Hot show based lightmeters are nothing new, one of the first accessories I got for my Barnack Leica was a Voitlander VCII and even before that Leitz released their own dedicated shoe mounted meter for the M-Series of rangefinders. But ever since the release of the Reveni Labs LM-1, there has been a massive upsurge of similar OLED based shoe meters. So when I was contacted by AstriHori if I wanted to review their newest shoe meter, the Lightmeter II or XH-2 I jumped at the chance. I had heard of AstriHori in passing mostly through ads on my social media feeds but also withRead More →

It has been some time since I wrote a verse post, so it’s time I tried this again. But rather than pitting cameras against each other, I will be pitting developers against each other. The idea behind this came from my good friend James Lee, who loves to show off the power of the Fuji Acros 100 when it is slightly overexposed and developed in Ilford Perceptol. I’ve worked with this combination, and it is impressive. Recently, James has also been working with 510-Pyro. I asked myself which is better, namely when put head-to-head, Perceptol and 510-Pyro? The setup is a simple one, I haveRead More →

It’s always exciting news when a new film hits the market, and it seems that the folks at FilmFerrania are certainly working hard to bring back as much B&W stocks from the original version of Ferrania as possible. Last year we saw the introduction of Orto their newest film since the initial release of P30. And earlier this year they announced the reintroduction of Ferrania P33. P33 is another classic film stock from the Italian manufacturer. With a sensitivity of 160 ASA, the P33 ensures a simpler and more versatile photographic experience compared to the past. Designed to overcome the processing and printing challenges facedRead More →

When it comes to photography the exciting things to review are cameras, lenses, films, and developers. But there are a tonne of other things that go into photography beyond the main kit. There are of course light meters, I’ve reviewed several of them in the past, both here on the blog and over on my YouTube channel. There are also flash units, but while I have flashes for all my main camera kits, I don’t use them that often, but they’re still good to have. But what about all those extra bits that don’t get the staring role, relegated to be mentioned in the background.Read More →

Back at the end of May, in the final CCR episode of that month, I discussed the need to replace my ageing and to fall about Peak Design messenger bag. Some people suggested I contact Peak Design about repair/replacement under warranty. And I did that, but the damage to my bag was not due to a fault in the make of the bag, but instead wear and tear. I received the bag as part of their initial Kickstarter in December 2015. It was initially supposed to arrive earlier in the year and would have been perfect to bring to Europe that summer. And since then,Read More →

The market for modern production meters is saturated with many options for those looking at a simple shoe-mounted meter. Matt at Reveni Labs has taken things beyond that, first with the spot meter and now with a unique handheld incident meter. And with the market for these sorts of meters being dominated by classic equipment or the same names still producing modern meters, Reveni Labs decided to take things in a fun and ergonomic direction. The style and design are somewhat limited because of how you use an incident meter. But there is some room for modification. And yes, the new Reveni Incident Meter looksRead More →

I’ll admit, I love a good exotic film developer that can develop any film to their ideal conditions. But lets be honest here, some of these developers are expensive, hard to acquire and require rigorous attention to detail to make them work perfectly. And often are so fine tuned they will only work on a handful of film stocks that a also difficult to come by. Sometimes you want a developer that will do its job and nothing more than that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, compensate for over or under exposure. Produce ultra-fine grain, or enhance tonality and edge sharpness. Rather than presentRead More →

I love trying out new film developers or new-to-me developers. So a while back I wrote an article on seven film developers that are worth trying. Since then, I’ve tried several more unique developers and have another five options to try something different in your home development experience. And this time, I’ve also included a colour developer. 1 – Kodak D-19 Originally designed for X-Ray Film, Technical Film, and IR Films, Kodak D-19 is a high-contrast developer. But that should not stop you from giving it a try. Because while it is a specialised developer, it works surprisingly well with regular panchromatic films. It alsoRead More →

This past year has been a lot of fun looking at different cameras. While some of these cameras I will have already released a review, others will be coming out next year. But that’s the thing about writing these reviews is that I’m often working 2-3 months ahead of the actual release. I put a lot of work into these reviews, between looking up specs, shooting multiple rolls of film through the cameras and trying to get the best results so I can give a fair and balanced review. But a group in the film photography blogging community decided to put out a series ofRead More →

The late 1990s and early 2000s were exciting times for photography. You had the APS system trying to take over the consumer market while digital cameras were starting to become everyday use by professionals and consumers. It was a hybrid era with film scans becoming normal when you take your film to the lab, and you got a CD-ROM with your prints and negatives. And yet, there was still a need and a desire for consumer-level SLRs. Earlier in the year, I started getting some of these cameras; they’re dirt cheap on the used market, offer up plenty of good features for what they are,Read More →