where eclecticnessicity abounds.
It’s always a little bit exciting to get developed films back from the lab. I sent 3 off a week ago, and now they are back. Taken between October and December, colour and B&W, and incorporating Shrewsbury, Cragside, Tynemouth Market and Newcastle. I will be posting these at some point on the Fragglefilm blog.
Over on the universe blog. I’ve been doing a series of posts on Alnwick Gardens, shot with my FujiX-T2, but of course I took my little Minolta Riva Mini with me and shot some pictures on Fuji film. Lovely readers who follow that blog will recognise some of the shots, (I like to compare! 🙂 ) but if not, here’s Alnwick Gardens on film.
The Tai-Haku cherry blossom Orchard
A weeping blossom tree (I made that up)
The Cascade
The Treehouse
I’ve got a couple more rolls back from the developers, this time both films shot on the Riva Mini. I used Kodak Max 400 and Fujifilm Super Extra 400 and have to say the fuji came out much better. Not sure why but the pictures from Kodak max came out very grainy- I could excuse it due to overcast weather, but a couple I took in sunny conditions were nearly as bad. The Fujifilm was used on a sunny day and came out lovely.
But first, the grainy ones, and again at the WW1 bash at Beamish (digital shots HERE)
My cherry blossom tree..
even though it’s grainy, I do like the colour tones, especially on a blue-sky day.
Had another trip into Newcastle and took a couple there
and on the way home one Phil walking up the road that runs through the village we live in.
I am liking film more and more, there’s such a retro feel to the results, and I don’t have to do anything in Lightroom or Potatoshop so it frees up a lot of time for me to do my mosaics!
Still the same Fuji roll of film in the Riva AF35ex, these are all from a day out in the Toon with Phil
as always the pictures are clickable for an embiggened experience 😀
Minolta Riva Mini Illford HP5 plus 400 ISO
Random Shots while out and about. I stick the Riva in my pocket everywhere I go now.
More shots from the dynamic Minolta duo.
Sticking with the Minolta Riva 35EX loaded with fujifilm Expedia 400.
I took it with me to the Spoon at Cramlington and to Druridge Bay, so regular readers of The Universe blog will recognise them.
It’s been a long while since Film Friday made an appearance, but it’s back to being a regular thing now. My Rollei has been at the menders for some time now, and finally they gave up trying to find the part necessary to fix it, and by passed the problem. What had happened was the focusing knob gave up working, and it’s apparent that the lugs on it’s gear wheel have sheered off. This I think was my own fault, but no use crying over spilt milk. The mender has done a work around for me so I can still use the camera by moving the lens in and out itself, that’ll take a bit of getting used to. In the meantime I have been shooting 35mm film on 2 Minolta compacts. I had been wanting to purchase a Minolta Riva mini for some time, by all accounts it’s a bit special and is a close cousin of the Leica mini, made to the same specs. I found one on eBay for £20 and sent off for it. But when it arrived it actually was a Minolta Riva AF35 EX, and not so special at all. I double checked the listing and sure enough, it was my error. Never mind, I put a fuji colour film in it and took it out and about with me. Then I found the Riva mini by accident one day in an Etsy shop, so I sent off for that, a bit more expensive as they are quite rare. When it arrived a put an Illford B&W film in and took that out and about too. I’ve just had the 2 rolls developed, and you can tell the difference in the quality of the lens of the river mini. The AF35 pictures all have blurry edges whereas the Riva mini is sharp throughout. I like the blurry edges though so it’s a win win for me.
Here are a few from when we had snow, the colour shots are on Fujifilm Superia Extra 400, and the B&W are on Ilford HP5 plus 400.
It’s been a while since I’ve done any film posts. My rollei is in at the camera repair shop, and am awaiting news on whether it can be repaired or not, but I’ve been shooting 35mm film on my little Minolta Riva & Minolta 35 compacts, when I’ve finished the rolls I’ll get them developed and see what happened! I had more or less given up on instant with my polaroid cameras as The Impossible Project, the Dutch company which revamped the polaroid instant film has now acquired Polaroid’s brand and intellectual property and consequently the price if a pack of film has gone beyond what I’m willing to pay. I had had a look at the Fuji Instax cameras, as the fuji Instax film sounds good, 10 in a pack instead of 8, and a fair bit cheaper than polaroid and the film develops quickly without shielding or waiting 5 or more minutes. But in checking it out on amazon the cameras looked really naff, and the size of a shot was compared to the sized of a credit card, so I decided not to get involved. But then somewhere along the line I read about the Lomo’ instant wide, and on further investigation learned that this camera used a wide version of fuji instax film, had extra lenses~ a close up and an extra wide, and a doohickey that enables you to do double exposures. So I succumbed, and spent my pennies on one.
It’s a bit of a big beast, rather unwieldy, with a bonkers viewfinder that doesn’t bear much relation to what turns up on your photo, so have burned a couple of film packs getting used to it, but I am having fun with it. As well as lens attachments there are a couple of controls on the back to play with, a + & – exposure button, a MX button for the double exposure thing, and a flash you can keep on or turn off. You can also use it in bulb mode, for long exposures and light painting, or choose a 1/30 shutter speed but not sure why you would. And the lens cap doubles as a remote control which is fab!
The main lens is a 90mm f/8 (equiv: 35mm) and the focus ring goes from 0.6m /1-2m /infinity
I like the warm tones of the film.
I attached the doohickey – actually called a ‘splitzer’ , and had a go at a double exposure
need a bit more practice at lining things up, and getting the focus distancing right.
I also cocked it up the first time I used it but ended up with this Ghost of Phil shot!
But best of all is the close up lens, which none of the polaroids can really do, with this lens you have only to be 4 inches away from your subject, and I think this is where I’m going to have most fun with it.
Film Friday is back! 🙂
Yesterday I had to take my car in for servicing, and took the SX70 with me to take some pictures on the walk home.
I took delivery of new polaroid films this week, the Impossible project has now bought out the Polaroid company, and has reverted to t he original name. They’ve also released a new camera, and improved the film. It used to take 35-40 minutes for the Impossible film to develop, but with the new film it’s only 15 minutes. It was a sunny morning here, so after doing the chores I went for a wander with the SX70 loaded with a new film. 10 minutes later and the sky clouded over and on came the rain, sigh, so home I came with only 3 shots.
The graffiti bridge
regular readers will recognised The Tree from my 366 last year,
and some dangly branches on the turn to Autumn, just before it rained.
It rained, it stopped, it rained, it stopped, ad infinitum.
I cooked egg fried rice for the weekend, and (soft focus 🙂 ) enchilada’s for dinner
did the housework, did the washing, and so
roll on the weekend!
Sad I can’t use the Rolleiflext until I can get it into Newcastle for a fix, but I still have the polaroid SX-70 to play with. Hit and miss on focus as always but it never seems to matter. I will call them soft~focus rather than blurry as f*@k 🙂
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