Many years ago, when I was given my first analog SLR camera as a gift from my uncle, I got my interest for photography sparked immediately. This was a time where digital cameras weren’t a thing, and Kodak was a company as famous as Coca-Cola to me and my friends. If I talk to children and teenagers today, they might not even have heard of Kodak as a company.
My first SLR camera was a Nikon F60 and with it came a Voigtländer Skopar 28-80mm f3,5 lens. This isn’t by any means the sharpest or best lens in the world, but at the time I was given this package, it was my first try of a real camera with a proper lens on it. I was indeed very happy with it and I shot dusins of rolls of film with it. Usually Fuji C200 or Kodak Gold 200, with the occasional Agfa-film. From that time, I have changed cameras, medias and formats many times, but I have still kept the F60 and this lens. Sadly, the F60 does not work anymore, but I do have a Nikon F80, and I decided to give the old lens a try.
This idea struck me after I tried this lens on my D750, and I was rather underwhelmed by the results I got from that. I then figured it was worth giving it a go, once again with a film and see if it would work.
A little birch – Nikon F80 w Voigtländer Skopar 28-80mm f3,5 – Ilford Delta 400 – Ilford ID-11 stock
I then figured that I would take another old friend out for a spin as well. The Ilford Delta 400. I have never really got the love for this film because I often tend to prefer the look of HP5+ to the look of the Delta 400. This however, doesn’t mean that the Delta 400 isn’t a brilliant film, and since I was going in rather bright conditions, I figured the finer grain structure would make my images shine more in the highlights. I also went for a development cycle in ID-11 to really give it the finest grain possible with the developers I currently own.
Some grass – Nikon F80 w Voigtländer Skopar 28-80mm f3,5 – Ilford Delta 400 – Ilford ID-11 stock
I went mainly for what I refer to as «small landscape» for this shoot. I define most of my landscape photography work into the two categories «small» and «big» landscape. A big landscape photo is a view, a mountain, a lovely lake and so on. Small landscape are more details and small snippets of wheat my surroundings look like. This category is often easier to find and work on in the East of Norway where I live, where most of the landscape is forest and rather flat areas.
Some more grass – Nikon F80 w Voigtländer Skopar 28-80mm f3,5 – Ilford Delta 400 – Ilford ID-11 stock
All in all, I had an enjoyable little outing with my old lens and the F80. It is clear though, that my eyes for lenses have changed somewhat over the years, and I am not blown away by the sharpness I see in these images, but it could also be down to my rather «simple» scan process for these images and my general preference for medium format negatives.
Spring is an incredible time of year in Norway. This spring has been incredibly cold and slow, and even now, in the middle of May, we are bothered with snow in the forest. The good thing about that is that you, as a photographer isn’t very bothered with other people along the paths and you in most cases have the place to yourself. Today, I went out into some local woodland that I know quite well. Yesterday was a very rainy day, and it rained all night, so I figured that the snow was most probably melted away in the forest by now. I was very wrong, and I was not able to walk further into the forest than about four hundred meters before the snow was too deep. Also, the path looked more or less like a stream, and I had the feeling that most people would go for a swim rather than a walk on a location like this.
Nevertheless, I went out this morning and waded myself through the soaking wet forest floor searching for nice woodland-compositions. These kind of conditions, grey, wet and misty days, are the conditions that inspire me the most. They makes the location stand out in a very different way than you would see it on sunny days, and you spot details and areas you wouldn’t see if the light was brighter.
On this particular outing, I went for the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, a TLR-camera that I have owned for a while, and that I absolute love using. There is something about this camera that inspire me. The world looks very nice through the waist-level viewfinder on the Ikoflex, and there is something about the way the lens renders the images that really suits my eye. I chose to shoot at shallow depths of field in this particular outing for two different reasons.
First of all, I wanted to emphasis the relaxing bokeh-feeling this lens gives and how smooth the sharpness of this lens is at around f3.5 and f4. It gives a very relaxed feeling to the scene. Secondly, my particular Ikoflex has some faults with its slower shutter-speeds and below 1/50th can give a very unpredictable result when used. From no activity at all, to just a random shutter-speed. I should probably have it serviced, but I guess fixing this one would be too expensive compared to its value, and it serves me well as it is at this point.
