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Do you know that Kodak D-76 has a cousin? Although in the grand timeline of things, I can’t place exactly when the stuff was first released. But if I had to hazard a guess it was sometime in the 1920s. It proved to be a favourite of Ansel Adams along with HC-110. Today Kodak no longer produces D-23 in favourite of the far more shelf-stable D-76, but you can still mix it up from raw chemistry if you know the formula (I’ll be sharing that later) or you can purchase pre-made kits. Personally, I enjoy working with D-23 when I need some compensating capabilities andRead 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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When it comes to basic bare-bones developers, you don’t get any more simple than Kodak D-76. Kodak D-76 is the common factor between professional and student photographers and everyone in between. It’s a staple in most darkrooms, you can develop film and prints with it, and for me, it was the first developer I ever used for both film and prints. And for a while, I had stopped using Kodak D-76 in my processing, but after I started reviewing films, I got back into the stuff. The reason it gives what you expect, a baseline. It also is relatively inexpensive and economical for long termRead More →

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The history of Ireland is a long, complicated, and bloody one. And it is worthy of a project of its own, and I’m sure if I lived in Ireland, I would probably be already have completed such a project. But this is a Canadian History project, yet during the mid 19th Century in a strange twist the history of Irish independence intersected with that of pre-confederation Canada. Ireland had, since the Norman invasion of 1169 been a nation under occupation. And while the ancient history of Ireland stretches out before that date, it seems like the right point to start. Further degradation of the IrishRead More →

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When it comes to the specialised films out there, I’ll admit my knowledge is pretty grey. But there is also a particular challenge to making such a film work in general use photography. And having worked with various Eastman films from 5363, 2366, and 2238 I felt confident that I could make this Fuji film stock work. So what exactly is Fuji Recording Film Eterna-RDS Type 4791? According to Fuji’s website, Eterna-RDS 4791 is a black and white film intended for making archival black and white separations from colour digital masters for a digital separation workflow using a film recorder. The film is Fuji’s versionRead More →

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When it comes to game-changing cameras there is nothing more iconic than the Olympus OM-1, it ushered in the small format for the SLR world, and not to be outdone by Olympus, Pentax released their versions of the small SLR, the first two being the MX and the ME. But the ME had a lot of limitations including the lack of a manual mode, enter the ME Super. I’ve had both a ME and ME Super come through my collection in the past, one went to a friend (not sure if she still uses or even has it) and the ME Super met its endRead More →

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When it comes to Kodak’s film catalogue, there are many films in it that we have never seen much of in North America. Among those, the one that confused me the most was ProImage 100. Despite the name, Kodak documents in no way claim that ProImage 100 is a professional film, but then again what makes a professional film? Maybe because it does not come in sheet film format, like Ektar and Portra? That said, I feel ProImage 100 is a great film to shoot in a professional setting, the soft contrast, excellent colour rendition, and slow speed make it a fantastic hybrid of PortraRead More →

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If you think this Portra 800 is a new film, then you’d be wrong. There’s used to be a huge range of Portra films, but today there are only three films in the Portra range. Still, Portra 800 is overshadowed by Portra 160 and Portra 400. I mean, I had heard some talk about Portra 800, but always dismissed it as one of the older films and stuck with Portra 400 and pushing it to ASA-800 when I needed that extra boost. And I can honestly say I used to tell people to not bother with the film stock. But after shooting it, I’m gladRead More →