Category: film

While I have been online, I have been researching film stocks as part of my journey back into film photography. I hate saying film photography or digital photography — to me it is just photography — but I digress. I am talking about film stocks.

One film stock that interested me was Cinestill 800T. It looked really interesting to use, particularly at night with lights. The lack of a halation layer on the film means that bright lights are surrounded by a red ring and bloom slightly.

An open mic night at my local village hall provided a great opportunity to test this film and get some imagery to use on the Village Hall’s website.

The camera I used was the Voigtländer Bessa R with the Jupiter-8 lens. I know that the Nikon F501 has the 50mm f/1.8 lens, which is faster, but I just don’t enjoy the shooting experience of using it compared with the rangefinder. Plus, it is just too noisy.

No one really noticed me taking photographs. The camera is a lot smaller and less assuming than modern-day cameras. Although, when I did my shift at the bar, the camera did pique curiosity — I guess these days a film camera can be a bit of an oddity.

I used the camera’s internal meter. Initially I used an external meter, but I soon saw they matched within ½ to one stop, so I stopped bothering. In the end, I think I mostly shot at f/2 and 1/30 sec, as the performers were fairly static.

One thing I had a little issue with was focusing. It was hard to see the focus aid, as the LED stage lighting was pretty dim.

The hall was pretty dark, as I said earlier, and combined with the slow shutter speed meant that I didn’t get as many keepers as I would like. The first thing that I liked — though not to everyone’s taste — was the characteristics of the Jupiter-8 lens combined with the Cinestill 800T film. It created a lovely blooming around the brightly lit faces on the stage. Also, the mixed lighting resulted in colour shifts across the frame and slight colour separation in motion blur, which I particularly like in how this was rendered by Cinestill.

I am looking forward to shooting Cinestill 800T again for some street photography at night. It will definitely be getting packed in the bag for my next trip to Valencia. Although I think next time I use it in darker conditions, I would probably push it one stop. I definitely want to try a 120 version of that for my new Mamiya 645 — but more on that later.

I had a roll of Cinestill 800T that I wanted to load into the camera, but before I could do that I needed to finish one of the rolls of Ilford HP5 left over from the Valencia trip. As has become my usual setup, I had the Voigtlander Bessa R with the Jupiter-8 lens.

The plan was to do a mini project around my village of Harbertonford and photograph seats. I soon got bored with this, though, and ended up photographing locations around the village instead — similar places, in fact, to when I previously took the Nikon F501 and Portra out.

I think I rushed some of the photographs at the start, and it probably shows. I was conscious of using the film up — I hate wasting a roll and leaving it unfinished — although I did manage to photograph a dog who rarely holds still for long.

Despite the slightly rushed approach, I am happy with the results. Many of the shots were taken wide open, and the Jupiter-8’s characteristics — or flaws, depending on your point of view — were quite pleasing, at least to me. The light was fairly poor, which meant I was able to shoot at f/2, where those characteristics are more evident.

When I find something I like I usually stick with it rather than searching for alternatives, but I think I will try Kodak T-Max 400 next to compare with the shots from Valencia and from here in the village.

Camera: Voigtlander Bessa R
Lens: Jupiter-8 50mm f/2
Film: Ilford HP5 Plus
Scan: Analogue Wonderland lab scans (no edits)

I’ve been to Valencia and photographed the city countless times — so many times that I’ve honestly lost count. Over time my pictures had started to feel a little samey, so on this trip I decided to approach it differently.

Instead of my usual digital setup, I brought a Voigtländer Bessa R paired with a Jupiter-8 lens and several rolls of black and white film. I chose Ilford HP5 as it seemed like a good film to start with, particularly as I knew I’d be shooting in the midday sun. Black and white felt like the right choice for recording the strong contrast and deep shadows that the Valencian light produces.

I also used a yellow filter to add a little extra contrast to the sky.

Shooting film slowed the whole process down. With only a limited number of frames, I found myself looking more carefully at the light, the shapes, and the shadows before pressing the shutter.

When the scans finally arrived, I was very happy with the results. There’s always something special about that anticipation — the images living in your head for days or weeks before you actually see them.

What stood out to me most was how the shadows rendered, particularly around the City of Arts and Sciences. The highlights seemed to glow gently rather than blow out — something I rarely see in quite the same way with digital.

I gave a brief review of the Nikon F501 about two years ago. Since then, I have done nothing with the camera; it has just sat in a drawer. I also bought a roll of Kodak Portra 400 film which has sat in my camera for the best part of the year. It was about time I used it. The weather has been a bit shit down here recently — 40 days of rain — but there was a small break in the weather, so I went out with the camera. I didn’t go far, just along a lane near my house where I walk our dog. Occasionally, the sun broke through the clouds. There were some amazing snowdrops, but for the most part the conditions were drab. I sent the film off to be developed at Analog Wonderland, who also scanned the images for me. I was actually very happy with the results, considering it has been 20 or so years since my last roll of film. What I didn’t enjoy was the shooting experience; I found the F501 very noisy, particularly the motor drive, and also the annoying beep which was easily knocked on. I am very much looking forward to trying out the Voigtländer Bessa R, which is a totally manual rangefinder camera. It will be my first rangefinder experience.