These are the 30 days and 58 articles that made EMULSIVE in May 2020. As usual, you’ll find a recap of all the articles published, starting with the most popular 10 articles of the month in order of publication (as decided by you).
Enjoy!
~ EM
NOT Being Vivian Maier: NOT really a Rolleiflex 2.8F camera review
It has nearly been 12 months since I got my hands on my Rolleiflex 2.8F, and whilst I’m not usually a reviewer of equipment, I’d like to share my experience of using this iconic camera and the inspiration behind me finally owning one. Like many who were first made aware of the story of Vivian Maier, I was completely captivated by the romantic ideal of pounding the streets, donning […]
5 Frames… Of The Tagus River on Kodak ColorPlus 200 (EI 800 / 35mm format / Nikon F100)
I enjoy waking up early and just walk, which are two great things that combine well with photography. I bring my camera with me on my commute, get out of public transportation earlier and walk to work for half an hour. It’s very fortunate being able to walk along the Tagus River in Lisbon and get to see the sunrise every day. I love how […]
72 frames per roll: The surprisingly sharp Canon SURE SHOT MULTI TELE
I’ve enjoyed shooting half frame 35mm film photography for quite some time now. Of course, being a broke college student, the thought of 72 photos in a roll is quite intriguing. However, it’s not all about the money; I feel that this “abundance” of shots also provides a new perspective when walking around and shooting. I’m more willing to take “risky” shots when it’s just […]
5 Frames… Of Jakarta during lockdown on Shanghai GP3 100 (EI 100 / 120 format / Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar)
As I write this in April 2020, I understand that many of us are still under stay at home orders. During this quarantine period, I have not much freedom to go out for photo walk but that’s not stopped me from explore. There’s always a kinda ‘itchy’ feeling to do this or that during this time. Meanwhile, the safest way I can do is to […]
5 Frames… Of fun at the fair on CineStill 800T (EI 800 / 35mm format / Leica M3)
I have had the will to try out CineStill 800T for a long time but never had the chance to do so until recently. Indeed I moved to Vienna, and in Vienna is an old amusement park called Prater. Its entry is free and it’s a great place to get those neon lights that work so well with Cinestill, and for photographers who love to […]
5 Frames… On a box camera with Kodak Ektar 100 (EI 100 / 620 format / Kodak Six-20 Brownie Junior)
Once you get known as a weirdo who still shoots film, people tend to ask you if you want film cameras that they have in the attic or found at their mother’s house. A friend of mine did find some cameras and expired film at her mother’s house when she was cleaning it out and gave me the film and sold me a Kodak Six-20 […]
My first roll… of 35mm film (aged eight years old)
The title is a lie. Judging by my mother’s careful organisation of our family photographic archive, the photos I’m about to share are from my third roll of 35mm. The first two were taken during summer camp holidays and mostly feature portraits of other children. They are all grown up now but I do not feel it’s appropriate to share their portraits with the world […]
Why I love Twin Lens Reflex cameras: A quick Mamiya C220 Professional review
As the title suggest this article is a love letter to TLR cameras, specifically the Mamiya C220. Before I get to that, I’d like to start with a little personal history. When I first got into film photography back in 2002, My parents bought me my first SLR, a CANON EOS 300. Boy was it crappy but I fell in love with it. It did […]
5 Frames of Yodica Polaris 400, (EI 400 / 35mm format / Minolta X-700)
A 35 mm roll of Yodica Polaris ISO 400 film arrived in my life as a part of EMULSIVEsanta19. I had discussed in a previous posting on special effect films that I was not a great fan of them. But when you receive a gift you should go out and try it. And So I did. I took the Yodica Polaris on what turned out to be […]
EMULSIVE Interview #219: I am Ed Steinerts and this is why I shoot film
Regular readers will know today’s interviewee through his beautiful black and white photography, those who don’t are in for a real treat. Ed’s interview below ranges from concert photography of Patti Smith in 1976 on Kodak Ektachrome all the way up to landscapes on ILFORD HP5 PLUS in 2020. Over to you, Ed. Hi Ed, what’s this picture, then? ES: This is a photograph I […]
