Frugal Film Project 2024 - Baldy The Baldax and Ilford HP5+ 400 Medium Format

 I awoke on a quiet Tuesday morning in mid January and it was a bit too quiet. It was the sort of quiet that comes to a street on a bus route when something is up. I headed for my window and peeked outside. It was Snowing! It was falling quite thickly too so I decided to load Baldy the Baldax with this years chosen medium format film and head for the park. 

I enjoyed using Baldy, my superb little 90 year old Balda Baldax 6x4.5 medium format film camera in the second half of 2023. It made continuing to see how far I could go with it an easy decision. I have also chosen Ilford HP5+400 120 medium format film as it's cheap and made half an hour away at Harman Technology in Mobberley, Cheshire. As I mentioned in my previous Frugal Film Project blog I will always try to support a local business and face it, HP5 is a very versatile film. 

The bus ride into town was fun, the roads had been gritted with the UK's preferred sand and rock salt mix, but were still very slushy as the snow tried its best to keep the roads white. Thankfully my bus was driven by an experienced chap who took care of his passengers and we made it to Wigan Bus Station without incident. 

My journey to the park gave me a couple of opportunities to photograph various scenes as they were covered with snow. We don't get snow every year in Wigan, but when we do it's a decent amount. The now empty site where the Galleries once stood looked much nicer with a covering of snow and I grabbed a shot to continue my documentary of the once thriving retail site as it transforms into a housing and entertainment area. Wigan & Leigh College looked good in the snow too. I can't believe 30 years has passed since I was a student there.

Mesnes Park in Wigan looked beautiful in the snow and I was hopeful the grey snow clouds would move on and give us some decent light. It was great to bump into friends old and new as I got on with capturing the scenery before the snow inevitably melted and Wigan reverted to being dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy again.

Baldy The Baldax was the centre of attention as folk took interest in it. Good to see you again, Chris. I also met Steve Derbyshire, a fellow instagrammer who recognised me. Apparently I'm the only guy who walks around Wigan with a vintage camera and I was an easy spot. Cheers Steve! My camera brought smiles to peoples faces and it was good to say hello and chat. I even said hello to a lovely little dog named Pippa. Mesnes Park was looking pretty magical in the snow and I wasn't alone in getting a camera out and enjoying some winter photography. I will leave some Instagram links at the end of this blog where you can see photos taken by people I met that day and some of Chris' marvellous paintings.

I was really enjoying myself and it seemed like I hadn't been out for long when I shot the last frame. I was very happy to be able to document a snowy morning in Mesnes Park. My health issues were good on this particular day and I was determined to take advantage of it. I'm glad I did. One lesson I learned early in my return to film photography is "Always have a plan B" and I slowly wandered back into town with my Olympus OM10, taking photos for a future blog if this roll went awry. It wasn't long before I was back home having a nice hot cuppa tea.

I developed my film a few days later and I went with Kodak HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius. I was very happy with how my Kentmere 400 responded to this dilution and figured I would see if HP5 responded any differently. It wasn't long before I had finished the developing process and hung my film to dry in my bathroom. 

Scanning was done in my usual fashion with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi medium format film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light source. It was when I began to process my RAW files with Affinity Photo 2 that I spotted an error I made. Every shot was under exposed by around 2 stops. Bugger.

My error was not allowing for the brightness of the snow when I metered my shots. We don't get a lot of snow here and it never occurred to me to allow for it. I had set my shutter speed too fast. Thank the deity of your choosing that Affinity Photo 2 is a very capable piece of software and I was able to salvage my photos and make them look reasonably presentable. Lesson learned!

Here's a few of my favourites from my walk in the snow. I learned a very valuable lesson and managed to get something for my effort despite my absent mindedness. I will probably not see snow again for a year or three, but you never know what you get here in the UK. There's been days when all four seasons have showed up in no particular order. I will have to make a note to remind me to check back here next time it snows. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr for you to view using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.  

