Following on from my recent blog about a visit to the Kaunos Ruins in Dalyan, Turkey, there were many photo opportunities.
Since my Hasselblad only takes 12 shots per 120mm film, I was able to try out some other black and white films whilst at this location.
Next on my list to try was the Ilford Delta 100 Professional 120mm film.
Normally in the UK I wouldn’t necessarily be inclined to use this film in view of the low ISO so thought a bright, sunny day in Turkey would be a perfect time to try it out.
I took these photos on my walk back down to the river from the Kaunos Ruins.
I was really happy with the detail of the trees in this photo:
I wasn’t sure if the next two photos would actually come out because I took these photos of the Donkey in very dark shade and light metered it as best I could. I’m therefore happy that I did manage to get the photos even if they are a bit dark:
I’ve realised that I’ve much practice to do on perfecting my photos of animals. The next set of photos were taken in a field where I had to climb onto a fence to take the photos. This was slightly awkward with the Hasselblad since its a camera I tend to ‘shoot from the hip’. The first two photos were ruined by a cow stepping its ‘back end’ into the shots as I took the photos and I slightly missed the face off the cow in the third shot but I can see the funny side of it because they are so bad:
The next couple of photos are of the Mountainside as I was walking back down:
I really liked this film and was pleased with the tones of black and white it produced. Once again, I was also impressed with the amazing detail thanks to the Hasselblad lens. I would definitely use this film again on a very sunny day.
During my recent trip to Turkey, I decided to try out this film in my Hasselblad 500 C/M camera.
Since I take most of my photos in England, I don’t really tend to use low ISO films. However, Turkey was extremely bright and sunny and this film had been in my film stash for a while, so I thought it would be good to try it out.
Here are some photos I took of the mountain areas in Dalyan, Turkey:
The next picture I took has some streaks on the negative but I actually quite like the old feel it seems to give the photo. It reminds me a bit of the Washi film and looks like the photo could have been taken a long time ago:
Whilst staying in Dalyan, I was keen to visit the Kaunos tombs which were on the other side of the Dalyan river. The easiest way for me to get to the tombs was to go across on a row boat that was rowed by a local lady which cost less than £1 for the ride. Once across, I then walked up the hill to the Tombs and the views were amazing:
Here are some photos of the ruins I visited in Kaunos:
Here is a photo I took at the ruin’s of my friend who visited Kaunos with me:
I was extremely impressed with the detail the Hasselblad lens gave me in these photos.
However, I don’t think I’ll be using this film again any time soon as there wasn’t as much contrast as I like in my black and white photos so there would be other films I would choose first over this one. Although I’m glad I tried out this film and I still feel that a bright, sunny day in Turkey was the best place for me to test it.
The negatives were scanned on my Epson V600 scanner so I will be interested to perhaps develop some of these photos into prints during one of my darkroom sessions to see how different they look. I will blog about this when I do it.
This was the only colour film I ended up using in my Hasselblad camera whilst I was away on holiday.
I had previously used this film in the 35mm format on my Olympus Pen FT Camera at a car show which I blogged about last year and was impressed with the results so was interested to try out the 120mm format in my Hasselblad.
It was one of the last films I used during my visit to Dalyan in Turkey so half of the film is of that. I used it during a visit to a hotel which had a beautiful enchanted garden where I ate a yummy local turkish breakfast and here are the photos I took:
Although I used a lens shade, there is unfortunately a slight red flare (from the sun) in a couple of the photos which I think makes it look like I’m using one of those experimental colour films. Also I’m not sure if there was a fault with this particular film? as there is a black line going through some of the photos on the left hand side.
Anyway faults aside, I really hope I managed to capture the magical feel of this place. I could easily have spent all day there but I was on an excursion for the day so this was only the first stop (to have our traditional turkish breakfast).
The second part of the film was used during a trip to Le Havre in France. I literally got back from Turkey, was home for one day before my husband and I set sail to Le Havre for my second holiday of the year.
It was thankfully a pleasant sail as the sea was nice and calm and it was also our first trip to France on our boat which was quite exciting.
