Donald Traxler's Poetry: 04/01/22

Friday, April 1, 2022

We See Different Realities / ᎢᏧᎳ ᎪᏩᏔᏎ ᏄᏓᎴᎿᎥ ᎤᏙᎯᏳᏄᏍᏛᏗᏁ

My Return to Film Photography - XVII

I recently shot some tests with Ilford FP4 Plus, one of my old favorites now newly rediscovered. I shot a roll of 35mm, and a roll of 120. As far as the 35mm is concerned, these were tests not only of the film, but also of a newly-acquired Canon AE-1 body, a Canon 50mm f1.8 normal lens, and a Tokina 80-200mm f4 zoom lens. I am pleased to say that all passed with flying colors.

Here are a few samples of the 35mm tests:

The above was shot with the Tokina zoom, at 80mm. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Tokina. I shouldn't have been surprised--it was always a good brand.

Tokina zoom, at 200mm.

This one was shot with the Canon 50mm f1.8. I like it, but I'm a bit partial to my f1.4. Good to have both, though.

This is with the 50mm f1.8 normal lens.

Believe it or not, this is our backyard. I'm a naturist, so lots of trees for privacy. Shot with the normal lens, obviously.

When I shot this one, I still had not improved my lighting setup. I have since added another 60w quartz-halogen for the head. Even so, I have been getting consistently beautiful negatives from the FP4 Plus. I always preferred it to HP5+ or TX, and still do.

Now, here are a few samples of the 120 tests, taken with my vintage 1965 Mamiya C33 Professional and its 80mm normal lens:

With this shot in proximity to the previous one, we can compare the results with 6x6cm and 35mm. It's pretty clear to me that the 120 negative has the advantage. I also like the subtle quality of the 80mm Mamiya-Sekor lens. It's really my favorite lens, and when combined with the excellent FP4 Plus film, great results are possible (and probable).

It's a wonder that these exercise shots came out at all. My air release is basically unusable with the C33 (nor would I have had a free hand for the bulb), so I was using a makeshift wire release, threaded through the legs of the tripod and wrapped around my left leg. It had the potential to create camera movement, and may have done so, especially in the second shot. The things that we have to do, for the sake of art!

Well, we've come full-circle, to the tree with the thermometer. In this case, I prefer the 35mm version (shot with the 50mm f1.8 normal lens). But they were taken at different times of day, with different shadows, and the longer focal length of the Mamiya lens results in shallower depth-of-field.

Hope you've enjoyed this instalment of our series. In a future instalment, I'll be going back to the subject of infrared photography, which I quite like. In the meantime, shoot film, if you can!

(to be continued)