35mm · Film photography · Photography

Eastman Double-X

fishyfisharcade6 Comments

I was very lucky last Christmas to receive a generous gift from my Emulsive Secret Santa. Included in the box were a number of rolls of film, a camera strap, and a pin badge. Also in the box was a lovely Kodak Retinette IIa camera along with a very nice letter from my kind benefactor.

The film included two rolls of Eastman Double-X and I was very happy about that. Unfortunately, I think my happiness at receiving it also made me very cautious about shooting it. I felt that I didn’t want to waste the film on everyday snaps and that I should use it at a worthy location or occasion.

I’ve come to realise that this is probably not the best thing to do. I was given some great film and instead of getting out and taking some great pictures I was instead hoarding it away like Gollum with the One Ring. Last weekend I visited the steam and vintage rally at Lincoln and as I was packing my bag, grabbed a couple of rolls of HP5+ – my go-to black and white film – before I realised that I should shoot some of the Double-X. After all, the rally would have a load of vintage vehicles and that a classic black-and-white cinema film might make them look really great, so I grabbed a roll and popped it in the bag.

I shot a couple of rolls of 135 colour film first (I shot a LOT of film on the day – for me at least – 2 rolls of 120 and 3-and-a-half of 135. It has been quite expensive getting it all processed!). Then I dropped in the Eastman Double-X and got to work with that, getting through the whole 24 exposures.

After getting the film processed, the negatives looked vey contrasty and I initially feared that I might get almost two-tone images with blown highlights and crushed blacks, but upon seeing the scans emerge, there was actually plenty of detail across the whole range. They were still very contrasty but, hey, if anyone likes contrasty photos, it’s me! It’s certainly a classy looking film, and the way the the higlights show halos (due to the anti-halation layer being removed from the film I presume) is nice too.

Anyway, I’ve not uploaded all of them to Flickr yet, but here are three from the roll…

FILM - Nice little motor

FILM - High voltage

FILM - Dodge

Nikon F80, Nikkor 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 & Eastman Double-X.

Taken on 17 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Fire engines

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Another cropped shot, this time for artistic reasons rather than a glaring light-leak!

The vintage fire-engine in the foreground has a wooden ladder, similiar to those seen in the background, but I’ve annoyingly managed to chop some of it out when framing the shot. I think it was because, as I was composing the image people were wandering between of the fire-engines, and I wanted to get the shot before one of them walked into the frame. This probably caused me to rush a little and thus mis-compose the picture. As a result I’ve cropped it to a 6×7 ratio. The bell is a little tight in the top-right corner (and if you look really closely there is a tiny sliver of the wooden ladder still in frame), but the bell is intact and I still think it works ok.

Ektar certainly gets on well with the reds!

FILM - Lincolnshire Fire Aid

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Ektar.

Taken on 17 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

ERF

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For a 65 year old camera (or for any age camera for that matter), my pocketable Zeiss Mess-Ikonta is a great little medium-format machine. It produces lovely sharp photographs. The uncoupled rangefinder serves to slow you down a little – spur of the moment shooting is not the forte of this camera (unless you’re shooting in steady light and at a set focal distance / aperture that removes the need to change settings) – but I really don’t care when it allows me to make pictures like this.

FILM - ERF

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Kodak Ektar.

Taken on 17 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Tractors

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This is another frame from the roll of Provia 100F that was badly affected by light-leaks. I’ve had to crop this one quite a lot to avoid the effect. It’s now in a 6×4.5 ratio and probably less than half the size of the original image. It’s a shame that I’ve had to crop out some of the long line of red tractors, but better than losing the entire image, I suppose.

FILM - Red tractors

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fuji Provia 100F.

Taken on 17 August 2019

Film photography · Medium Format · Photography

Octopus

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Yesterday I made a comment about providing an explanation for cropping my 6×6 photo to a 6×7 ratio. The reason for this was a series of highly noticeable light leaks across the whole set of images, and I think I know the reason why this occurred…

After shooting the roll of Provia, I wound the fill all the way onto the take-up spool as I normally do. Then, however, rather than removing the film and sealing it ready for processing, I instead left it inside the camera. My reason for this was that it was a bright, sunny day and, as I wasn’t planning on shooting any more medium format during the day, I’d leave it in the camera rather than risk it in the daylight. Oh, the irony.

What I think then happened is, as I enjoyed the rest of my day out, the film in the camera – no longer held under tension – was able to loosen itself slightly on the spool. Then, when I got home and removed it, I immediately noticed that the rolled film was protuding over the flanges on the spool slightly. I quickly wrapped it in some tinfoil but, alas, the damage was already done – as evidenced by the light leaks on the top and bottom of most of the frames.

Thankfully, with a little bit of cropping (turning most of the roll into 6×7 or 6×4.5 ratio images, or reducing the area of the 1×1 frame) I’ve been able to rescue most of the photos, including today’s shot of an old Octopus fairground ride.

I’ve not seen one of these rides in a long time (although, to be fair, I don’t tend to visit travelling funfairs all that often anymore now that my kids are older). My last real memory of this particular ride (literally this same model) was back in the early 80s when myself and a friend went on it. It made me feel a little dizzy and I was glad when it was time to get off. Unfortunately, the operator miscounted the riders when letting people off and new people on, and we ended up getting a free ride. Sometimes free stuff really isn’t worth it!

FILM - Octopus

 

And here’s an example of the light leak (admittedly this is the worst one of the roll):

FILM - b--gered

Zeiss Mess-Ikonta 524/16 & Fuji Provia 100F.

Taken on 17 August 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

Best before 2007

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A couple of photos today from a roll of expired 200asa film that I shot to test my OM-1 which seems to have developed a fault. The film is branded as Dixons, but a bit of research has led me to believe that it’s Agfa film hiding under the label. Whatever the case, I’ve shot a roll or two of this before and not been unhappy with the results. This time however, there was a much stonger purple cast on the images and I ended up converting most of them to B&W in Lightroom.

A few are ok with just minor tweaks however, including these two, where the reds are quite striking.

FILM - Rural living

FILM - Letterbox

Olympus OM-1, Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 & Dixons 200asa film (expired 2007).

Taken on 12 August 2019

35mm · Film photography · Photography

The Riley Graves

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Just to the east of the village of Eyam lie the Riley Graves. This is a small cluster of graves (six in all) surrounded by a drystone wall. Depsite the name, the graves are of the Hancocke family, who all lost their lives to the plague in between the 3rd and the 17th August 1666. The name of the graves comes from Riley’s field, which is where they are situated.

FILM - The Riley Graves

Minolta Hi-Matic G2 & Ilford HP5+.

Taken on 8 August 2019