Wile it's been quite some time since my last post here on my blog, I have been making some story posts over on a site called Medium and if anyone is interested in checking them out, my profile can be viewed at https://medium.com/@ian_mildon.
As you may be aware, I have recently returned to shooting with film. So much so I have now accumulated quite a few "new" film cameras and lenses. My collection now includes a Mamiya 645E medium format camera and three lenses (45mm, 80mm and 210mm); and my newest addition, a Nikon F2A and a pair of Nikon lenses for it. I managed to find a 50mm f/1.2 and a 35mm f/2 at a good price.
Not that my switch to film has been smooth sailing up to this point. While shooting color film on the Mamiya has been pretty fruitful, my forays into black and white have been rather disappointing. So far I have used only Ilford films (HP5+ and FP4+) and found them to not have very great contrast. In fact, I've found them to be rather flat; for my tastes. So I intend to experiment a bit more and see if I can identify a good film stock for my tastes.
The Nikon F2 though is only on it's second roll of film and I'm hoping this one will come out better than the first. I had run a roll of Kodak Portra 400 through it and, even though it was a little old, I expected reasonable results. Instead the images were so badly under exposed, grainy and showing color shifts that I started to wonder if there was something wrong with the camera or the lens. To test this out I decided to compare its metering to my Nikon N90s and swapping the lens between them. Doing this I did indeed find there was a difference, of between 1 and 2 stops of under-exposure on the F2. Believing the DP-11 finder was defective, I started pricing up the option of replacing it; and the need to manual compensate on ISO settings to bring it back into line in the mean time.
It was then that I found what may be a contributing factor to the error. If you remove the finder, there is a small-ish light seal on the back of the camera body that seals against the finder. This seal was "dust" and in serious need of replacement. After sourcing a replacement light seal kit online ($7) I was able to get it replaced. Once completed, I reached for the N90s to do another metering comparison. Would it still be off or would it now be a match?
Thankfully for me the two cameras were now providing the same values for exposures. Which means the finder was not faulty after all, it was light leaking between the body and finder. So, lesson learnt, if using a "vintage" camera, check the seals and either pay to have someone replace them; or if you are confident in your own skills, there are numerous online options to buy kits to do it yourself.
Oh, and like with my medium format photography, I'm also currently experimenting to find which 35mm films I'm going to primarily shoot with. For both formats I am wanting to find a good color and B/W film (that suits my personal tastes) so I can get a consistent look to my photos.
And if anyone is interested in checking out my film gear, there are several photos over on my Instagram feed.
