A Roll Of Ektar

This week’s roll is Ektar 100, a fantastic color negative film that I ran through the M3. The Ektar sports some really fine film grain as well as fantastic color reproduction. Pretty happy with the film overall.

I’ve been getting a few questions about how I process and scan each roll. Simple answer? I take all my film to Light Waves Imaging, a full service professional lab here in San Francisco where I get all my film processed, scanned, and printed. I can even get very uncommon formats processed, like the 127 I shoot with my old Ansco. Their chemistry is spot on, and I’m always thrilled with the results I get from their services. Here are most of the shots from my latest roll of Ektar:

Leica M3 + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux | Leicameter MC | Kodak Ektar 100

Some Shots With The Nikon D600

I had a chance to shoot with the brand new Nikon D600 this weekend. It’s so new that I have no way to post process the camera’s RAW files on my computer, so the frames in this post are camera-processed JPEGs with a little oomph added to them in Lightroom.

The D600 feels just like using a slightly heavier, fatter D7000 with an FX format sensor. Typical of Nikon’s latest digital cameras, the image quality is quite fantastic, but a couple of things immediately bugged me with this camera. First of all, the AF system covers a very small center portion of the viewfinder compared to most other DSLRs, and in practice it seems a little silly selecting between the 39 AF points, all of which are sardined into that little center area.

The other thing? Maximum native flash sync on the D600 is 1/200 instead of the 1/250 I’m used to with Nikon bodies. The small flash lover in me goes “awwwwwwwwww.”

Of course, there’s a lot to like about the camera too. It’s relatively small and light weight for a full frame shooter, it’s packin’ an awesome sensor, and the price makes FX more accessible than ever before. But eh, I already have a compact full framer that I’m pretty happy with =)

Images: Nikon D600 + Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G / Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G

Going Wide With The M3

I borrowed a 21mm lens from a friend and shot a few frames with it with the Leica M3 this past week. Focusing with the rangefinder and composing with the hot shoe mounted viewfinder turned out to be a very interesting shooting experience:

The 21mm is really wide, so I couldn’t really use it for the whole roll. Switched back to my 50 Lux after a few frames:

This (above) is normally how Suki reacts when I try to photograph her.

Images: Leica M3 +  Zeiss 21mm f/4.5 ZM / Summilux 50mm f/1.4 | Kodak Portra 160

Fuji. Film.

Do you shoot film? Then why didn’t you tell me this would be so addictive!!!?!?!?

Right now I’m trying to run a different roll through the M3 each time as I get a feel for the camera. These are scans from a roll of Fuji 160s. So far I think I’m liking Tri-X the most for shooting with the M3, but this color negative film is pretty nice stuff:

Leica M3 + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux | Leicameter MC | Fuji 160S

The Second Roll Of Film

Second roll with my Leica M3, this time in black and white. This camera is way too much fun.

Next up from the lab: A roll of Fuji 160S. Stay tuned =)

Leica M3 + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux & Konika M-Hexanon 90mm f/2.8 | Leicameter MC | Kodak 400TX

The Rangefinder

I’ve been searching for a Leica M3 for a good long time, and got a fantastic deal from an original owner who purchased this beauty in Munich back in 1961. I couldn’t believe how well he cared for it. I loaded the first roll of film I could get my hands on and started shooting right away.

In the week since I got it, the camera has been everywhere with me, and I’m absolutely hooked! First roll is back from the lab, and I’ve posted a few frames from it below:

Leica M3 (single stroke) + 50mm f/1.4 Summilux | Leicameter MC | Kodak Portra 400

A Mistake Worth Repeating

Yet another roll of 127 film that I ran through my 53-year-old Ansco Cadet. I’ve been trying to put together a small portfolio of images taken with the Ansco, but it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing. I lost the last roll of film I shot with it before I could get the roll developed, and it’s pretty easy to see from the scans above that my latest roll had some issues.

Seems I was unknowingly overlapping exposures this time around. Oops! But even though I was bummed when I first saw the negatives, out of curiosity I decided to scan them anyway while preserving the overlapping frames. I must admit, I kind of like the results. Might be a mistake worth knowingly repeating

The image above shows the three complete scans that were done at the lab, and I added some crops below to show more detail:

Totally digging the multiple Suki frames here.

All Images: Ansco Cadet | Bluefire Murano 160