I broke out a film camera this weekend

So we’re just about to send the next issue of Classic Motorsports to press. Inside, there’s a photo shot with film–and it’s a recent photo, not something from the archives. Maybe it adds a tiny bit of warmth.

I made an impulse purchase when I dropped off the film from my Puerto Rico trip.

It's a Quantary 600-1000mm f/9.9-16. Only cost me about $60.

Nothing fancy, but I'm looking forward to the next Daytona 24. 

Colin Wood said:

I made an impulse purchase when I dropped off the film from my Puerto Rico trip.

It's a Quantary 600-1000mm f/9.9-16. Only cost me about $60.

Nothing fancy, but I'm looking forward to the next Daytona 24. 

 

Gonna use something like Iford 3200 eh? 

In reply to aw614 :

For sure. I might already have a few items in my Amazon shopping cart.

Colin Wood said:

I made an impulse purchase when I dropped off the film from my Puerto Rico trip.

It's a Quantary 600-1000mm f/9.9-16. Only cost me about $60.

Nothing fancy, but I'm looking forward to the next Daytona 24. 

 

You can shoot the race from your house. 

In reply to Colin Wood :

Dang, that is sweet. I am interested to see the image quality you get for that price. 

I did not shoot any film this weekend. I planned to, though.

We participated in a local art walk. Figure I’d bring the A-1. But the weather was looking sour, so I figured my X100V would be better since I could (maybe) stash it away. (I didn’t want to carry a bag.)

Just got some film scans back from the lab. Here’s the first one I shared on IG, and more to come. To me, this looks like a frame from a movie featuring my friend Maka. 

From our recent Film Day:

And from yesterday’s shoot. Need to drop these off during lunch.

This showed up on snowboarding Reddit this morning. I forgot how 16mm film actually looked.

Somewhere, I think, I have my dad’s Super 8 camera. 

Perfect timing. I don't want to share too much yet, but here are a few shots from Puerto Rico. (Color is Kodak 200 Gold, B&W is an expired roll of Lomography Berlin Kino 400.)

Cool shots, Colin. How expired was that b/w film? 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

I'm not really sure, I didn't even think to check the box before loading the film.

In reply to Colin Wood :

Looks cool. I picked up some Fuji 400. Figure it’s a good standard film to have on hand. 

Finally developing film again.  Changed developer; now using Legacy Pro L110.  Playing with Dilution H.  This is FP4+. 

This roll was really hard to get onto the development tank spiral.  100% operator error, which I mostly blame on doing this often enough (last time was in January and I was rusty then).  Trying to develop a roll a week for a while to get back into the groove. 

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Very cool. Plastic reels or metal? We used plastic ones in high school but had the metal ones in college. 

The metal are far superior but harder to load. Do yourself a favor and load some trash film onto the reel in the dark half a dozen times to practice until your fingers can tell when you're doing it right. I ran the B&W lab for a large portrait studio while I was in college and I've loaded a few thousand rolls and hand processed. I actually pulled out a reel a few weeks ago just to prove that my hands still knew what to do. 

A year or so ago, I came across some metal spools at a photo swap meet. They were for 120. Some exposed film sat next to them. I had never loaded 120.

I closed my eyes and, yep, still had it. :) 

Plastic reels.  Film was doubling back on itself after it made the first trip around the reel.  As I was ratcheting it on the film would jam against itself and the effort to keep loading the reel goes way up.  It was obvious that it wasn't loading correctly.  The smart move would have been to take the reel back apart, take the film out and flip it over so I was working with the curve of the film instead of against it.  I will probably develop a roll tomorrow and see how that goes.

David S. Wallens said:

A year or so ago, I came across some metal spools at a photo swap meet. They were for 120. Some exposed film sat next to them. I had never loaded 120.

I closed my eyes and, yep, still had it. :) 

Shoot.  The 120 is easy.  Nice big film.

I've always used the stainless reels.  Hardest is a 36-exposure roll of 35mm.

I find success or failure is determined the instant you get the film clipped in.  It's gotta be centered.  Cutting it perfectly square in the dark is also important.

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Emulsion side in so it's curving inward with the spiral is a must. 

Speaking of processing film, in high school we used a mnemonic to memorize the steps for processing film, and it has stuck with me ever since: Please Don't Run Fast, Rather Help Wash Pretty Dishes. 

Please: pre-rinse

Don't: developer

Run: rinse

Fast: fixer

Rather: rinse

Help: hypoclear

Wash: wash! 

Pretty: photo flo

Dishes: dry

Tell me your mnemonics for film processing! 

Got my scans! Got my scans!

Yeah, there is an excitement with film that I don’t quite get with digital. 

Did I get the shot? How was the metering? And the colors? Did I have the right film for the look I wanted? 

This is Fuji 400 with my Canon A-1 and 100/2.8 lens. The model is Christina. No editing on the scan. Shot aperture priority wide open and trusted the camera’s meter. 

In reply to Mezzanine :

I use the Massive Dev Chart app on my phone.  Remembering the steps isn't hard but having the timer right there for every step is nice and it does the math on dilution ratios for the developer.