Category: Photography
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Dynax 800si vs Dynax 7: a comparison
In another part of my life, there’s a discussion going on about the merits of the (semi)professional Minolta Dynax cameras of the latest generations. I happen to have the Dynax 800si as well as the Dynax 7 here, so I thought I’d do a comparison to see where these two are different, and how that…
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Huis Van Alles – Waarder: Workshop “Fotografie voor absolute beginners”
Door een vrijwilligers-organisatie in mijn woonplaats ben ik gevraagd om een workshop “Fotografie voor echte beginners” te verzorgen. Denk hierbij aan “beginners die het heel leuk vinden om behoorlijke foto’s te kunnen maken met hun telefoon, maar die geen idee hebben waar ze moeten beginnen”. Daar kan ik wat mee, en dus gaat dat op…
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The Battle Of Wide-Angle Forest
Recently, I felt the need to extend my wide-angle range for my manual-focus Minolta cameras. I had an MD 35-70/f3.5 (the third version, non-macro), but I wanted to extend in the direction of a 24mm. Some time ago, I had a Vivitar 24mm, but I sold that together with an XM. Which I regretted… Initially,…
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Nerding out on film – summary
A few days ago, I suffered a brain fart that led to writing three articles about predominantly working with black & white films, but it isn’t clear from the main post titles which article is about what. So… here’s the summary:Nerding out on film 1 is about how to handle contrast — subject contrast, your…
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Nerding out on film 3
On metering light and determining exposure For many of us, it is probably a valid assumption that 75% of our pictures will be correctly exposed when we set the camera to A, and there will be additional photos that are “good enough” so that they can be fixed in the mix. But sometimes, at least…
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nerding out on film 2
Film development — workflow and best practices This article is aimed at making film development less intimidating for someone who has never tried it before, and to answer questions a beginning film development enthusiast may have. It specifically focuses on traditional (not C41) black&white development. Which is not a value judgement on the C41 development…
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Nerding out on film 1
How to handle contrast Earlier today, I was explaining a couple concepts dealing with contrast in b&w film development in a group of camera people, and about halfway I thought, ok, this is where I initiate nerd level “off the scale”. But apparently, I struck a chord with some readers. So you know what? Let’s…
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Minolta XE-1 — The Last Of The titans
The first half of the seventies was an era in which the Japanese camera industry was busy designing and building cameras up to a quality level, not down to a price. Sure, there were consumer, prosumer and professional-grade models, but the primary difference would be the number of available features, but the build quality would…
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Darkroom Adventures: XTOL is dead, long live ADOX XT-3!
In a previous life, I developed my own films, predominantly black & white. In 2009, I got myself a 24 megapixel full frame camera, and made the switch to 100% digital photography. But recently, partly out of nostalgia, and partly out of curiosity, I got myself a few black&white films just to give it a…
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On home-developing black & white films
I’ve been shooting black & white film since the seventies, always developing the films myself. In a narrow circle, I seemed to have a reputation of being able to do remarkable things with it – I knew my films and my developers well, and I was accused of having a neverending palette of monochrome tones*.…