My sweet Goodman Zone Z1, how I have missed thee. I have been a busy chap the last few months concentrating on my Grandsons and have neglected my own needs, but that changed when the Summer Holidays ended and my Grandsons went back to school. I was going through my cameras and, as I mentioned last week, I kept coming back to two cameras. My Olympus 35RC and my Goodman Zone Z1. After loading my 35RC with HP5, I loaded my Goodman Zone Z1 with a roll of Ilford Delta 400 and headed out to see what I could find.
What a contrast in size there is between these two cameras. My 35RC fits neatly in my hand and my pocket whilst my Goodman Zone Z1 fits nicely in both hands and you can forget about putting it in a pocket! It's a big camera courtesy of the already existing Schneider-Kreuznach lens and Mamiya film back it was designed to use, but it's nicely balanced.
When Dora Goodman designed the 3D printed Goodman Zone Z1, she wanted to use items that were already widely available on the used market. Dora wanted the camera to be a true system camera where we, the photographers, could choose from a range of lenses to suit our needs. My Goodman Zone Z1 came with a large format Schneider-Kreuznach 90mm f/8 lens with a Copal shutter.
The film back Dora chose was originally made for the Mamiya RB67 medium format camera. This was a camera designed to shoot 120 medium format film with a photo size of 6cm x 7cm. I also have a 3D Printed 6x6 film back for my Goodman Zone Z1 that does the job very well indeed.
It took me a little while to get used to the slow and measured approach I needed to use my Goodman Zone Z1, but once I got used to the fact I had to take a Dark Slide out before taking my shot, I began making great progress with it. How would I fare after not using the camera for a few months?
The answer to that came very quickly as I took my time remembering the order I needed to follow to make the best use of my camera and renew my skills. It came back to me as I got started and my memory, despite being a little shakey, soon had me back into the swing of it.
For this roll I tended to stay with familiar compositions and the trees on the spoil heap were always in my thoughts. The bright sunshine also had me reaching for my orange filter to tame the highlights and bring some definition into the few clouds that were overhead on my walk around the local countryside. I even remembered to shield my lens with my cap in case I got hot spots in my photos and was pretty sure I had counted ten shots and not eleven.
It seemed like all too soon I was finished, I headed back home and began to give some thought to how I was going to develop my roll of Ilford Delta 400. I decided to go for 510 Pyro from Zone Imaging. I like the look of the films I have developed in it so far and wondered how Ilford's professional grade film would fare in the hands of a hobbyist.
I checked the developing times listed on the Zone Imaging website and developed my roll of Ilford Delta 100 in a dilution of 1+100 for 11 minutes at 20 celcius. I was a good lad and didn't use my stop bath, I washed the film with cold water until it ran clear and then fixed it with Fotospeed FX30 for 6 minutes.
When I took my film out of my tank to hang it to dry I was pleasantly surprised to find 10 decently exposed images with no double exposures! I left it for a few hours to dry whilst I basked in my stunned disbelief that I had ten single exposures. For a quick look once it had dried I digitised my film with my Nokia 5.3 phone camera, Pixl-Latr and led light pad.
It was when I started to process my photos with Affinity Photo 2 that my good day out started to unravel a little as my shots were not all good. I noticed a few things with coming back to using my Goodman Zone Z1 after a few months away from it. I need to work on my compositions skills and I also need to work on my digitising/scanning/whatever you want to call it.
My composition skills need refining and it's all due to not using my Goodman Zone for a while. I cut the tops of a few trees and missed my focus on a couple of shots. It doesn't seem like much, but it's the difference between a wall hanger and a shot that just doesn't make the grade. I know what caused it and I should have seen it when I did it. I was taking my orange filter from the holder to frame my composition, but managed to move my camera a tad when I put it back. D'Oh!
My Pixl-Latr doesn't quite hold my film flat, a new addition is required with Valoi scanning kit being top of my list. It's a big expense when you haven't got a lot of cash, but I don't have to buy the whole system, even though it would be a great addition to my kit. I can buy just the film holders to fit onto my Pixl-Latr.
Those two small changes will make a big difference to my work flow and improve my hit rate. Here's a few of my favourite shots from my first ever roll of Ilford Delta 400 shot in my Goodman Zone Z1. I had a lot of fun shooting it and as always you can see them all in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
Ilford Delta 400 - Goodman Zone Z1
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