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 medium format
Steven Darbyshire Instagram 
Chris Halliwell - Artist 
Let Me Take The Pic with Pippa in the snow 

Frugal Film Project 2024 - January - Olympus OM101 and Kentmere 400 35mm Black & White film

 For the 2024 edition of the Frugal Film Project I decided I wanted to go back to 35mm film and use a camera with which I have shot precisely one roll of film. It's an Olympus OM101 that was given to me back in 2022 by a dear friend known to all his chums as "Wellies". The Olympus OM101 isn't an OM series camera, but does use the tried and trusted OM mount. This means almost every OM mount Zuiko lens that Olympus made can be used on the OM101. 

The camera came with a 50mm f/2 PF and a 35-70mm f/3.5-4.5 PF lens. Both lenses are the proprietary "Power Focus" lenses for the camera. They were designed and built in the 1980's when all the major manufacturers jumped on the Auto Focus train. Olympus pursued the "Power Focus" route that put the focusing motor for the lenses in the camera. Focus was done using a wheel on the back of the camera.

This should be familiar to anyone using "Back Button Focus" on their DSLR or Mirrorless digital camera. It's basically the same, but you have full control over the focus. Another company got the full auto focus functionality programming patented and happily reaped in licensing fees from everyone else. Olympus didn't want to play that game and went with this method instead. It flopped spectacularly and was withdrawn from sale after three years amid poor sales figures.

When using the Power Focus lenses, the OM101 has a Program mode where the camera chooses the aperture and shutter speed based on the excellent light metering that Olympus were noted for. It also has an Aperture Priority mode that utilises something that OM10 users will be familiar with, a Manual Adapter. You select the lens aperture with the adapter and the camera selects the shutter speed. 

It can also be used in full manual mode using the manual adapter to select aperture and shutter speeds. The Power Focus lenses don't have an aperture or focus ring on them. The only one of the two lenses I can adjust is the mid range zoom that I can zoom between 35mm and 70mm. Focus has to be done with the wheel on the back of the camera. 

Having driven myself a tad crazy by learning how to use my Olympus OM101, I used it once in January 2023 and then put it on my shelf whilst I calmed down. It took a bit of getting used to. I intended to use it again in 2023, but got side tracked and forgot about it until the time came to choose my camera for this years project. I thought, "why the heck not" and here we are with my January roll of Kentmere 400. 

The film choice was a no brainer, Kentmere 400 is cheap and made 30 miles away from my home at Harman Technology in Mobberley, Cheshire. How lucky is that? Seriously though, I will always try to support a local business if I can, having fresh film made 30 miles away for a price that I can afford is my good fortune. I really enjoyed using Kentmere 400 in 120 medium format in 2023 and I chose to use Kentmere 400 35mm in 2024.

For my first roll I chose a bright sunny day in early January, but any pretence of warmth was down to me wearing thermal everything! I'm glad I kept all my winter riding gear when I parked my motorcycle. Undies, T-shirt, socks, gloves, hat, jacket, all rated for arctic winds that we often get at this time of year. As my Scots chums say, "it wis a wee bit braw, aye baltic", or something like that. 

The important thing was to keep my eyes open for the light making for interesting compositions. It was perfect for reflections as I discovered on the large glass front of the local Council offices. I was able to get a couple of photos of the reflection of the Town Hall. I was also able to get a couple of shots of light being reflected onto a building opposite that was in the shade with the sun shining brightly behind it.

The rest of my shots were nothing special, I'm just trying to photograph things I have done before from different angles. My aim this year is to improve my photography and look for different and interesting compositions, be it light reflecting onto a building or finding an alternative composition of the statues dotted around town. I wasn't hanging about as the wind was bitterly cold and it wasn't long until I was back home having a cuppa tea in my nice warm house.

I developed my film a day or two later and chose HC110 dilution E 1+47 for 9 minutes at 20 celcius. I like dilution E, it's a nice sweet spot for Kentmere 400 and it wasn't long before it was hanging to dry in my bathroom. Digitising was done with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2,5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder and Pixl-Latr illuminated with my A5 led light pad. RAW files were processed using Affinity Photo 2.

Here's a few favourites from my January roll of Kentmere 400 for the Frugal Film Project 2024. I'm doing double duty this year as I'm keeping going with Baldy the Baldax for medium format and I will speak about that in another blog. I had fun getting to grips with my Olympus OM101. It's a bit fiddly to get used to, especially with gloves on, but I hope to be using it fluently by the end of the year. One down, eleven to go and I will keep my 35mm separate from my medium format shots so I don't get confused. 

