These are the 31 days and 33 articles that made EMULSIVE in July 2020. As usual, you’ll find a recap of all the articles published.
Enjoy!
~ EM
5 Frames… From a Hasselblad XPan on Fujifilm Velvia 100
There are so many articles extolling the virtues of the Hasselblad XPan that when I was recently offered the chance to borrow one for a few days I leapt at the opportunity. There were plenty of 35mm panoramic cameras made, some mask part of the frame, like Ricoh R1 (I’ve got one, bought it new 30 years ago, now I call it “the light leaker”) […]
My first roll of… 35mm film: Lomography CN 400 + the Lomography SuperSampler
In the ’90s and ’80s, everyone shot film. I was barely walking back then and could comfortably fit under a kitchen table standing upright. My dad owned a couple of cameras, so did my grandma and grandpa. I have a few negatives and lots of small prints from that era. But it wouldn’t be fair to count any of that work towards my own “first” […]
5 Frames… Of unperforated Agfa ASP 400S with a Voigtlander Vito (EI 400 / 35mm Format)
I have always been fascinated with panorama photos. With a background in filmmaking, there are of course many examples of exciting compositions in the wide format. Now, these 5 frames are nothing to do with panoramas, quite the opposite really. But the film in question was purchased by me to be used in my TLR camera to make panoramas. The Agfa ASP 400S is a […]
My 2020 lockdown journey: a comparative test of Kodak EKTACHROME E100 and Fujifilm Velvia 50 (bonus Portra/Lomography included)
I set out this Spring and Summer to do a comparative test of Kodak EKTACHROME E100 and Fujifilm Fujichrome Velvia 50 (RVP50). In my lifetime experience with film (going back to childhood), I’ve mostly shot slide film, and we had those traditional slide shows with Family and Friends because my mother used the original EKTACHROME from the 1960s in her Kodak Instamatic Cameras. As a field […]
5 Frames… Of the 2020 Montreal International Women’s Day march on ILFORD HP5 PLUS (EI 800 / 35mm Format / Canon F-1 Montreal 1976 Olympics edition)
One of the main reasons I decided to start shooting film was time. I feel film photography embodies a must-needed break from the frantic times we’re living (at least pre-coronavirus-wise). Composing, light metering, focusing… plus developing, scanning. Photographic film is a test to your patience, and, in the end, a great boost to your creative process. So, it’s extremely ironic that I chose these 5 […]
If sharpness truly mattered Cartier-Bresson would be a joke
White teaching a recent workshop I joked that street photography was the only genre where people would buy £3k worth of cameras and lenses and then deliberately use them to make out of focus, grainy, imperfect images. This led to a pretty interesting discussion about the merits to imperfection, and I think some of those points are worth sharing here, as it really helped contextualise […]
5 Frames… of the mundane on ILFORD Delta 3200 Professional (35MM Format / EI 3200 / Minolta SRT 201)
A month ago my trip unfortunately cut short thanks to our current pandemic situation. Days later I came down with my personal cocktail of symptoms so I’m glad I returned early. If I’m going to be stuck in quarantine it better be at home where all the film is and not stuck in a small apartment in a big city thousands of kilometers away. I’ve […]
Expired Film from 1987! Kodacolor VR 400 and the Contaflex Super (New)
Discovered in the depths of the cellar this film from 1987. My oh my expired, brittle and a pain in the major to develop and scan. Nonetheless, its finally done! Video and Images of my adventure across an alpine pass and up to the Ramsau am Dachstein plateau from some images taken with the Contaflex Super (New) on Kodacolor 400. Each adventure starts off as […]
5 Frames… Walking my neighbourhood with the Nikon S3 (EI 400 / 35mm Format / Kentmere 400)
With changed living and working arrangements I have found myself walking the streets of my neighbourhood a lot more regularly than I usually would. All of a sudden, the streets of Holland Park, Greenslopes, Tarragindi and Mt, Gravatt on the suburban Southside of Brisbane, Australia are seeing a lot more of me. I always try to take one of my (many) cameras with me because […]
The Cocotte Fred: One bag to rule them all
I’ve been remiss in writing on this blog, and for that I apologize. I return to form in a new year with a review to share. I’ve been searching for years for the right bag. Not just a camera bag, because those are thick on the ground. I use a camera bag differently than some, but I know there are others who have the same […]
5 Frames… Of alien landscapes in Murmanskaya state on a Leica M7 and Voigtlander Ultron 21mm f/1.8 (EI 400 / 35mm format / ILFORD HP5 PLUS)