Scene of melting – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, Ilford HP5 plus, Ilfotec ID-11 1+1
For that last reason, I chose to go with a very flexible film to give me some wiggle-room with my exposures. I went for a roll of Ilford HP5 plus that I shot at its box-speed of ISO 400. After seeing the conditions in the forest when I came there, with that layer of mist that I didn’t expect to find there due to the conditions in general, I was very happy about this choice of film for that reason as well. Ilford HP5 plus is fantastic at capturing the mood of a misty forest.
Old mans beard – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, Ilford HP5 plus, Ilfotec ID-11 1+1
Even though the walk this time wasn’t that long, and the way there was rather wet and unpleasant; I actually had to jump across a stream of melting-water to reach the path; I got some images that I am very happy with. I also really enjoyed my little adveture into the wet and misty forest, and I will certainly be out again in these kinds of conditions soon.
From a wet and misty day in the woods – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex, Ilford HP5 plus, Ilfotec ID-11 1+1
The other day, I went out for a little walk by the lake Mjøsa, biggest lake in Norway. Along me I brought the Canon T70 and a roll of Ilford FP4 Plus. It was a rather windy day and the weather was dull and overcast and with some threatening skies promising some downfall in some form. Whether it would come as snow or as rain was anyone’s guess at this point. Since the weather was rather unpredictable, I chose to not bring any video-equipment, so this is a blog-only post. For readers only.
At this time of year the lake is still low and one can walk on what most of the year is submerged by the lake. Once the snow-melting in the mountains picks up some time in the middle of may the water level in the lake will rise and the are I photographed this time will noe be accessible.
Frozen water motion – Canon T70 + Canon 50mm f1,8 FD lens – Ilford FP4 Plus – Adox Atomal 49
I snapped some shots on my way along the lake towards a little woodland area not far from the main path along the lake. I noticed a lot of motion in the water, and I tried to freeze it in action with the higher shutter speeds on the Canon, and even though some of the ended up slightly under-exposed I also got a few decent exposures.
Once again I chose to develop this film with Adox Atomal 49, a developer I know gives me very fine grain and is very good at keeping shadow-details without blowing out the whites. Whether this is considered a compensating developer or not, I am uncertain, but I find it to give me relatively flat negatives that are easy to scan and work with in post-processing. After using 10 liters of this developer I have found that the dilution 1+1 is the right one for my taste. I also like the way you get Perceptol-grain without having to sacrifice film speed. In these times when Kodak Xtol seems to be in shot supply, I have used Atomal instead. However, for my next big-batch I am mixing Ilford ID-11 instead of Adox Atomal 49.
A bent tree – Canon T70 + Canon 50mm f1,8 FD lens – Ilford FP4 Plus – Adox Atomal 49
After a while I approached the trees and the little woodland-area which sadly has shrunk quite a bit over the last years due to construction of new residential areas closer to the lake, but some interesting trees are still left, and with the snow disappearing, it is once again accessible.
I find woodland-photography the most pleasant challenge for me as a photographer. Shooting a decent woodland composition can be very difficult, but at the same time, working in such an environment has a certain peace to it. The feeling you get from being in the woods is unlike anything else.
Better times ahead- Canon T70 + Canon 50mm f1,8 FD lens – Ilford FP4 Plus – Adox Atomal 49
In this second entry in the series “Frames of Norway” I am walking towards the viewing point “Amlisberget” to get the view over the little town Moelv and the lake Mjøsa in the east of Norway. This area of Norway has a very different landscape to it than what one often thinks of as Norwegian landscape. Rather than steep mountains and dramatic valleys and fjords, this area has a calmer, more rounded mood to it. The calm landscape forms were eroded during the last ice-age. There are a huge number of lakes and ponds, and the area has a lot of glacial till and in summer time, the area is one of the lushest farming areas of Norway.
