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Hamilton is an interesting city; it’s seen a lot over the course of its history, which is echoed in many buildings. The downtown core is the focus of this week, which I have spent many years wandering around and watching the ever-shifting changes from the piles of abandoned buildings to many disappearing or being reborn. While I don’t visit the downtown as much anymore with my exploring days shifting to more legal means and the number of abandoned buildings in the downtown becoming slimmer, it certainly was an eye-opening experience going back. The earliest humans to settle in this region were the Chonnonton or AttiwandaronkRead More →

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There are a couple of highly specialised and mysterious developers out there, both made by the same company. While most people are drawn towards Diafine (which I plan on reviewing next year), Acufine is the cousin of that magic bullet developer. Like Diafine, Acufine’s chemistry is a trade secret; even the datasheets are redacted in that sense. But Acufine is a rare bird; it has the capability to increase the speed of most film stocks. But without all the drawbacks of push processing, increased grain, over the top contrast. While I have worked with Acufine before the stuff was way out of date, and IRead More →

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When it comes to Living History museums, I have a long enjoyment of these sites. From jumping in Pioneer Puddles at Upper Canada Village to putting on musketry displays before Waterloo’s 200th. One of my favourites is Westfield outside of Hamilton, Ontario. While smaller and quieter, it has some of the oldest buildings from this part of the province! And while the museum aspect is officially closed for the time being, I learned that the site itself remains accessible and without reservations! So I took an early morning visit to avoid any major crowds and got some beautiful morning light. While every building on theRead More →

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Much of my early years of photography were taken up with the Minolta system. From my initial gateway camera, the Hi-Matic 7s to my first SLR the SR-T 102. The next step in my journey would be some level of automation, and for that, in stepped the X-7a. A gift from a church member who was no longer using the camera gifted me the camera and a single lens. But having a set of Minolta SR lenses already, I had an excellent selection of optics. And the camera would be my first experience with a motor drive, go through some of my earliest explorations andRead More →

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You’re probably thinking if I reviewed Kodak HC-110, why am I reviewing Ilford Ilfotec HC? Aren’t they the same thing? Well, the answer is yes and no. While Ilfotec HC is the Ilford version of Kodak HC-110, there are some subtle differences between the two. Here in Canada, the Ilford liquid chemistry is a pricey purchase and can be hard to come by. However, I chanced across a short-dated bottle of Ilfotec HC on a trip to Burlington Camera and decided to take a chance. Now, if you know me and my processing habits, you’ll know that I make a bottle of HC-110 last, soRead More →

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When it comes to fine-grain developing, the developer that most people reach for today is Kodak Xtol. But Xtol is one of the newest developers to come out of Kodak, before Xtol if you wanted to tame that grain, you reached for Microdol-X. While I’m unsure as to when Microdol-X was first released by Kodak, I’ve found images online of the powder coming in cans rather than pouches. The logo style is that of 1935, so I’m guessing it was released at some point in the mid-1930s at the earliest. I stumbled across Microdol-X while visiting Pittsburg back in 2015, while my main goal wasRead More →

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When it comes to films that are not designed for normal pictorial use, I’m not one to shy away from them. That being especially after I went through three of the FilmWashi offerings, one of them being an Optical Audio Recording film. Even before I had loaded up Washi S into a camera, I had been approached by the Film Photography Project to beta test a new film they had acquired and were planned to release after collecting some developing times for the film. The name was FPP Super Sonic, and like Washi S, is an optical audio recording film. The idea of recording audioRead More →

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When it comes to Polaroid cameras, I have a love-hate relationship with them. I often find I don’t gel well with these instant wonders, and the cost of the film remains fairly steep. And these days almost all of the old-school Polaroid cameras are starting to get long in the tooth. Sure the Polaroid One is a great option and made in this century, but there are far more of the older cameras around than, the newer ones. This is where the Spirit enters, it is one of the first of the new Type-600 Polaroid cameras released in the early 1980s and is a bitRead More →

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It’s funny how some developers just drop right into your lap. One of my readers, Jon Porter, wanted to know my thoughts on FX-39. And at the time I had never even heard of Adox FX-39, so I hopped onto my source for the rarer chemicals, Argentix.ca, and found that yes they did carry Adox FX-39 II. Is this new version any different from OG FX-39, not on the surface, it just has been adjusted to last longer. But that wouldn’t be a problem. I went through my first 500mL bottle quickly and in a couple of months. FX-39 is based on Neofin Red (createdRead More →

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While the construction of the canal inspired a great deal of urbanization of the Niagara Region, but not all towns came into being because of the canal. Even before the canal came to the region, the area attracted a great deal of colonization in the days during and following the American Revolution mainly by Loyalists. Officially today they’re called United Empire Loyalists, and they formed the core of the original European population in Upper Canada, created out of the Province of Quebec. Quebec had been under British occupation since the end of the French-Indian War, and the government was maintained to match that of NewRead More →