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The reintroduction of TMax P3200 had a bit of a polarizing effect on the film photography community. Many welcomed it back, seeing this as a positive step for Kodak, a teaser before they get the new Ektachrome back on shelves and in cameras. Others were rather derisive on the move, decrying it wanting films like Plus-X back before a high-speed film because we still have Ilford Delta 3200 and it comes in Medium Format as well! I took a more balanced approach, I’ve only really shot high-speed films a few times, but I figured hey, might as well give it a go. I had shotRead More →

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So what happens when you put the two ASA-3200 speed films against each other? Well, you have the 3200 club. As everyone knows, Kodak this year re-released their TMax P3200 film and while Ilford has always maintained their Delta 3200 films, I decided in light of having reviewed both films, to compare the two. Now, this blog isn’t designed to speak to which one is better than the other. Because there’s already too much of that in the Photographic community as a whole. To start off what do the two film stocks have in common? Well, both are a modern T-Grain emulsion, where the silverRead More →

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If there is a unique camera brand that is iconic, polarising and a mark of quality, then Leica is that brand. That’s the problem that you can easily recognise Leica as a mark of quality and still dislike their cameras for one reason or another. Leica is a quality camera, flawless optics, precision cameras, and a camera designed for pure photography. And the M6, while not their latest 35mm rangefinder option is like all the M-Series cameras both before and after is a camera that retains all the marks of a Leica. Now, I’m not waxing poetic about the cameras, this is only the fourthRead More →

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For a mid-speed film, Superpan 200 is fairly grainy, so grainy that it surprised me until I learned of the original basis of the film. Superpan 200 is a former surveillance film sharp, but relatively grainy with an extended red sensitivity. It looks terrific behind a red filter. The heavier grain lends itself well to rough urban decay situations for that added grunge effect without pulling it. While not a film I use that often, I can see a use for it for a street photography film or architecture. Film Specs Type: Panchromatic B&W Film Base: Polyester Film Speed: ASA-200, Latitude: 100-1600 Formats Available: 35mm,Read More →

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If you’ve seen this camera before in my reviews, you’d be partly correct; the Leica R3 is the cousin of the XE-7; both are internally the same camera with some external differences (also the obvious being the lens mount). The XE marked a new era for Minolta as it introduced the idea of a semi-automatic camera and a confident professional air to their cameras, not to mention a unique style of names, the X rather than sticking with the old SR nomenclature. While many companies went with smaller form factors in the 1970s, Minolta stuck with their bulky designs, at least for a while. ButRead More →

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The film that really started it all, the TMax line from Kodak gave the world one of the first tastes in 1986 with a modern T-Grain film (Ilford Delta line use the same T-Grain model but were released in 1992). Now the TMax we have today is different from that original release, but it’s still a strong film stock, while not always my first choice (I’m more a fan of the traditionally grained film), I do use it because I love trying to emulate the classic look even out of a modern film. But for those who love the modern look that’s both sharp, fine-grained,Read More →

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I remember the first time I encountered a box of Panatomic-X and seeing the film seep of ASA-32, my mind was blown. I had never seen a film slower than ASA-50 (Pan F+). And then I sent it off to the lab to develop it and was even more amazed at the results. Panatomic-X is a fine-grained general purpose film and it seems the slowest of the X-Series of films (Plus-X, Tri-X, Double-X). And what a film Panatomic-X is, while some are hung up on Plus-X, which is itself an amazing film, I’m more a slow film junkie and enjoy Panatomic-X far more than Plus-X.Read More →

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In photography’s history, critical technologies reshaped photography, from the earliest processes with plates and harsh chemicals to flexible films, interchangeable lenses, and folders to SLRs. One of the most significant changes is the introduction of microprocessors into cameras. This led to the creation of affordable cameras with auto-exposure functionality and the right ecosystem for creating autofocus cameras. While Minolta did not invent autofocus, they were the first to get an entire ground-up autofocus system SLR with a new look and feel compared to previous SLRs to market and meet with commercial success. The 7000 AF is a camera born of the era. While still aRead More →

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When it comes to Kodak films that have ended up in the great darkroom in the sky, there is none that is more missed than Kodak Plus-X. A general purpose mid-speed film designed to give sharp, fine-grained images a popular film among photojournalists, street photographers, and portrait photographers, or any photographer who has used it in the past. It also has touched my photographic journey on multiple points being the film I shot of the most of in my 2015 trip to Europe and the second Kodak film I’m always on the hunt for and am willing to spend a fair price on when IRead More →

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If the early days of autofocus cameras brought us VCRs, by the 1990s, the design of cameras had become far more streamlined. The 3xi belongs to the third generation of Minolta autofocus cameras but don’t get too excited; this is the cheapest, lowest range camera in the series. And believe me, it shows. Designed to run for the most part in the full auto-exposure mode with little interference from the photographer itself. These xi series cameras could use powered zoom lenses to set the focal length automatically. But to be honest, while it may look and behave like an SLR, at its heart, it isRead More →