5 Frames… From 1979 on original ILFORD FP4 (35mm format / EI 125 / Pentax K1000)
It’s early summer 1979. In the United States, Jimmy Carter was president and Three Mile Island had just exploded. In the UK Margaret Thatcher had just become Prime Minister. Disco was still big, and at the cinema, you could be shocked at the Alien hurling itself from John Hurt’s abdomen. Also in the UK, I’d just walked out of Logan Cameras in Walton-on-Thames with my […]
Camera review: the Certo Six and “lightweight” 6×6 film photography
The Certo Six is a camera I will own for a long time. If you’re looking for the short version of the article that follows, here it is: the Certo Six is light enough to carry up a mountain, and takes sharp, beautiful photos, with less faffing around than a large format, with more consistency and control than a Holga, and with easier to scan […]
5 Frames… On a leaky FED 5B with Fomapan 400 Action (EI 400 / 35mm format)
I love the 5B in spite of its quirks and idiosyncrasies. The most challenging camera that I have ever used. The FED 5B is a coupled range finder camera with a sordid history. Apparently they were made in a factory in Kharkov, Ukraine using orphans for the workforce. And is named after Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the original Soviet Secret Police which later became […]
Can you shoot Instax Mini in a 35mm camera? Well, yes… maybe
As I write this in mid-May 2020, it’s week seven of lockdown here in the UK. I’ve been furloughed and have found myself at home with buckets of time and very few ideas on what to do with it. Having burned through much more film than I normally would, just because developing it was something to do, I found myself (much like the rest of […]
5 Frames… Of Peruvian natives in 1975 on Kodak Plus-X (35mm format / Pentax Spotmatic SP)
It was back in 1975 I received a letter from a textile company in Lima, Peru with a bid to make a calendar including pictures of Peruvian natives. The company gave me only a few days to complete the task. My only equipment was the Pentax Spotmatic SP with a 50mm f/1.4 and a Vivitar 200mm f/4 lens. I choose the town of San Mateo east […]
Living with GAS, one film photographer’s story so far…
GAS doesn’t necessarily kill you, but as a “syndrome” there are steps you can take to live as normal a life as possible with GAS.
5 Frames… On ILFORD FP4 PLUS (EI 100 / 120 format / Yashica Mat-124G)
“Earlier this year, I came across a couple of rolls ILFORD FP4 PLUS while shopping for a camera strap for my Fujifilm X100F at a local camera store in New Delhi. The moment I laid my eyes on them, I knew I had to grab a few to try them out with the only medium format camera I own, a Yashica Mat 124G. It’s been […]
Month in review: May 2020
These are the 31 days and 62 articles that made EMULSIVE in May 2020. As usual, you’ll find a recap of all the articles published, starting with the most popular 10 articles of the month in order of publication (as decided by you). Enjoy! ~ EM May 2020’s reader top 10 …and here’s everything else in order of publication Thanks for reading! ~ EM
5 Frames… Building a cabin in Texas on Kentmere 400 (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Canon EOS A2)
I returned to film photography in 2017 after more than a decade long break. My gear is a mixture of Mamiya (6×6, 6×4.5) and Canon (35mm). My partner, who shoots digital today, used this Canon EOS A2 as his primary camera from the mid-1990s until 2006. After I had spent a year focused on technique with the all-mechanical Mamiya C330 (80mm Blue Dot f/2.8 Mamiya-Sekor […]
A look at the first issue of Popular Photography: May 1937
I love looking at old magazines. They feel like little time capsules, as they are a mix of pop culture and bite-sized info that publications thought the general public wanted at any given time. I also find it fascinating what used to be considered acceptable and seeing the wax and wane of liberated and conservative expression over the decades. They were also the main way […]
5 Frames… From my first roll of film for 20 years: Kodak Ektar 100 (EI 100 / 35mm / Nikon F3)
