early 2021 there were some attempts at virtual meetups, the fact of the matter is that the TFS group is best served with in-person meetings. Thankfully with things looking far better real meetups kicked off in October with a second meetup taking place at the beginning of the month.Read More →

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Being in North America and raised on Kodak and Ilford developers, I did not even know that Atomal existed, other than seeing it listed on the Massive Dev chart and just passing it by as another European developer. But when I was hunting for more Rollei developers at Freestyle, I came across Atomal 49 as an ‘other people purchased’ listing. I was excited to give this a shot, and after mixing it up, I posted in a Film Photography Chat group on Facebook and asked if anyone else had used the stuff. The response was overwhelming how many people used the stuff. However, the bestRead More →

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It is always a good idea to future proof your lenses, especially when working with the Minolta manual focus cameras. I say that because, like Nikon, while the original 1958 SR-Mount is basically the same as 1977 SR-Mount, there are subtle differences, like the Nikon F-Mount. I first picked up this lens as part of a drive to get better glass for my Minolta X-7a, my second Minolta SLR. While I could go with MC variant lenses, I went with the MD variant. The reason being that if I had updated my X-7a to an X-700, I needed lenses that would work with all theRead More →

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When it comes to slide film, it is not something that I like to shoot often, mostly because when it comes to processing, it’s time-consuming and costly; even purchasing the stock is costly. Plus, scanning some slide films stocks are difficult to nail down both exposure and colour balance. And then there’s Provia 100F; Provia is a solid performer and one that gives an excellent starting point in the world of shooting slide film. It reminds me of Sensia and Astia, both excellent slide films with a bit more forgiveness than the Velvia line and natural colour reproduction. It also scans easily without too muchRead More →

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When it comes to medium format cameras, there are two formats that I’ve always been drawn to, the iconic 6×6 square and the slightly smaller 6×4.5 or 645. I’ve run with a Pentax 645 and more recently the Mamiya m645. I have shot with other medium format cameras, 6×9, 6×7, and 6×8 and even larger exposure sizes. But I keep on coming back to 645; it’s great for everyday shooting and gives you that larger image size than 35mm. But the cameras are often bulky unless you go with a folder. But what about the best of both worlds? Enter the Fujifilm GA645Zi, the thirdRead More →