I’ve been developing my own film now for over ten years, using Paterson system tanks and reels. The process of finishing a roll, getting out the dark bag and getting the film onto the Paterson spool has become almost second nature and, when all goes well, almost meditative. A few moments of calm. Does it […]
Tag: Paterson Development Tank
Posted inArticles, Film camera reviews, Opinion, Reviews
Nishika & The N8000: A seedy history of telephone scams, lawsuits and fake parts
Did you ever hear the tragedy of the Nishika N8000? If you haven’t you’re going to learn all about the seemingly seedy history of this camera; from fake LCD screens to telemarketing scams ahem, creativity…
Posted inDeveloping Film
My approach to Rodinal semi-stand film development
My film development workflow shifted in 2020 and became almost entirely based around semi-stand methods. Previously I had used ILFORD DD-X and taken great care over timings and chemistry – including for stand dev, but as I’ve found more of my projects start to come together I have not been able to dedicate myself in […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Of ILFORD HP5 PLUS developed in Caffenol-C (35mm Format / EI 400 / Voigtlander Bessa R2 + Leica Summicron 50mm)
Paddy is a science teacher at the school where I work and a friend I’ve known for years. He likes: Star WarsCoffeeAstrophysicsAmerican Football I’m an English teacher. I like: Star WarsTeaPhotographyPoetry Besides Star Wars, the friendship is mostly based on us both being decent blokes. But recently, we found a new area where, in the […]
Posted inArticles
Shooting expired Agfa Scala 200X as a negative film: the Historic Port of Santos, Brazil
Agfa Scala 200X is a black and white transparency film, well known in its day for being the only option for generating slides in monochrome. Even back when it was readily available it was still hard to find a lab that could process it. I had never shot with it because of the high price […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames in the rain on Street Candy ATM 400 (35mm Format / EI 400 / Nikon FM + Nikon Nikkor f/1.4 AI)
5 frames with a single film on a single camera with a single lens. It seems so obvious at first glance. Being original and offering a real photo set is already much less. I wanted to give sense and coherence to it. But something special has happened with this Street Candy ATM 400. My Nikon […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames of the Historic Dyfi furnace on medium format ILFORD FP4 PLUS (120 Format / EI 125 / Pentax 645 + Pentax 45mm f/2.8 A)
Recent events had given me more than enough time to go over earlier work and start thinking about what I wanted from my photography going forward. One of these was to re-kindle my love of film photography, something I had not done in nearly 10 years. The other was making the jump to medium format […]
Posted inArticles
Down the 4×5 rabbit hole part 1: A trip to the world upside down
Down the 4×5 rabbit hole part 1: A trip to the world upside down Like so many of us, I found myself with a bit more extra time during the global pandemic. This created an opportunity to explore various ideas and potential projects. As one of my primary interests is nature and landscape, consideration for […]
Posted in5 Frames...
5 Frames… Chasing a 2 year old on Ferrania P30 (35mm / El 80 / Canon AE-1 + Canon 50mm f/1.8 FD)
At the start of 2020, I decided to start seriously shooting film again. It’s a familiar story. When I was 12 I got a Pentax KX from my uncle and used it through college. I would have loved to keep shooting, but graduating into the Great Recession did little to free up to the discretionary […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Of Kodak Plus-X Aerecon II 3404 (35mm format / EI 50 / Nikkormat FTN)
I bought this film in a “group buy” with a couple of other people over on Filmwasters.com and honestly, I didn’t know anything about it. I remembered shooting Plus-X back in the day and liking it, but that was the extent of my “knowledge”. As it turns out, I think that this is NOT Plus-X […]
Posted inArticles, My First Roll...
My First Roll… Of self-developed black and white film (Kodak T-Max 100, Nikon F2)
I’m going to push the definition of this series but bear with me. First, I’d like to say that this was a disaster but also a learning experience. Like all good stories, this one has a bit of a background to it so let’s start with the question, why get into self-developing film at all? […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Pushing Ilford Delta 3200 Professional to EI 25000 (35mm / EI 2500 / Canon EOS-3)
I recently revisited the Delta 3200 datasheets looking for recommendations to get less grainy results than with Rodinal-type developers. I was intrigued to see that if I used ILFORD ILFOTEC DD-X, there was the option to push all the way to EI 25000. I thought I’d give it a try… The first hurdle: Find a […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Testing my new Paterson Tank with expired Kodak MAX 800 (EI 800 / 35mm format / Kodak HD Disposable)
In writing my first 5 Frames With… for EMULSIVE I wanted to try and cover something different, looking through my folders of film scans there was something that stood out like a sore thumb.
Posted inDeveloping Film
Learning to develop my first roll of film
Due to the current pandemic situation and resultant lock-down rules, I’ve decided now would be a good time to learn how to develop film at home. Since I got back into shooting film a few years ago, the thought of developing my own photos at home has crossed my mind on more than one occasion. […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… With Adox HR-50 (EI 50 / 35mm format / Nikon F100)
It can be a strange experience visiting an old stamping ground after a gap of many years as it was when I went back to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the summer; the place is still Newcastle but some of my favourite pubs have long since disappeared, some remain and new ones have sprung up, a host of […]
Posted inArticles
65 photographic projects you can do when you’re stuck at home
To help beat the boredom, I reached out to the film photography community and asked what kinds of photography projects they’d be doing while stuck at home/physically distancing over the next…
Posted inMamiya film camera reviews
A complete guide to the Mamiya RZ67 Pro: part one – deep system overview
The Mamiya RZ67 is very interesting and in many ways, an unusual camera. It’s not very easy to operate and a little bit slow if you’re not used to it, so it’s maybe not a camera for everybody. It’s also huge and a bit heavy and was primarily created for studio work and landscapes for […]
Posted inNews
New from ILFORD: 35mm and 120 ortho films, MULTIGRADE papers, camera and development kit – Q&A + tests/samples inside
One important voice has been missing from the crowd of new film announcements these past few years, that of 140 year-old ILFORD PHOTO. So, it was a pleasant surprise when the company began teasing the launch of four new products. What could they be? Speculation as to what these four images represented sent members of […]
Posted inArticles
Film-to-go: an analog photography travel kit guide
This article is mostly made for photographers who are currently setting up their analog travel equipment. Experienced photographers will most likely already know most of the things I mention but you never know, you could learn something new 😉 Are you travelling solo? If yes, then travel photography is much easier for you, not needing […]
Posted inDarkroom
Cinestill C-41 Quart Kit: extended development, push and pull processing times
I’ve been developing film at home for a while now, and I’ve done everything that I can to get my money’s worth from my chemicals. Using the recommended 2% per roll time extension methods from Cinestill, I’ve been able to extend my chemistry’s life to the point where I’m spending just a couple of bucks […]