My first foray into film for over 20 years. My father had owned a Nikon F3 and back in those days I had gone down the Canon AF route, but do you know I always hankered after my Dad’s camera, only ever managing to borrow it once for a day out in Brighton – it was a love affair for sure. Fast forward some, oh […]
Camera review: The Rolleiflex MX
I’ve been trying to come to grips with how I ended up owning a 60-plus year old machine as a daily-and-only camera, after a truncated career with the latest and greatest at the time. I’m not sure if this will be a camera review or another personal journey into the philosophy of my own craft, but we’ll see what happens. This is a review of my Rolleiflex […]
5 Frames… On Ultrafine eXtreme 100 (EI 100 / 620 format / Argoflex EF)
I recently and abruptly went from never having even used a TLR or medium format to owning four Argoflex TLRs with an intimate understanding of the shutter internals. Argoflex may be known for their faux TLR cameras with basic viewfinders on top, but from about 1940-1951 they were the real deal. Simple, but effective with coupled lenses and a ground glass focusing screen. For this […]
In conversation with: Burley Cameras
More and more film photographers are — literally — taking it into their own hands to create products and accessories that improve camera usability and ergonomics, as well as provide solutions to problems that some might say didn’t exist. Don’t take that last statement as negative, film photography (more so than digital in my opinion) is ALL about those tools, cases, boxes grips and other […]
5 Frames… Of my quarantine buddy on ILFORD HP5 PLUS (EI 400 / 120 format / Hasselblad 500CM)
I have an upcoming project that I’ve wanted to shoot on a Hasselblad 500CM (perhaps it’s just “justification” to get this legendary camera). Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, that project is on indefinite hold. I decided to still get the camera recently, to give me some time to get used to it. Thankfully, my first roll test model was my very much available quarantine buddy, Vinny […]
Trying out night photography with Kodak Tri-X 400 at EI 1600
I love street photography, though I don’t consider myself a great photographer neither a master but I really enjoy shooting film. My work as an interiors and boudoir photographer is of course 100% digital and does not leave me much time for my personal projects and I almost forgot the pleasure I feel each time I can grab my film camera and take a walk […]
5 Frames… At an art class on Kentmere 400 (EI 400 / 35mm format / Zeiss Contaflex)
I’ve been shooting film for over 50 years, in the last few years mainly with medium format (Mamiya, Fuji and Hasselblad primarily) but still actively shooting 35mm with a broad range of cameras. Aside from my Leicas (M3 and IIIc) and a few others that I’ve purchased over the years, most of what I shoot with are from cameras that have been given to me […]
Documenting the UK’s #BlackLivesMatter protests: London & Hitchin, June 6-7th 2020
Across one weekend in early June, I attended and documented two Black Lives Matter protests here in the UK. As a white man, I might not be able to fully understand what black people specifically have gone through as a result of decades of systemic racism but I can listen and learn from their experiences and try to help share their stories. Well, here I […]
5 Frames… Of Kodak T-MAX 400 on a refurbished Minox 35 ML (35mm format / EI 800)
2016 was a horrible year for me personally. I was diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition that required major surgery to address, and me and the family had to move precipitously from Shanghai to Hong-Kong following unanticipated job issues. When we arrived in Hong Kong after the summer break (and the operation) I was convalescing and couldn’t do much more than walk. So I walked […]
An in-depth guide to: The Leica M6 (aka M6 Classic / M6 Non-TTL)
The Leica M6 — also commonly known as the Leica M6 Classic or Leica M6 Non-TTL — is a 35mm film rangefinder camera designed and manufactured by Leica in Germany between 1984 and 1998. The camera was the successor to the Leica M4-P, which was produced concurrently for the first two years of the M6’s 12 year production. The Leica M6 was the first Leica […]
5 Frames… Of Athens on Agfaphoto APX 100 Professional (EI 100 / 35mm format / Pentax ME)
