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Next to the Minolta HiMatic 7s which got me first into photography, the Nikon F80 is the one that brought me back into the wonderful world of film and introduced me to the magic of Nikon AF lenses and Nikkor glass in general. I received this camera as a gift and immediately found myself very much attached to the system. You might say that the F80 is the camera that caused me to invest in the Nikon SLR system and switch from Minolta. From the F80 I got the D70s, D300 and my current main SLR the Nikon F5. And while many of the lensesRead More →

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While today it’s been several years since its introduction, Xtol marks the last developer to come out of Kodak. And as developers go, it is the least toxic of all the ones available on the general market. The reason is that it uses Ascorbic Acid as one of the active ingredients. It not only allows for sharpness but also reducing visible grain in the process. But Xtol is also a developer with a flawed history; you need to mix up a lot to maintain its stability. And while I no longer keep Xtol in my toolkit, it remains a beautiful developer that is perfect ifRead More →

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Having a photo walk in the winter is not always the best idea. But we live in Canada, and I love getting out in the snow and taking pictures. But here in Southern Ontario Winter can be a trying time, with bitter cold, slate-grey skies, and generally not exactly lovely to be outside. Sometimes you have to roll the dice and see what you get. Last year we got treated to a snowstorm which produced some excellent images. This year, due to a busy January, I pushed the event up to February. It was worth the wait for a few reasons. We were treated toRead More →

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Here we are, there is always a certain bittersweetness about completing a project. And for me, this one was an eye-opener. It challenged not only my world view but my view of my own country and our history. But that is what history is supposed to do, challenge us to learn from the past and see how we can change the future. And here is the trouble with history, we can only see it through the eyes of those who wrote it and our personal bias. And trust me, it is hard to overcome your own bias. But the biggest problem with history that isRead More →

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If there is one film developer that I will always go back to and use until they cease production (which isn’t any time soon) that developer is HC-110. Released in 1962 to little fanfare, Kodak HC-110 quickly found traction as being the developer of choice of Ansel Adams and those who use the zone system extensively. Kodak HC-110 is the third black & white developer that I ever used and became my developer of choice. Personally what keeps me coming back to HC-110 is the general-purpose use, the excellent results, economy, stability, and results that it continues to give. Kodak HC-110 has never let meRead More →

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One of the first History courses I took in High School was Canada in the 20th Century. Most Canadian history texts that are used in schools start at this point. And there’s no surprise. As a nation, Canada came into its own in the 20th Century. Many point the crucible of World War One as the focal point. Others state the post World War Two era leading up to the 100th Anniversary of Confederation. But everything that happened in the 20th Century built on what happened before and the sins of the past were going to come back to haunt. As Canada emerged from theRead More →

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If you follow the film photography community and there’s a chance you do if you follow this blog, then you will have some idea of the rocky road that is the modern version of Film Ferrania. When they burst on the scene, they had the grand dream of bringing a new colour slide film to market using one of the few remaining buildings from the OG Ferrania plant in northern Italy along with a tonne of equipment, materials, and notes. You probably also realise that this dream has not yet been achieved. That doesn’t mean they’ve been sitting around doing nothing all that time. AndRead More →

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The second colour motion picture film stock available from our friends at Cinestill. Like Cinestill 800T, Cinestill 50D is based on Kodak’s Vision3 50D, a slow colour film designed for outdoor work, hence the D in the name standing for daylight. The film has been pre-stripped of the remjet layer allowing for easier processing in labs and at home. Although like 800T the film is natively designed for Kodak’s ECN-2 process, that’s an expensive process, so I decided instead to go with the old standby Burlington Camera. Now I did shoot this film stock back in 2018 and had it processed C-41 and was blownRead More →

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If you’re wondering what everything has been leading up to this is it, we’re in the end game now. The road to Canadian Confederation is a long and rough one, with many false starts, failures to push through and roadblocks along the way. From the cause for political reform in the 1820s the rebellions of the 1830s. In through the victory of reform in the 1840s and the rocky roads in the 1850s. The threats to Canadian territory through invasion or annexation, it all leads to this, confederation. Despite the momentum in the aftermath of the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences in 1864, the passage ofRead More →

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When it comes to film, one of the main reasons it hangs on is thanks to the motion picture industry. And many of the films we love today are based on these cine-films. But when it comes to using these films designed for motion pictures in our still cameras, there is a bit of extra work to be done. Sure you can just load up a roll of Eastman Double-X and develop in regular B&W developers. But the colour film, the Vision3 line, is a whole other kettle of fish. First and foremost in everyone’s mind is the remjet layer, a special carbon-based backing thatRead More →