Through The windowpane Pt.4
Another month of lockdown to further wear down the nations mental health, and general tolerance for all things covid related gave me the chance to continue my journey into the world of film unabated, with the first images shot on my new Fuji GS645 camera taken, developed and scanned all at home by myself. I kicked off my first medium format roll ever with some Ilford HP5 black and white film, shot at box speed (ISO 400) which came out even better than I had expected it to. I am still getting to grips with the rangefinders focusing aspect of the camera, which is a very different process to what I am used to with the SLR focusing system found on all my other cameras, leading to a couple of the images being out of focus. This was frustrating to see but on the plus side, there were no light leaks or metering issues with the camera itself, giving a strong indication I will get a lot of use out of this system in the future as a great street/everyday medium format film camera.
Solar tree
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Millenium Square - bristol
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Street art
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Carpark
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Mini Caravan
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Banksy ‘well hung man’
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Bench shadows
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Banky - Girl with the pearl earring
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Beetle statue
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Boat rigging
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
Lord nelson
Camera -Fuji GS645s
Film - Ilford HP5 Plus
With my confidence on a high from my success with black and white film, I decided to make the leap to colour film.
I had purchased and imported from Japan a Mamiya RB67 Pro SD, to kick start my film adventure. I was drawn into getting this camera with its interesting design, and waist level viewfinder, giving a top down view of the image. However due to its sheer size, weight and awkward design, I had not used the camera much at all since getting it. I was however now at a point where I could finally develop the three rolls of Kodak Portra 400 I put through it back in 2020, so the question now was if the camera itself worked, and if it was a camera system that I would use going forward or not?
Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Camera - 5D MKIII
Lens - 27-70mm F/2.8
Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Camera - 5D MKIII
Lens - 27-70mm F/2.8
This question of if the Mamiya was for me was quickly answered when development did not go to plan. My first venture into colour film was not going to be the plane sailing I had hoped it would be at all….
Banksy - girl with the Pearl earring
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
for the first roll (example above), I struggled with getting the film onto the take up spool, something I had grown in confidence doing up until this point with the previous rolls I have developed. I grew frustrated and agitated with this issue, fumbling around in an increasingly humid dark bag until I decided to take it out and use a red light in my studio to finally load it onto the takeup spool. This was a BIG mistake and may have caused some of the issues that came up once the development process had taken place. The film did not go onto the spool properly, so the developing chemicals did not work as I had expected, and as seen above, created areas on the negatives where no chemicals could get to, leaving large marks and blotches on the negative.
The second issue was with the camera itself. As you can see from the images below, there are possible light leaks that have caused the negatives to become discoloured or look ‘burnt’ around the edges, with the exposure to light causing real issues with the colours across the board. Some images just were not useable, with large portions of the images taking on an intense colour cast across the negative from what I believe to be light leaks on the cameras film back specifically.
This issue may also be exacerbated by the development process itself. I developed at 38 degrees but will try a lower 30 degrees next time with a longer developing time to see if this evens out the colours in anyway.
Shed
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
Wallpaper crack
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
Train Track flowers
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
St michaels Mount
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
Krakow graffiti
Camera - Mamiya RB67 Pro SD
Film - Kodak Portra 400
Ultimately this was a big learning curve for me, and the realisation that the Mamiya RB67 Pro SD is maybe not the camera I will use moving forward. I have found that since getting the much more compact Fuji GS645s, with its built in light meter and unobtrusive and compact design, I have been more inclined to take it out with me to shoot, and not the mamiya.
Not only has the sheer weight and size of the Mamiya stopped me from taking it out, but the lack of an inbuilt light meter has also meant I was not using the camera at all when I was able to get out on socially distanced walks etc. I even bought a Metered Prism finder for it to combat these issues I was experiencing, but this just makes the whole system even heavier and conspicuous when out in the real world which is something I hate.
RB67 CDS Meter Prism Finder
I will be looking to sell this system in the coming months, and instead concentrate on the Fuji GS645s, using both colour and black and white film, before hopefully reinvesting in a 6X7 negative camera that will be more suited to my way of shooting. I have currently been looking at the PENTAX 67 and the Mamiya 7ii as potential replacements, but we shall see.
Both cameras have inbuilt light meters, and are ergonomically designed in a way that better suits how I like to shoot, so one of these should be a better fit for me overall.
Pentax 67
Mamiya ii
One of the new processes I have been learning which has gone well, was converting the colour negatives in lightroom using a lightroom plugin called negative lab pro. Once I had developed and dried the film, I scanned them on the Epson V600 photo printer, and brought the files into lightroom to convert. The process to convert is a simple one, and takes only a couple of seconds to do, but is for me the most satisfying moment as you see the image properly for the first time.
Scanned Negative
Finished image
Hopefully this minor success can push me on with overcoming the obstacles I have encountered with the development process, so next time I will be able to show some much better quality colour images on here..
As well as keeping busy with my film photography, Lockdown life through my window persists with my now updated 7D MKII after upgrading my original 7D last month. I have immediately been impressed with the camera’s focussing capabilities and frame rate which has meant I am able to take longer, quicker bursts of shots to capture fast moving targets such as birds. the camera has also shown an improvement with its noise handling capabilities and seems to yield better results in lower light than the original. I already get the feeling this camera will be the first choice in the bag now over the 5D MKIII due to its faster shutter speed and cropped sensor giving me that extra reach when paired with my 400mm F/5.6 lens for wildlife images.
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Blue tit
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Black Headed Gull
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Black Headed gull
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Black Headed gull
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Heron in flight
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Heron leaving nest
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Horse
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Horse
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Bridge pedestrians
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Mud Runner
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Power Line
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
My House sparrow colony have also been keeping me entertained during the lockdown right outside my studio window at the top of my house. As spring starts to take hold, and nest building and courtship begins, the comings and goings are so close to me that the 400mm f/5.6 can’t even focus on them, so the ever reliable/affordable, and I must add incredibly sharp 70-200mm F/4 lens has been used to capture the little birds as they squabble and nest build in the roofing tiles of my house.
Male House sparrow
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 70-200mm F/4
Female House sparrow
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 70-200mm F/4
Evil eyed female House sparrow
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 400mm F/5.6
Male House sparrow
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 70-200mm F/4
Male House sparrow
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 70-200mm F/4
Female House sparrow with roof insulation
Camera - 7D MKii
Lens - 70-200mm F/4
With new announcements coming towards the end of this month signalling an eventual end to the covid life that we have lived in for a year now, let’s hope this is my last lockdown blog post and I can get back to doing some trips further afield and hopefully perfecting that colour film development process too!
FIN
