Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 29 March 2024
Bridalwear
Tag: Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D
Hairy biker
A quick grab shot of a biker with very furry headgear. I was spotted taking the picture and rewarded with a thumbs up. 🙂
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 29 March 2024
Again and again
I’ve posted before, at least once, about revisiting locations and taking the same pictures I always do. The same subjects, and often the same compositions. Some scenes just catch the eye, like this view up the River Wye at Bakewell. Seen before here and here (and probably other times too)
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Ilford HP5+ (@800asa). Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 29 March 2024
A random Mablethorpe lightbulb
I thought I’d drop an old picture into the blog today. While it really could have been shot anywhere, it was Mablethorpe where the picture was taken – it was a display in a shop window. I’ve posted it here because today was my annual pilgrimage to the town
Normally I would have a bunch of photos from the day but, this time – in a break from tradition – I didn’t make the trip alone, I took my dad along too, and as a result I didn’t have the same opportunities for picture making. Also, while the weather on the drive out there was lovely, such that I loaded some old Portra 400 NC into my camera, five minutes after leaving the car-park a hazy sheet of cloud formed, blocking a lot of the light, meaning colour film really wasn’t the right choice. In the end I only took a couple of pictures (with my GW690). To add insult, I think the camera shutter accidentally got fired while it was in my bag, meaning I’m going to get just seven shots from the roll at most…).
While photographically it was a bust, it was really nice to make the trip with my dad – he hasn’t been to Mablethorpe for about forty years – so I’m not disappointed to have made so few pictures. To be honest, because I try to go every year, I’ve got pictures of pretty much everything already anyway. Sometimes several of the same scene! My dad also paid for our fish and chip dinner bought, as is tradition, from Monty’s, a nice treat for the designated driver. 🙂
Anyway, depending on how the two shots I made turn out, they’ll probably make an appearance here at some later date.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fujifilm Acros (cropped to square). Lab developed.
Taken on 13 September 2017
The Expiry Files – preparing to shoot a load of expired film
I’ve aquired some more expired film, some of past it’s best date by quite some margin – the oldest roll being the Ilford FP3 which is dated 1970! Now, normally I would stay away from old film such as this, but this didn’t cost me too much and I thought it might make for an interesting series of blog posts as I shoot the stuff and present the results here.
For the curious, the batch includes the following (in chronological order – oldest to newest):
- 1 x Ilford FP3 – 1970
- 1 x Ilford FP4 – 1981
- 4 x Ilford HP5 – 1982
- 1 x Kodacolor VR 400 – 1989
- 5 x Kodak Vericolor HC – 1991
- 1 x Ilford FP4 – 1993
- 1 x Kodak Vericolor VPL – No date on packaging, but I expect 1980s / 90s
- 1 x Kodak Tmax 200 – No date on packaging, but again probably 1980s / 90s (it was manufactured from 1986 I believe)
- 1 x Polaroid Polachrome – No date on packaging, but sometime after 1983 which is when it was introduced.
- 1 x Polaroid Polapan – No date on packaging, but sometime after 1983 which is when it was introduced.
- 1 x Polaroid Polablue – No date on packaging, but sometime after 1983 which is when it was introduced.
My plan is to try and shoot at least a roll of this each month. The HP5 and Vericolor both have the advantage of there being multiple rolls so I can shoot one and then re-assess exposure times for the remaining film. All the others are something of a crapshoot though, so I’ll be using the 1-stop of overexposure per decade of expiry rule for the colour stuff, and probably the same but with just half as much overexposure for the B&W. I’ve not decided on what chemicals I’ll use to develop the B&W (the colour will go to the lab), but probably not my expensive DD-X. Maybe Adox Adonal, but we’ll see.
The Polaroid film is possibly the most interesting of the lot – each roll comes with it’s own developing cartridge (and the film needs to be processed in a dedicated Autoprocessor device), so I’m looking forward to seeing how that stuff turns out.
It may be that the whole lot is an absolute waste of my time and effort, but I’m going to aim for optimism and, at the very least, there will be some blog posts falling off the back of the experience.
The oldest roll of expired film I’ve shot previously was some Kodacolor Gold 200 which had expired in 1989. While that showed definite signs of deterioration (odd colours and a mottled appearance) I was quite taken by the results, and I managed to win a prize in Expired Film Day from one of the shots. You can see some of those results here. I still have another roll of that same film in the feezer too.
As this post has been about expired film that I plan to shoot, here’s a photo made on some expired film that I did shoot five years ago. That roll was over twenty years expired and still produced lovely images, including this one.
Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Kodak Tmax 100 (expired 1994 – shot at 50asa and developed for box speed).
Taken on 19 August 2017
Conisbrough Castle
This photo was taken the same day as the canal pictues that I posted here yesterday. Conisbrough is a mile or two down river from Mexborough and there is a nice railway viaduct there which spans the River Don. It was my intention to try and get a photo of the viaduct while I was in the area but, as it was the first time I’d visited and I’d not really planed a route, I ended up in the wrong place with quite a long detour if I intended to reach a spot where I could access the viaduct.
So, instead, I drove back the way I’d come and decided to take a few pictures of the castle. I shot a few frames on the expired TruPrint FG+ with my F80, and a few more with the Olympus XA3 which was, as usual, in my coat pocket. I had a polariser fitted to the 50mm lens on the F80 and, combined with the expired film, it resulted in some wildly vivid colours. I’ve actually toned down the blue in the sky for the shot posted here. The colours were reminiscent of an old postcard of the sort that used to be sold when I was little, with vivid, almost painterly tones.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & TruPrint FG+ (expired 2005). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 April 2022
Mexborough canal
I’m not actually sure if this stretch of canal has a name. It’s a navigable route that runs beside the River Don at Mexborough, presumably because the river itself is not suitable passage in this area. The canal diverts from the Don just upstream of Mexborough and then re-joins it further along, just before the River Dearne also merges with the flow.
I’d visited Mexborough because I believed therewas a camera store in town, but when I got there the address appeared to be closed. Not wanting to waste the trip I had a wander around and took a few photos. The three here today are all taken close to one another from the canal towpath.
Although all three shots have been converted with the same settings, the first has a different tonality to the others. I’m not sure if this is a factor of the Negative Lab Pro processing in some way, or if it’s down to the camera’s metering of the scene perhaps.
I like all three of the photographs, but they probably would have been much better on non-expired film.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & TruPrint FG+ (expired 2005). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 April 2022
Industrial streets
The tall chimney of the Veolia Energy Recovery plant stands sentinel over these walls on industrial streets to the east of the city centre. I was shooting a roll of expired film on the day and, when I left the house, the sky was clear and full of light. Unfortunatley, by the time I’d parked and started walking, the sky was mostly covered by cloud. This wasn’t ideal – I don’t like shooting colour film in overcast conditions at the best of times, but even less so with expired film.
As it is, the results aren’t too bad and the grit of the film perhaps suits the conditions. I have more shots from this same roll to come – mostly shot in good light – and the grain is equally prevalent on those too. I have a second roll of this same stock left to shoot and think I’ll overexpose it next time, which is what I normally do with expired C41 film (using the one stop of over-exposure per decade of expiry guidance). I didn’t do that on this occasion as I’d been told the film was fridge stored and wanted to see how it looked shot a box speed.
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & TruPrint FG+ (expired 2005). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 2 April 2022
34 plugs and some new (old) film
I discovered that someone had a few rolls of expired film available free of charge today, so I took up their offer to take it off their hands. It involved an hour driving to the other side of the city and back during my lunch-break, but it was a nice day and good to get out of the house and away from my desk. The lady with the film told me that it had been in the fridge since it was bought and it’s only the fact that the fridge broke down that they remembered it was there. It’s been there a while as the one roll with an expiry on the packaging is dated 2005. The other two rolls are in un-dated wrappers but I’m assuming a similar vintage. Given its storage, I might even be tempted to shoot a roll at box speed to see how it fares.
The dated roll is Tudor branded 200asa colour negative with 24 exposures, Tudor being a company that re-packaged films rather than manufacturing their own I believe. I’ve not opened the box yet, but when I come to shoot it I’ll look up the DX code to see if I can find out who manufactured it originally – possibly Fuji though.
The other two rolls are Truprint FG+, another 200asa film, and again with 24 exposures. Truprint was a mail-order photo lab and rolls of their film would be supplied with the returned prints. Although I don’t know for sure, I believe that the film might be rebranded Ferrania FG+.
As I’m taking about expired film, here’s a photo made on out of date Superia 100 at the Lincoln Steam Rally three years ago. I’m not sure if there are actually 34 plugs in this tin…
Nikon F70, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 AF-D & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2007).
Taken on 29 October 2017
Leather hat
Excuse for a short post no. 374: I’m off to see Shang Chi at the cinema in a few minutes, so don’t have much time to type up a longer entry. Sorry! 🙂
To protect your head
From the sunshine or the rain
A hat made of leather
Nikon F80, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°.
Taken on 14 August 2021