If you wish to support my photography you can donate a few shekels using the Ko-Fi buttons on this page as Phyllis did on New Year's Eve. Thank you Phyllis, I appreciate it very much. I aim to have my Agfa Isolette I restored and your help is gratefully received. As always I have put these photos and more in an album on Flickr for you to view in full resolution using the link below. I hope you enjoy them. 

Frugal Film Project 2024 - Olympus OM101 - Kentmere 400 

Kodak Vision 3 250D - Colour Cinema Film

It's not often I shoot 35mm colour film these days, it's even less often I shoot a colour film I adore and I really should change that. I love to shoot Kodak Vision 3 250D, a 35mm cinema film that I buy from Nik & Trick Photographiques based here in the UK. I enjoy using this film not just because of the cinema quality colours it produces, the price is also a factor. It's cheaper from Nik & Trick than other Kodak films such as ColorPlus and Gold. It's the developing process that comes with a high price, but it's worth it for a treat every so often.

The first time I shot Vision 3 250D was during the Cherry Blossom season in 2020. I bought it on a recommendation from Skyler King, a photographer I follow on you tube. He wont shoot any other colour film and I wanted to find out why. I bought a couple of rolls from Nik & Trick for a very reasonable price and waited for the right moment to try it out.

That came during the spring of 2020 when I shot a full roll as I walked amongst the blossoming Cherry trees near my home. I sent it back to Nik & Trick for developing in the proprietary chemicals for cinema film, the ECN-2 process. You can develop Vision 3 250D in standard C41 chemicals, but for this film to shine you really do need to use the right stuff. The results were outstanding and I have been smitten ever since.

It had been a while since I shot Vision 3 250D and a sunny day in late summer of 2023 gave me an excuse to use it. It had been in my mind for a long time and it was a now or never kind of decision. I was due to visit my daughter and knew we would be going for a walk at some point whilst I was there. I loaded a roll into my OM-2 and set off for my daughters home in Yorkshire.

I shot half of my roll whilst walking from the railway station to my daughters house. The first signs of autumn were appearing as bright berries adorned the hedges along my route. I also took a few photos of the War Memorials in the town. One is a beautiful garden area where people can go and sit and remember their loved ones that perished in wars from WW1 right up to the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The other is a beautiful monument in the town's cemetery.

I shot the second half of my roll at the local beauty spot, Brickyard Ponds. Bolton Brickies is a place I have spoken about a few times on my blog. It's a small place, but you forget you are in a town when you step into the oasis that occupies the former brick works site. The clay pits are now ponds that are full of fish and there are footpaths around the site that are enjoyed by the local community. It didn't take me long to finish my film and when I arrived home I put it in my fridge to await developing.

It was 2 months later when I shot a second roll of Vision 3 250D during my walk around the City of Chester with my friend, Keith. It was a Kodak kind of day and again I had loaded a roll into my OM-2, a camera I used a lot in 2023. Chester may be full of Tudor Revivalist architechture, but it also has a lot of sandstone buildings.

The Cathedral, dedicated in 1541 and built from locally quarried sandstone, occupies a lot of the north eastern quarter of the original Roman Fort. It also had quite a few wreaths of poppies laid at the stone cross during the Remebrance Service near the Cathedral entrance. It didn't take me long to find compositions as we wandered through the city centre and I finished my film in quick fashion.

I sent my 2 rolls of Vision 3 250D back to Nik & Trick in December for developing. I am very happy with the quality they produce with the ECN-2 process using Bellini chemicals and they take great care with it. There's also a queue for this popular service, so I knew I would have to wait a while and I received my scans between Christmas and New Year.

Both rolls of film were shot in very different conditions, but that doesn't detract from the quality of the one shot in Chester. Yes it was very shaded, but the colours are bright and nicely saturated. The roll shot in bright sunshine in Bolton Upon Dearne also has bright, nicely saturated colours, but the light was superb there and it shows. Both rolls were shot using Aperture Priority on my OM-2. The light meter is accurate and I was happy to let the camera take some of the strain as I hunted for compositions at both locations.

