Frugal Film Project 2024 - August - 120 medium format

 For my August roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 shot with Baldy the Baldax, I went for an informal approach. I loaded the film and took the camera out with me on two separate days, I was shooting some colour film and hoping to catch the farmer harvesting this years wheat crop. Sadly I missed it again as on the first day I was too early and the second I was too late, the crop had been harvested. I picked the wrong day to go for a photo walk before Storm Lillian hit the UK. Wigan got it's share of wind and rain for a few days as the back end of Hurricane Ernesto also swept to the north of the UK and soaked us.

It's not often we get named storms in August, but as we live near the northern extent of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic current, we can get them at any time of the year. North Atlantic storms often batter the British Isles and Scandinavia, having named ones is still relatively new here and it's the first time we have had one so far up the alphabet.

Enough moaning and groaning and waffling about the weather, I'm British and we are masters at it. My two walks in the local countryside did try to elevate my spirits and I got my roll finished on my second walk when I visited the Horses in their pasture. I enjoy having a chat with them, but I'm not so sure they enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. You can tell a lot about an animal by seeing which way their ears are pointing. One wasn't feeling too happy so I left them in peace and headed home.

I would have developed my film a day or two later, but I got hit by a hefty dose of poor mental health that put all my plans on the beck burner until it passed. It's one of the banes of my mental health troubles over the years and I can often get through it, but sometimes you just have to take the hit. I still managed to shoot my August roll of Ilford HP5, despite taking two attempts, and that's all that matters.

When I did eventually develop my August roll of Ilford HP5+ 400, I dunked it in Kodak HC110 dilution B for 5 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. Once dry I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi film holder, Pixl-Latr and led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

Here's a few favourites from my August roll of Ilford HP4+400 shot with dear old Baldy the Baldax. I'm still getting light leaks, but there are one or two that turnd out rather nicely. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Film Project 2024 120 medium format album on Flickr that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 

Back in Time.... Kirkby Lonsdale - Olympus 35RC - Ilford HP5

 I'm running late with everything this month as August is not a very inspiring month for me for lots of reasons. In anticipation of this I wrote a blog back in March from our day out at Kirkby Lonsdale and it's time it was published. I will be back on track next week all being well, but until then, enjoy this little sojourn back in time.

Our afternoon in Kirkby Lonsdale was a very productive one for Keith and I. Both of us shot four rolls of film with four different cameras and my final roll of film was shot with my little pocket powerhouse, the Olympus 35RC. I will never tire of telling you all how great this camera is. It's a small compact rangefinder that is light weight and punches way above it's diminutive stature. The reason? Its 42mm f/2.8 lens.

I have waffled on about this camera in previous blogs. It is a fantastic little camera with an outstanding lens. I have heard folk describe it as a "Leica Killer" due to the lens that was very precisely polished to render your photos as sharply as your eye can see. Add to that a built in light meter and an automatic mode that gets your exposures right every time and you have a little pocket powerhouse. However, there's always a downside and this camera was built to use a 1.5 volt mercury oxide battery.

I spoke briefly about this type of battery in my Minolta Hi-Matic 7 blog. A lot of cameras used it in the 60's and 70's as they were cheap to make and lasted a heck of a long time. The Pentax Spotmatic range used it as did the Olympus OM-1 and my 35RC. However, mercury oxide batteries were banned a long time ago and we have to use inventive ways of making our cameras work properly.

I use an adapter with a modern 1.5 volt SR44 battery in my 35RC. The adapter seems to do the trick by acting as a resistor and bringing the voltage down to 1.35 volts. I have no idea how this actually works as electrickery is witchcraft! I could happily use my 35RC without a battery as it is a fully manual camera without it. You just need an external hand held or shoe mounted light meter, but I digress...

Regardless of manual or automatic, my 35RC is a joy to use and I quickly rattled through almost a full roll of Ilford HP5 before our parking time was up and we had to skedaddle. I documented the streets and back alleys of Kirkby Lonsdale as we made our way back to the car. Its full auto mode makes the 35RC quick to use, just point, focus and shoot. By the time we left I had a couple of frames left that I shot on a walk around my local countryside a few days later.

I developed my roll of HP5 in my now favourite dilution of HC110 developer. 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius. and soon had it hanging to dry. Digitising was done with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light pad. RAW files were processed using Affinity Photo 2.

I will never fail to be impressed with the photos I take with my little pocket powerhouse. The Olympus 35RC is a small and elegant pocket camera that everyone can use as their everyday carry. Here's a few of my favourites from this roll and, 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.

Olympus 35RC - Ilford HP5+ 400