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Oxford: Rolleiflex Tele – part 2

Thursday, September 19th, 2024

Here are some more pictures from my Rollei Tele which I was using last week in Oxford. The sun drops quite quickly this time of year and the maximum aperture on the Rollei Tele is f4 which meant I was struggling in areas of shadow so I rated this roll at ISO 200 to give myself a little breathing room. I spot metered for the darkest shadows (in some cases black fabric) and I like how these have turned out – not too contrasty.

The first picture below is the closest focussing distance with the built-in lens and the second picture down is with the clip-on close-up lenses. Same exposure. Notice how the depth of field changes and how the background falls nicely out of focus. I really like how the texture in the black leather coat has turned out.

[Tech info:] Rollei Tele, Ilford FP4 rated at ISO 200, developed in Promicrol 1+14.

20240919_Oxford_Rollei-Tele_FP4_ISO200_Promicrol_01_web

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Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, fp4, oxford, people, portraits, promicrol, rollei tele, rolleiflex

Oxford: Rolleiflex Tele – part 1

Tuesday, September 17th, 2024

Some years ago I bought a Rolleiflex Tele which has a 135mm f4 lens and my plan was to use it for portraits with a flatter perspective than you can achieve with the standard 80mm lens. The problem I found was the minimum focussing distance is quite limiting when you want to create a head and shoulders portrait. Clip-on lenses are required to focus closer and this clunky design put me off using it. Last week I decided to dust it off and try it out for general photography without the clip-on lenses. The shots below are from my first roll testing it out. It’s a heavy beast to walk around with for any length of time but I really enjoyed the reach compared to the standard lens and the image snapped into focus nicely which made focussing a breeze.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex Tele, Ilford FP4 @ ISO 64, developed in Promicrol 1+14.

20240917_Oxford_Rollei-Tele_FP4_ISO64_Promicrol_001_web

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Posted in Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, Street style | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, film, fp4, ilford, oxford, people, portraits, promicrol, rollei tele, rolleiflex, summer

Oxford: Ensign Reflex test

Monday, September 16th, 2024

After replacing the ground glass screen in my Ensign reflex camera I wanted to test it out so I lugged it into town last Sunday morning and here are some shots from that roll. The image is clearer and brighter than before but I’m still struggling to nail focus. The mirror is anything but crisp and looks to be covered in a layer of hazy fog. I’ll have to send it off for re-coating. I can’t reach infinity focus which makes this setup more suited for portraits.

[Tech info:] Ensign Special Reflex, Aero Ektar lens, Delta 100 (expired), developed in Promicrol, 1+19.

20240915_Ensign_D100_AeroEktar_004_web

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Posted in Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: aero ektar, delta 100, ensign, oxford, promicrol

Oxford: Ensign Reflex test

Monday, June 3rd, 2024

Test shots from my Ensign Reflex camera which unfortunately have failed because of the cheap reading glasses I was using to focus the dim image on the ground glass in the waist level finder. All the shots are out of focus to varying degrees and I can only apologies to the nice people I photographed. It was a fun session so not a complete loss.

[Tech info:] Ensign Reflex, Aero Ektar 7 inch lens, 6×9 roll film holder, Ilford HP5 (expired), developed in Promicrol 1+14.

20240601_Oxford_Ensign-Reflex_AeroEktar_HP5_Promicrol_01_web

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Posted in Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 6x9, aero ektar, black&white, ensign, film, HP5, ilford, oxford, people, portraits, promicrol

Oxford: large format portrait

Sunday, May 5th, 2024

Here’s a quick large format portrait from last weekend when I was testing a 210mm f4.5 Docter Wetzlar lens. Thanks goes to these guys who were very obliging. I believe this was at f6.8.

[Tech info:] Chamonix 5×4, 210mm f4.5 Docter Wetzlar lens, Ilford FP4 film, ISO 80 (expired but stored frozen), developed in Promicrol 1+9 5 mins.

20240504_Oxford_Chamonix_210-4.5_FP4_Promicrol_1-9_02_web

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Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 210mm, 5x4, black&white, film, fp4, ilford, oxford, people, portraits, promicrol, students

Dorset: Symmondsbury

Saturday, November 6th, 2021

Some pictures here from a recent trip to Dorset. There are nice views of Colmers Hill from Symmondsbury and it’s also easily accessible from there if you want to walk to the top. The first and second pictures below were a comparison of how different focal length lenses affect the relative size of distant objects. The first shot was with a 28mm lens and notice how small and far away Colmers Hill looks compared to the second image which was made with a longer focal length (either 50mm or 135mm, I can’t remember which). I tried to keep the size of the gate in the frame the same for each.

[Tech info:] Pentax MX, Ilford HP5, developed in Promicrol 1+14, Pakon scans.

20210923_Symondsbury_PMX_HP5_Promicrol_03_web

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Posted in film, Travel | 2 Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, dorset, HP5, ilford, pakon, Pentax mx, promicrol, symmondsbury

Exmouth: a day at the beach

Friday, November 5th, 2021

Some pictures from a recent trip to Dorset. On one of the days we went to Exmouth and spent the day on the beach. A nice place to visit. Easy parking and not too extortionate. We lucked out with the weather especially it was getting towards the end of September. On this trip I decided to travel light and only took a small 35mm film kit (Pentax MX, 28mm, 40/2.8, 50/2 and 135mm lenses). I didn’t take all the lenses out at the same time, usually only 2 but sometimes 3 (28, 50, 135). I like the jump in focal length from 50mm to 135mm because the perspective is very different which makes carrying them both well worthwhile.

[Tech info:] Pentax MX, Ilford Pan F, orange filter, developed in Promicrol 1+14.

20210921_Exmouth_PMX_PanF_Promicrol_01_web