6x6

[Eleventee]

Lovely lovely new big negs, I forgot how nice medium format is to handle. Can't wait to shoot some of the Velvia 100 and Ektachrome 100 I've got, original slides are going to be delightful to look at! These photos are what I got back from the test roll I put through my Yashica to see if it was all working properly. I was worried about the lightmeter but it seems to be functioning decently even in tricky situations.

No editing apart from getting rid of larger dust specks.

Yashica Mat 124G
Fujifilm Reala 100

[[PHXN] New001]

Very nice, good perspectives.
In particular I like the third picture. The focus seems to be spot on and the lighting looks very good.
Well done

[Papa]

incredibly clear shots. I've always been curious about film and this might spur me to go do it. I like the shot of the shoe prints. really great texture.

[Eleventee]

Very nice, good perspectives.
In particular I like the third picture. The focus seems to be spot on and the lighting looks very good.
Well done

The focus is spot on where I wanted it in all of the photos this camera has a fine focusing magnifier lens on the waist-level viewfinder to basically prevent any focus mistakes. I agree the third is the sharpest overall though, I made sure the aperture was small enough to keep the whole image in focus.


@Papa: You really should shoot some film, it's much more rewarding and you can take more time over each shot to make sure it's aligned and composed correctly. The only thing you can't guarantee is the exact colour balance but once you understand the type of film you're shooting, you really get to understand how photography works and you can change the film you're using for each situation to suit how you want to shoot. You will learn a lot from shooting a fully manual film camera for a while, even if you revert back to digital. For example, I can now pick up most film/digital cameras and use it to take a decent image just from judging with my eye, just from being able to guess the exposure and colour balance values.

This was just a test roll but having shot a fair amount of 120 Reala before I knew roughly how it would handle each situation so you can begin to judge whether or not it will come out on the negative/print as you want.

[Rexy.]

did you develop these yourself. I've had the pleasure of using a 5x4 camera in the studio. Medium format cameras are so much fun to work with and you get some sublime detail out of them when they're used correctly. Personally if i had the money i'd shoot all of my film shots in medium format, but its just not possible on a student budget lol

[Eleventee]

I didn't unfortunately, I don't have the chemicals or right kind of space to develop colour by hand. Black and white is no problem but colour is too tricky at the moment, what with having to precisely maintain constant water temperature and stuff. I'm on a student budget and I think it's definitely possible to regularly shoot 120 film. If you use 7dayshop or similar to order your film and find a decent lab that can process at a reasonable price (per roll of 120 film I pay £1.75 for negs only, £1.50 for 35mm) then it's not actually that expensive

5x4 is a lovely format to shoot in. That really is too expensive to shoot on a student budget though, haha! The detail with medium format is more than enough for me right now though, hell, 35mm is enough and has much nicer enlargement possibilities than nearly all digital cameras at the moment. This is a fullsize crop from one of the images; it's at 1200 dpi so it's fairly high res:

[Rexy.]

great images
I love shooting in film, i've been doing digital a lot recently and the fact you can snap hundreds of images easily takes away the precision i used to enjoy with using 35mm.

[robgasm]

Great shots, love #6
Outta interest, where do you get your film developed? Ive been lookin for a cheaper MF developer near me/postal (I use a rolleiflex T from time to time), and £1.75 seems pretty good for negs! Do you scan yourself?

[Eleventee]

great images
I love shooting in film, i've been doing digital a lot recently and the fact you can snap hundreds of images easily takes away the precision i used to enjoy with using 35mm.

Thank you. A lot of people I know who shoot digital suffer from this *point click look repeat* syndrome. Just turn your camera screen off/tape it up or simply just don't look at it, and instead rely on what the lightmeter tells you, and treat the shutter button like the be-all-and-end-all button. Try to compose and expose your shots well the first time.

Robgasm, I use http://www.thevaultimaging.co.uk/ for processing but the place is only a 10 minute walk from my house so it might be cheaper on-site (plus I pay student prices which are a little less I think). They don't have the dev only prices on their website. I do scan my own negatives, using a Canoscan 8800F - it's not the best but it's good enough for smallish prints and online, and it'll do 35mm strips and mounted slides as well as 120 strips.