I made these pictures in Murmanskaya State, Russia in Autumn 2019, when I was working as the producer of a photo crew and we travelled to various industrial facilities. But I am a photographer and can’t be without my camera. The north itself has fascinated me, but industrial landscapes add even more notes of meditative longing. All the landscapes you can see in these photos […]
One Giant Leap… Remastering high-resolution images of NASA’s race to the Moon
NASA’s photographic documentation of their 20th century race to the Moon forms part of one of the most significant historical records of our time. The photographic films and cameras used were arguably the best of their day, so why is it then, that the vast majority of the photographs appear to be of a low resolution, fuzzy and poorly exposed? Historically, most of the photographs […]
5 Frames… Of “stay at home” Nikkorex F goodness with the Nikkor-S 5cm f/2 (EI 200 / 35mm Format / Kodak MAX 200)
My Dad gifted me his Nikkorex F many years ago, but I had never shot it until recently. During this time of “staying at home”, I thought it would be a great opportunity to put a roll of film through the now 55+ year-old Nikkorex. For my film choice, I decided to try one of the expired rolls of Kodak MAX 400 that I have […]
Zenza Bronica ETRS: Not exactly the poor man’s Hasselblad
The Bronica has been described as the poor man’s Hasselblad. That is just wrong, as I hope to demonstrate through this article. When I began my journey back to film photography, I looked at Rolleiflex cameras first, but finally settled on the Hasselblad 500C/M — of which I have two now. I recently decided to look for another medium format camera and initially thought about […]
5 Frames… Of 35mm film in a Fuji GSW690II: Fun with my TEXPan (EI 100 / 35mm format / Kodak Ektachrome E100)
It all started last year when I began my dive into film photography: all those 35mm and 120 film cameras were so exciting… And then I stumbled on one camera that was special, not only in my beginner’s opinion, but for a lot of photography people out there – The Hasselblad Xpan. Quick forum research showed that there are pretty big chances when buying this […]
Month in review: June 2020
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
Global Nikon F6 product recall…for 152 cameras
Nikon has issued a recall of all Nikon F6 35mm film SLR cameras “manufactured and/or sold after July 22, 2019“. The camera, first released in 2004 is the last of Nikon’s F range of flagship cameras, which started back in April 1959 with the imaginatively named Nikon F – affectionately called the “Big F” by its fans. Still in production today, some 16 years after […]
5 Frames… Of black and white Fuji 8573/500T in Rodinal with a Leica M4-2
I had a 400ft reel of expired 8572 kicking around the boat, and decided to load 100ft into cassettes to start shooting. I’ve heard horrendous stories of expired Fuji cine films just not holding up like their Kodak Vision counterparts… But, I got a great deal on this reel and figured it was worth testing out. At this point I’ve shot two test rolls for […]
Rolleinar: it’s German for Sorcery
Lots of chatter about Rolleinars lately, I’ve only had mine since October ’15. A Rolleinar is a set of close-up lenses that fit on the front of your Rolleiflex. This shortens the working distance to your subject at the cost of minimal distortion and arguable loss of quality. The magnifier goes down below on the taking lens and another magnifier with an oriented prism (the Rolleiparkeil) […]
4 Frames… With a historic Disney family camera at Walt Disney’s boyhood home on Kodak T-MAX 400 (EI 400 / 120 format / 1909 Kodak Brownie No.2A Model B)
In 2017 while searching through junky point and shoot Disney film cameras on eBay, I found an interesting one: “DISNEY ESTATE KODAK CAMERA FROM 1909 KODAK #2A BROWNIE CAMERA DISNEYLAND LOA”. At the end of the auction, I was the only bidder! I could not believe my dumb luck. It arrived with full documentation (which has since been verified). The camera came from the estate of […]
In Conversation With… Sofi Mdvinishvili: Tiblisi’s analogue photography scene (NSFW)
During 2018 I lived for some months in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia (the Caucasus region country, not the US state). As an analog photographer, the first thing I did before going there was to tool for local analog photographers and labs. I found about work and a place to develop my films at around the same time. In fact, I met both at the same […]
Film Notes: Current high-speed films, ILFORD Delta 3200 Professional and Kodak T-MAX P3200
I’ve often described how I think that people looking for a different “look” from film would be better suited exposing and developing in a different way before they’d see any benefit from switching emulsions. Unless someone is searching for a specific “effect” in terms of grain structure, or halation, then most films will produce fairly similar results when treated in the same way. I think […]
5 Frames… Of the Asparagus Capital of England with ILFORD XP2 Super (EI 400 / 120 format / Pentax 645N)
