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  • Film Experiments Part 2 – Expired Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Type B

    Another post on the expired Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Type B. Following the last session, I settled on ASA6 feeling like the speed this film was sitting. Being a copy film, we also noted last session that its not got the widest range between bright and dark areas – in some ways a little like earlier digital cameras I enjoy shooting with. So with practice, I figured I’d be able to adapt with practice.

    Oh – and I purchased a new (old) camera especially for the experience – a Canon EOS 10QD. As the film has no perforations/sprocket holes, most standard cameras are incompatible. The 10QD was a reasonably early model of the ‘modern’ SLR with autofocus, autowind and multi focus points. Due to how it works, I was able to tape on a perforated leader to get it winding, and then it works fine the rest of the non perforated film! – Great. What I did fail to notice until the end of the roll was that it came with the date and time imbedded option turned on… literally who ever uses this function!?! (I know some do – but it permanently marks your negatives!) The House image above show how contrasty bright and dark can be… I worked at the image a bit to get that range! Bright just blows out in contrasty conditions.

    As I have a few other Canons, I shot this entire series on the 50mm 1.8 lens. The wide open 1.8 really helps in making the ISO6 film usable in standard outdoor conditions. Head inside and handheld even wide open is virtually a no-go… this said – the Mini above was in a well lit but indoor scenario. Just fast enough and low contrast of light… but that embedded date in this roll. Baa hahah.

    Usually due to film backing/transparency colour I make sure I convert to monochrome in editing. For this series, I kept the base as scanned. It’s got a pleasant vintage sepia tinge. Almost reminds me of old aged prints from a darkroom. Its a bit of a tricky film, but working with its limitations, enjoyable to play with!

    Oh. Where am I in the majority of this series? – Auckland’s Maungauika / North Head down in Devonport on the North Shore. I’ve featured here many times in the past. Vintage film, old war barracks – nice combo. The slightly out of focus shot on the left above had a great hunting feel to it.

    I’ve been venturing up the mountain for a lifetime now. As the years go by we are both aging. So many tunnels I used to explore have been fenced off and walled over. Dangerous drops fenced and plated over to ensure no one falls and dies. It’s for safety – but also drops some of its sense of adventure it used to have. Perhaps a bit like attitudes to war as people experienced when enlisting for adventure before facing the brutalities of reality in battles. These guns never experienced action in anger.

    So Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Type B Part 2 – completed. Not sure when part 3 will come, but I’ll mark this as a success!

  • Film Experiments – Expired Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Type B

    Recently a mate and I saw some old bulk film popping up for sale cheap and grabbed it to have a play. When looking closer and receiving it, we found it was unperforated film – Ilford Micro-Neg Pan Film Type B. Unperforated immediately created an issue – most our cameras cannot wind it (without tearing film and potentially damaging cameras)… and the bulk winder also by default cannot work. All problems. Nothing that cannot be … well solution attempted.

    Step one was the bulk winder. I first counted approximately winds to load a 36’ish shot can. Then I dismantled the winder, removing all sprocket components (and rendering the film counting unavailable). Taped over all the new light leak opportunities and put back together. Threading the bulk reel into the loader (in a dark bag) was the next challenge – a pre taped leader the eventual solution. And away loading up some reusable and old kept cans.

    The next challenge was what will I shoot with and what ISO/ASA is this old film!?

    Camera wise I settled on ,my great grandfathers Nettar 120film folding camera. I had some 120 – 35mm 3D printed adaptors in the collection and this would offer a ‘pano-like’ shooting experience. Like the bulk loader – I had to put in a dummy film and work out roughly how many turns to advance to the next frame. Over the course of the roll, it’s about 3/4 difference. I rounded to the closest 1/4 to make things easy – but the spacing is still a little all over the show.

