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Everyone needs a space where they can escape to, get out of the grind that is work. For me that spot is close to where I work, and some parts are technically still on the Sheridan Campus. I’m talking of the McCraney Valley. This little trail takes the name of one of the early families that settled in the Trafalgar Township in the area that would become part of the modern town of Oakville, Ontario. While mostly I only frequent a small part of the trail, today I’m going to go along the entire length of the trail from where it starts at Upper MiddleRead More →

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Well, here we are at the start of a new year and looking back at last year’s outstanding Frugal Film Project! I had a lot more fun with this project, and it helped nurture my soft spot for consumer 1990s/2000s SLRs. It’s funny; I never saw these as viable cameras before, yet they have a beautiful charm. You don’t have to worry too much because they can be a dime a dozen. Plus, they work with many lenses that most people use with their other autofocus systems. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Minolta (Sony) all have lenses that work on both digital (full-frame) and 35mm bodies.Read More →

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This is only the second time I’ve reached a significant milestone in my ongoing reviews, the magic number of one hundred. And to be clear, I’ve done one hundred film reviews, not reviewed one hundred separate film stocks. And that’s because I’ve reviewed some rebadged films; sometimes, I knew it was a rebadge and then made a point not to go after that film stock again, notability ORWO films. I reviewed the four motion picture-specific films from ORWO as their Lomography rebadge. But in the case of Fomapan 100, I reviewed that first as KosmoFoto Mono 100 and then again as Fomapan 100. Agfa AviFotoRead More →

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It has been a while since we last visited the topic of film developers. So in today’s episode Alex sits down to talk about some of the more exoctic developers that have poured their way through his chemistry kit recently. These include a lovely elevated general purpose developer in Fotospeed FD10, a couple of high-contrast developers with Kodak D-19 and Fomadon LQR. Then Rodinal’s cousin, R09 Spezial, and even a colour developing kit, the FPP Super Colour Negative ECN-2 kit. Alex also digs into how he tests and reviews film developers, and it isn’t that scientific, and you know that’s okay! FPP Super Color NegativeRead More →

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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 →

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As someone who loves history and weird cameras, the Graflex Century 35 is a camera that fits both of those items. The Century 35 is a straight-up rebadge of the Japanese-produced Kowa Kallo 35. I first had a chance to try this camera out last year in an episode of Classic Camera Revival, where it was chosen for me to use by my good friend John Meadows, who gifted the camera by the end of the episode to me. Despite being primarily an SLR shooter, I do like some rangefinders. This camera fits the bill with my rangefinders, is compact and straightforward, and produces excellentRead More →

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It is always a plus when a mid-week vacation day also results in beautiful weather. So taking advantage of this, the family and I packed up and headed to Niagara Falls. While we did stick to the more tourist-oriented area, this stunning area is home to a lot of history and a natural wonder of the world, the titular Niagara Falls. It all began at the end of the last great ice age. The retreat of a glacier formed the Great Lakes and reveiled Niagara Escarpment. A river connected Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and ran down the great cliffs of the escarpment at Queenston.Read More →

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In the world of black & white developers, my exploration of different chemicals has been a lot of fun. And I’ve seen plenty of other odd developers, but one has always stood out as being one I’ve wanted to try, mainly because of its name. And that is R09 Spezial, which looks cool because of the ‘z’. While browsing, the Argentix website netted me a small bottle of this stuff. It took a while to trace precisely what this stuff is at the core because it has gone under many names and been produced by many companies. You can also find it as Rodinal Special,Read More →

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At the end of last year, Harman/Ilford made a fantastic announcement, their popular budget film, Kentmere, was now available in 120 formats. And it was going to be the least expensive option for medium-format shooters. Kentmere and I go back, and when I first reviewed Kentmere 400, I was not happy with my results. I was downright rude towards the film stock, but looking back at it now, I can see it was not as bad as I thought it was when I first came to review it. Kentmere 100, however, did make an excellent first impression. And since then, I hadn’t thought much aboutRead More →

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When it comes to Canon cameras, you can count the number of times they’ve been featured on the one hand. I’ll admit that I am a Nikon guy, but I couldn’t say no when this beauty was offered up. The Canon EOS 650, while a fairly plain and no-nonsense camera, is a significant part of the history of photography. The EOS 650 is the first autofocus offering from Canon, and the lens mount it introduced changed the company’s direction. And while I was a little wary of the camera, it performed beautifully. It did take a bit of time to figure out some of theRead More →