I fell in love with the sun....

[Ash]

Actually I fell in love with the Sonnar 50/2 collapsible that's sat on my Contax for a few months now.

I had a photoshoot with Rich again today. Some of you people may remember a previous blog with loads of shots of him.

I think the red filter REALLY helped. Course, I also let the scanner do its part in bumping up the levels, but that damned thing can't help the grain or anything. The images somehow look clearer than I've had before. Scanned at 720 not 600 maybe that helped too...Anyway, I fell in love with that lens all over again. I love the C-II, Rolleicord-III combo. It works for me.

I'll have a blog later tonight or tomorrow, with a large number of photo's. I'm waiting for Rich's approval on the ones he likes, and the ones to never see the light of day again.


Here's a sneak peek...

In fact... maybe it was shooting at f/4 not f/2 that did it?








And I know I should have this somewhere else, but here's a shot from the one roll through the Rolleicord..





Anyone want to see the rest?




I really am looking forward to the RFF meet on sunday. If I get ONE good photo on sunday my day won't be in vain

(1:25 in rodinal... first I developed the medium format Ilford Delta-400, then added a couple ml of rodi as 'top up', then developed the Agfa APX-400s expired film in the solution)

[Diggin99]

I love the shots, look forward to more!

Nancy

[Pherdinand]

rich is cool
i will check your blog again

[Ash]

The blog is up for all those interested

[Pherdinand]

ash, i suggest some ultrawide angle shots of rich. I bet they will come out fantastic.
I like the ones you posted, anyway. Especially the ones on the stairs.

[Ash]

Thanks nancy/pherdi I don't have anything wider than 28mm, but I'll experiment in the near future. He seems to like having a personal photographer that doesnt cost him anything. That said, I get a free model!

[varjag]

Ash, I really like your camerawork and the model did his job well. The shots are as good as portrait work goes; album-cover style I would say.

However the lens (in my opinion) is just not there, and it's content and composition that saves the shots. I had just as bad luck with J-8 2/50 (essentially same design) lenses I tried, the output was very similar to what you have. It is especially striking when I compare it to what Helios-103 or Jupiter-3 (also a Sonnar) sample I have can do at wide apertures.

[kully]

Nice shots Ash, is the 35mm stuff from RK Photographic?

I tried it in Diafine last night (shot at 400 speed), grain is much better than the Econodev2 I was using before. I think they were a little over exposed so I'll try it at 500 on Sunday.

[Ash]

Hi Eugene, thanks for the crit. I find that the lens characteristics add to the images, rather than hinder them. It's all subjective. I agree 'they just aren't clear enough' compared to modern lenses. I'd expect the problem to lie more with the notably mushy grain of APX400.. Once the weather clears up and it's nice and sunny I'll run a roll of Pan-F 50 (my otherwise favourite film) and we'll see how well the lens performs under the scrutiny of that perfect grain

Kully, yep that's the stuff. This is halfway through a second tin. I develop in Rodinal at a little over box concentration (an extra ml or two... or bump the time by a couple minutes) and it works fine at 400 for me.


edit: Rich is not a professional model. He's an artist friend of mine.

[Xmas]

Ash

Ther photos are good but...

I hope I get finer grain than that I bought 10 x48m

Noel

[Ash]

Good luck with that then Noel!!!


You won't get much better with the Agfa I don't think. Try a different developer to Rodinal, but the grain is very obvious for APX400