120 film – Page 2 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

More Daffodils

I felt like a tourist when I headed out to the botanical garden a few weeks ago. I had my Olympus XA4, my Kodak Retina IIIc for its maiden voyage, and the Perkeo II loaded with Fuji Neopan 400. I am so impressed with this film – the blacks are black, and the whites are white. I didn’t have an orange or red filter with me, so some pictures were not what I would have liked to see; still, the detail and beauty of the film is seen here (and the Perkeo is no slouch, either). Sadly, Neopan in this form is no longer made – the C-41 form – although Acros is available.

Touches of Light

I’ve been on quite a roll using my older cameras. This is one of maybe 2 or 3 images (out of 8 possible on a roll) taken with my only 6×9 camera, the classic Voigtlander Bessa RF from the 1930s. This my first experience with Fuji Pro 400H 120mm film. My scans were not the best, but worse was the amount of crud on the film. Processor or me?

Overall, pleased with both film and camera, especially how dark the trail was from being underneath so many trees, the fact that it was early morning, and that I had to handhold the camera – no tripod! – to get what I wanted. Oh, I guessed at all the exposures too!

Catastrophe in the Dark Room

Well, in the film-changing bag.

I have the Paterson set-up, with adjustable reels, for home developing of film. My first round of developing was smooth and easy, using 35mm black and white film. This time, though, was awful. The Paterson reels are plastic and adjustable, and I like them for the 35mm – but did not like them at all for the 120 film.

The reels are harder to load than I realized for 120, and as soon as I got the film in the bag (without any practicing), I knew I was in for trouble. I couldn’t do it. Neither could my husband. The film was bent, spindled, and mutilated. As I had already poured out my chemicals, I just went ahead and jammed the film in, figuring the practice in developing wouldn’t hurt, and since things were already a mess, what the hell.

The film here is Ilford HP5+ used with the Holga GCFN 120 camera I got for my birthday last month. I kind of like what happened, but don’t want this experience to be my usual for 120.

The funny thing is, there are some pictures in here I actually like, but will need to do some work on to get them where I find them acceptable. Contrast adjustments, cropping, whatever. In particular, out of this sea of mistakes, I like the leaves – I’ve never thought about deliberately doing double exposures, but the double exposure of the leaves are pretty cool. (I also have some Kodak Ektar 100 I double exposed in another camera that I also like.) So, even though there was catastrophe, Pandora’s box is not all dark.

Leaves on Water

About a week ago I took delivery of an Agfa Isolette III, refurbished and CLA’d. It came with me to Colorado, and film went through the x-ray machine a few times. I didn’t take a lot of pictures with it, but did do two rolls, one of Portra 400, and one Ektar 100. Altogether, the pictures were ok, but part of it is simply learning how to use a new camera. A few I really liked – this is not one of them – but I did like the leaves on the water and the colors which resulted. Next time, I will drop the iso 20-30% for greater saturation with negative film.