I took some photos in the harbour that we moored at in Le Havre:
Overall, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the photos as I had previously been with the car show ones and I question whether I would have had better results if I’d used this film again at another car show.
However, I’m pleased I tried it out with a different subject matter but know in future if taking similar photos, I would most likely use a cheaper colour 120mm film which I think would have just as good (if not better) results.
I was pleased to see that Cool Film Club are now doing a monthly 120mm Film Subscription so I signed up to it to enable me to try out films that perhaps I’d never tried before.
I got my first box of 2 x 120mm films the other week from them and in the box was the Washi S 120mm 50 ISO black and white film.
I had been intrigued by this film in the past because it is an emulsion designed for sound recording and it appeared in the sample photos to have a high contrast which I quite like.
However, when I looked at purchasing this film in the past, it always appears to be sold out so I was really happy to get a roll of this in my subscription box.
I decided to try out the film in my local cemetery as I thought the film style would be suited to this style of photography.
Since it’s ISO 50, I went and shot the roll on a bright sunny day and used the sun shade attachment on my Hasselblad.
I wasn’t sure how the negatives would turn out since I felt this film is quite unusual.
I noticed that the film is packed in a recycled roll of 120mm film and this particular film had been repacked in what was originally a Tri-X 400 film roll. This actually turned out to be an issue when taking it to my local lab for processing because although I packed it in the plastic Washi Case which, clearly states 50 ISO, they processed it as the Tri-X 400 film so I’m not sure if this affected the way the negatives turned out.
I can completely understand how this confusion would have been caused and in some ways it was frustrating that a) I didn’t make it extremely clear to them that it wasn’t a Kodak Tri-X 400 film and that b) the Washi is packed in a recycled film package and they don’t have their own brand one which clearly states it’s an ISO 50 film. This makes me wonder if anybody else has encountered similar problems if relying on somebody else to process their film for them.
Thankfully the photos still appeared on all 12 negatives!
I scanned the negatives myself using my Epson V600 scanner and here are some of the photos I took:
The photos are quite high in contrast as I expected they would be. Where I’ve taken the photos in shaded areas they have come out quite dark. I’m unsure at this stage whether this is the traits of the film, the way I exposed the photos (i.e. not stopping up or down and shooting exactly as my light meter stated) or if the fact the film was processed by my lab as a Kodak Tri-X 400. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about the film developing process to know if that would actually make much difference?
I also couldn’t help but have a play with my new (to me) multi-prism filter:
I quite liked the results of the prism effect, especially the last photo. I just knew the statue may be quite an interesting one to try out with the prism filter and the contrast of the film has given it quite a cool, heavenly effect in my opinion.
I’m quite keen to see if any of these negatives will develop into nice prints in the darkroom or whether the high contrast will mean I will struggle.
A couple of weeks ago, I found one of the multi-prism lens filters for the Hasselblad for sale on eBay in the UK with a buy it now price for around £20.
I knew this would be a fun accessory to have for my Hasselblad and experiment with and didn’t think it was too expensive compared to other lens accessories I’d seen for sale for the Hasselblad so purchased it.
Thanks to the Hasselblad booklets I own, I discovered that it was a bayonet 50 mount so it would fit my 80mm lens. The booklet also told me that I had purchased model number 50679 which has five prisms.
I also loved the fact that the booklet states ‘These multi-prism lenses have prisms producing multiple images on the film. A striking accessory for the advertising photographer and an interesting, creative tool for experiments.’
Although the lens filter didn’t come with the original box, it was in immaculate condition when it arrived and looked like it had hardly ever been used!
I was excited to try it out so headed to my beach opposite where I live.
I decided to use the Fujichrome Velvia 100 colour reversal film in the 120mm format as I was hoping if I got it processed in E-6, it would have a real pop of colour which I thought would be great for the prism effect.
I’m fortunate enough in Brighton to have a local lab called Colourstream who are able to process the film by hand in the E-6 chemicals for me.
