Strike Back Like the Empire! Yes folks after a long wait, the FP4Party Strikes Back! And I’m back into the groove of things. And despite it being the start of term, it gives me all the more reason to get out and give the Rolleiflex and Mamiya m645 a bit of a winter workout. Especially the poor Mamiya which has been spending much of its time as a project camera. But sometimes I have to let it out to play a little bit more! This time around I shot only three rolls of 120 film for the January Party. But to switch it up, IRead More →

Svema, or by its proper name, Свема is a film stock that is relatively unknown here in North America unless you are of course fans of the Film Photography Podcast. The name comes from the combination of two Russian words, Светочувствительные Материалы, translated means Photosensitive Materials. While Svema collapsed when the Soviet Union died in the 1990s, another Eastern European film manufacture, Astrum, continues the legacy of Svema using some of the old machinery in a new factory in Shostka, Ukraine. If I had limited experience with the 100-speed version of the film, I have even less with Foto 400. The only time I’ve shotRead More →

When it comes to classic films, Kodak has plenty of options that you can still get. But one of my personal favourites is a genuinely classic film, and that is Efke 100. Any Efke. But of all the Efke flavours the one I’m most familiar with is Efke 100. The 100 flavour is a silver rich film, fantastic tones and gives you that mid-century look that you see in the snapshots of your parents in your grandparent’s albums. These days while no longer produced if you check on eBay and find the right seller you can get a great deal on some new-old-stock that theRead More →

When it comes to podcasts, Classic Camera Revival may not be the biggest out there, but like any Internet project, you’re sort of shouting into the void and hoping that someone might hear you. And in the case of CCR, people heard and we have a group of listeners. And a group of fans that reach from beyond Canada. Not bad. So in light of our first meet, we promised that we would host the second meetup in 2018. So, using details from my own trips into the historic downtown of Cambridge, formerly known as Galt, and from the daily walks by Tom Fournier, aRead More →

It’s always interesting to see what you can do with what Adox calls a ‘closed imaging system.’ CMS 20 II is a film that is specifically designed for one developer, and one developer only that is Adotech II. In fact, in their datasheet, they even discourage the use of traditional developers as they could yield poor and unpredictable results. But thanks to the power of the Internet and having a bit of an experimental side and writing these blogs for you, my dear readers let us continue and say you can use traditional developers with CMS 20, and the results are rather stunning. Film SpecsRead More →

It feels wrong posting a review for Acros 100 in light of the recent news about the film’s demise at the hands of Fujifilm. But I would also feel this series of reviews incomplete without it included. One of my favourite black and white films from Fuji (which isn’t saying much there was only a handful). Bright, sharp, and with next to no reciprocity failure (you can expose the film up to 22 minutes before needing to adjust your exposure time to compensate). While I didn’t use the stock much, I did get to use it abandoned buildings where the long-exposure capacity can help outRead More →

I will always be the first to say I don’t like a film, and I usually have good reason to. And while RPX 400 remains something I won’t go out of my way to shoot, it isn’t a bad film. Like Tmax 400 and Delta 400 you really need to develop it right to get the best results. And while I can easily do that, there are still plenty other reasons the film remains it’s not a favourite. But then again the single roll of Agfa APX 400 I shot I was not too fond of either. But there are many who swear by theRead More →

Through 2016 I did a 52-Roll project where I shot the Rollei RPX films for each week, out of the three flavours available my personal favourite remained RPX 25, a spiritual successor to the iconic Agfa APX 25. These days in film photography there aren’t many offerings below ASA-100, Pan F+ is a solid choice, but sometimes you want something sharp, fine-grained, and slow. And for that, you have Rollei RPX 25. While the thin polyester base might make it hard to handle in the bag and widely thin in sheet formats, the results are worth the trouble. Film Specs Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base:Read More →

I don’t mean to knock a camera right off the bat, but honestly, Pentax could have done far better than the Pentax MG. Built as part of the compact M series of Pentax SLRs following the release of the Olympus OM-1. Designed as an entry level camera and it shows, bare-bones, simple, and so small it hurts. But you have to take the good with the bad in these reviews, and it’s been a while since I found a camera that I immediately disliked the moment I picked it up. Thanks to James Lee for loaning out the MG for review. Disclaimer: This is anRead More →

If there is one film out there that I have disliked the most but have had a radical change of viewpoints Delta 400 is that film. Like TMax 400, I just find Delta 400 too modern, and boring. It’s not a bad film; it’s just not exciting. It gives you a film that is almost equal in performance as TMax 400. And while I’ve found that the film isn’t bad, it just needs better development in many cases. While some people have managed to tame the film, I do have found through Delta Def Jam; it’s a great choice if you can’t get your handsRead More →