As I wrote last time, my first outdoor experience with the Mamiya RB 67 was tiring but satisfying. In fact, the generous dimensions of the 6×7 cm negative and the quality of the lenses are ideal for landscape photography. Immerse ourselves in nature, in a place almost out of time, it can only do good for the spirit, and if we are able to bring home some good shots …. better yet.
It’s been love at first sight: she was large and heavy but it gave me a feeling of solidity and undeniable power. She went home with her beautiful Sekor C 90mm f/3.8 lens, a Vivitar duplicator and two SDPro backs, (one for 220) but she felt a bit lonely and I proceeded immediately to add Sekor C 50mm f/4.5 and 180mm f/4.5. At that point, I was ready to fight a war. The only problem is that such equipment can fight mainly in the studio photography, because to use it outdoors things get complicated struggle. And so, the time has passed (almost two years), until a few days ago …
As you may have read in my previous post, here came recently a noble representative of the British pride: the Agilux Agifold III. A 6×6 medium format camera. Unfortunately, its extinction meter is no longer working (or at least, I have not been able to figure out how to use it) and then, I decided not to leave her alone in this test and I accompanied with an equally british Weston Master III.
Last week I published a successful post (both on this blog and on various social forums) about the first test with my Pentacon Six Tl. As written in the post, I had to develop another roll, mainly took the same day of the first one. The problems I got were pretty much the same, but at least a careful observation of the negatives and of the camera were useful to better clarify their causes and what I’ll have to do to solve them.
Being (among other things) a fan of cameras and their respectable lenses, made behind the Iron Curtain , long ago I had the opportunity to enrich my vintage “arsenal” with a beautiful Pentacon Six Tl, fitted with its Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar 80mm f/2.8 standard lens, wlf and metered pentaprism with angled eyepiece (and diopter correction). The camera is truly remarkable aesthetic and mechanical conditions, but a first test roll gave so many problems that I thought of having to make another to correct some of my errors in the loading of the film and in the development of the same. In the meantime, I ordered a new focusing screen with split image on Araxfoto site. Following the instructions on the Pentaconsix site (which I highly recommend for any info about these cameras), a few days ago I loaded a Ilford HP5+ film and started my hunting for satisfactory images. But …. things do not always go as we would like …
Generally (and you can see it all in this blog) I prefer to shoot with film in black and white. Both from the point of view of personal expression and because I believe that is easier and cheaper to self-develop b/w instead of color. Occasionally, however, (you may have noticed this too) I like to take some color photos. I do not have so much experience in this regard, having only used the Kodak Ultramax 400 35mm and a couple of Fujifilm (Pro 400H and Reala 100) in medium format.
Not happen often, because I prefer to shoot in b/w film and develop it by myself, something certainly less complicated than the color and also for economic reasons (at least here in Italy the costs for lab-development of a color negative reached 8 € or more) , but when it takes …. it takes. At times a bit of color can not miss. Besides, I wanted to see how would the Holga GN work in this case.
There are many reasons (especially in the case of film photography) that lead me to prefer the black and white as a medium of choice. The main ones are precisely expressive. Eliminating the color variables, in fact, I can concentrate more on composition, I can pay more attention to the volumetric elements, to the alternation between light and shadow, to the almost infinite shades of gray. Probably, the b/w also helps in emphasizing certain elements that we can define as “emotional” of the picture. There are some nostalgic reasons too: many years ago, I began to approach to photography as passionate right through the b/w, developing my own films and printing in the darkroom. There are also practical reasons: to be able, in fact, develop easily (and cheaply) by ourselves is a major plus, to gain time and have more possibilities for action/experimentation to achieve the desired results. Continue reading
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