I was very excited about this experiment because I had obviously never used this lens attachment before and also I had never had a film developed in E-6.
Here are the results:
I was able to twist the prism around on my lens so I could get different prism effects which I thought was fun.
Overall, I was really happy with the way the photos turned out and I really like the intense colour of the Fujichrome film.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the colours from the sky and beach did the film justice. I would definitely like to try this film out again with some more colours in the photos.
I also have some more creative ideas using the prism filter so am looking forward to trying them out and blogging about them in the future.
I recently bought the Rollei 120mm colour film, which was on sale at a reduced price whilst purchasing some silver gelatin paper.
I had read that the Rollei Chrome CR 200 is an E-6 colour slide film which has rich, warm colours and subtle contrasts. It can be cross developed (C-41 process).
I knew I wanted to test this film out in my Hasselblad. I’ve recently become quite addicted to black and white photography so this was the first colour film that I decided to try and I was very excited to see the results.
After doing some research on the film and looking at other people’s photos online who had used it, I decided that I preferred the warm tones and colours when the film is cross processed under C-41 so got my film developed this way.
Here are a couple of photos I took of my nephews:
I was really pleased with how the above photos turned out. I felt the film being cross processed gave a warm vintage feel to the photos. I feel the colours all blend in together in a nice subtle way. I also love the crisp detail of the trees that my camera has managed to capture.
I next took some photos of blossom trees:
Again, there is very much a warm tone to these photos and I particularly like the darkness of the tree against the bright blue sky. Also the blossom has a yellow tint to it.
Lastly, I took some photos on the beach with the waves and sky:
I love the water detail in these photos and was surprised to see that the clouds almost look like paintings.
I especially love the last photo which I feel has a real 1970s dreamy, advert feel to it.
I recently purchased this film from Analogue Wonderland whilst buying some other 120mm film:
The Fomapan film is available in different ISO’s from 100-400. I decided on the 200 ISO because I knew I wanted to use it on a bright sunny day in England.
I had seen some photos taken by other people using this film and I liked the style of photos the film seems to produce.
The other appealing thing about the film is that it is very cheap and can be purchased for £3.50 at Analogue Wonderland.
If I’m completely honest, amongst the other more expensive films I had purchased from Analogue Wonderland, this one had remained at the bottom of my pile. This was because I was waiting for a very sunny day and I also viewed it as not being of great quality because it was very cheap.
I recently spent the weekend in Rye with some friends. It was a beautiful sunny day on the Sunday so I decided to take a walk around Rye and test out this film in my Hasselblad.
When I got the film developed, I was extremely impressed with the quality and contrast of the photos. Here are some of the photos I took:
It’s definitely a film I’ll be buying again as I think it is great value for money. I also want to try out the other ISO formats they do.
I suppose it’s quite obvious that there will be differences in a photo from being scanned onto a computer compared to if you print a copy of it in the darkroom.
I really noticed a difference in the contrast in a couple of my photos this week that I’d originally scanned using my Epson V600 scanner and then developed copies in the darkroom.
These photos were taken using my Hasselblad 500 C/M Camera and Ilford Delta 400 film.
The first image was of a close up of a tombstone in the shape of a cross with a tree in the background. Here is the original image that I scanned on my Epson V600 scanner:
I didn’t tweak the original scan as I was happy with the original exposure. As you can see, it isn’t high in contrast and there are many subtle shades of grey which is what I would have expected from the Ilford Delta 400 film.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I decided to print an enlargement in the darkroom but I was surprised by how different the contrast and tones were:
I cropped the photo slightly as I wanted more focus on the tombstone and tree and I felt the extra detail on the right hand side of more trees took attention away from this. The biggest difference I noted though was how much darker the trees and shadow detail were. Also, the grass, tombstones and background detail were left with really nice shades of grey.
I next decided to do an enlargement of a tree image I’d taken on the same roll of film with the sun shining through the trees. I was keen to see how this would look in a print. Here is the original photo I scanned on my Epson V600 scanner:
I made no amendments to this photo at the scanning stage as I was happy with the exposure. As before, the photo consists of various shades of grey with no real contrast.
