I’ve been wondering how to present the pictures I took in Madeira. There are quite a lot of them, but they’re mostly just of stuff that caught my eye (as is most of my photography, I think) and most of them perhaps don’t stand alone as subjects for individual posts.
So I think I’ll drop them in batches, with the odd few separated out where I have more to say about them, or because they’re distinctive enough to fly solo.
So here’s the first batch…
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
This is a shot of the Savoy Palace hotel in Funchal, a large and distinctive building. It’s not where we stayed, but it was on the route into the centre of Funchal from our hotel and, as a result, I took at least a couple of pictures of it. I’ve not gotten around to processing and uploading the others yet though, so they’ll maybe turn up here on another day.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Portra 160. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
Today marks the beginning of this year’s holiday pictures, this time from a trip to Madeira at the end of June, start of July (as usual, I’m gobsmacked that it’s already been over a month since we returned home!).
I shot five rolls of film while there, four colour, and one B&W using my Nikon F70 (the first time I’ve shot with this in aaages) plus my trusty travel companion, the Olympus Trip 35 and, while I doubt I’ll post them all, you might be seeing a lot of pictures from Madeira for a week or two…
For today though, just a single image of one of the tuk-tuks that provide city tours around the hilly city of Funchal.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 28-80mm f.3.5-5.6 AF-D & Kodak Gold. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro
After many weeks of mostly overcast and rainy weather, I finally got a nice day yesterday where I had the opportunity to go out for a day of photography.
I decided to visit Scarborough, mostly because I’ve recently been looking at Paddy Summerfield’s The Holiday Pictures book and it gave me the urge and inspiration to go an make pictures at the coast.
Scarborough is appoximately 2-hours by car, so not too far, but not somewhere I can pop along to whenever I feel like it, so it was a bit of a mini event. Although it was overcast most of the way there, as I got closer the skies began to open up and I was rewarded with a lovely morning when I arrived.
I had a couple of cameras with me: my Minolta X-300 containing dome Kodak Gold, and my Nikon F80, which I’d loaded with Ilford Type 517 film I had a roll in the camera, plus a spare, and also a roll of expired Tri-X should I get through all the rest.
I spent a happy morning taking pictures in the great light and covered several miles, walking form the cliffs of the south bay, all the way to the north bay and back again, stopping only for a bottle of water and, on the way back, to treat myself to well-earned fish and chips. I finished the Kodak Gold, and both rolls of the Type 517. By midday the clouds had rolled back in and the best of the light was gone, so I headed back home.
Today I had the opportunity to develop the film after my dad visited, so I got stuck in, looking forward to the pictures. I’ve shot Type 517 previously and was very pleased by the way it looked, and was hopeful for similarly nice results. It was not to be…
As soon as I took the films from the reels I was very disappointed to see significant light-leaks on many of the frames. The first roll less affected, but the second with dark stripes on almost every negative, in the same place on each frame and covering the image and the rebate. I wracked my brain to try and think what might have gone amiss, especially as both rolls were affected.
Because the F80 takes the film all the way back into the cassette, I have to use a film retriever to pull it back out to get it onto the developing reels, and it seemed a little more difficult than usual to insert the tongue of the retriever into the light traps on both cassettes, and my first thought was that I’d somehow introduced light in the process (although it’s never happened before). My other (worse) thought, was that the camera had developed a fault which might be more costly to resolve.
However, it seems that neither of those is the cause. While searching online I found this post where someone had had almost identical problems, albeit when shooting some bulk-rolled film. The light leaks in the pictures they shared are almost exactly the same as what I had experienced:
Thankfully, the post also responds with the identified cause, namely that the labels on their bulk rolls were semi-translucent and, because the camera they’d used has a small window in the back to see what film was loaded, light had piped around the label, into the camera, and onto the film.
I suspect that this is what has happened with my type 517 rolls. While I can’t say for certain that the labels are conducting light through my F80s rear film window, it seems likely given the similarities. I also note that the Type 517 cassettes are reflective metal, which might also lead to the problem. The last time I shot it, without any problems, I used my aforementioned Minolta X-300, which has no film window.
