Some impressions with Velvia 50

I recently shot a roll of Velvia 50 in my Contax T. I knew beforehand that the film is very saturated and very contrasty. What I didn’t know was that Velvia 50 is also very sensitive to correct exposure, as it hasn’t got a lot of margin for error.

As I was neither familiar with that particular emulsion, nor with the behaviour of my Contax T’s light meter in different lighting situations, many shots on that roll turned out underexposed and extremely difficult to scan and salvage.

Still, I’ve got a number of great shots and already bought another roll of Velvia 50, which I will use some time when I feel I’m going to shoot something worthy of its magnificence. For the time being, take a look at my pictures taken with Velvia 50 on flickr.

Click to see all my pictures tagged "fujichrome velvia 50" on flickr

August 10th, 2011, 4:05 pm | , | Archived | Leave a comment |

Kodak Elite Chrome = ♥

I really don’t know any good reason why I should ever use anything other than a nice film camera loaded with Kodak Elite Chrome again. Really. None. Except maybe that in a couple of years there probably won’t be no Elite Chrom anymore, if “progress” continues like it did the past years … :-(

Pictures tagged "kodak elite chrome 100" in efixphoto's photostream on flickr!

(Click the picture above to see all my images tagged “kodak elite chrome 100”!)

August 8th, 2011, 7:42 am | , | Archived | 3 comments |

Turorial video: how to load a Contax T with film

Loading the Contax T compact rangefinder camera with film is a bit difficult, and I’ve read many complaints by Contax T users that they didn’t get their camera loaded properly and ended up with a roll of unexposed film.

Since I believe to have found a simple way to make sure that your Contax T is loaded properly, I’ve made this little video to demonstrate how it is done. (This is the first video of this kind that I EVER made, so I want to apologize beforehand if it lacks somewhat in contemporary qualiy standards :-))

July 30th, 2011, 9:27 am | , , | Archived | 2 comments |

Picture of the day | July 29th, 2011

‘s go shootin’ baby! :-)

Sony Ericsson Elm cellphone camera

Still got to try Astia 100F and Velvia 100F, the latter about which I heard many good things. Sensia 100 didn’t knock me off my socks (scans will follow when I received my new scanner), so I doubt I’ll love Astia. But since my goal is to try every currently available slide film once … 😉

P.S.: I’m going to make a tutorial video on how to load the Contax T with film this week. Never done this before, so I’m curious to see how that goes …

P.P.S.: The video thing is what I haven’t done before, not loading the Contax T with film :-)

P.P.P.S.: Reportedly, dm Paradies 100 slide film is rebadged Kodak Elitechrome 100. Since I just sent in a roll of Elitechrome for processing, I’ll next shoot the Paradies to see if they’re really the same.

July 29th, 2011, 2:16 pm | , | Archived | Leave a comment |

Sad news … my Yashica Electro 35 died …

Today, I noticed that my Yashica Electro 35 GT is dead. The electronics stopped working and the shutter defaults to 1/500 sec.

I first noticed this on sunday, when I was shooting a fresh roll of Kodak BW400CN inside in dim light. The shutter didn’t sound like it was exposing long enough. Yesterday, I picked up the developed roll of Sensia 100 I shot in the past weeks, and about ten pictures, all taken inside, turned out either underxposed or plain black.

The funny thing is, pressing the “Battery check” button on the back of the camera makes the little lamp light up, so the camera does get power. However, the meter shows no reading anymore (i.e. under- or overexposure warning) — at least it doesn’t since today. Last week the exposure warning LEDs were still working.

Considering this camera cost me 30 € on eBay, I don’t think it’s a good idea to get it repaired. I may try and open it up myself, maybe there’s just a loose cable somwhere. Doesn’t hurt to give it a try.

Now, I will try and get hold of another Electro 35 (GS/GT/GSN/GTN), simply because it’s such a great camera. But I will also try and get hold of an Olympus XA, which has a slower lens (35mm f/2.8), but a great reputation and the same minute form factor as my new Contax T. I can’t use the XA in as low light as the Yashica, but these are cheap too and I really want to try one. Loaded with 40o ISO b&w film it should work in most indoors situations.

July 26th, 2011, 2:20 pm | , | Archived | 4 comments |
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