Here is the same image which I printed in the darkroom:
Once again, I cropped the image, this time on the left hand side because I wanted more focus on the two big trees with the sun shining through. You’ll notice that the greys are much darker on this print compared to the original scan. I’ve also lost the grey detail from the sky which was in the original scan. This gives the image a lot more contrast.
I used Ilford chemicals to develop both prints and also Ilford Multigrade IV RC Deluxe Pearl 8×10 paper. I exposed both images for 1 minute and I didn’t use any contrast filters.
Personally I prefer the darkroom prints over the original scanned images. I’m very keen on contrast in my photos as I feel this adds to the dramatic effect I wanted to achieve in these particular images I took.
Perhaps I could have achieved this effect too on the scanner by changing the contrast but I am just surprised by how different they look in print.
I’m very grateful to have access to a darkroom and I get so much satisfaction in seeing my images almost come to life in print instead of just looking at them on the screen.
I’ve also enjoyed messing about cropping my images to see how different it can make my photo look.
Needless to say, there are many more prints that I now want to develop in the darkroom to see how different they look compared to my original scanned images.
Lastly, the darkroom prints have also been scanned onto the computer using my Epson V600 scanner and they look the same as the actual print.
From my previous blog I explained that the Camera Museum in London provided me with a free roll of film when I purchased my Hasselblad camera from them.
The film they provided me with was the Ilford Delta 400 black and white film, which I had never used before.
I also explained in my previous blog that I didn’t have time to try out the camera in London and had to wait until I got back home to Brighton.
I was keen to try out the camera asap so the first photo I took was of one of my cats in my living room:
I balanced the camera on a foot stool to take this image and I was still getting used to the focusing screen so it’s the corner of the blanket which is really in focus. However, I still quite like the image and the way the corner of the blanket is nice and crisp. The exposure could be improved since my cat is really dark in this image.
The actual negative itself is marked and I’m not sure if that was because it was my first time loading film into the camera and perhaps I accidentally marked the beginning of the negative whilst loading since the rest of the negatives are absolutely fine.
I decided for the remainder of the film that I would go to Hove Cemetery since it’s nice and quiet there, which meant I could really concentrate and focus on how to use the Hasselblad.
I personally think it’s essential to use an external light meter when using the Hasselblad and I used one for most of the photos I took. I’m going to blog about the light meter I used separately.
When I took the camera outside and started to use it, I was extremely impressed by the bright viewfinder:
I’ve personally never owned a camera with an amazing viewfinder like this before. I also felt it really helped me in composing my shots.
Here are the photos I took:
This was the first time I had used an external light meter and I was extremely impressed with the results from using one.
I scanned all my images using an Epson V600 scanner and I didn’t have to ‘tweak’ any of the photos for the exposure.
For my first roll, I’m very happy with the results. I handheld the camera when taking the photos rather than using a tripod and I’m impressed with how crisp the images are. The lens is amazing.
I found the camera really easy to hold and use. It still felt fairly light to me and with the strap it just felt like I had a handbag over my shoulder.
I am so happy I purchased this camera, I definitely have no regrets and I’m really excited about shooting some more images with it. I can’t wait!
Since the beginning of my journey into film photography last April, I knew at some point, if the passion didn’t fade, that I would want to invest in a higher end film camera.
I had originally started off with my beloved Pentax K1000 as I knew I wanted a 35mm SLR camera and since this is a fully manual camera, I learnt lots about Aperture in relation to Shutter Speed and ISO with the help of the built in light meter in the camera.
Apart from my investment in some nice instant cameras such as the Leica Sofort and Polaroid SX-70 I suppose my next investment and step up into a film camera was my much loved Olympus Pen FT half frame camera. I love this camera and the image quality it produces.
In recent months I’ve been really getting into medium format photography. I really love having to think about my composition and how it can work into the square style box.
I think I must have a thing for composing a photo in a slightly different photo size as this is what I love about composing shots with the my Olympus FT.