The Type 517 cassette, with glossy label on a shiny metal container
I’m hopeful that this has gotten to the bottom of things and that I can shoot the film (and my F80) with confidence in future, either by only shooting it with suitable cameras, or by taping over the F80’s film window. It’s still been a painful experiece though – there are a lot of nice pictures that have been ruined (although I’m hoping I might be able to save some of them by way of some artistic cropping…), plus it was a long way to got to have spoiled pictures.
I do still have the roll of Kodak Gold to get developed though, and I’m going to give the F80 a test run with some bulk-rolled Fomapan just to put my mind at ease before shooting it again on anything that involves a lengthy journey! These things happen, and there’s not a lot I can do about it other than try to avoid a repeat occurrence.
I’ll share pictures from the day when I have them developed, but more stuff to come before then. In the meantime, here’s an older picture I took in Scarborough a few years ago.
Another ride around the sun is coming to a close, so that means it’s time again for me to pick a favourite from each month that has passed since I last did this.
Unfortunately, I have nothing to show for November. Not because I didn’t make any pictures that month, but simply because I haven’t developed (or, indeed, finished shooting the roll) them yet. December is chosen from only slightly less slim pickings too. Again, I have pictures, but withe undeveloped or unscanned. The one I chose is nice though – from my first ever bulk-rolled film (a very short roll that I used as a test).
As always, I could easily make different choices for most of the months, although in a few cases Aapril and Jun) I knew which was going to be my choice without much trouble.
I hope everyone else got pictures they liked and that you’ll get more in the year to come. Happy New Year!
Olympus OM-10 Zuiko Auto-S 35mm f/2.8 Agfa APX 100 (@400) Rodinal 1 hour semi-stand development. 1+100 in 500ml of water, with a couple of extra ml of developer added.
Olympus 35 RC Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008) Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
October
Yashica Mat 124G Kentmere 400 Ilfotec DD-X 1+4. 11.5 mins @ 20°
November
Nothing to see here, move along folks.
I did take some pictures in November, but they’re on a roll of expired Fujichrome Sensia which I’ve not yet finished shooting, so I have none to show yet.
I probably have too many cameras. Not a ridiculous amount – I’m not one of these people with dozens of different Nikon SLR’s on a display shelf or something, but a few too many to make regular use of. I try my best to use all of them, but most often I just tend to reach for my favourites, so five or six cameras tend to be in relatively frequent rotation, while the others sit unused for lengthier periods of time. I’ve been thinking for a while that I should perhaps reduce their number.
So this week I bid on and won an auction for six SLR cameras…
I’m really not sure why I did this, especially when considering what I’ve said at the start of the post. But do it I did, and I’m now the proud owner of six SLRs sold as “Not working or for parts“.
The cameras arrived the other day, and I’ll give a brief outline of each:
Fujica STX-1 with 50mm f/1.9 X-Fujinon lens – In very good cosmetic condition. Working mechanically. Light meter working. Light seals needed to be replaced (I did this last night). I’ve been out with this camera today to test it and, while I’ve yet to finish the roll and develop the negatives, I’m relatively confident that it works ok. It’s a relatively basic model with fully manual control and feels nice and solid in the hand.
Minolta X-300 with 50mm f/1.7 Minolta MD lens – In very good cosmetic condition. Working mechanically. Light meter working. Light seals needed to be replaced (I did this last night), and it needed a bit of a clean (also done last night). I’m relatively confident that this one works ok too, although I’ve yet to load a film and test it properly. While I believe the X-300 is a relatively entry-level model, it has more features than the Fujica.
Nikon EM with 28mm f/2.8 Vivitar MC lens – In very good cosmetic condition. Working mechanically. Light meter working, although I had to remove a corroded battery and clean the terminals first. Light seals need to be replaced (still to be done). The Nikon EM is often derided as being a cheap amateur’s camera, and one that switched to plastic for parts of it’s body. While it’s undoubtedly a basic camera in comparison with many of its stablemates, I was pleasantly surprised at how solid it feels – it feels a lot more rugged than some other, later model, SLRs I’ve used. I’m looking forward to testing this one and seeing the results I get. I have a couple of non-gelded Nikkor auto-focus lenses that I can use with it too.
