A few test shots on a new Camera

Not technically great, and yet... I like it

I’ve had this roll of Ilford 3200 in my Pentax MX for ages now and it’s been a bit of a dud waiting to happen. Lots of just testing lenses and stuff really. Shots from the window. Stuff I can’t remember shooting.

But this one does mark a bit of a change for me: I developed it at home. It’s my first ever roll! A super grainy film in a one-shot developer was never going to yield mind blowing results but I wanted to get cracking, had this roll ready to go, so I went for it.

510 Pyro was easy to use and it’s nice not having to store it after it’s been used, at this stage I don’t have many bottles etc to keep chemistry in.

It is indeed quite exciting when you open the tank and bam, images are there.

The other thing that’s new is, I scanned these myself using a digital camera. I am using an old Sony A7 (mk1) with a Sigma 105mm Macro ART that I gambled on from eBay Japan and got lucky. It took aaages to find these at a good price but I was determined to go mirrorless and full-frame on a budget, and to get an excellent lens that will outlive the camera.

If I can be bothered I might cobble together a post about the scanning but I’m still finding my feet with it all. I haven’t even really adjusted the camera yet to make sure it’s flat.

In the mean time I can say that this new program a redditor made, NegPy¹ is really wonderful for converting negatives - I’ve found I get good results with little to no effort compared to other solutions.

Another thing that’s been great that no one seems to talk about is the Rhino Release². It’s a shutter release pedal. Yes it’s made for fishermen taking pictures of themselves with carp - but it also works great when you are adjusting film on a copy stand and you have both hands busy.