I suppose my love of the medium format style photos first began when I bought a Diana F+ Camera cheaply on eBay.
As the months progressed I then bought another Lomography style camera, the Lubitel 166B which was originally meant to be a present for my husband as he had taken an interest in this camera but couldn’t get on with it when he tried it so I persevered and began using it.
I love the square format of the photos and I was starting to use more black and white film in it since I knew I wanted to do more darkroom work.
I always thought when investing in a high end camera it may be one of the Leica 35mm film cameras but my heart was telling me to invest in a medium format camera.
As we all know, there is so much choice in the medium format world. You can get fairly decent medium format film cameras ranging from a few hundred pounds right up to thousands of pounds.
If you had asked me in the summer of last year which high end medium format camera I would ever consider buying, I would have said the Pentax 67 which isn’t technically square but I was already in love with Pentax since owning the K1000 and thought I would love the fact the camera style and viewfinder can be used like a 35mm SLR camera.
However, I was fortunate enough to try out somebody’s Pentax 67 camera last year during a photography walk in Brighton. I knew instantly that it wasn’t for me. The main reason……because it was too heavy and big! I really struggled to hold that camera up to my eye and I knew that I would never use it or take it out with me if I owned one.
I had always thought that I would never like a ‘shoot from the hip’ style camera as that just seemed too weird to me to take a photo. However, after using the Lubitel 166B, I realised I loved taking photos in this way which I was really surprised at!
I then looked at potentially investing in a decent TLR camera and again was fortunate enough to have a friend who owns a decent Yashica TLR. However, on trying this, the dial placement just didn’t feel natural to me. I can’t really explain why as the picture quality and image in the viewfinder was much better than the Lubitel but I wasn’t falling in love with it. Also, I knew at some point I would like the option of interchangeable lenses. I know some of the TLR’s have this option but I just wasn’t feeling it.
I then looked at the various Bronica’s and Kiev’s at my local camera shop. Clocktower Camera’s had several for sale but again, on looking at each one, I just wasn’t feeling them.
I’m sure there are still loads and loads of medium format cameras I could have tried but by this point I started to consider the Mamiya and Hasselblad cameras.
Whilst I think the Hasselblad camera looks extremely stylish and I love the modular system, I really thought it wouldn’t be the camera for me either. Nowhere locally had one for me to try out and I didn’t know anyone that owned one although one of my friends used to own one years ago and told me how great they were.
Back in December I met up with one of my camera buddies for taking photos around London and we decided to head to the Camera Museum in Museum Street in Holborn so I could check out their Hasselblad collection as they specialise in repairing Hasselblad’s and also sell them.
The staff were really helpful in there and talked me through the different Hasselblad cameras from the more modern ones, to the V series.
Once I held one of the V series one’s (the 500 C/M to be exact) I instantly fell in love! I had seen the prices so knew I would only want to spend within the budget of the 500 C or C/M and I liked the fact they are fully manual which is what I personally look for in a film camera.
I was amazed at how light weight it was for a decent medium format camera! I was easily able to hold it with my left hand and turn the lens and fire the shutter with my right. It felt great. I loved the viewfinder which was very bright and clear, almost like looking at a television screen. The whole camera felt very natural to me.
The quality of the camera was amazing, it felt well built and not at all plastic.
I was very honest with the camera shop and admitted I didn’t have the funds to buy one there and then but that didn’t seem to bother them with the time they took going through the various camera’s with me which was lovely and helpful of them.
Even if I had the funds there and then I would have held back from purchasing one because I knew I needed to do more research. Also, the 500 C/M model from 1981 that I tried in the shop wasn’t in the best of condition cosmetically (although the price they were selling it for reflected that).
I had a lot of chats with different people about the Hasselblad cameras including one of my ex photography tutors who is also a professional photographer and does freelance work for companies such as Sunseeker Yachts and I really like his photography so I value his opinion. He knows my style of photography and also knows you can take photos hand held with this camera and he couldn’t find a bad word to say about this camera either. He also checked with a friend who owned a 500 C/M for quite a number of years before moving to digital and he also only had great things to say about the photo quality and use of the camera etc.
