After months of deliberation, analysis, thinking, and planning, and despite recently purchasing a new high-end digital camera and using it extensively, I recently made a modest investment that I view as a demonstration of my commitment to film photography: I bought a 400-foot (122m) roll of 35mm Kodak Vision3 50D, or what I prefer to call by the name exposed onto the film rebate itself: Eastman 5203. The equivalent of 74 rolls of 36-exposure film, it means I’m going to have a lot of 35mm color photography ahead of me for months, certainly, but likely years to come.
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Review: Nikon F5 135 (35mm) Film Camera
As I pointed-out in my review of the Nikon F4, I’ve said many times over the years that, “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” I also pointed-out that I was walking those words back a bit at that point. And now, as I sit down to write this review, I’m forced the reckon with an inconvenient truth: I am, now, indisputably, “a Nikon guy.” I didn’t see it coming, really, but the acquisition of a Nikon F5 professional SLR is the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. What else did I not see coming? How very much I could actually love a modern, highly electronic camera from what I refer to as the “new school” of SLR camera design.
Continue reading…Review: Minolta XG 1 (XG-1) 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Do you remember your first real film camera? Do you still have it? I do — and I still have mine. That camera? The Minolta XG 1, introduced in 1979, and later (in 1982) very subtly renamed (with a hyphen) as the XG-1, at which time it also received Minolta’s updated, so-called “rising sun” logo. I’ve been writing content here for years, and somehow or another, despite it being my first decent camera, I’ve overlooked writing a formal review of it despite mentioning it in other articles and reviews dozens of times. After the camera received a CLA recently, its first servicing in the 43 years I’ve owned it, I was reminded how much I love the camera, and love using it — and it was about time I shared both its story, and my feelings about it.
Continue reading…Review: Nikon F4 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Over the years, I’ve uttered these exact words, multiple times: “I’m just not a Nikon guy.” But these days, I find myself walking those words back a bit. I wouldn’t necessarily define myself as a “Nikon guy” even now, but I have definitely carved-out a spot in my photographic heart for the beloved Japanese camera and optical brand, having now, with the Nikon F4, discovered for myself what others have apparently long known.
Continue reading…Review: Nikon FE 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Last year, I surpassed the 200 camera mark in my film camera collection, and out of those, only one camera sported the name Nikon: My mother’s mid-1980s N2000 (known as the F-301 outside of North America), which I inherited when she passed a few years ago. It had been a gift to her from my father, and despite its simplicity, it was a little too much camera for her, and saw very little use. When I finally got around to using it, I came away relatively unimpressed. That was a few years ago, and while I need to give it a second chance, my sour opinion of it left me wondering why so many people are so enamored of Nikon cameras, and haven’t ever been able to shake the feeling that I was simply missing something. Recently, I seem to have gotten a glimpse of the reasons for all that Nikon Love among a certain subset of film camera enthusiasts.
Continue reading…Review: Petri V VI (Petri V6) 135 (35mm) Film Camera
When you think of Japanese SLR camera makers from the film camera era, you probably think of Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Minolta. Perhaps also Olympus, Yashica, Fuji, Ricoh, Mamiya, or Konica as well. Maybe it even stretches to the obscure, like Cosina or Chinon. But seemingly, almost nobody recognizes another Japanese company that made an interesting mark in the history books: Petri. Originally known as Kuribayashi, Petri was initially the name of a camera model, but later adopted by Kuribayashi as (ostensibly) a more market-friendly name for the company itself. In 2022 when I became enamored of 35mm SLRs and wanted to try pretty much anything that looked interesting, I saw, and purchased, a Petri 35mm camera, what I know as a Petri V VI, but often referred to as the V6, Petri Flex V6, Petri Penta V6, and other variations. After putting a couple of rolls through my beautiful example of the type, I decided it’s high time for a review.
Continue reading…Review: Ihagee Exa 135 (35mm) Film Camera
Anyone who’s read my extraordinarily lengthy review of the Ihagee Exakta Varex IIa knows that I have a bit of a fascination with this brand of German cameras, the majority of which were produced in the post-war period behind the Iron Curtain in the former East Germany. But the Exakta family had a smaller, simpler, less costly sibling: The Ihagee Exa. After ignoring these models for a long time, I finally got the bug and secured my first example from an online charity auction.
Continue reading…Combating the Increasing Cost of Film: Why and How to Bulk Load
As I write this article in November 2021, film photography blogs, podcasts and social media are abuzz about rumors (or promises) by Kodak to raise prices on film again in January 2022 — the latest of a seemingly endless series of increases. It’s not just Kodak; Ilford has raised prices, as have secondary brands like CineStill, Lomography, Adox, Foma and others. And as is customary for companies recently, they’re all blaming COVID-19 and supply chain difficulties and their own rising costs as the reason. Whether you believe that story or sense opportunism, it doesn’t matter: film photography is getting more and more expensive, nearly every day. So, what do we do about it?
Continue reading…Review: Kodak Ektachrome E100 Color Reversal Film (135/120)
Many film photographers were crestfallen when — after declining sales resulting from the rise of digital — Kodak discontinued the last remaining variety of its Ektachrome color reversal film back in 2013, leaving Fujifilm as the only major producer of color reversal films. (I have always preferred the term “reversal film,” but many call it transparency film or slide film.) Some predicted that reversal films would eventually go away, labs that process E-6 (a chemical process identifier for Ektachrome and all other modern reversal films) would stop doing so, the very few remaining labs that specialize in E-6 would close, and that would be that.
Alas, that wasn’t the case, at least not for now. Film slowly began to rebound to a seemingly sustainable level; enough so, apparently, that Kodak made waves when it announced in late 2017 that the Ektachrome production line was to be restarted. Ektachrome E100 finally began reaching store shelves in 135 format in October 2018, followed by 120 and sheet formats, which began to trickle to stores just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Continue reading…Review: Ilford Delta 100 Black and White Negative Film (135, 120)
When I returned to film photography, I have to confess that I came back as a traditional emulsion snob. By traditional, I mean the old stuff: Tri-X, Fomapan, HP5, and so on. What I wanted was authenticity, and I didn’t think that some engineered emulsion, with its controlled formation of silver halide salts (that means you, Delta and T-Max) was something I wanted to have anything to do with. Oh, I tried the modern stuff — and was disappointed by its overly pure, overly perfect contrast, tone and grain. It looked… digital. And the entire reason I was shooting film was to not be digital. All that may be how the story begins, but it’s not how it ends.
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