The pandemic lockdown has created unique photographic opportunities within more limited parameters. I decided to explore areas of the countryside near my home. Places I had previously ignored as too dull and unappealing. I live in an area known as the Vale of Evesham in the midlands of England. The fertile agricultural land is flat and greenhouses and orchards are a feature of this area […]
REscanning boutique and special effect films: Revisiting my 5 Frames with LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400
Back in February I shot my first roll of LomoChrome Purple XR 100-400 while I was on holiday in Barcelona. Once I got back I eagerly despatched my films to the UK-based lab I’ve used for years and awaited their return. When I got my scans back they seemed very purple, but not really knowing what to expect I didn’t think much about it. Although […]
EMULSIVE Interview #220: I am Frank Thorp V and this is why I shoot film
Today’s interviewee is a busy man, he’s a producer and off-air reporter covering the US Congress for NBC News, past Chairman of the Radio & Television Correspondents Association on Capitol Hill, oh and a film photographer who also happens to shoot some of our favourite film stocks (and cameras) while doing the day job. Looking for American politics on film? You’ve come to the right […]
5 Frames… With ILFORD HP5 PLUS pulled 3-stops (EI 50 / 35mm format / Leica M4-2)
My “go-to” B&W film in all formats that I shoot these days seems to be ILFORD HP5 PLUS. I actually didn’t really enjoy it all that much when I started shooting film. I was a Pan F 50 kinda shooter, then I discovered Fuji’s NEOPAN 100 ACROS and when that disappeared I went to Delta 100 Professional, and then FP4 PLUS… In a real short […]
Yashica-B review: the lovable “rare” TLR camera
I’ve been fascinated with Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) cameras ever since I can remember, and even before I knew what a TLR was — I just knew them as these beautiful, quirky little photograph-taking boxes that appeared in the hands of famous and not-so-famous people dressed in 1950s and 60s attire. They had appeal, they had charm, they had everything vintage-loving hipster millennials like me […]
An in-depth guide to: The Leica M6 TTL
Made for only four years between 1998 and 2002, the Leica M6 TTL was the successor the 1984-98 Leica M6 and brought with it a couple of new party tricks: an ergonomically designed shutter speed dial and TTL flash metering. That huge shutter dial might not seem like a big deal today, in fact, you could easily walk away from this article right now thinking […]
5 Frames… Of CPR Lambton Yard with Svema Fn64 (EI 64 / 35mm Format / Zenit-E)
In the beginning, there were trains. Model trains, then train watching, or railfanning, and then it led to a photography rabbit hole. Desire to get better, more impactful train photos fueled my passion for photography in general. A few years later, and I find myself shooting exclusively on film and mostly nature and landscape. Just recently, I decided to head out and try some train […]
5 Frames… Of socially distanced life on ILFORD FP4 PLUS (EI 125 / 120 format / Weltaflex TLR)
These images were shot on a 1950s Weltaflex TLR with its 75mm f/3.5 Ludwig Meritar lens, using ILFORD’s FP4 PLUS at box speed (EI 125). I developed the negatives in Kodak’s HC-110, dilution B. As I don’t own a medium format-friendly scanner, I digitised the negatives using a digital camera and extension tubes. The photographs were captured after I had been sent home from work […]
Graz on lockdown with snapped film: Kodak ColorPlus 200 and Olympus OM-1 with Zuiko 55mm f/1.2
Have you ever broken photographic film? Broken as in snapped it in half and then opened the back of the camera to see what no photographer wants to see: naked undeveloped exposed film? Fret not you have not lost everything. In this post, I made the mistake of opening the camera thinking the film was completely rolled back into the film canister. In reality, the […]
My First Roll… Of 120 film: ILFORD HP5 PLUS on a Mamiya RB67 at Palm Springs Air Museum
A return to film. Again… For the fourth time. Yep, FOUR TIMES. I learned on film, eventually abandoned for digital due to work, got bored of digital and went back to film, got a digital Hasselblad, got obsessed with pixel-peeping and left film. Sold the ‘Blad, picked up a shitty Kiev 88 for $60 with three lenses, bought a Phase One and once again left […]
5 Frames… On Kodak Eastman Double-X 5222 (EI 250 / 35mm format / Nikon FE2)
I don’t know how common a problem this is in the film community, but I’m the type of photographer who loads multiple cameras with film (for different occasions of course) and then takes forever finishing them all. When I started taking a darkroom class at my local art college, I knew I would have to use one camera, one lens and one film stock to […]
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