Tag: nikon

Scanning my own film

Since I got the F5, I’ve unsurprisingly been shooting more film. I just shot a roll of Cinestill, which is motion picture film that they’ve done something to so you can shoot it in a film camera and develop it C41, which is the standard developing process for color film since forever.

Cinestill has some troubling corporate tendencies. I am not dismissing these, but when I bought the roll of film I was not really aware of them. I’m probably not going to shoot any more of their film, but I am ALSO not that interested in discussing the company.

I recently picked up a used Valoi Easy35 from someone on the Dupont Photo Walk and I’ve been using that to scan film. It’s great for scanning my dad’s and my grandfather’s old stuff, but I’m struggling a bit to get results I’m happy with for my just-shot film.

So here’s a shot from that roll processed with negpy, a really nice piece of software focused on taking DSLR-scanned negatives and making nice positives out of them.

And here’s the same RAW file converted using DarkTable. DarkTable has about a billion more features than negpy but it also requires you to know how to use those features, which I largely do not.

I really want something in between these two. I want the pop from the negpy image with the detail from the darktable image. I get that sometimes you have to choose one or the other and that’s ok, but I feel like these are both the extremes and what I want is in between and it seems reasonable that I should be able to get that.

What I really need to do is learn how to use DarkTable, but the documentation is meh and that’s a lot of work, and I’m lazy. So lazy.

Something I’ve wanted this entire century

I am so pumped right now. Years ago, working at Ritz Camera in college, I dreamed of a Nikon F5. It was Nikon’s top of the line pro camera. It cost more than I could imagine ever affording. Ritz didn’t carry Leica or Hasselblad or any of the super high end cameras so this was the best I could get my head around. It was even worse because we had them in the store, just taunting me. It was so close I could touch it. I DID touch it, but I couldn’t take it home.

The other day one popped up on eBay listed as not working. There are a lot on eBay that are not working – I’ve been following for a while. The most common way they are broken is the battery holder no longer makes a connection. I figured I could take a chance – that’s something a bit of vinegar and a stiff brush can fix. And if I’m wrong and the battery holder is good but the camera isn’t, the battery holders are kinda rare and go for a nice amount themselves. Plus I could take the camera apart and that would be kinda fun (even though there’s next to no chance I’d get it back together again).

So it arrived yesterday and I popped in some batteries and THE CAMERA WORKS. It just works. I think the seller just had no idea what he was doing and didn’t bother finding someone who did.

My new toy with some old accessories
A Nikon F5 on a light green table flanked by three lenses

Today I bought a roll of film. I’m not getting TOO excited about it because it still may not work properly – I can’t tell if the shutter is actually functioning properly beyond it SOUNDS right. I don’t even know how long it takes to get film processed these days, but I’m going to find out very soon!

New film from Kodak

“To help meet the growing demand for film, Kodak is excited to announce the launch of two color-negative films, KODACOLOR 100 and KODACOLOR 200, in 135 format rolls,” Kodak said in an Instagram post. “For the first time in over a decade, Kodak will sell these films directly to distributors, in an effort to increase supply and help create greater stability in a market where prices have fluctuated.”

https://www.404media.co/kodak-is-selling-its-own-film-again-for-the-first-time-in-a-decade

Now, I wonder, did I accidentally sell my film cameras with my dad’s estate, or are they in a box somewhere in my house? I honestly don’t know. For a long time after I stopped using them (or shooting film at all), I kept my grandfather’s Konica, the camera I learned on, and my Nikon N70, the first SLR I purchased myself (woo Ritz Camera employee discount in 1998). But I do not know where they are NOW.

I have thought about buying a Nikon F5 – that was my dream camera back then, Nikon’s flagship, and WAY out of my price range as a poor college student. But now you can get a nice on for less than $500 on eBay. The question is whether I would actually use it, or just use my Canon mirrorless. Which I ALSO do not use nearly as much as I should.

Back to the article – in general I find discussions of which film to use kind of tedious. I shot a lot of Fuji back when I was shooting film, but that was largely because they had a deal with Ritz so it was cheaper than Kodak. I then told myself that Kodak color was too warm, which I probably made up so that I was making an artistic choice rather than a financial one. It would be fun to shoot a roll or two of Fuji Velvia, which is now about $1/frame, not including developing. I’d have to be really careful with it.

All that to say I don’t really care what film Kodak is packaging now – just the fact that they are expanding film production or even just upping marketing of film is good for people who shoot film or are considering it.

Lastly, the link is from 404 Media, of which I am a paid subscriber. They do good journalism (largely more important stuff than this piece).

A baby present for me


Originally uploaded by thetejon

I’ve been talking about this forever, and with birthday money from my grandmother burning a hole in my savings account an unexpected bonus from work, plus the imminent arrival of the new baby, I could no longer resist. To top it all off, it was on sale at Penn Camera through tomorrow. And the whole operation is wife-approved because she wants to steal the old camera. It doesn’t really get any better than that.