Hello everyone, sorry for the slow news recently, but I’m rather occupied at the moment and rarely find the time to work on my blog. Anyways, it’s time to resurrect a long-neglected column, The Film Chronicles!
Yes, I’ve finally acquired a film scanner (Epson Perfection V330, to be precise) and spent the last three evenings scanning two rolls of film I shot in the past months: one roll of Ilford HP5+, a very popular and reputable 400 ISO black-and-white film (which I started to shoot last summer and finished only this spring …), and a roll of Fujichrome Provia 100 that I shot during the past few weeks. For your enjoyment, here’s a sample of the scanned results! (Mostly family snaps, so if you don’t care for these, please skip this post :-))
 Yashica Electro 35 GT + Ilford HP5+ 400 Continue reading The Film Chronicles | Ilford HP5+ & Provia 100
It’s been almost two weeks since I last posted a news and article roundup (– the reason being that I was first sick and the busy –), but here I am again, with some fresh stuff from around the interwebs. Enjoy!
Review: Voigtländer Color Heliar 75mm f/2.5
The Voigtländer Color Heliar 75mm f/2.5 is a very reputable short tele / portrait lens in Leica screw mount (“M39”). It has been out of production for quite some time, and has been replaced recently by the newer 75mm f/1.8 Heliar. It’s still a great little (literally) lens, and Tony from Ancient City Photography seems to like it a lot, not only for studio work.
“How Much Longer Can Photographic Film Hold On?”
… npr ask, once again. I admit, this topic has been — and is still being — discussed ad nauseum anywhere and everywhere, and we all know (or seem to know) that film is dying. This article though provides some interesting figures on current and past sales of film in the US, and gives some interesting insights.
PrintDreams PrintBrush 4×6
Did you ever dream of being able to print your pictures right away after taking them? Well, here’s the solution! The PrintBrush is a digital still camera that has a built-in ink-jet printer that allows you to print your pictures by just sliding the camera over a sheet of paper. Don’t believe it? Watch the video! The PrintBrush will hit stores soon!
I don’t know if this is real or not — but if it is, it’s most certainly one of the geekiest things in a long time!
SLR Magic x Noktor: upcoming lens details
43rumors proves to be a reliable source of information once again. After recently reporting on Noktor‘s comback as part of SLR Magic, they now provide us with the latest details on SLR Magic’s upcoming Noktor-branded lenses. So now it’s not only official that a new version of the Noktor Hyper Prime 50mm f/0.95 lens will come (same optics, slightly different housing, M4/3 and E-mount), but also will they soon release a fast 12mm f/1.6 wide angle lens for Micro Four Thirds. Go, SLR Magic!
Leica: M9 Hammertone, fiscal year 2010/11 report
Last but not least, two snippets of Leica news. Well, three actually. First, rumor has it that in a couple of days Leica may announce several new products. The coming of an M9-P style à la Leica MP is pretty certain (see also M9 Hammertone below), also that of a new 21mm f/3.8 lens. What we will also probably see are the latest firmwares for the M8 and M9.
Just announced for the Japanese market was an M9 Hammertone special edition that already features the M9-P top plate with classic engraving and without Leica logo on the front. The Hammertone edition is limited to 100 pieces for the Japanese market.
In other news, Leica have just published their report on the fiscal year 2010/11. The figures speak for themselves — sales increase to almost 250 million €. Consequently, for the first time since 1997, Leica Camera AG is going to pay dividends to shareholders. If that ain’t good news! 
Via ePHOTOzine.
Ever wondered what happens to film cartridges once the film is developed? Are they being thrown away, recycled, refilled with new film? None of that — they’re fitted with a USB flash memory!
 35mm film cartridge USB memory by newfocus
These very handsome USB memories are made by newfocus and are available via Etsy.com, who sell all kinds of different accessories.
Isn’t this just the most awesome USB memory you’ve ever seen? I find it so über-awesome, that I’m in fact just going to order one!
EDIT: Hello? Why can’t I order that from Germany?
Recently, I’ve been searching for a way to give my pictures a Kodachrome 64 look, without much success. I tried different Lightroom presets, but they didn’t bring me the results I had hoped for. So I decided to give Nik Color Efex a try … and so far — apart from running awfully slow for no obvious reason — the results look promising. Here’s just a quick conversion of a picture I took during our winter holidays, just to demonstrate what Color Efex can do.
 Leica M8 + Nokton 50/1.5 @ f/2, 1/750 sec, ISO 160 P.S.: I had also tried DxO Film Pack, with equally good results. Both softwares have the limit that they cannot work with DNG files, so you have to do some preliminary processing any way. If I can’t fix the speed issue with Color Efex, I may give DxO another shot …
Definition: A film cartridge containing a digital image sensor, to be used in analogue film cameras.
This is a concept enthusiasts were longing for since the beginning of digital photograhy. In fact, the first DSLRs from Kodak weren’t real DSLRs, but analogue Nikon SLRs equipped with a digital module. Of course, these units were bulky and unpractical, but they made it into history books as being the first actual digital SLR cameras.
 Nikon F90 SLR with Kodak DCS digital unit. Picture courtesy of Wikimedia. Shortly thereafter, the first concepts were made for fitting a digital sensor into a much smaller unit, such as a film cartridge. Some problems come in hand with such an approach, though. For one, you have to decide whether you want to create a “real” film cartridge where the sensor is contained in the cartridge and pulled out — just like film — to put it into the camera. Back in the 90ies, the technology to do this just wasn’t there. The other possibility is to create a cartridge like that used for 110 film, where the sensor is fixed in a slim shell outside the actual cartridge. This was actually tried with “Silicon Film” in the late 90ies, without much success, though. Continue reading “Digital Film” — just a fantasy?
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July 2nd, 2011, 10:29 pm | 