The lake Mjøsa is the biggest lake in Norway and I will feature it in a number of entries in this series, focusing on different aspects or areas around it. Living and working in this area, it is a rather difficult to “forget” about it due to its size, and the landscape around the lake changes a lot from south to north, as well as its history.
A view over Mjøsa from Amlisberget – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
The area around Moelv, has a long history for its industry and being one of the centers for trade and communication in its part of the lake. Being the “mid-point” between the bigger towns around the lake, Gjøvik, Lillehammer and Hamar, just about 20 minutes to each of the bigger towns, Moelv was an ideal loading-area for steamboats doing the so-called “across-trafic” indicating that they were crossing the lake, rather than doing longer trips along the lake. Boats doing this “across-trafic” were in general smaller boats owned by locals or smaller companies, and they would carry goods from smaller ports to the bigger port in Moelv where the bigger boats and ships would take over.
This is an interesting point, today, when we have the bridge over Mjøsa, we see the lake as an obstacle in our travels, but back then, the lake was the biggest and most efficient “highway” of the area with an incredible number of steam and motor boats sailing all over it. At some point, the church in Moelv served for a parish including farms and houses on both sides of the lake and having “church boats” to transport people across for sermons and so on. This connection between Moelv on the east-side of the lake and Redalen on the west side of the lake, is still strong today. This is also where the bridge is crossing the lake.
Woodland and farmland – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
For this outing, I chose to go with a 35mm camera. I wanted to get a very “analog feel” to the images and I figured that being on a new location where I had never been before, I might get “shutter happy” and boom off a lot of shots. And I was right, I filled the whole roll in about half the trip.
A view towards Næroset – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
I chose to go with the Canon T70, the revolutionizing first attempt from Canon on making a computerised camera. A camera loaded with different “safety features” such as sliders and buttons to make sure you don’t accidently open the camera mid-roll or accidentally rewind the film mid-roll. It also has a very good and accurate light-meter, and an apperture-priority setting that is working flawlessly. I also like the fact that this is a 100% Manual Focus camera and that you can focus manually without having to deal with the “sloppy” and “vague” feeling of an AF-lens. This is personal preference of course, but I prefer MF for this kind of use.
The Path – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
I set out into a forest area where there are a lot of ski-tracks in the winter. I parked at Høgring, where the sports team Næroset IL has a little skiing cabin, and I walked from there. Forestry has meant a lot to this area, and previously Moelv had both a cellulose factory and a huge sawmill. The sawmill and its wood-workshop is still active and is one of Norways biggest providers of wood even today under the name of “MOELVEN”. The cellulose factory ceased operations in the late 1930’s due to the big depression in international trade.
A view over Mjøsa and Moelv – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
Because the colours in the Norwegian nature is rather greyish and boring at this moment right after the snow melts, I decided to shoot black and white. I went for a traditional film, the Ilford FP4 plus, one of my absolute favourite films, and I used both yellow filter and a two-stop graduated orange filter. I was a but uncertain how the aperture-priority setting would deal with a soft-grad filter, but it seems to have correctly exposed the sky and overexposed the land-area, which was what I wanted it to do. Concidering the fact that the filter-thread on the lens is damaged, the images turned out rather well.
More forestry – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
I chose to develop with Adox Atomal 49, a developer I have found myself to really like. Especially traditional films like FP4 and HP5 gives great results with this developer, and I find it to lift their abilities. It seems to be somewhat compensating and gives a rather flat negative and great shadow-detail even when the films are shot at box-speed. The down-side is its toxicity, and I find that even though I have loved my two first batches of it, I am hesitant to buy more of it because of this. I obviously collect the rest-developer and deliver it to a designated collection place where it is dealt with properly, but I still don’t like the thought of using something this toxic.
As you can see from many of the images, farming, as well as forestry is important for the area. Moelv was, and still is an important hub for the distribution and sale of grain and farming products in the area. Strand Brænneri was opened by the local farmers in the mid 1800s and was one of the first cooperative agricultural businesses in Norway, and became an important part of building Moelv and the surrounding area into the successful area it became in this time.
