Kosmo Mono 100 35mm Black & White Film

The current COVID-19 outbreak has meant that Lockdown continues unabated for a further three weeks here in the UK. Folks are staying home, the rate of infection seems to be flattening out and hopefully, through this simple action, we can begin to see an improvement soon. Exercise for an hour a day is still allowed, but for how long is not certain as folks simply can't understand that sunbathing in their local park is not considerd exercise. I hope we can continue to exercise and get out, even for a short time, as the weather has been glorious of late. I am fortunate to have the countryside right across the road. The local farms have their access roads and unpaved trails still open to walkers and it gives me a chance to get out with my camera.

For my most recent walk I took my Nikon F801 out (yes, a blog about this little beauty is coming), and fitted my AF Nikkor 24-120 f3.5-5.6 D lens. I loaded a roll of Kosmo Mono 100 black and white film and headed off for some contrasty fun in the sunshine. Kosmo Mono 100 is a repackaged film that I believe is Fomapan 100, a film I also shot recently, and I can see the Fomapan look all over Kosmo 100. However, as there is an excellent chance I could be totally wrong about that, I will leave my conclusions to reflect Kosmo Mono and, rather than definitively nail it's origins to any specific emulsion, let it speak for itself.

100 speed film is ideal for bright sunny days, but it is also great for wide conrast, something that has kind of become my style over the last 3 years. I began shooting Black and White film with Ilford XP2 in my Pentax SP500 and accidentally shot my first roll slightly over exposed. I found I liked the result, despite my rookie mistake, and my first happy accident was an unexpected success. I have since shot several brands of black and white film, but my habit of over exposing has kind of stuck with me. Rather than find the faults with my camera's metering systems, I embraced them. After all, my SP500 is 45 years old and my F801 is now into it's 30's. C'est la vie!

Not far from my home there are old coal mines that have been reclaimed by nature since they closed in the 1950's. The mines were serviced by railway lines and those lines have been repurposed as paths and bridle ways for walkers, cyclists and the horse riding fraternity. It was down one of these old lines that I explored with the aim of finding sunlight and shadows and some rather gnarly trees. The hottest day of spring thus far didn't disappoint me as the path I followed was full of the kind of images I was after.

As spring progresses, the trees and foliage all have their own time for budding new leaves and then blossoming. My previous blog showed the local cherry trees in full bloom, but the majority of trees have yet to make their annual flower display. This was evident in the trees as I walked and I enjoyed seeing them just coming into leaf whilst others have already begun to shed their blossom. I also saw a heck of a lot of Bees going about their daily business of gathering nectar for the hive and pollenating the flowers and trees as they go. We might be in lockdown, but nature is carrying on as normal.

The halfway point of my walk was soon in sight as my destination drew near. The old mine shafts have long been flooded and have become popular for fishing. It's hard to envisage the days when the mines were in operation on such a wondeful spring day, but the contrast between what is a local beauty spot today and it's former industrial activity is quite striking. There were a few folk out and about enjoying the sunshine, but as the area is so open, we could all stay a safe distance apart, yet still say hello to each other. On the narrower paths there are plenty of places where I could step out of the way and allow others to go past and enjoy a bit of social pleasantries as they walked by.

I tried to use my 36 shots wisely, often looking at several angles before taking my shots, and I managed to get to my destination with a shot or two to spare for the pond. Apparently there are some good sized carp in the pond, but as it's been 3 decades since I last wet a line, I wasn't looking for them. I was enjoying taking in the scenery and soon heard the tell tale sound of my camera telling me the film was now all used.

Kosmo 100 is a decent 100 speed film at a reasonable price. I managed to get the shots I was looking for without having to use shutter speeds so slow that I needed to break out the tripod. When we eventually manage to ease our lockdown restrictions, I am going to use this film for some Street Photography later in the year, where I believe this film will really show it's capablilities. However, if you just fancy a walk in the local countryside on a bright sunny day, it does that very well too. Kosmo Mono 100 is available from a few retailers, but I got mine direct from the Kosmo Foto website where you can also read film camera and gear reviews plus news from the world of film photography. Thanks go to Steven Dowling for investing his hard earned cash into helping keep film photography alive. The choice of films is still decent although not as wide as it was in the heady days of film before the digital revolution. We may have lost a few players, but with folk like Steven around, the future of Film Photography is very bright indeed.