First off full disclosure: I skipped a roll. If you have been following along this is roll 6 in this post and I have skipped over roll 5. Why? Hubris and a bad memory. Hubris in trying to develop Fuji Acros II film with df96 monobath not listed in the instructions created by Cinestill. Bad memory for forgetting that I have done this before.
The negatives come out dark and cloudy for lack of a better description. I could have posted a few of the photos that were decent, but since it was a roll shot for fun I chose not to bother. I really like Fuji Acros and have created some images I really like with it back when I had the film developed by my local camera shop.
Why would I try such a thing? Simple. I have used Cinestill df96 with other black and white films not listed in their instructions. There are variations on the instructions, but most films are developed the same way f they are shot at bix speed. I go the intermittent agitation route (First 30 seconds and 10 seconds every minute after that.) and most films require the developer be (or near in my experience) 75 degrees for 4 minutes of development (plus 15 seconds for each roll up to 16 + rolls.).
One of those films is Agfa APX 400.
And that is the film that was used here. And we are back to our regularly scheduled program in 3, 2, 1…
Recently picked up the last Pentax 35mm film SLR ever produced, from 2003 to 2006, the Pentax *ist.
Sixth roll. With this roll I have hit another significant milestone of 200 images of and with this camera on Flickr. This puts me past the pic count of even more film cameras that I owned significantly longer. Proof, again, that for me what a camera can do is more important than the name on the body. This camera is a wonderful combination of small size,…
…ease of use, and high quality results. For lenses this time around I mixed it up between two lenses, the 28mm f/2.8…
…and for test night shots the 50mm f/1.4.
Why <36 exposures? I had found the *ist so easy to use and so fast to find, exposure, focus, and take a shot that I decided to really push it this time around. And while it did not disappoint, returning most images, I did take things a bit too far on a couple of exposures. But it did far better than any other film camera I have used. This really shows in the candid photos below, like the one captured of the man standing in the middle of the road.
Development went as well as expected.
Will sort by the lens used starting with the low light test pics taken with the 50mm f/1.4. I found that it focused at night with little issue at all. What a fun camera to use.
50mm f/1.4 low light focus test at night
28mm f/2.8
Next up is the 28mm f/2.8 that was used while running errands.
Next up are candid, on the fly pics taken with the 28mm f/2.8 where I was trying to push the limits of what the camera could capture. It did just fine, only missing one shot.
That is all for now. This little camera easily holds it own performance and IQ wise with far more celebrated cameras. That it does so in such a small package at a reasonable price point for body and lenses makes it even better. And as I have said before not a bad looking bit of kit to me at all.
WIll likely write an addendum to my initial review, but this camera has earned the top spot as my current favorite 35mm film camera.
Eric L. Woods 
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