Today, I found a number of interesting articles on the web, and instead of posting seperately about each one, I decided to recapitulate them in a single post.
Fujifilm GF670 medium format film rangefinder reviewed by ePHOTOzine
Another review of the Fuji GF670 comes from ePHOTOzine — whom I would’ve least expected to do such a review. Anyways, they did, and it reads as though they quite liked it. Reminder: the Fujifilm GF670 is a film rangefinder camera that uses 6x6cm or 6x7cm medium format 120 or 220 roll film, has a built-in 80mm (50mm-equivalent on 35mm film) f/3.5 lens that is attached to a folding mechanism which makes the camera rather compact (for a MF camera, that is) when not in use. Except for automatic exposure, the camera is entirely manual in operation.
Exhaustive article on the Fujifilm X100 by Enticing the Light
Miserere of Enticing the Light has written an exhaustive article on the Fujifilm X100, (re-)collecting all the information that is available on the camera so far, including charts, pictures, videos and illustrations. The article also comprises a size comparison to a number of different cameras (among these the Leica X1, Leica M9 and Olympus E-P1) as well as some of Miserere’s personal thoughts on the camera. Shouldn’t miss this if you fancy the X100! 
“Sprocket Rocket” — a 35mm panoramic Lomo
Photoscala.de today reported about the “Sprocket Rocket”, a new Lomo camera that uses 35mm film to create panoramic pictures of 72x35mm size. It uses a fixed 30mm lens with two aperture settings (f/10.8 and f/16) and two selectable focal distances (0.6–1m and 1m–infinity). Shutter speeds are also limited to two options, 1/100 sec. and bulb. As always with Lomo products, this is a rather special tool, but considering the price of 80 €, probably a nice little fun toy for some.
Olympus release version 1.1 of their Viewer 2 software
On Olympus’ japanese website, a new version 1.1 of the Viewer 2 software was announced. Reminder: Viewer 2 is the successor of both Master 2 and Studio 2, Olympus’ formerly basic (Master) and advanced (Studio) picture viewing, managing and processing (JPEG and RAW) solutions. Viewer 2 offers the full functionality of the former Studio software and is available as a free download for all owners of an Olympus digital camera.
Via ePHOTOzine.
After presenting two monchrome instant films for Polaroid 600 and SX-70 instant cameras earlier this year, The Impossible Project now announced two more instant films, the PZ 600 Silver Shade for Polaroid Image, 1200 and Spectra instant cameras, as well as the PX 70 Color Shade for Polaroid SX 70 instant cameras.
According to the press release, PZ 600 is already available, while PX 70 will be available by July 29th. For more information, visit The Impossible Project.
As announced earlier, Steve Huff reviewed the Fujifilm GF670 medium format film rangefinder, which offers 6×6 and 6×7 aspect shooting on 120 or 220 roll film. The camera has a silver body, 80mm f/3.5 fold-out bellows lens and is a Fujifilm branded copy of the black-bodied Voigtländer Bessa III, which is essentially the same camera.
 Image courtesy of B&H Photo. If you’re curious about medium format film, don’t miss this review, as it goes deeply into detail and features some marvelous pictures!
Buy the Fujifilm GF670 medium format rangefinder camera from B&H Photo Video Audio!
Everytime I look at pictures taken on film, or read about shooting film instead of digital, I want to shoot film, too. And I could, as I have a film rangefinder loaded with Ilford HP5 lying around. But I just don’t do it. Why is this? I have a possible explanation.
Digital is just so versatile. You can easily push the ISO anywhere from slow to fast, you can shoot color or b&w just as your mood is, and you have instant pictures – at least to view on your screen. With film, you’re fixed to one speed setting, either color or b&w, and you have to either wait for it to be processed (and scanned), or take the time to process (and scan) it yourself. Also, you have to wait until your roll is filled with shots. With digital, you can easily take a look at (and process or publish) the pix anytime you want.
Now, I like the look of film compared to digital, I find it exciting to not instantly see the results, and I find it refreshing to stick to either color or b&w. But the ISO rating – well, that’s another story. As I regularly shoot indoors as well as outdoors, I’m so used to change ISO speed from one instant to another, that film seems so restrictive to me. At the moment, I have HP5 loaded into my Yashica, which has an ISO rating of 400 – too fast for outdoors (unless stopping down to f/5.6 or further) and often too slow for indoors (even when shooting wide open at f/1.7).
So the question is: Which film should I shoot in order to have fun both indoors and outdoors? Here are the two possibilites I came to think of:
- Ilford XP2. Nominally rated at 400 ISO, it is known to be quite flexible and can be over- or underexposed anywhere between 200 and 800 ISO without the need for push-processing. I could set the Yashica to 200 for outdoor shooting and to 500 (it doesn’t go further) for indoor shooting.
- Kodak Ektar 100. Kodak’s latest 135 color negative film, rated at 100 ISO. Said to produce very nice pictures with very low grain, great colours and great dynamic range. I’ve been wanting to shoot a roll since I heard about it. I’d have to stick to outdoor shooting, though, but this wouldn’t be much of a problem as indeed indoors I prefer digital (for its ISO versatility).
Another possibility would be to get a second Yashica body, preferrably a later model that goes up to 1000 ISO. This way, I could have one body loaded with slow color film (e. g. aforementioned Ektar 100), and the other body loaded with fast b&w film (e. g. the aforementioned XP2).
In any case, my next roll of film will be Ektar 100 – whenever I am through shooting that roll of HP5 …
Buy Ilford XP2 Super film from B&H Photo Video Audio!
Buy Ilford HP5 Plus film from B&H Photo Video Audio!
Buy Kodak Ektar 100 film from B&H Photo Video Audio!
Steve Huff, well known real-world reviewer of Leica and other desirable stuff, is currently in possession of a Fujifilm GF670 medium format film camera, on which he is going to write a review soon. In the meantime, he has posted some first sample shots, and for those who aren’t at all familiar with medium format (as myself), I suggest taking a look at these. The tonal range, detail, depth and (absence of) grain (ok, all partly due to the film used) are simply amazing. When thinking of full frame (i.e. 35mm) as the ultimate performer, we shouldn’t forget there’s also medium and large format!
Buy the Fujifilm GF670 medium format rangefinder camera from B&H Photo Video Audio!
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October 28th, 2010, 9:08 pm | 
