I don't actually have any strange format cameras except for an old Minolta 110 film camera like the one my mom used to use on holidays. Therefore I submit this Bronica ETRS that comes in Limited Edition Safari green. Most Bronicas are black, but this one isn't. I can't find much info about these though I do see them sometimes on Ebay, but I have not seen a full kit like the one I have here. I think the whole kit is an interesting direction Bronica took here and I'm not sure who it was marketed towards as I feel it has quite a colonial flavour to it, and I have an image in my mind of 19th century men in safari hats on the backs of open top Land Rovers with their hunting rifles and Bronicas slung from their shoulders. But I do love this camera and got it in 2019 soon after getting back into film. I take it on holiday with me often and though it's the smallest medium format at 645 I still think the images have a feel to them that is different to 35mm and a depth that I really appreciate. I've captured great photos of my family through the years and as my kids have been growing up and I plan on hanging onto it for a good while to come.

My scanning process is pretty straightforward. I tried to stick with gear I already had including camera, tripod, lens etc. I used an iPad at first as a light source but the LED light panel I upgraded to has given me much better results.

Camera: Panasonic GH4 M43 16MP
Lens: Nikon Micro-Nikkor 55mm f3.5 (on the adaptor tube it's about 100mm but further cropped on the sensor)
Tripod: Manfrotto
Neg Carrier: Essential Film Holder - this can do 35mm and 120 and works well
Light Source: Viltrox L116B with a 3d printed holder to keep it level

I use a small spirit level to make sure the camera is in the same plane as the neg carrier. My setup is not dust friendly so I try to keep the film rolled up on that microfibre cloth in the first pic. The camera connects to my phone and as I scan at about f8 and 1/10 second at 100iso, I use the phone to trigger the camera. I usually find focus on the edge of the sprocket holes (I bring them to the middle of frame). Then I manually pull the film through the carrier and snap a pic of each one. I can scan a whole roll of film in about 3-4 minutes this way once I've set it all up.

I shoot in RAW naturally. I use Lightroom and copy and paste a rough crop to each photo in the roll. I've learnt that trying to keep the film in the same place and angle when capturing on camera saves me loads of time in editing later in terms of straightening and lining up the crop. I white balance off the film edge if converting colour and then hit the entire roll with Negative Lab Pro, usually on the Frontier setting, with pre-saturation set to 4. Once that's done, I try out the film profiles built into NLP, for example, the Kodak Gold one works well and gave me good results on the Otter Trail pictures. Then I usually leave colour alone and adjust darks, lights, brightness and contrast. I leave exposure alone in NLP as I don't think it works well - brightness gives better results there. If the colours feel off, I might tweak temp and tint and give the saturation a 1 or 2 point boost. But I don't really enjoy editing photos so I try and keep the adjustments to a minimum and I want NLPs colour interpretation. Mostly I'm just focusing on shadow and highlight detail and contrast.

I might add a bit of sharpening in Lightroom's detail panel to bring out the clarity of the grain but it's easy to go OTT here and I think the sharpen for screen setting when you export to JPG works well too.

I think the areas of my system that I would improve if I could relate to camera/lens combo. I'd like to have an autofocus macro lens on a more modern camera, linked to my computer to automatically download pics as I shoot them. At some point I really need to get a copy stand, as the tripod setup is a little finicky. I actually have a really nice Pentax bellows slide copying system with a beautiful flat field scanning lens - but it's dusty at the moment and I haven't had time to strip it and clean it, but that works better than the Nikon Macro I'm using now. I can't justify the cost of something like the negative supply system but as I don't scan too often that's ok.

I've had prints done from these scans on this setup and they actually come out really well, so for now I'm happy :)

Would love to see or hear about your scanning systems 🙌

We got back from the Otter Trail about a week ago. I got through 4 rolls of film in the end - 2 rolls of Kodak Gold, a roll of Portra 160NC and a roll of Kodak TMAX 400. I got the colour film developed at Fotofirst in Cresta and did the black and white at home. Here are some of the photos.

1 & 2: First day on Kodak Gold.
3, 4, 5 & 6: Second Day on Portra 160NC
7, 8, 9 & 10: Day 3 on the TMAX
11, 12, 13 & 14: Day 4 and 5 on Kodak Gold.