A lonely birch – Canon T70 w Canon 50mm f1.8 – Ilford FP4 Plus Adox Atomal 49
I am proud to live and have so easy access to an area with this amount of “cultural landscape”, and where you can really see how nature and man has lived together in peace over so many years.
For the sake of balance, and because I happen to have some nice images, I am going to deviate slightly from the line of «cheap cameras» in this entry, and show some images taken with my, not by any means cheap, Hasselblad. Or in my case, some times a hassle-blad. The first thing my Hasselblad did to me after I bought it, was jamming up. And not the cute little sweet jam that can easily be mended, but the proper jammedy-jam-jam that has to be sent off for a very expensive repair abroad.
I recently got it back from repair, and I have brought it along for a few outings lately, and I really find myself to love using it. Not that it really makes any big difference to anyone an image is taken with an expensive or a cheap camera, but to me it has to do with inspiration. Some cameras inspire me to go out shooting and some do not. That’s why i often feature the Olympus, the Konica, Ikoflex and the Bronica ETR. For different reasons, these cameras make me «get out there» and «get the shutter finger active».
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Here are some shots I did recently with my Hasselblad, that I find to inspire me a lot. The colour ones are taken with Kodak Ektar, and the BW ones are done with Ilford Pan F plus, that I pulled a stop. The Pan F is developed in Adox Atomal 49 stock for six minutes, which is 20% off the time for box speed. After having used Atomal 49 for a while, I have found this to be a developer I am very happy with, and it might replace Xtol as my number one developer.
A persistent winter fighting an inevitable spring at Kremmerodden – Hasselblad 500CM – Planar 80 – Kodak Ektar
Hasselblad 500 CM – Planar 80mm – Ilford Pan F plus @25 – Ados Atomal 49 Stock
Nothing fills me with such joy and happiness as the day when I for the first time see grass being liberated from the firm fist of the winter-snow. Today was that day, and I immediately decided to go shooting. I loaded the Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex with a roll of Ilford FP4 plus, and went down to Kråkvika by Hov. A location where spring is often present early. And sure enough, there were a lot of spots and spaces where the snow was melted away, leaving the lifeless brownish colour of grass that has been buried for a while under the snowy carpet. The colours weren’t really spectacular, hence the choice of black and white-film.
To me, the Ikoflex is maybe one of the cameras that inspires me the most. There is something about the sensation of using something so brilliantly engineered and with a lens that sharp in a very light and beautiful box that appeals to me. I haven’t used it for a while because the winter was exceptionally cold this year, and I don’t think the Ikoflex would be too fond of the cold weather. Also, my Ikoflex has developed misfiring on lower shutter speeds, so I tend to keep it at 1/100th or 1/300th, which could be too short shutter speeds for winter-time. Whether I will have it repaired remains to be decided, but for my current use, the Ikoflex works well.
Spring landscape with melting snow – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49
I find that filling the roll and finding the right compositions, is a very easy task with the Ikoflex. The inspiration comes naturally when using it, unlike the Zeiss Ikon Nettar, which I find that I can get bored when using. I have heard a lot said in negative ways about the Ikoflex and it being like an «over protective mother» or «insanely difficult and complicated to load», but I cannot understand how any of these can be true. If you read the manual, which I know is a very uncommon thing for people to do today, you will very easily understand that the advance wheel will turn freely when it reaches frame nr 12, and that you have to manually reset it for frame 1. Not at all difficult. I have a video on Youtube showing how it is done.
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I am a rock – Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex – Ilford FP4plus – Adox Atomal 49
Walking around on a day where the snow is melting and the landscape comes back into sight, makes you notice objects or shapes that would normally either be removed or invisible in the greens and lush landscapes. There is something «rough and contrasty» about these snow-melting days that really appeals to my way of composing.
All in all, I had a very joyful little day out in the sun and I enjoyed every minute of shooting with the Ikoflex again. It is such an amazing little camera and the images really speak for themselves.
