I recently bought a 3-pack of Lomography 400 to try out. I've had great experiences with Lomo's 800 color negative film, and thought I'd give the 400 a shot. It's less expensive and I had a point and shoot camera to test out. So how'd the test go?
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I've been thinking about how to post on my personal blog more frequently, and came up with a great idea. Film Fridays! In this new series, I'll be sharing photos and writing about a specific roll of film. To start this series off, I chose a roll of Cinestill 50D I shot in my Minolta X-700 in 2018 on a trip to Colorado.
Last year was a really slow year for me, photographically. I'd become a bit disenchanted with our local area. I got more into mountain biking again. I hardly got out to shoot unless it was a mountain bike video or some birds in the back yard. I think I shot three rolls of film. This year I'm planning to turn that around. So why am I resolving to use more film in 2022?
Over the past couple of months, life has been hectic and a bit crazy. I suppose that's the holiday tradition these days, though. Traveling to and from family, shopping for gifts, working extended hours, etc., tends to make it tough to be productive outside of every day responsibilities. Beyond that, my family also suffered the loss of our matriarch and patriarch this fall. It's been a rough end of year. Having said all of that, I did manage to find some time to squeeze in the solace of exposing film since my last post. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a Fujifilm giveaway on Instagram, awarding me with two boxes full of 120 format Pro 400H film! 400H was a film I had only tried once when I was new to my Yashica Mat 124G, and I didn't have great conditions to shoot in. I was extremely excited to load up a roll and go shoot. I've actually ended up exposing three rolls of 400H in the time since, and boy has this film been good to me. As winter draws near and the leaves are fleeing their branches, I've been struck with the desire to shoot more black and white film. I figure as the landscape grows more stark and monotone, black and white film could be particularly well suited to the task. There's just something about a well composed scene on black and white film that can be particularly stirring, which leads me to our first reason to shoot black and white film.
Kodak Portra 800 - A High Speed Wonder Portra 800 is a film I've been curious to shoot for a while. I typically shoot landscapes and the occasional cityscape, so I'd never thought much about shooting Portra 800 for such cases. I've had a roll sitting in the fridge for quite some time, waiting for a family event or something of that nature. A friend of mine recently invited me out for an evening shooting the Bikes, Blues, and BBQ event in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That's when I knew it was time to break the Portra out and give it a fair shake. The Pentax K1 In the market for one heck of a landscape camera? How about a great studio camera? What about those of us with a tight budget? What if I told you there exists a camera that excels at landscapes, product photography, and portrait work for under $2,000 that's loaded with features and a full-frame sensor? Well, search no more dear readers, that camera is the Pentax K1. Pentax remains a hold-out in the DSLR world and as such has become somewhat of a niche camera brand. The K1 and K1-II cameras are relatively unique in their design when compared to those made by the big three. The Pentax K1 combines the ruggedness and excellent ergonomics of a beefy DSLR with interesting and useful technology to provide an excellent still camera for a great value. Pentax has somehow managed to stuff a 36mp full-frame sensor, in body image stabilization, GPS, a star tracking mode, pixel-shift technology and much more into their flagship camera, and all for under $2,000 at that. The image quality from the camera is stellar. It provides excellent high-ISO performance, great dynamic range, and all-day comfort despite its porky build. So what else makes the K1 such a great camera? Check out my video below for more features and sample photos from the Pentax K1, as well as a few things I didn't like about the K1. The Sigma Foveon Cameras Since the year 2000, Sigma Corporation and Foveon have worked together to build very unique digital cameras. Foveon developed the sensors that Sigma used in their digital cameras. What made the Foveon sensors unique was that they employed a three-layer design. The sensors would be stacked such that each individual pixel location would receive all three primary colors. This sensor design would lead to increased sharpness, fewer image artifacts, and brilliant color rendition. In 2008, Sigma acquired Foveon and continued to use their sensor design in their cameras. Over the years, Sigma has produced many different camera bodies using the Foveon sensor design. From small, compact cameras such as the DP0, DP1, DP2, and DP3 with APS-C sized sensors, to the bigger and more robust sd1 Merrill and sd Quattro series. The Quattro-H is the current flagship of the Foveon sensor wonders. It sports an APS-H sized sensor with a resolution that is equivalent to a standard Bayer sensor of 51mp. Sigma Quattro H (Morio [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons) Fujicolor C200 When I shoot film, I always enjoy the process of trying different film stocks. It's awesome having your own "preset" built right into each different variety of film. When it comes to inexpensive "consumer grade" films, I have found a couple that I really tend to favor. Fuji's C200 ranks in my top 3 budget films for a number of reasons. Click "read more" below the photo to find out why!
The Pentax K70 The Pentax K70 is truly one of the best bargains in the camera world today. Not many cameras offer as many features jam-packed into them at such a great price. Available brand new for under $600 as of this writing, the Pentax K70 certainly delivers on value. It offers IBIS, a 24 megapixel sensor, great high ISO performance, excellent dynamic range, weather sealing, and comfortable ergonomics. This combination of features is rare in an APS-C camera, and even more rare for under $1,000. Click "read more" below the video for a summary on the Pentax K70! |