    So what about the ASA/ISO. Thats still a discovery in development if Im honest. The Micro-Neg Pan has some quite different sensitivity characterises between bright and dull subjects. By testing, I narrowed down to ISO 1/3/6 and ‘hand bracketed’ to test. I say hand as on the Nettar virtually all the exposures anything other than wide open are via ‘B’ – which is a little tricky when different exposures are on both sides of the 1 second mark. Currently I think I will try the next film on ISO6. Some of the experiments shown here were 6 and 3. It’s not 1. In some environments it might be 12… I have film to keep experimenting on.

    A lot of these shots are messy. Marks on film that are not dust or development chemical. Its a look!

    Might keep my eye out on a small handful of 35mm cameras that don’t need sprockets for winding to the next frame. A bit of mixed info out there on the web. Its all experimentation anyway!

    Thats all for today. We have an incomming ex-cyclone pending to hit. so a weekend photowalk might be off.

  • Cattle Stuff

    A small handful of shots from the vintage Canon EOS300D ‘ ‘Cattle Stuff’.

    Rural NZ look, but within 10min of Auckland’s CBD

  • Square Cars

    Like a number of countries, NZ is currently balancing on a seesaw of trepidation to see ‘what next’ with the America Iran war/conflict/situation (whichever is the correct legal term for your jurisdiction). Depending on the metric used, we sit at about 30% increase in fuel price and no restrictions yet. End result locally – fuel costs more.

    As the price was beginning to climb last month, I took my favourite shutter machine, the GF-1 and its 20mm Lumix lens out for a stroll around a local Coffee and Cars show. Shooting with square in mind most the time and a focus on mostly yesteryear, here are some shots of the morning.

    Pop-up headlights – I noted a volume of them (unsurprisingly). Sometimes you don’t miss something until it’s gone. Due to modern crash standards, we will never see these beasties again in a new vehicle – the drag aerodynamically, snag pedestrians as they get run down, cost more to make due to extra mechanics – and often, when up, look a little ugly – but they were a style of the 70’s to 90’s era (and older).

    So much old steel. I have a particular soft spot for old British iron. Some beautiful Ford Escort’s and Anglia’s (perhaps locally known to some in my era as Angle Boxes) were present. 70’s and 80’s Japanese options also present, were amazing beasts of their time – so advanced when they hit our shores in NZ compared to the old Fords, Austins, VW’s etc.

    Ford Mercury Cougar – as a child a family member had one of them. What a great mustang alternative – and a different take on the pop up headlights mentioned. Morris Minor – almost handed over cash for a project one of them several decades ago. #27c pictured – a T-Bucket? – what a fun old machine – no wheel guards, no rollover. A box with a big motor. Radical. Tidy Toyota AE86 -Hachi-Roku.

    The Mini Car Club had a good turnout. Only a few snaps here, but featured a line of attendees next to the MX-5 club. A beautiful VW Karmann Ghia – long ago I had the opportunity to buy one, but decided it was too much work. Like many of the cars on this page all these years later – rare and valuable.

    Ha – much of this post is me just listing off cars. Thats kind of what people do when visiting car shows from one angle. Some dig deep into ‘car tech facts’ or memories. Many appreciate the visual reward of a pack of old cars that spark some memory of life/desired ownership/posters on wall… whatever the car meant to them (or does now). For the attendees, they are in a like minded breed of owners of special things that usually hold some deep connection.

    Thats all for today!

  • Through Someones Vintage Eyes – Moscow Russia & Villages

    This is the second to last of the series taken by our mystery photographer. Only one box remains for our exploration through their eyes. Today’s lot is mostly Moscow! As with the rest of the series, I can’t be sure exactly when they were taken, but am working off clues. The biggest clue is a stamp on the Agfacolour Transparencies box suggesting development in 1965. I think that checks out looking at the cars – maybe a viewer can identify better based on landmarking and developments?