I have never worked with any kind of panoramic equipment before. I have held a Hasselblad X-pan in my hand at one point, but I never tried shooting it. Even so, panorama photography is interesting, and I have wanted to give it a proper try. Not that I will really try it properly in this entry, but I recently bought some very cheap 3D-printed (I guess) plastic parts off eBay. Specifically, the small plastic parts that you use for using 35mm film in your medium format cameras. To be honest, I didn’t really expect much results from this. My anticipation was the following:
The film will not be kept dark enough after exposure and will be fogged.
The film might not be kept flat enough in the camera.
Composing the image will be difficult not having a proper viewfinder for it.
Unknown amount of images pr film and difficult to know how far to wind.
The plastic-stuff and a canister of film. Not the one I used for this test.
I decided to give it a try in my Zeiss Ikon Nettar. This because it is the only MF camera I have where the film is inserted in the horisontal direction, allowing me to easily shoot landscape without turning my camera into portrait. I decided to go for a roll of Ilford Delta 400 and go for a little walk while the fog was lifting over the lake. I was looking for wide compositions, which was a new experience for me, and I felt that I often reverted back to looking for squares or normal rectangles rather than the super wide compositions that this line-up would allow for.
Didn’t quite nail it with this one. See the light leaks that I got for most of the shots on the roll. Luckily not too bad in this shot.
First of all, I can confirm the first part of my assumption. Using this system, with the 3D-printed parts, will give you severe light leaks between the shots. I know for a fact that it is not the light seals acting up, because I used black tape to ensure no light-leaks would come from that area.
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For the most part, I think that the film stayed flat in the camera, and that the adapter kept it reasonably well aligned throughout the roll. I did; however, notice that the film was not as «in the middle» of the viewfinder as I had thought, and I shot a few of the frames «too high» losing parts of my intended compositions.
Over the rocks – Zeiss Ikon Nettar, Ilford Delta 400 Adox Atomal 49 Stock
Even though I like some of these images and the way they look and how they turned out, I am not certain I would use this adaptor system a lot. I will very likely do some more experiments with it and try it out at different occasions, and maybe I am luckier with my next rounds and avoid some light leaks. I find the system to be functional for shooting only one frame at a time. This would mean a lot of «cutting the film out of the camera» and «developing fragments of a roll». Not that I mind doing that, but it is a hassle.
Sometimes, you shoot a roll of film, and you just put it in a drawer. Either you forget about it or you wait until you have shot more of them before you develop. The other day, I found a roll of Ilford Delta 100 35mm, that I couldn’t remember what I used for. I developed it in Adox Atomal 49, and it turned out to be a film I used at a trip during the summer of 2019 at a landscape photography trip to Veståsen in Nordre Land.
What camera I used, is completely blank to me, but based on the time the roll was exposed, and the quality of the exposures, I would imagine it was either done with my Nikon F80 or the Minolta Dynax SPXi. Here; a beautiful view over the little lake «Akksjøen»:
Summer mood at Akksjøen in Nordre Land – Ilford Delta 100 – Adox Atomal 49
This is one of my first rolls that I have developed with the Adox Atomal 49 developer, and I must say that I am very happy with how this developer makes the images look. The grain is very fine and I get the full film-speed without any issues. In comparison with my other Veryfinegraindeveloper Ilfotec Perceptol, where you have to shave off some of your film speed.
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I just quickly wanted to share this picture with you, from a distant past without any Covid-regulations nor fear of a world pandemic.
Not far from where I live, there is a modern, wooden church called Seegård. It was built in 1997, following the tragic fire in the old church during easter in 1994. The new church was raised in the same spot as the old one, and in an attempt to keep the cross structure of the old church and modernizing it, but at the same time make something that would suit its area. Not easy demands for an architect to meet, but I find that the architect Arne Thorsrud has pulled it off really well.
I have worked with this church on multiple occasions, mainly digital, but the other day, I decided to bring out my Bronica ETR, and make some black and white images of the church in winter time. I fitted the Bronica with the 50mm Zenzanon lens and a yellow filter to help balance the contrasts a bit.