I’m taking photos almost all my life and even more nowadays through digital photography. I recently bought a Pentax ME and travelled years back to when film was the only option for photography. The camera is small (it can fit in a large coat pocket), light with a robust build and a large finder. It has aperture-priority automatic electronic exposure control. The only manual settings […]
Olympus OM-1 and Zuiko Auto-Macro 50mm f/3.5 – Mercedes van study
Well what can I say about the wee Zuiko lens, this little classic which I picked up for buttons. A mere 50 euros, a bargain second hand. If you can get your hands on this tiny beauty don’t hesitate on it. I took the OM-1 and the Zuiko Macro out and about around my neighbour in Graz. Now I must admit to you, that my […]
5 Frames… Of portraits and landscapes on Rollei Infrared 400 (EI 12 / 35mm format / Leica M3)
I have always been fascinated by infrared photography. This idea to make visible that part of the light spectrum which is invisible (to our eyes) has always got me. When I was a (geek) teenager, I modified my first digital camera (a Konica Digital Revio KD-220Z) to shoot infrared pictures. My parents yelled at me: it was an expensive camera, the first digital camera we […]
Release the Kraken: accessible 6×12 wide format film photography for all
I am Graham Young and I am one of the hosts (along with Ethan Moses and Nick Lyle) of the Homemade Camera Podcast. We yammer on every fortnight about making cameras and taking pictures with those cameras. I’ve been messing around with building my own lensed cameras for the past three or four years but have been making pinhole cameras off and on for the […]
5 Frames… In Barcelona on LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400 (EI 400-ish / 35mm format / Leica M4-P)
I’ve joked in the past that I’m in a committed menage-a-trois with Kodak Portra 400 and ILFORD HP5 PLUS. Truth be told if this were a polyamorous relationship then HP5 would be feeling pretty put out at the moment. I’ve been shooting Portra pretty solidly now for a few years, on 4×5, 120 and 35mm. It’s predictable I know, but it’s pretty, detailed and forgiving […]
Embracing accidents: An unexpected double exposure collaboration
Since my return to film photography, I made the decision that I wanted to document what life uncovered for me in terms of experiences, memories and moments and store them on a medium that lasts forever. In Summer 2019 I met Lynn, a junior colorist for one of my projects who turned out to be a film photographer. Whenever I meet people from the younger […]
5 Frames… With a new-to-me rangefinder on ILFORD HP5 PLUS (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Yashica Electro 35 CCN Wide)
I was in grade school when my father took a photography class at a local community college. He was an engineer and natural math whiz, so the technical side of photography came easy to him. It was my dad’s artistic side that was put to the challenge. Our family was often the subjects of his class assignments. The camera that he used was an Argus […]
The evolution of the camera as seen through X-ray imaging
It’s no secret that for many film photographers, taking photos of their cameras is as enjoyable as making photographs with them. Don’t take my word for it, just take a quick look on social media (and probably your own phone’s camera roll) to confirm it’s the norm rather than the exception. Fine art photographer Kent Krugh took this concept further than most with SPECIATION, his […]
5 Frames… Of Kodak BW400CN (EI 400 / 35mm format / Olympus AF-1)
Hey everyone! For those who know me – me and my family LOVE camping and caravanning. We’ve always done it as a family since the children have been around, and continue to enjoy it every year. We love to be outdoors, be together with our wider families and close friends, and just the feeling that even if we were 30 minutes away from home; it […]
Making a working LEGO wide-format pinhole film camera
The purpose of this article is to guide you through my journey from a random pile of colourful bricks, to a pretty much fully functional 6×12 LEGO pinhole camera. The camera went through various versions, good, bad and ugly, each with their strengths and drawbacks until finally, I got to what I felt to be just about the best it will get to. Chapter 1: […]
5 Frames… On the greatest film in existence, Kodak Ektar 100 (EI 100 / 120 format / Zenza Bronica S2A)
