Goodman Zone Z1 - Kentmere 100 - K&F Concept Tripod

I have been having a lot of fun lately with my new toys, they have helped me get through a bit of a rough patch caused by the winter blues and I have one more to talk about. I have a new Tripod. I needed one as the cheap bottom of the range Manfrotto I have been using for the last few years finally held up a white flag and bit the dust. I was out and about with my Goodman Zone Z1 trying a roll of Kentmere 100 medium format film and, well, the ball head on my tripod decided to flop and it took my camera with it. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

I saw it go but couldn't grab it fast enough before my beautiful Schneider-Kreuznach lens hit the deck, but thankfully I have a filter holder on it which took the full force of the fall and saved my lens. One side of the filter holder snapped off, which I don't mind, it's better than having to find several hundred quid for a new lens for my Goodman Zone Z1. The clamp on the ball head has stripped a thread and there's no saving it, it will not tighten up. I came home and went hunting for a reasonably priced tripod.

I have seen a lot of adverts on social media from K&F Concept and it seems like they have a permanent sale on. I decided to pay the website a visit to see what they have to offer. Before anyone asks, NO this is not a sponsored blog post. I had a good look at a few tripods within my budget and bought the K&F Concept K234A7 tripod that came with a BH-28L ball head and an Arca Swiss style clamp and plate to keep my camera firmly attached. A few days later it arrived and on first impression it's quite a decent bit of kit.

The tripod is made from anodised Aluminium with quick release flip locks rather than the screw locks on the more expensive models. At maximum height it is 78 inches tall, thats six feet six inches, which gives me plenty of wiggle room and folds up to a compact 19 inches. It also has a leg that can be removed and used with the centre column and ball head to make a Monopod. K&F also provided a bag to put it in and an allen key. I had to give it a try so I attached the plate to my Goodman Zone, fastened my camera to my new tripod and toddled off out in the snow to finish the roll of Kentmere 100 I had started a few days previously.

It was good to get out with my Goodman Zone again. The fall it had gave me a fright and my new K&F tripod gave me hope that it would be a while before that ever happened again. The tripod held the weight of my Goodman Zone easily and is rated to carry 10kg / 22lbs which is going to hold all my cameras with ease. Being out in the cold didn't cause it any problems either and I'm very happy with it. I have placed a link below to the K&F website where you will find many more products at reasonable prices.

 I was heading home when a chap out and about with his camera spotted my camera and asked is if it was a medium format camera. "Yes", I replied. He then asked if it was 6x7, "Yes" I replied again. He then said "I thought it was, I follow you on Instagram!" He recognised my camera and couldn't resist having a chat about it. It was nice to meet you, Will.

When I arrived home I set about developing my Kentmere 100 in HC-110 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry. I digitised it with my Nikon D610 and Tamron 90mm macro lens attached to my new tripod that held it nice and steady. I processed the photos with Affinity Photo 2 and I am pretty happy with the results despite a couple of hotspots. This was my first roll of Kentmere 100 medium format film and I wanted to have a baseline to refer to in future. I'm definitey going to use filters as spring advances and the weather warms up, I need to experiment and see what this film is capable of.

Here are a few of my Photo's from my first roll of Kentmere 100 medium format film and I have placed them all in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

K&F Concept UK
Kentmere 100 - Goodman Zone - K&F Concept Tripod Flickr Album