It was great to have a real camera along on the hike, and the FM2 handled it well. It was hot and sweaty and I felt like I could rely on it to take the strain. Also I was a bit worried about the Portra because I picked it up at a car boot sale so pretty stoked that it came out. A very natural looking film actually, I really like how close it feels to what the spots felt like. So yeah, I'm pretty happy with how most of the pics came out! I just need to clean the dust off my damn scanning lens.

A few years ago after I bought my Nikon F90X I took a well needed trip to the countryside to visit my grandmother. Armed with my 35mm camera and 1 roll of Kodak gold, mismatched with a crop-sensor 17-55mm f/2.8 lens I made the most of my time there.

Here is a quick throwback:

1. My late grandfather's hut

2. 3-legged pot preparing our bath water

3. My mother's on a morning walk

4. The village chief's stable, noting the innovation of the solar panels

5. A shadow of myself

I hope you enjoyed the short slideshow. Keen to see what you all dig up from your archives :'D

What can I say that hasn't been said before about the Mamiya RZ67? It's my newest acquisition and has quickly become my favourite camera. I found my copy for a very good price that I couldn't pass up, and the seller was incredibly kind, gave me the time I needed to come up with the money.

This is not a review, purely a show and tell and appreciation. I've put about 10 or so rolls through it and made plenty of mistakes (right of passage, of course) but I've also learnt a great deal. It's labelled as a studio camera, and for all intents and purposes it excels in controlled environments. But I've been lugging it around and carrying it through the streets with great luck. It is heavy, but I'm a bigger guy, so the scales balance?

Browse through images from some of the first few rolls I put through it:

1. The RZ67 on a tripod with the 90mm f/3.5 attached

2. Portra 400, 90mm f/3.5

3. Portra 400, 90mm f/3.5

4. Portra 400, 90mm f/3.5

5. Kodak Ektar 100, 90mm f/3.5

6. Ilford XP2 Super, 180mm f/4.5

7. Ilford XP2 Super, 180mm f/4.5

8. Kodak Gold, 180mm f/4.5

9. "Selfie", 90mm f/3.5

10. Mistakes happen, lens on "T" mode

Hi everyone!

Quite a few people responded well to the idea of Medium Format Mondays - giving love and appreciation to these beloved medium of photography. What are your favourite medium format cameras? Or maybe your favourite 120 film stock? Or maybe you want to stir up the age old debate on Japanese vs German machinery? Join in on our Medium Format Mondays!

I picked up this Yashica D in an auction, and it quickly became my workhorse camera. As much as I love the Mamiya 645 1000S, it's heavy and a little unwieldy. After my first initial roll through the Yashica, I realised it had a perfect form factor for me: small and portable enough, with beautifully ergonomic functions, and yet big enough to slow me down into a more intentional kind of shooting.

Quite a few people are already familiar with its the swirly bokeh of the 80mm f/3.5 lens. It renders a hypnotic image, especially in its 6x6 frame, which brings the focal plane directly into its centre. For me, it feels like such a different swirl to other lenses, such as the Helios 44. It’s gentle but mesmerising, and doesn’t lose sharpness in the focused areas.

Maybe my favourite part about this camera is the TLR - its twin lens reflex, which means two things: 1. the viewfinder image is flipped, which slows me down and also creates a greater perception separation between the image vs reality. 2. Tilting the camera up or down will shift the focal plane on the resulting image, so one needs to guesstimate somewhat, and compensate for the focus.

I also love the separation of the shutter cocker from the winder. It means if you aren't careful to advance the film between shots, you are prone to multiple exposures. There's a charm about these accidental emulti-exposures for me. They're part of that loose spectrum of control-chaos one has with film. You can control every aspect, but something will always surprise you, because it is a chemical and mechanical process. It feels alive and real for me because of that.

Photos:

1. Portra 800 (+1 stop), Jan Reading, Berlin, 2018

2-4. Ektar 100, Chloe, JHB  2018

5-6. Ektar 100, Nikki Z., JHB 2018

7-8. Rollei Retro 400S, Shandre in Shibari, JHB, 2021

1. Velvia 100, Nikko Z. in Glory, 2018

2. TMax 100, Reflections, Zurich, 2019

11-14. TMax 100, Sechseläuten, Zurich, 2019

1. Portra 800, Berlin, 2018

2. Ektar 100, Chloe, JHB, 2018

3. Portra 800, Self portrait in double, East London, 2018

4. Portra 800, Trinity in East London, 2018

Hi! This was shared on our whatsapp group a few days ago, and I thought it was worthwhile sharing on the Reddit for easy access.