Here's a few of my favourite shots from both rolls of Vision 3 250D. I am very happy with the results and can't thank the team at Nik & Trick enough for their services. ECN-2 is not a cheap process, but it is well worth the expense. If you fancy giving yourself a treat, give Vision 3 250D a try, you're worth it. You can visit Nik & Trick using the link below. As always I have put these photos and more in albums on Flickr that you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Vision 3 250D - Bolton Upon Dearne
Kodak Vision 3 250D - Chester
Nik & Trick Services Photographiques 

Frugal Film Project 2023 - December

 I left it late to shoot my December roll of Kentmere 400 with Baldy the Baldax, I would have shot it earlier in the month, but circumstances meant I was going down to the wire. I set off at 1 pm on December 31st on a dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy day that was dotted with showers and just did the best I could in the conditions. Self inflicted I know, but if I couldn't get something from this walk with 3 hours of daylight left in 2023, I was going to have to suck it up and call it a bust! 

I headed to the local farm roads and tried a few frames in the woodland before I reached the open farmland. I wasn't at all confident that I would have anything to share from the first few frames as I dialled my settings in.

I took a couple of readings with my Gossen Trisix light meter and it wasn't giving me anything that remotely matched what shutter speeds I have available on Baldy the Baldax, so I winged it and resorted to guessing. I set my aperture at between f/8 and f/11 and guessed 1/100th second would be there or there about for my shutter speed. I would find out if I was right when I got home and developed my film.

I wasn't shooting anything I hadn't shot before, my compositions were nothing special, but time was short and I just went with what I knew. By the time I reached the fields I had a handful of shots already done and continued with familiar compositions. I can't pass by the power lines without taking a photo, it's the law!

Crossing the fields wasn't an option as they were soaked from the almost constant rain that had fallen during December and it was just too muddy for me to even think about walking along those footpaths. I did notice the Farmer had been making more improvements by adding fencing in a couple of places. Ramblers now have to use the stiles and gates on the footpaths rather than using gaps in the hedges or openings where gates used to be. 

By the time I had got to my last couple of shots I was soaked and in need of a hot drink so I headed home, shooting the last couple of frames along the way. I enjoyed my walk, despite the horrid weather and wanted to see the results of my guess work. 

After a hot drink and drying off back at my home, I developed my Kentmere 400 in Zone Imaging 510 Pyro diluted at 1+100 for 11 minutes at 20 celcius. Development was stopped with plain old tap water and I fixed my film with Fotospeed FX30. After a good rinse I hung it to dry in my bathroom. 

I digitised my film with my Nikon D700 and Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro lens. My film was held nice and flat with my Valoi medium format film holder on my Pixl-Latr and illuminated with my A5 size led light pad. The RAW files were process with Affinity Photo 2

I could see from my negatives that I had not got any usable images from the woodland, I had underexposed them by quite a margin. I was closer to the mark with the shots I took of the power lines and trees along the field boundaries. I wasn't too upset as I did leave it until the last day and there was an hour of daylight left when I finished my roll of film. I got ten useable images and counted my blessings that I had managed to complete the project.

I am going to be using Baldy the Baldax, my 4.5x6 medium format folding camera again for the Frugal Film Project 2024. I'm rather taken with it and it's not done too bad at 90 years young. I hope I can get all the way through 2024 with Baldy the Baldax and I am also going to use my Olympus OM101 35mm camera that my dear friend "Wellies" gave to me a while back. I have been meaning to use it more and the Frugal Film Project is the perfect opportunity.

If anyone fancies joining The Frugal Film Project I will leave a link below to the Facebook group where we all hang out. Folks who don't use facebook can still join in and use the hashtag #frugalfilmproject on your social media accounts. All we ask is your camera equipment costs no more than 75 pounds, dollars, euros etc. and you source your film locally if possible and as cheap as you can. Here's a few of my favourite photos from my December roll of Kentmere 400 shot with Baldy the Baldax. As always I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2023 - December
Frugal Film Project on Facebook 

Ferrania P30

 A sunny afternoon at the beginning of December 2023 gave me a chance to head out with Ferrania P30, a slow speed black and white film that entered the market a few years ago with the re-birth of the Italian film manufacturer, Ferrania. It is a high contrast black and white film available in 35mm and 120 medium format and is an emulsion based up the original Ferrania P30 from the mid 20th century. 

