Film recommendations

[Rob Wadsworth]

Greg, it sounds as if you have the blues for film and days past. I surely can understand that. That link you supplied was very interesting and had some choice subjects.

I'm guessing that you really don't like digital emulation of film emulsions by PhotoShop or PaintShopPro?

I have played with those parameters and found the Velvia and Kodachrome to my personal liking. I haven't found it too useful in storm photography/stormscapes - as much as I appreciate its use in dealing with portrait and indoor shots. That is where I think those two excel - IMHO...

 

[Cris Schroeder]

Be aware that it's developed with the K-14 process, which is very different from the E-6 used today for reversal films. I think that processing is very hard to come by nowadays.

Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, KS (http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/) is the last lab in the world that will process Kodachrome. I wasn't aware until recently that Kodachrome is basically B&W film, and the color layers are created during processing. It's sad to see it go, but I'm thankful we still have some wonderful film to choose from. I enjoy shooting digital and can definitely understand why it has become so popular, but film needs to survive so we maintain that link to the past.

I've done a lot of shooting on Kodak Tmax 100 in the last year or so, developing my own negatives. Tmax is an amazing film and John Sexton (Ansel Adams' last lab assistant and a wonderful landscape photographer in his own right) speaks highly of it. The fine grain structure scans extremely well. I've used Tri-X and Plus-X in the past but Tmax blows them away in my opinion. Shooting B&W is a challenge since you have to train your brain to think in luminance values instead of color. Nothing more frustrating than shooting a beautiful, colorful scene in B&W, then finding out everything is the same shade of neutral gray!

What is great about film now is that we can also take advantage of newer technology. I use my Canon G9 as a light meter so I can take full advantage of the histogram. Once I meter the scene, I can dial the same exposure into the Mamiya or my film Rebel G and have almost as much confidence as a digital shot.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Interesting to see people still using film cameras. I've got a closet full of RZ/RB 6x7 (Mamiya) gear that I no longer use. If anyone wants to add to their inventory of medium format film equipment let me know. I can vouch for the care it has received. Can't have too many backs loaded and ready to go . . .

What, no takers??
These digital True Believers are a tough crowd!

Seriously - everyone here dreams of catching the perfect Money Shot. Do it with a 6x7 and you'd have something truly special.
While lugging a box-of-lead RB kit across Kansas and back will be difficult, the potential reward + glory is correspondingly great.

As with Chris, I use a hand held camera as a light meter when pursuing medium and large format efforts. My T90 ain't got no histogram, but it does have a cool multi-spot meter. You wave the camera around critical areas in the scene, taking samples as you go. On the fly, the camera displays exposure pointers on a vertical ladder representing the exposure scale, and averages them into a final exposure. The system can track up to eight spot samples, but 2 or 3 are all that you usually need. Each pointer represents a sample, and each is placed on the exposure scale at a location corresponding to the zone that sample will fall upon. You can see at a glance how wide the brightness range is, you can also move the whole constellation up or down along the ladder, using two H/S (highlight/shadow) buttons located within easy reach of the right thumb. As you do so, the displayed shutter and/or aperture (depending on exposure mode) is automatically altered to achieve the desired subject exposure placement.

I really like this setup. After taking a few spot readings and making any desired H/S adjustments, I know what how subject will appear on the negative. No need to Chimp the histogram, or worry that the camera's interpretation of the scene will differ from yours.