Cosina CT-1 with 50mm f/2 Cosinon-S lens – In very good cosmetic condition. Working mechanically but the light meter is not currently working – again, some signs of corrosion on the battery terminals. I’ve cleaned them, but the meter still isn’t working. Light seals need to be replaced (still to be done). I’ll have a further play with this to see if I can get the meter to operate. If not, then it should still work fine with an external meter (or Sunny 16) and I’ll test it this way if I have no success. I’ll probably sell this one on though.
Canon T70 with 50mm f/1.8 Canon FD lens – In very good cosmetic condition. Not working. The battery terminals looked like they needed a clean, but the camera draws power from batteries and the LCD display activates. Unfortunately it does nothing else. This is a shame as it feels like a very solid camera. I was always a little dubious about the somewhat wide design of Canon’s T-series lineup but, on holding it in my hand, it feels great. I’ll probably sell this one for spares / repairs.
Miranda G with 5cm f/1.9 Auto Miranda lens – In dirty cosmetic condition with some scuffs. The shutter button is missing. The camera is not working at all. Another one that I will attempt to re-sell as spares / repairs.
So, all-in-all, a bit of a mixed bag. Hopefully (assuming testing goes well) I will have three fully working cameras.
Oh, and two of the cameras had rolls of film in them (one Fuji Superia 200,the other some Fotomax 200). I’ve no idea how long these have been in the cameras, although neither seemed to have been more than a few frames into the roll, so I suspect they may be largely unused. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve sat in the cameras for over twenty years though. I don’t think I’ll attempt to shoot or develop either roll.
As to why I bought them, well the obvious answer is G.A.S., but I think that is only partially true as none of the cameras in the batch where models I was looking to acquire specifically. I think the only real reason I can come up with is that I quite like the idea of having a camera of two that I’m less averse to taking risks with, such as going out in the rain or snow with them without worrying unduly that they might be damaged. That’s not to say that I plan on treating them recklessly, but I also won’t panic if they get a bit of water on them from time to time, or I go to a sandy beach on a windy day.
Now, another way to deal with this would be to buy a truly rugged camera (A Nikon F4, or a Pentax LX, or something) that can handle the elements in their stride, but those types of camera tend to fetch much more money and, while I’d like such a thing, it’s not top of my list. So, for now, this batch of cheaper and more basic cameras will have to do. I can always sell them on again (hopefully as more valuable “working and film tested” items. 🙂
Some more pictures from my wander around Tickhill – mostly taken after I visited the church.
I’m fond of the old-style road sign (or “fingerpost” as I believe they are called) and I’ve had it in my mind to maybe do some sort of project on them. I just need to pull my finger out and get on with it. 🙂 There are many of them still dotted about, mostly in rural locations (although there’s one five minutes walk from where I live, in the suburbs).
The second picture shows the market cross (although market temple feels more apt in this case), with the fingerpost hiding in the background.
The light had become a bit drab when I took these pictures, it being after the rain shower that had forced me to take shelter, so the pictures are a little flat (especially the last shot, of the butcher’s shop), I think.
As I wandered around Tickhill, I walked past the church: St. Marys. The building was open, so I went inside and took a few pictures.
It was quite dim inside and I didn’t have a tripod, so these were the best I could do hand-held (and leaning against things to steady myself where I could). The first shot below was with my Olympus OM-10 and is a little soft (although not too bad if you don’t look closely). The shot after is the same scene, but shot with my Yashica Mat 124G. It’s much sharper, but not as sharp as I know the camera is capable of. Both shots required wide apertures too, which reduces the depth of field.
This final shot is probably the sharpest of the batch as I was able to stand the camera on the back of the pews, but a wide aperture was still required and so the DOF is again reduced.
Steel City Snapper photography 