By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

When a developer and a film stock are so intertwined or one was made for the other it makes you think of a closed image system. I have plenty of experience working with those, not surprisingly also from Adox, but also Kodak Techincal Pan comes to mind. While the film and the developer are specifically designed for each other, both can be used in other developers and on other films. However, don’t think of Adox HR-DEV as a one or two-trick pony as despite the name it is a wonderful developer that does more than just develop Adox HR-50. While the bottle only lists twoRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 2 Comments

The year was 2012; I had been shooting film in a far more serious way for three years at that point. I learned of a speciality film store called Freestyle Photographic from an episode of the Film Photography Project. They had all sorts of weird films from Europe that I had never heard of nor seen at my local camera store (which at that time was either Henry’s or Burlington Camera). With companies like Efke and Adox, strange, exotic for my North American sensibilities. I purchased a pile of Efke and Adox CHS Art films, both in 35mm and 120, 50 and 100-speed offerings. WhileRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

I remember it clearly, having walked into Henry’s store to get film for an upcoming PYPS weekend, Winter Weekend 2006 in Oshawa, Ontario. I don’t remember exactly why I pulled the roll of Sensia 400 off the rack; my jam in those days was colour negative films. But that was also the weekend that I had a digital camera for the first time, so maybe I started to branch out in my shooting. Sensia was the right speed I usually shot (400), and the name was close to Superia (at a glance), and my journey into slide film had begun. Eventually, I branched out andRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

You’re probably wondering why I’m reviewing a Nikkormat EL when I’ve reviewed a Nikon FE. The reason is simple; the Nikkormat EL is the FE’s foundation, the original Nikon electronic semi-automatic camera. This means that to understand where the FE comes from, I needed to try out an EL. That was my first mistake; the second mistake was shooting a second roll through the Nikkormat EL. I don’t think this mistake is a bad thing. The camera worked perfectly in both rolls; the mistake was that now I want a Nikkormat EL. It’s an easy-to-use camera, especially if you’ve used an FE or FE2, andRead More →

By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 1 Comment

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 →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

If there is one film that has achieved a little bit of a cult following these days it’s Adox Silvermax. Silvermax was the first true film to come out of the renewed Adox Fotowerks GmbH factory in Bad Sarrow, Germany and its parent company Fotoimpex. Based on a classic Agfa film, a modern take on APX 100, it has a higher than normal silver content and when paired with Adox Silvermax Developer presents a classic B&W look. If you were a fan of the older Adox and Efke films, then Silvermax will be your jam (I Hope). The official documentation states that Silvermax has aRead More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

Am I crazy for reviewing a camera that you can have for a song? Maybe? But I’m out here to talk about a camera that many will pass over due to age and the slow autofocus speeds. But when it comes to cameras in the history of photography, the F-401 fits in a strange little niche often forgotten next to the more advanced cameras of the day and, of course, the almighty F90/N90(x/s). And while I have given away the F90, and it gets far more use with its new owner, when I saw the F-401 offered up for free, I jumped on the camera.Read More →

By:
On:
In: Camera Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

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 →

By:
On:
In: Developer Review Blogs
With: 3 Comments

Let me start this by saying that DD-X and I have not had the best of relationships. The first time I used it I wasn’t happy with my results and decided that I was never going to touch the stuff again. But hey, almost every filmstock and developer are worth a second glance. DD-X, like its Kodak cousin, TMax developer was initially designed for use with the Delta range of films, specifically Delta 3200. Ilford has two versions of this developer, Ilfotec DD which is designed mainly for automated film processors that will use a dedicated replenisher and used in the stock formulation. White DD-XRead More →

By:
On:
In: Film Review Blogs
With: 0 Comments

The original slow film offering from Lomography and one with a great name, Fantome! I had initially thought that I wouldn’t jump on these right off the bat. However, after seeing some early results, I decided to give this slow offering a try. And don’t let the slow speed concern you; you can quickly shoot this film handheld on bright sunny days, although unlike last months film, I did shoot a roll on a tripod to see how well it handled long exposure. Fantome 8, like Babylon 13, is a repurposed ORWO film. ORWO DP31 is a positive archival duplication film designed to produce duplicatesRead More →