    Above leading photo labelled ‘Sunbathing At Polish Customs’

    One of the many statues near Leningrad
    Russian Countryside
    Typical Wooden House Near Moscow
    Log house near Moscow
    Red Square and Moscow Museum
    Gvm Dept Store Red Square

    A lot of this series slides were labelled on the slide frame, so I have where possible written that out word for word as it was shown. Looks like the photographer and group took a bit of a road trip in some Commer Vans – the FC model if I am not mistaken. British made (on that side of the planet – also assembled by Todd Motors in NZ), there looks like no official mass importation happened to Russia – so perhaps the group had a European road trip over in them? – wish I had more of those slides!

    Moscow Starlins Grave Headstone
    St Basils Red Square
    Geoffrey & Me
    Moscow University
    Russian Domed Church
    St Basils Russian Orthodox Church
    Moscow Kremlin Walls
    Graves of Prominent Russians
    Red Square line
    Moscow Outside Lenins Tomb

    I may be mistaken, but I am pretty sure the man above is who I referred to as the ‘photographer’ in my Hong Kong series. Now, in the Russian series, he is in front multiple times so there is a unknown ‘second’ photographer! It’s funny how roughly 60 years on the dress style is not so indifferent to today in many shots. That said – I never see young men (boys) in hats like these ones anymore. A shame – they are cool.

    Moscow – Young Pioneers in Red Square
    The Kremlin
    The Stare Armoury in the Kremlin. Most of the traffic is trucks
    St Basils from across Moskva River
    Hotel and Hotel Ukraine
    Kremlin Walls

    Many of the landmarks in this era are the same tourism landmarks of today … perhaps not exactly today – its not the easiest place to travel to from the west with war and conflict both there and elsewhere as I write. But no doubt one day things will have changed and boarders will again be open. As with all places in conflict, from a purely visual architectural perspective, one hopes landmarks of the old survive into tomorrow.

    [unreadable writing] Tomb
    Spacecraft Sputnik
    Moscow University
    Bolshoi Theatre
    Moscow Lenins Tomb and Kremlin
    Lenins Tomb St Basils
    Woman Worker
    Our Guide in White

    It’s a moral and ethical challenge sharing photos of places in conflict. My perspective is I am sharing a snapshot of the time where the image came from. It’s offered from a position of historic viewing and void of political standing or stance. Is that the right thing? – I can’t say. Images and history should always be shared regardless of sides of a fence or standing. A reasonable volume of people in these photos are likely departed. What that they believed, felt and experienced are all just parts of our imagination as we look at smiles and otherwise towards the camera. My highlighted man clearly had a great trip anyway!

    Entering Lenins Tomb
    Members of the Young Pioneers waiting to see Lenin
    Red Square Gvm Dept Store
    Que to enter Red Square
    Outside Intourist Hotel

    As we near a close to this series, I pull out my two remaining favourites. I loved the headline image of the group resting with their vans, but also the two below. For the first one (labelled Moscow), I can’t quite work out how the roading system operates. Clearly there are driving lanes, but it appears there is a large concrete patch in the middle. Is it car parking? It’s perhaps just bizarre as in my part of the world, it would either be kerbed and grassed, marked as a carpark, or more likely, have a building sitting on it! I bet it’s not just wide open concrete 60 years on today!

    And finishing with another favourite. Its not a perfect focus, as is the case with several images in this lot which seem to be set to infinity not close focus – but its still a good one!

    I’ll call it ‘The Gang’ – so they know the photographer? Maybe. Older lady walking past and some joker just sitting in the sidecar of the motorbike as the rider is ??? How old does that phone box already look compared to its surrounds! Very new looking window frame on the shop. I google translated the giant many word sign. Do you know what it came back with? – Food! – Its 18 Russian characters long. I feel like Google is simplifying it for me. Food.

    It is titled in slide ‘Near Leningrad Local Bakershop’

    And thats all for today. Farewell old time Russia.

    All images scanned on the Kaiser Baas ‘Photometer Touch’ and fine edited in Darktable.