I took advantage of the bright light on this fine afternoon and shot my roll of Ferrania P30 with my Soviet era FED 2 rangefinder camera and Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 lens. I was aided by my trusty Gossen Trisix selenium light meter. My FED 2 is a manual camera and I'm lucky it has a coupled rangefinder that shows me in the viewfinder when I have my lens focused on my subject. It's all you need.

I also chose to meter at 50 iso as I wanted to slightly over expose my film. P30 has a high silver content and I wanted to use as much of it as I could. I shot a roll or two in 2023 and liked the richness of the blacks when I shot and developed the film at box speed. I wanted to see if a little over exposure could bring more of the black into play and create a darker mood to my photos.

I wasn't taking any fancy shots, just documenting the ongoing demolition of The Galleries and admiring the buildings in Wigan town centre. I visited The Face of Wigan, the statue of Billy Boston, the Civic Centre and the Mining Monument between the Town Hall and Swimming Baths. I also had a wander around the Parish Church and was led by the smell of boiled sweets being made to W.M. Santus Toffee Works, the home of Uncle Joe's Mint Balls.  

I was having a lot of fun on my wander around town in the sunshine. It was a tad chilly, but I didn't mind. It had been a few days since my last walk courtesy of the weather being dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy. The shadows were lengthened with the sun being low on this late autumn afternoon, which makes life a little challenging, but I was in the zone and soon finished my roll of Ferrania P30 and headed home.

I developed my film a few days later using Zone Imaging 510 Pyro diluted at 1+100 for 13 1/2 minutes at 20 celcius. I stopped it with filtered water, fixed with Fotospeed FX30 fixer and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I digitised it with my Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and led light source. RAW files were processed using Affinity Photo 2.

Once I began my editing my photos I could see they had some detail in the shadows that I teased out with some deft dodging and burning. Ferrania P30 has bucket loads of contrast but also has subtle variations in tones that sometimes pop right out, but on a day like the one I shot my roll, it was a little challenging at times to accentuate them.

One thing is for sure, I got the darker mood I was searching for by shooting it a 50 iso and developing it at box speed. Having a Veikk A15 Pen Tablet helped a lot as I gently brought my photos to life. I have more control over gentle brush strokes with a pen tablet than I do with my mouse. I didn't have to do much, just bring the richness into the blacks and brighten the highlights and mid tones to really get what I was searching for from this roll of Ferrania P30. It had an added bonus of having an orthochromatic feel to it as some red items rendered a very deep black.

This photo walk reminded me of why I bought my FED2 and Jupiter 8 lens. It's an unashamed Leica clone with a reassuringly industrial feel to it. It was built by FED in Kharkiv, Ukraine with the aim of improving the Leica Copy that had been made in the former Soviet Union before WW2. I suspect there was a lot of Leica original plans used too as the Soviets took a huge chunk of the German camera industry as reparations after WW2.

If you want a Leica like experience, but don't want to spend a small fortune on one, A FED 2 is a great choice of camera, with a caveat. Make sure you buy one that has recently been serviced if you can. All Soviet built cameras have their quirks, the FED 2 has a shutter curtain that can be prone to pinholes when left in the dark recesses of grandpa's attic and shutter speeds can become sluggish as the lubricants harden with age. 

Mine was an ebay bargain and has been serviced at some point in it's life, as evidenced by the repairs to pinholes in the shutter curtains and it's decent shutter speeds, but you may not be so lucky. I will add links to three online retailers based in the EU who sell fully functional Soviet cameras for a reasonable amount of cash and with a warranty too.

Here's a few of my favourite photos from my wander around Wigan with a roll of Ferrania P30 in my FED 2. I am happy with this experiment. I was looking for deep shadows and rich blacks to accentuate a dark, moody feeling I get at this time of year. I can understand now why Italian film directors, post WW2, loved P30. It's a film that loves a lot of light, but when there wasn't as much as I would like, it said "Hold My Beer!" and gave me these. Bellissimo! As always I have posted them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Ferrania P30 - FED 2 - Jupiter 8 50mm f/2
Ural Seller 
Fedka 
OK Vintage Camera