For over a century, Kodak has been at the forefront of the Film Industry. Whether it's an action filled Hollywood blockbuster or the holiday snaps you took on your travels before the digital revolution, more often than not they were shot on Kodak film. If you look back at the history of photography things got interesting when George Eastman decided he could make his own photographic plates cheaper than he could buy them and set up his business on the third floor of a building on State Street in Rochester, New York. It wasn't long before Eastman was making a few bucks from his enterprise and he took a gamble on buying the patents for a new product called "Roll Film", invented by David Houston to use in camera's designed by his brother Peter Houston, and began to sell both film and the camera's to shoot it with under the Kodak brand name in 1888.
This was the beginning of film photography as we know it today. Kodak has designed and sold a multitude of films, both black and white and colour that, over the last century and more, has been used by amateur photographers like me and Oscar winning film makers like Quentin Tarrantino. Motion Picture film is basically the same as Stills film that has a protective layer called "Remjet" added to help it survive the rigourous environment inside a movie camera. Kodak Vision 3 250D is one of Kodak's current Motion Picture film stocks and I was convinced to give it a try by a chap named Skyler King. He absolutely loves the cinema and cinematography and he was extolling the virtues of Kodak Vision 3 250D to such an extent that if he can't shoot 250D, he doesn't want to shoot film. Period. That's a bold statement and convinced me I had to give it a try. I found a supplier here in the UK, Nik & Trick Photo Services in Folkstone Kent who also develop the film too and promptly ordered 2 rolls.
I shot the first roll last autumn using my Olympus OM-2 and was impressed enough with the autumn colour tones to save the other roll until spring to capture the local cherry trees in bloom. I know the trees put on a great display each year and boy was I in for a treat! I had been keeping my eye on the cherry trees trying to time my roll of film to capture them as they had begun to come to full bloom. Unfortunately for everyone, lockdown had just begun and I couldn't spend as much time as I wanted and shot my roll of Vision 3 over two days in early April 2020. The weather had been glorious for a few days, making it just right for cherry blossom. I can see why the Japanese people put cherry blossom into their cultural identity. From the "Sakura Zensen", the cherry blossom front, to the picnic beneath the blossoming trees, Japan makes the most of the delights of spring and I was no different. I loaded the roll of Vision 3 250D into my Nikon F801 and went for a walk. We were allowed out for an hour of exercise per day and I made the most of mine.
The local cherry trees had put on a grand display this year and I said in my previous blog that the drop in air pollution caused by the lockdown over corona virus would prove to be beneficial to woodland and forests around the world. Oxides of nitrogen from vehicle exhaust emmissions in our towns and cities are down by at least one third and the lack of aircraft in the skies has also seen a huge drop in CO2. You can smell the difference in the air as nature recovers from our addiction to fossil fuels. Clear skies, glorious sunshine and less pollution will give nature a much needed chance to undo our damage. It may not be enough to totally reverse the damage we have already done, but it shows us that we can change our ways and save our planet for future generations to enjoy cherry blossom long after we are gone.
Ecology and Photography go hand in hand, a few images shot either digitally or on film gives our descendents a look at how we lived and what the world around us looked like. The quality of images shot on Kodak Vision 3 250D will give my descendents a true colour picture of what life looked like today. It's also worth mentioning that all the Hollywood film studio's have recently signed a deal with Kodak to ensure the supply of film will continue for many years to come. When you next go to the cinema, take a moment to see what film the movie was shot on and I will be surprised if it wasn't one of Kodak's Vision 3 films.
I have only tried 250D, but Kodak also make 50D, 500T and 200T. I am reliably informed that Vision 3 500T is what Cinestill convert to 800T by removing the remjet layer from the emulsion to make it easier for home developing. If you do decide to give Vision 3 a try, don't take it to a lab that only does C41 processing. They will hate you forever as the remjet layer makes a mess of the C41 processing chemicals and the machine and it takes ages to clean out. It can also ruin your negatives leaving you with nothing. Vision 3 requires bespoke processing that is best left to a specialist. Thankfully there are still folks out there that have the skills and the equipment to make your images look their best.
I bought mine from Nik & Trick Photo Services and sent it back to them for processing. So far I have been more than happy with their services and will continue to support them. Without the small independent labs we would be a bit stuck, not everyone has the skills or the room to develop their own film. Independent Labs like Nik & Trick here in the UK have kept film photography viable, particularly quirky and specialist film. The current lockdown has made it harder than ever for them all to continue in business. Wherever you are in the world, support your local lab and show the world that photographers stick together in times of strife.
Nik & Trick - https://ntphotoworks.com/
Here's a few autumn shots and a riot of spring cherry blossom shot on Kodak Vision 3 250D motion picture film. I used my Olympus OM-2 for the autumn shots and my Nikon F801 for the cherry blossom and none are edited. I have also put all my cherry blossom images on Flickr.
Flickr - https://flic.kr/s/aHsmMWCuAz
No comments:
Post a Comment