A bit of preamble. As mentioned in this post…
I have mentioned in prior posts that with matters concerning my Father I will subconsciously create photography related distractions and only later realize what has occurred. The last occurrence was a significant film bender over the last couple of weeks. One where I was developing nearly a roll of film a day and sometimes two. Even had one night where I was developing color and B&W film back to back at the same night. Something I typically try to avoid.
This time I only really realized what was going on when his birthday arrived over the weekend. Had somehow blanked it out of my memory until the day of. Had spent the two days before vintage digital detoxing from my film bender, but reverted right back the day of.
As usual, I brought them along as I was going about my day running errands, doing family chores, and making stops for some random pics along the way. Appropriately, for chores, my son and I were taking care of the lawn my Father loved so much for my Mother this day.
Both films were developed that night with a new bottle of Cinestill df96. The last bottle served me well,…
…but I felt it was time to move on.
I will start with the pics taken with the precious…
…and FOMA Fomapan 100. Had good luck with Fomapan 200 so I was expecting good things. And it delivered. My favorite pics from the roll below.
Result? I like it. But I think I liked 200 a bit more. May have just been the day or some other factor, but the 200 speed variant had a level of detail that made images almost jump off of the screen. These are great, but I am not seeing that same level of detail here. Fortunately, I have a second roll so perhaps my results will be more like the 20o. Not bad by any measure. Just that I found the 200 speed film to be very impressive.
Next up is my last roll of CatLABS X Film 320. Ran it through what many would say is the utter opposite of the last camera. The camera above is a legend, but cameras like this are very capable as well. Even preferable in many ways.
- Smaller.
- Lighter.
- Though lacking any ability to manipulate exposure, this is offset by this camera’s uncanny ability to nail exposure every time.
- Very easy to manual focus.
- A lens I would argue is nearly or as sharp as any other.
- All for an exceedingly affordable price.
- Not a bad looking rig either.
Development modifications from CatLABS instructions include shooting the film at ISO 100 instead of the 200 rating since that seems to play better with my preferred developer mentioned above without any adjustments in time needed.
A fine camera and film.
So… Mission accomplished. A day that Dad would have approved of on his birthday. Hanging out with my son. Tending to his lawn using his beast of burden. And capturing images along the way.
A good day.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 