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To get the smooth results I wanted for this shoot, I decided to go with Ilford FP4 plus and combining it with Ilfotec Perceptol extremely fine grain developer. This is a combination I have found to work very well with winter conditions where snow and whites are prominent. However, you lose some film speed. In this instance, I shot the FP4 plus at ISO 50, and went for f11 which I find to be the sweet-spot of this lens. With a still standing subject like this church, which does not tend to move a lot, slower shutter speed is no real issue, and my shutter speeds were around 1/4th and 1/8th of a second with the correction for the yellow filter.
Seegård Church under the winter carpet. Zenza Bronica ETR w Zenzanon 50mm f2,8 and yellow filter. Ilford FP4 plus at 50 ISO – Ilfotec Perceptol 1+1
I did a few different angles and compositions, and a little bit of bracketing on a few of the compositions. After all, I ended with two images that I am very happy with, and they are the two I will share.
Seegård Church under the winter carpet. Zenza Bronica ETR w Zenzanon 50mm f2,8 and yellow filter. Ilford FP4 plus at 50 ISO – Ilfotec Perceptol 1+1
Sometimes my interest is sparked in some way when I watch Youtube videos. A few weeks ago, I watched a video called «Konica Autoreflex TC – The poor mans OM-1». To me, this title did not really make much sense. In my opinion, the Olympus OM-1 is extensive value for money and indeed very affordable both when it comes to lenses and camera bodies. They are also accurate like clockwork, and relatively hassle-free to service and maintain. I have shot a large number of rolls through my OM-1 and it has never given me any problems even in very cold winter days. So if there would be a cheaper camera that reliable, that had to be a gem for this blog indeed.
My lovely Konica Autoreflex TC with its marvelous Konica Hexanon AR 50mm f1,8 lens
I searched briefly online, and I actually found one incredibly cheap on a local Facebook sales page, and I got it for about 200 Norwegian Kroner (about 20 GBP) with shipping included. A real bargain there indeed. For the first tryout, I loaded it with a roll of Ilford FP4 plus that I shot at ISO50 and developed with Ilford Ilfotec Perceptol. I find that Perceptol really helps me get the winter tones I want for my shots, as well as a very fine grain.
The Konica turned out to be a lovely camera to work with. It is indeed a bit heavier and more bulky than the OM-1 but it fits my hand very well and everything is where you expect it to be, and it all seems to work rather well. I did not try the Aperture priority setting on the camera, but shot it on a variety of shutter speeds and aperture settings with a wide range of filters I found to be helpful for me at this location, which is an old museum. However, I do not see this camera and the Olympus OM-1 to be comparable as equipment.
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The Olympus OM-1 is a far more accurate camera with a broader selection of shutter speeds, all the way from a whole second to 1/1000th of a second plus BULB-mode. On the Konica, there is nothing between 1/8th and B, and the longer shutter speeds on my one «drags» a little bit. This could be the particular camera.
Also in the perceived build quality, the Konica is clearly a cheaper and less sophisticated camera than the OM-1. But if you forget about the irrelevant comparison to a clearly better camera, the little Konica is a very pleasant camera to work with, and the 50mm Hexanon Lens, is just outstanding. It gives a really nice sharpness, even at wide apertures and it is easy to focus.
Through my about 60 minutes photo-walk today, the Konica performed rather well for the first 20 minutes. After that, it coughed up a nice selection of issues and creative problems that I guess is it reacting with the cold weather. The temperature was about -12 degrees and some if these issues might be due to that.
Nr 1. Sticky shutter: After some shots the shutter started sticking every now and then. It did not matter which shutter speed the camera was set to. The only thing to do, was to tap the camera slightly so that the shutter would go off, and then shoot another frame to get one without immense camera shake.
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Nr 2. Slowed focusing. After a while out in the cold, the focusing ring got very slow, almost as if the lubrication thickened and became a gooey syrup.
Nr 3. Camera refused to rewind the film back into the cassette and ripped it instead. When I manually retrieved the film, it actually broke on another place as well. Luckily, I did not lose more than four shots, and all of them were bad. (happy days)
All these issues aside, I like the Konica Autoreflex and the Hexanon lens. A ripped film could very well be my mistake and the other issues could be weather related. My next test out of this camera will be with a colour film, trying to capture some lovely, bleak winter colours.
Cheap Camera Adventures 