Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2025
Why Film Might be Better
Using film encourages proper camera work as the photographer aims to make the best possible exposure and thus minimise costs.
A Rolleiflex like that pictured left, made in the 1950s, more than 60 years ago will produce just as good results as a 40 Megapixel back and is available second hand for a fraction of the price.
The results on 8 x 8 prints or even 5 x 5 prints are always a joy to view from the Rolleiflex. The colours, using films which were not available when the camera was made knock spots of most digital cameras.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Kodak Film
Photographers are still c-dacking with Kodak film. Yesterday a customer of ours bought 55 rolls of Portra 160 for a trip to Australia, and it was in 120 roll film. At £229.00 it did not quite match our biggest Kodak film sale of 2011 with a value of £1098.00.
However, this is not an isolated sale and it is not just students who are sticking with celluloid. Another regular buys Ilford HP5 and Provia 400x at the rate of about 30 a month. This customer tried digital but returned to film for the quality.
Don't be too quick to snap the door shut on a truly innovative photo company.
Fujifilm unlike Kodak has embraced the digital market in many ways from building a range of innovative cameras and sensors to getting involved in large format inkjet printing. In addition it makes top quality lenses for companies such as Hasselblad, sells pharmaceuticals like skin creams used cosmetically, Two years ago Fujifilm's revenue from imaging was $4.2bn half the level of 2005 but in 2010 it made six times that amount from other businesses. More than two years after the demise of Polaroid Fuji still makes an instant analogue camera the Instax and the 20 image film to go with it and it is still selling!
Even as an ordinary consumer I was ahead of the trend, I first used a Casio digital camera in 1993. At that time I faithfully wrote a monthly diary on an Amstrad word processor which is long gone sadly stolen with its discs. That month I wrote: "Today I have seen the future of photography."
See also:
The Sunday Observer January 22nd 2012
Could Kodak's demise have been averted? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/22/john-naughton-kodak-lessons
Kodak Advance Warning: Mr McNaughton writes:
"What's not often appreciated is that it was Kodak that invented the digital camera – in 1975. And four years after that a Kodak executive named Larry Matteson produced a report that predicted, in some detail, how different parts of the market would switch from film to digital, starting with government reconnaissance, moving on to professional photographyand finally the mass market, all by 2010. As it happened, Mr Matteson got the time-frame wrong by about five years, but apart from that he was spot-on."
Fujifilm unlike Kodak has embraced the digital market in many ways from building a range of innovative cameras and sensors to getting involved in large format inkjet printing. In addition it makes top quality lenses for companies such as Hasselblad, sells pharmaceuticals like skin creams used cosmetically, Two years ago Fujifilm's revenue from imaging was $4.2bn half the level of 2005 but in 2010 it made six times that amount from other businesses. More than two years after the demise of Polaroid Fuji still makes an instant analogue camera the Instax and the 20 image film to go with it and it is still selling!
Even as an ordinary consumer I was ahead of the trend, I first used a Casio digital camera in 1993. At that time I faithfully wrote a monthly diary on an Amstrad word processor which is long gone sadly stolen with its discs. That month I wrote: "Today I have seen the future of photography."
See also:
The Sunday Observer January 22nd 2012
Could Kodak's demise have been averted? http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/22/john-naughton-kodak-lessonsKodak Advance Warning: Mr McNaughton writes:
"What's not often appreciated is that it was Kodak that invented the digital camera – in 1975. And four years after that a Kodak executive named Larry Matteson produced a report that predicted, in some detail, how different parts of the market would switch from film to digital, starting with government reconnaissance, moving on to professional photographyand finally the mass market, all by 2010. As it happened, Mr Matteson got the time-frame wrong by about five years, but apart from that he was spot-on."
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Cloud Inversion
 | |
Clouds bubble round the summit of Snowdon North Wales originally taken on a Kodachrome slide with a Zeiss Ikonta Folding 6x6cm camera with 75mm f4.5 lens in 1992 | |
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Kodak Tri-X (2)
Another shot on the Nikon FM2N with Tri-X + Orange filter on a nice day looking down the Leadburn Road towards the hills above Peebles.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Short Duration Flash - A Practical Application in Sport
My regular readers will remember the notes on this photograph, a few things came together.
As I arrived at the pool sunlight was burning through the window behind the lanes of swimmers, creating great out of focus highlights (bokeh). The sunlight also helped to highlight the water streaming off her arm and disguises the fact that I used flash.
I'd recently started at the Sevenoaks Chronicle(1996) and they'd given me a kit which included an Nikon F90 camera and SB26 flash - I'd wanted to get my hands on kit like this since reading about in magazines three years previously.
The flash allowed the photographer to get synchronisation at speeds faster than the usual sync speed of 1/250th, Nikon call it AutoFP. This has another effect it cuts down duration and distance over which it will fire. It is the short duration of the flash which has frozen the water pouring off Laura Tingley's arm. 1/500th would not have frozen it in midair.
I used manual focus and prefocused at a point in the water, (I didn't really trust AF), the settings were ISO 800 film, 1/500th sec f2.8 + flash. It was slightly overexposed on the colour neg. I only had about 10 minutes as it was part of a triathlon and I had other parts of the event to photograph.
On camera flash is essential for pictures such as this, in a live event it would be impractical to use a large device and powerpack.
As I arrived at the pool sunlight was burning through the window behind the lanes of swimmers, creating great out of focus highlights (bokeh). The sunlight also helped to highlight the water streaming off her arm and disguises the fact that I used flash.
I'd recently started at the Sevenoaks Chronicle(1996) and they'd given me a kit which included an Nikon F90 camera and SB26 flash - I'd wanted to get my hands on kit like this since reading about in magazines three years previously.
The flash allowed the photographer to get synchronisation at speeds faster than the usual sync speed of 1/250th, Nikon call it AutoFP. This has another effect it cuts down duration and distance over which it will fire. It is the short duration of the flash which has frozen the water pouring off Laura Tingley's arm. 1/500th would not have frozen it in midair.
I used manual focus and prefocused at a point in the water, (I didn't really trust AF), the settings were ISO 800 film, 1/500th sec f2.8 + flash. It was slightly overexposed on the colour neg. I only had about 10 minutes as it was part of a triathlon and I had other parts of the event to photograph.
On camera flash is essential for pictures such as this, in a live event it would be impractical to use a large device and powerpack.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Dent Blanche from Cabane du Mountet
Photographed using a Zeiss Ikonta 6 x 6cm, rangefinder camera with 75mm/4.5 lens on Kodak Gold 200 negative film.
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