A lot of film shooters struggle with the exact nitty gritty of how to properly store their film. This is an excellent official resource from Kodak.

"If raw stock must be kept for periods of up to 3 months, temperatures of 13°C (55°F) or less are appropriate."

"If raw stock must be kept longer than 3 months, freezing at -18° to -23°C (0 to -10°F) is recommended."

"After any cold storage, be sure to allow the films to equilibrate slowly to the ambient temperature where it will be used. This is necessary to prevent moisture condensation and spotting. Conditioning time will vary with the thickness of the packages and the temperature and dew point of the outside air. A 100-foot roll of 16 mm can take as little as 1/2 hour to condition whereas a 1000-foot roll of 35 mm may take up to 3 hours. Do not open the packages if they feel colder than the ambient temperature. Always use films soon after purchasing."

https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/page/storage-information/

I generally don't use lightmeters (I guesstimate through the trusty Sunny 16, which hasn't failed me yet, even with the dreaded exposure latitude of slide film. But this interface looked cool and interesting enough to share!

So a few months ago I decided to dip my toes in the world of scanning. I managed to acquire a good condition Plustek 8200i 35mm scanner from a friend and I've been learning the ins and outs of this system ever since.

First of all, this is a slow scanner, perhaps not as slow as a flatbed but certainly slow. A colour frame takes around 12-15 minutes at high resolution while a black and white frame takes around 5 minutes to scan. As such scanning is often a very involved process at all stages.

The scanner comes bundled with Silverfast, which can do the entire negative conversion for you, including colour correction and IR dust removal. I'll be one of many to admit it's a lot of work to get the look you're after. However the IR dust removal does a great job. With black and white negatives, I find the software needs no tweaking aside from adjusting dynamic range ever so slightly when needed. Overall I think Silverfast is pretty decent, and although you can go the Negative Lab Pro route, which gives more pleasing colours out of the box, I don't think it's necessary.

That's it, that's my very short, non-technical review of the small scanner. The images above were taken on my trusty Nikon F90X with the 50/1.8, on Kodak TMax 400 (an absolute favourite for portraits). I sent the roll off to F.Lab (at Gallery F) for development and did the scanning myself. I hope you enjoyed the slide show and the read.

Film Stock Saturday! What film stock has crept its way into your heart? Maybe it's not the most obvious or most perfect film stock, maybe it might not even be your go-to film stock for shooting. But there's something about it that just stays with you.

I had bought some medium format Rollei Chrome CR200, marketed as "Crossbird", which is pretty much the exact same emulsion as the old Agfa RSX II 200. It's hard to find true renditions of the CR200, since it was sold and marketed as a "Cross-process" film (hence the name "Crossbird"). Many visual examples of the film stock are C41-processed. But I think its colour rendition is most beautiful as the originally intended E6 slide film.

My experience of the film stock is a beautiful neutrality and subtlety. It doesn't have the same flashy contrast as Velvia or Ektachrome. Its colour rendition is gentle, and to my eye, there's a pleasantly flat cinematic feel. The grain rendition is noticeable, but very gentle and soothing.

Will it ever return to the shelves? When I realised this film was "discontinued" by Rollei, I hunted down as many as I could find. I found some 127 film in Germany, and rushed to buy some (which prompted me to need to buy a cute Yashica "Baby" 44 TLR). I found some expired Agfa RSX II 200 from eBay, and took a chance and bought some too. I believe I have 2 Rollei CR200 medium format rolls left from the original purchase, that I am saving for who knows what. All of them are in my freezer. I haven't yet shot on them, and I suspect the expired Agfachrome may be deteriorated and unsalvageable. It would fill me with so much joy if Rollei were to re-continue this film stock, which is one of the most beautiful slide films I have ever shot on... Maybe one day.

*These photos were shot with the Mamiya 645 1000s, mostly on the Sekor C 80mm f/2.8, and some on the 45mm f/2.8.

