It’s mid-December 2020 and a bearded, touqued figure stands silently on the side of a frozen lake looking off towards the rising peak of a distant mountain as the sun begins to rise. A wooden camera stands atop a carbon fiber tripod waiting for the film holder to be slid home and its shutter to […]
Tag: Pentax Film Camera
Posted inBest Of
EMULSIVE’S most popular “5 Frames” of 2020
If you’re celebrating, Merry Christmas! If you’re not, welcome to the end of a year which, well, that’s enough about that. I made a promise to myself early in 2020 that I’d do my best to focus on the positives and share a little more love than usual this year. Things didn’t turn out exactly […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… Of 20-year expired Paterson Acupan 800 (35mm Format / EI 100 / Pentax P30n + Pentax-a 50mm f/1.7)
I’ve been wary of expired film in the past. The possibility of spending time and money buying, shooting and developing film with no guarantee of any results put me off. Buying expired film does offer one exclusive advantage, however: access to discontinued stocks. While browsing online auctions recently, I came across Paterson Acupan 800. An […]
Posted in5 Frames..., Articles
5 Frames… By the historic Ho Chi Minh City District 1 Post Office on expired Kodak Portra 400NC (120 Format / EI 100 / Pentax 67 + SMC Pentax 67 90mm f/2.8)
This shoot was based on the Ao Dai – a traditional dress of Vietnam. The Ao Dai has always been something I wanted to shoot but the thing is, they are readily available everywhere here in Vietnam. You can get them from street vendors, tailors, etc., but the biggest problem for the look I was […]
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5 Frames… Of the Jurassic Coast on Fomapan 100 Classic (EI 100 / 35mm Format / Pentax Spotmatic SP + Takumar 55mm f/1.8)
On a grey drizzly day, when my mood fitted the weather perfectly, I loaded my first ever roll of Fomapan 100 Classic into my Spotmatic and headed to the beach to cheer myself up. Beer is a small fishing village in South Devon, part of the famous Jurassic Coast, and a popular tourist destination. On […]
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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 inArticles, Featured, Film camera reviews, Pentax film camera reviews, Reviews
Camera review: The unlovely (but very good) Pentax MZ-S
First an admission, I am an accidental Pentaxian. Like thousands of others, quite by chance I first learned to shoot film on a Pentax K1000. Since then many other Pentaxes have passed through my life: Spotmatic II, KM, MX, LX, 645n, both the 67 and 67ii and the MZ-S of course (twice!). The attraction is […]
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5 Frames… On Fujifilm Fujicolor Pro 400H (120 Format / EI 400 / Pentax 645 + SMC Pentax-a 645 45mm f/2.8)
Being at home for the last two months has only afforded me opportunities to be outside shooting pictures here and there. One night while I was going through some images I had shot on a Lubitel 166b I had bought to start playing with medium format photography, I found myself yearning for something a bit […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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5 Frames… With a medium format shift lens on Kodak Portra 400 (EI 400 / 120 format / Pentax 67II)
I’d originally got my Pentax 67II primarily for portraits and the chance of using the sublime 105mm f2.4 lens. For me, that is the perfect portrait lens, as it delivers a wonderful spatially separated look, usually only found from a large format camera set up. Whilst there are plenty of merits of a one-camera and […]
Posted inLomography Film Stock Reviews
Lomography Peacock X-Pro Slide 110 film: Just because it says X-PRO doesn’t mean you should
What did my mother tell me about talking to strange men on the internet? That’s right, I shouldn’t do it. Did I listen? That would be a no. Social media is a strange place and you can end up chatting to many different people on a whole range of subjects, but I digress. On this […]
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5 Frames… From my third trip to Iceland on ILFORD HP5 PLUS 400 (EI 1600 / 35mm format / Pentax Spotmatic SP)
Iceland is a photographer’s fairy tale island. It’s almost impossible to take a bad picture in the land of ice and fire.
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5 Frames… At Raid Area 51 on Kodak Portra 160 (EI 100 / 120 format / Pentax 67)
I shot the Area 51 Raid 2019 on a Pentax 67 using Portra 160, and it was (almost) the perfect camera for the job.
Posted inArticles, My First Roll...
My first roll… Of 35mm film: Kodak ProFoto 400 BW and Pentax Spotmatic F
Well, I just read this “My First Roll…” post by EM and immediately started scratching my head. How did I start in analog photography and photography on the whole? It was not so long ago (relatively, Einstein would say) but I’d absolutely forgotten exactly how I had begun and it took some time to repair […]
Posted inOpinion
Essay: It’s all been done before so why bother taking photographs?
I’m constantly getting back to this thought and feel it’s about time to share something with you that comes very close to my inner monologue. You have been warned. I highly doubt that we all have the same motivations to take photographs but it is interesting to explore my own situation and hear your experience, […]
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5 Frames… In Bangalore with Bergger Pancro 400 (EI 400 / 120 format / Pentax 6×7)
For long, my go-to ISO 400 film in 120 format has been Kodak Tri-X 400. However, since I read about Bergger Pancro 400 on EMULSIVE, I…
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5 Frames… On my father’s last day at work on Kodak Portra 800 (EI 400 / 35mm format / Pentax Spotmatic II)
After 27 years of working at the airport, my father was recently informed that he would be let go. He started at the Belgian national carrier Sabena in 1992, continued to be employed when it went bankrupt in 2001 and survived two takeovers since then. My father loved his work, loved being at the airport, […]
Posted inPentax film camera reviews
GAS and the “wrong” camera: Skateboarders with the Pentax 6×7 in Singapore
I suffer from GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Even as I write this I have a painfully expensive Mamiya 6 on its way from Japan because I just had to have a medium format camera that’s light and easy to carry. You know, because my 35mm cameras are great, but what if I find myself in […]
