Now I must admit, I’d never heard of this film before, I’ve tended to avoid new and alternative Films such as Motion picture stock and simply stuck to what I know. It’s only slightly larger, as well built but so much more interesting – though I must say I miss the 45mm focal length which I prefer to 50mm and the Zeiss Tessar snub-nose looks damn cool! I bought this Contax last summer.Īnyway, browsing Nik & Trick’s website a fortnight ago while on the look out for some Ferrania P30 to try and some Rollei Retro 80s to buy, I came across Eastman Kodak Double-XX 5222. I prefer the Yashica 50mm f2 to the Carl Zeiss 45mm Tessar I used to have when I last owned (then sold) the Contax RTS II about 10 or 12 years ago. I generally look for lots of character, soft interesting contrast and OOF areas and such rather than razor sharpness. Opening aperture to focus and stopping down to meter on the M42 lenses is annoying but even with the shortcomings I’m pretty happy with the lenses I have. I’d like to get a wide angle (likely a Yashica ML) and a short tele 85mm Jupiter 9 at some point. I have the Yashica ML 50mm f2 (which I chose for it’s very compact size and the swirly soviet style out of focus areas) I really like this lens a lot (it’s my favourite standard lens of any make or type) – it has so much unique character and some M42 lenses which I also use on my two Minoltas – The Helios 44-2, Pentacon 135mm f2.8 and the Auto Chinon 35mm f2.8. I also wanted to shoot more stuff with my Contax RTS II and the odd selection of lenses I have – I don’t own a single Carl Zeiss lens for it! Recently upon purchasing the Durst Automatica I have had the B&W bug and have been really itching to go out and shoot. I’d go through phases of B&W shooting, sometimes I’d shoot a couple of rolls when the day or circumstance allowed it, or when I had a nice old vintage camera to try out and then nothing for a year or four or more. Experimentation with Film stocks to me seems like a massive waste of time and effort – I cannot afford to waste Film and am not one to set up test subjects and then spend time with it all – yes, it’s a lack of patience and/or laziness, but I like photography as I enjoy it and only photograph something I want to and which gives me pleasure (hence I couldn’t ever be a paid wedding or event photographer as I’d get bored and impatient), anyway I was happy with the Rollei films so didn’t think much of it. Now Retro 80s is a tricky film to shoot – highlights can easily blow out and there’s a lot of contrast – but get it right and the results are lovely! What it lacks though is nice delicate tonality (400s obviously has more but still not perfect) so I’ve ever been put off from shooting various scenes to assess Film as I lacked experience with other films and also lacked the time and inclination to experiment. To cut a long story short I eventually settled on the Rollei Retro 80s and 400s – I have been very happy with the results and the price isn’t sky high as on Kodak, Fuji and Ilford (I formerly loved shooting Fuji Acros 100, Ilford FP4+ and Agfa APX 400 – but when prices started to rise I started using Agfafoto APX and then once upon a time about 12 or so years ago shot a roll of Rollei Retro 80s and used that (and the 400s) exclusively ever since. My go-to Colour was Kodak Ektachrome e100vs and when that was discontinued (I still have two precious rolls in the freezer for that next exotic trip abroad where I’ll shoot it carefully) I was bewildered and grudgingly had to use the various Fujichromes until Kodak released the regular Ektachrome, which though not perfect almost had the ‘look’ I like.īut with B&W there has always been a lot of choice and prices used to be quite low and very affordable. I’ve been shooting Film for a relatively long time but I’m quite cautious when shooting it, I have my comfort zone where I have my preferred Film and stick to it – reluctant to try anything else or explore.
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