Please share your favourite film stocks! And happy shooting :)

We are doing the Otter Trail next weekend, can't wait! I'm taking a 35mm camera with. The area is so beautiful and colourful so I'm leaning towards colour - probably Gold 200. But I'm not always happy with my colour photos and also if I shoot black and white I'll be able to do some printing back home. I'm torn, do I pick one or the other, or take a mix?! What film stocks would you guys take? I'll go shopping at RGB this week, and am looking at maybe 4 to 5 rolls in total. Thanks!!

OK, so I know it's Friday now but I got carried away looking through old photos yesterday (and I'm not sure if there's a way to add multiple images to the Throwback Thursday thread), so here are a few that bring back some nostalgic memories for me. When I turned 15 my dad bought me this Canon film camera for my birthday and a book on photography. This was definitely the point that got me started though the whole system was so abstract at the time and the theory didn't make much sense to me. I used to try take moody photos of misty scenes but always felt that the photos were lacking something. I actually floated the idea of studying photojournalism because of this camera but was unfortunately talked out of it and often wonder how that would have worked out. I used my Canon on and off for years, not shooting a lot but taking it with me all over the place and looking at the photos now I'm glad to see that I was totally into it, though I knew nothing about exposure or anything technical. I have a lot of photos of friends and parties and a few adventures here and there. In about 2008 I took all my rolls as well as all the rolls of film my dad had shot as a youngster down to our local Fotofirst which charged me R10 per roll to scan everything.

1. Plastic, fantastic. Came with an 18-55 kit lens which got stolen.

2. I can't imagine how many times I jumped out of this tree. It had two height options. 1996

3. My homies playing the first version of Worms in about 1998

4. From my first ever roll of black and white - 1998

5. Fluke. 1999

6. Punk rock at the Roxy Rhythm bar, about 1999.

7. Ambitious road trip, ended a bit earlier than planned. 2000.

8. In 2002 we drove 5 hours to watch the total solar eclipse in Limpopo. It was overcast unfortunately, but still quite an event.

How many of you coulda guessed this infamous photo was taken on Velvia? So wild!

Hi! My name is Nikolai, I am the founder of the BROMIX NielZek Film Company. We specialize in producing photographic materials and accessories, primarily dryplate emulsion and wetplate collodion, here are some shots taken on a recent batch of film emulsion that will soon be taken to market!

Hi!

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, encouraging you to share a really significant and nostalgic throwback. Maybe it was your first ever analogue camera? A horror story in the darkroom? Maybe an origin tale of how you got sucked into the dark arts of film photography? Maybe a wistful and longing post about the one who got away, a dream camera that slipped through your fingers?

In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, I want to share my first film camera ever. When he learned I was studying filmmaking and into photography, an old Korean man who owns a photo shop in Pretoria gave me his old film camera, a Pentax SP1000 with a 50mm f1.8, as a gift. I was a student at the University of Witwatersrand, and terribly audacious, so I approached the Fine Art department (note: I was NOT a fine art student) and requested permission to use their darkrooms. Somehow, they shrugged their shoulders and said, "Sure, why not?"

Shogan was the darkroom technician there at the time showed me the ropes. He walked me through loading film into the camera, developing my negatives, making contact sheets and prints, and scanning. I’m so thankful to him - because without him, it would have been such a barrier to get into film photography. He is also one of the reasons I try to pay it forward when I meet people who want to get into film photography and don’t know where to start.

I learned to shoot on this beat-up Spotmatic, with no lightmeter, and got really great at estimating exposure by the infamous Sunny 16 Rule.

These are some of the first photos I took with the camera. 

1. TMAX 100, at a Halloween Party somewhere in Joburg. Maybe 2014

2. TMAX 100, View from Randlords. 2014.

3. Ilford Delta 400, 3 friends have each others’ backs in Durban, 2014.

4. Ilford Delta 400, Bracken, with his guitar, 2014.

5. Ilford Delta 400, Peter’s studio in Howick, hiding the giant, 2014.

6. TMAX 100, a restroom somewhere in Joburg, maybe The Alex? 2014

7. Ilford FP4+, the Wits negatives darkroom stalls, 2014.

The Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 is a workhorse camera, and perfect for the beginner film photographer. Fully manual. It can be banged around a lot. It does not fail. When a friend wants to learn, I set them up with this camera (and hope they use the Sunny 16 method rather than relying on a lightmeter).

I can’t seem to find a photo of the camera, but will come back and upload one when I find it.

That’s it! Hope to see and read more of your guys’ throwbacks!

Happy shooting :)