So I got a new camera to play with — the Chinon CE II Memotron with quite a good lens. It was well past sunset so I thought about pushing a film I knew well enough anticipate the outcome. And I had a small project in mind: My beloved wife.
For sure, it wasn’t a piece of cake to talk my wife into that little photo series. Given the fact, that I’m fully aware of this transformation my wife faces most of the days, it’s still that time of the day she’s calling her very own time of tranquillity. During that time I’m not even allowed nearby. After some efforts of persuasion, she agreed to tolerate my camera even closer than 30 centimetres away from her face.
The pictures turned out quite well. I knew about the softness I would get with ILFORD HP5 PLUS pushed to 1600 — I developed in Kodak X-TOL which gives me nice grain I can tolerate, even love. As I shot with that lens fully open, some more softness showed up in the pics. The development of HP5 PLUS is as easy as it can get and it dries fully flat. Good for scanning.
~ Oliver
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Hello Tony, thank you for your kind words. It feels great to have inspired you to use this film again. I am using all sorts of films but i always eventually come back to HP5+.
5
Thank you for the review. Your wife looks just captivating in these shots. I was browsing new films to order/try today and it’s coincidence you posted this shoot recently; inspired me to order some HP5.
4.5
Thank you Peter!
Great pics and words.
Nice pictures Oliver, thank you.
As footnote, back in the 1980’s got a part time job selling cameras and sold quite a few of those Chinon cameras. I agree with you, good lenses as well as image quality. Despite of the bad publicity among the back-then photographers, Chinon prove to be a durable and sharp system for beginners and for amateur photographers. I recall seen major brand cameras coming back for repairs or exchanges and very, very seldom that I saw a Chinon camera sitting on the return shelf. If any, the users needed some help using them.
But thanks again for posting your images.
Hey, Nissim. Thank you for your sharing your experience. Indeed this camera is—while Bulky and some sort of tank—one of my most used M42-cams. The option to compose with ANY lens wide open and measure with half-press is great. I wonder what would have happened if Chinon got a greater player in the game?