So going out and making new photos has been off the table for a few weeks, well at least travelling anywhere new, interesting and not within walking distance of my front door on my daily exercise anyway, and is likely to be something I can’t do for the foreseeable future still. Because of this, I’ve been delving into my photographic archive and getting a hankering […]
Churches: Places of peace, history and personality
I’ve rarely gone out to photograph churches. Not because I have something against them, or that I fear I might get struck by lightning, but because when I have the time to go out and photograph, I usually look for nature, hopefully with no humans in sight. But every once in while a church finds me, and when that happens I enjoy the silence and […]
5 Frames… Of the Dolomites on ILFORD Delta 100 Professional (EI 400 / 120 format / Bronica RF645)
As a passionate climber and long distance hiker in the mountains i was in search of a medium format camera reasonably light, affordable and simple to use in every conditions. So when I found this Bronica RF 645 in “like new” condition for no more than 500€ I decided to buy it and see if it worked for my needs. My first trip with the […]
Celebs selling Polaroids in the 1970s, 80s and 90s
I haven’t had cable TV in a very long time. I cut the cord almost 12 years ago and all of the ads I get now are less than 15 seconds long, skip-able and usually specific to my tastes. The only way to avoid skipping an ad when I was growing up was to mute the television, or the reliable ‘recall’ button on the remote […]
5 Frames… Of 35mm Fujicolor Superia X-TRA 400 in a 620 format TLR (EI 400 / Ansco Rediflex)
Being under quarantine has me doing all sorts of film-related experiments. In addition to following EMULSIVE’s 65 projects on what photographers can do when stuck at home, I decided to try out a roll or two of expired 35mm film in an old medium format camera, the Ansco Rediflex. I decided to use an old camera that a friend of mine gave me. It was […]
An on-the-cheap private investigation into European BW films: ORWO or Kentmere, to be or not to be?
The whole idea behind this article started as I was looking into finding a “daily” use black and white film, on the cheap, so that I could bulk roll my own. As I’m from Europe (Romania, just one sharp right away from the Black Sea), I first looked into Foma Bohemia films, which are quite nice (especially Fomapan 100 Classic in medium and large format) […]
5 Frames… With my uncle’s old Contax T2 on Ferrania Solaris 400 (EI 400 / 35mm format)
When I was 15, my uncle gave me his old Nikon film SLR. This sparked in me a love for film photography from high school through college. However, life got in the way and I put my hobby on hiatus. Now in my late twenties, I recently picked up film photography again out of a desire to do more creative activities. I brushed the dust […]
My First Roll… of 35mm film: Fuji Colour 400N and a Zorki 6 – by Toni Skokovic
I started my photography hobby with Olympus digital cameras. First a point and shoot Camedia D-550 and then eventually Olympus Evolt E-410 DSLR at around 2007. My transition to film photography started with a single roll of house-brand colour film. In early 2015, purely by chance, I discovered the transparency scanning unit on my Canon 4400F scanner. It was one of those “Oh, what’s this?” […]
5 Frames… In remote Belgium on Agfaphoto APX 400 (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Nikon F3)
On the hunt for alternatives to the almighty Kodak Tri-X, I stumbled upon the APX 400 from Agfaphoto. The story of the company is quite complicated, but from what I understand, the films are still being made in Belgium. Which also happens to also be where I live. One more reason to try this one. I loaded the film into my beloved Nikon F3. A […]
As a roll of film moves across the film plane: making a slit-scan camera
This is the story of how I came to own a custom-built 35mm slit-scan photography camera and how I set about using it to capture the streets of São Paulo. This story begins in June 1994 when Professor Andrew Davidhazy from Rochester Institute of Technology went to São Paulo, Brazil, to teach a workshop. The workshop was about special effects in photography, obviously analog then. […]
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