My ex tutor did say that for several hundred less the Bronica’s are quite good but he said I need to go with what I’m feeling and if I settled for a Bronica, I would only end up pining for a Hasselblad so would never be quite happy with the Bronica and I agreed with him.
I could have easily bought a Bronica since I had sufficient funds for one of those but I decided to be patient and save for the Hasselblad.
By this point I had also decided the Mamiya wasn’t for me. Although I had done much research on the different models and heard great things about those camera’s which I know are used by a lot of professional film photographers today. I suppose we have to just listen to what we would like rather than what everyone tells us is best for us and what we should like. Quite frankly my gut told me, buy the Hasselblad.
Through out January, I sold off a load of stuff I’d been meaning to sell for the past year and now I finally had an incentive to do it.
By last week I had made enough money to buy a Hasselblad 500.
I had already decided in my research that I wouldn’t buy a 500C, purely because I wouldn’t be able to change the viewfinder myself and I knew this may be something I possibly would want to change for a particular type of project at some point so it was going to be a C/M model.
I next had to decide on the type of lens as I initially liked the look of the original Chrome lenses but after further chats with the guys at the Camera Museum I discovered that they don’t have the special multicoated layer on the lens so I wouldn’t get as much contrast on clouds etc as I would with a later C T* lens (which are black not chrome). There is also a slightly later lens known as the CF and I was told the image quality wouldn’t be any different to the C T* but it just turned differently so it was personal preference on what style I would like out of these two. The CF lens is also a bit bigger which put me off and is also slightly more expensive so as a newbie to the Hasselblad system, I was quite happy to have a C T* lens when I bought my camera. I also knew for now, I would be happy with the standard 80mm lens since I had tried out the different size mm lenses (from the more zoom type to the wider angle) at the shop and got an idea of the scope of photo I could take through each one.
I already knew that I wanted to buy my camera from the Camera Museum, as they had been really helpful. Also, they provide new light seals with every second hand camera (which would normally cost £80 plus VAT if you asked them to do these for one of your Hasselblad’s) and they provide a 6 month warranty in case of any failures in the camera.
Since I would be spending quite a bit of money, I knew I wanted a warranty. I also knew I wouldn’t be getting any bargains on eBay or Gumtree as they were all going for the same price as what the Camera Museum was charging, if not more on some of them!
Whilst saving for one, the Camera Museum had listed a 500 C/M model for sale which was in a condition I was happy with (unlike the one I viewed in December). This particular model was from 1978 which again, I was happy with. After having a chat with them on Wednesday, I got on a train that morning and tried it out. I spent over an hour with them going through the workings of it. I was extremely impressed by the overall condition, especially the back curtains as you can see in the photo below:
We went through all the shutter speeds which seemed to work perfectly. I was also warned about potentially jamming the camera if I take the lens off and it’s been fired and the camera hasn’t etc so I need to make sure they all match before putting back together. So currently I’m a bit scared of accidentally doing this but hopefully I won’t!
Needless to say I purchased the camera along with a nice original thick Hasselblad strap in excellent condition to give me good support as again, the joys of visiting an actual shop rather than buying the camera online meant that I could try out various straps. I had liked the look of the thin leather strap but after trying it, the camera easily slipped off my shoulder and it just didn’t feel that well supported so I knew that I would need the thicker strap.
They also gave me a free black and white film which I loaded into the camera in front of them so they could make sure I did this properly. It also meant I was ready to go and shoot. I would have loved to have taken some shots in London but I had to rush back to Brighton on the train before rush hour ensued so I used the film locally.
I’ve since got the roll of film developed and am extremely happy with the results. I’ll be blogging about this separately since this blog is really long so thank you to everybody who has taken the time to read it.
For anybody interested in purchasing a Hasselblad, accessories or who would like some more information about the camera or getting a repair done, their website is:
Natalie Smart Film Photography 