Out walking with Fuji C200

A little while back, I bought some rolls of Fujifilm C200 colour negative film. A consumer film I remember very well to have used as a photo-interested teenager. Back then I had a Nikon F60, a camera that sadly has stopped working and that is too expensive to have repaired. I upgraded it with a Nikon F80 after it died. When I tried C200 again, I was excited to see how well this film actually performs, even today in 2021. On my first tryout I shot it at 160 just to be sure that I biased towards over-exposure and not under-exposure. I realized that I lost some shadows at 200, and I decided to go out once again the other day, but this time, I shot it at ISO 100. One stop over-exposure. I was a bit nervous about this tactic as I don’t know the films characteristics that well. I was afraid I would get the very «washed out» colours you get when you over-expose Fuji-films too much, but I needn’t worry.

My chosen camera for this outing, was the Canon T70. A camera that I find to have a very good light-meter and aperture-priority setting. Since I was out walking and scouting for possible locations, I shot it using aperture-priority. The camera is manual focus and you can set your aperture, so this program gives med decent control over my exposures even if I am not controlling the shutter-speeds myself.

An iPhone snap of the Canon T70. When this image was taken it was on frame 24.

Over-exposing colour negative film is normally not an issue. The dynamic range is made to deal well with over-exposure and you get more details in the shadows. Exactly what I wanted for this outing. My location this time is Steinsodden, a little islet that is accessible by foot in spring-time when the water in the lake is low. Once the snow-melt in the mountains pick up and reach the big lakes, this islet is inaccessible without either using a boat or getting wet. The name of the Islet is «Steinsholmen» or «Steinsborga» as the locals say. It is home to the ruins of a medieval castle that you can read more about if you google «Mjøskastellet». The ruins are protected, and when I was there id didn’t see any reasons to photograph it, as some moron has figured out that putting up barrier-tape around was a marvelous idea. It is just ugly and dis-respectful to the historic site and I guess the medieval king who got it built will haunt this moron forever! (At least I hope)

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But.. No-one reads this blog for my thoughts about barrier-tape in nature, you want to see my images:

The path – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1,8. f8 – Fujifilm C200@100 Tetenal C41

The first image I am going to show here, is this lovely image of the path leading towards the islet. I just love all the leading lines giving this image the depth it has, and I also love seeing that I have retained so much shadow-detail with my process of over-exposing. I was a bit concerned as the day was very sunny, but not even the sky in the background is completely «blown out». Also, with my Epson v600 scanner, this film is very easy to scan. I am having trouble getting good scans of 35mm Ektar, but the C200 really is a star.

Some nice rocks – Canon T70 w 50mm Canon f1,8 – Fujifilm C200@100 – Tetenal C41

I really love the way this image turned out. I cannot remember whether this image was taken at f4 or f5,6, but it gives a very nice focus area, and a very smooth and sift background. It is so nice that the snow is melting and that I once again can take these nature-detail images that I love looking for. I have not corrected this image for sharpness or haze, but I have tinted the colours slightly, as they were a tad too green for my liking.

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The last one that I will show in this post, is a shot at your famous f11. The main setting of the landscape photographer. It is an early afternoon view over the lake and the weather was indeed very sunny and harsh. Even so, I see that the film coped very well with the over-exposure and I am very pleased with how it turned out.

The view – Canon T70 w50mm Canon f1,8. -Fujifilm C200@100 – Tetenal C41

I am actually surprised how well this film works and considering its price, it is quite good value for money. I might very well be shooting it again soon.

Capturing bleak winter colours

As I have previously written on my blog, I like shooting Kodak ProImage 100 in the winter. There is something about the colours and the subtlety of it, that I find to be exactly the right media for my style of winter-shooting. Some days ago, I gave the Konica a roll of ProImage and went for a little outing to some different locations where I could access the lake. The day were one of those days where it was clearing up after some dull and grey days, and there were very bleak, oranges and purples in the landscape.

Lith Print feel – Konica Autoreflex TC – Hexanon 50mm f1,8 – Kodak ProImage 100

I have also found myself to be very fond of the little Konica camera. Yes, it has a bit fewer shutter speeds than the OM-1 that inspired me to buy it, and indeed it hates cold weather. But the camera, and its lens is in mint conditions and takes beautiful images. The lens is very sharp and produces beautiful bokeh. It also feels very sturdy in the hand. From what I gather this is because mine is an early model where the whole body is a metal construction. It does not produce any light leaks at this point and I guess the light meter would work if I gave it a battery.

*Tree root in snow – Konica Autoreflex TC – Hexanon 50mm f1,8 – Kodak ProImage 100*

Based on the fact that this was marketed as an «entry level» SLR camera in its time, I must say that its performance is incredible. If I was to recommend an entry level SLR to anyone at this point, I would be very tempted to say Konica Autoreflex TC and just smile. I am very happy that I purchased this camera and I will probably keep it as one of my regular users over some time, along side with the Olympus OM-1.

Mitsubishi Film?

Did you know that Mitsubishi, the manufacturer of cars, air conditioning units and heaters also at some point made film? At least, they had a line of film branded with their name on it at some point, and whether it is a rebranded Fujifilm or Konica film, is unknown to me. What I do know, is that the film I got in my hand is «Made in Japan» and has English writing on it. It also states that it was made at «Mitsubishi paper mills».

Roll with 24 frames of Mitsubishi MX-III 400 colour film.

Since the film was 15 years expired, I decided to shoot it at ISO 160 and use a camera that I trust. I therefore went for my Nikon F80 with a modern 85mm Sigma lens, that is substantially newer than this film was at the time it was exposed in January 2021. I chose to shoot mainly at aperture priority, because of very changing lighting conditions and the fact that I wanted to shoot with gloves in the cold weather.

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All in all, I am very pleased with how well the film held up over the years in terms of colour representation. How this film was when it was new is unknown to me, but as it stands today, it gives very nice colours, really capturing the subtle greens and detail in the shadows, really showing the nice day it was when it was taken.

Fluberg Bridge – Nikon F80 w Sigma 85mm f1,8 lens. Mitsubishi MX-III 400 @160 (Expired 2005)

In some images, I saw a weird magenta cast in the images. This was only visible in some of the images, and not consistently over the whole roll. I developed a roll of Kodak Portra 160 in the same tank at the same time as I developed the Mitsubishi, and I could not find any of these colour shifts on this roll, leading me to think there might be unevenness in the emulsion of this film. The images with the colour shifts, were at the end of the roll. Scan settings were identical all over the roll, and should not be impacting the images in any way.

I do like the images and how this film looks 15 years in though, and I have another roll of the same roll in the freezer, that I will meter at ISO 125 to give it a little more exposure. This will be done sometime in the spring, when there is more colour around to play with.