Lomography’s LomoChrome Turquoise is back in 2022!
I wasted no time in getting out there and shooting 3 rolls on my Contax G1, Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim, and my Pentax 645Nii. Check out my review of this film in my YouTube video below.
Check out the incredible entries in the Matt Loves Cameras Xpro 2022 competition – a celebration of cross processing film!
Continue reading →CineStill 400D is a new colour negative film announced in March 2022. The film was sold through a successful preorder campaign on their website. CineStill confirmed they are making 400D in 35mm, 120, large format, and hopefully also 220.
CineStill say that 400D is a new film they have been developing for years with their manufacturing partners around the world.
400D is a little different to other films sold by CineStill. The FAQ on their website say that it is not a repackaged motion picture stock without rem-jet – 400D is specifically designed for still photography.
“This new film is based on advanced technology found in motion picture emulsions, and at the same time delivers features exclusive to still photography materials in both unexposed and processed states.”
CineStill
For my first video about CineStill 400D, I shot a roll at box speed (ISO 400) in my Fujifilm Klasse S. Watch the video to see lots of sample images or scroll further below.
CineStill 400D has a pleasing colour palette with rich vibrant colours, with a slightly softer look than films such as Kodal Gold and Ektar. The film has a very good dynamic range and is a relatively fine grain film. Some have said the colours and look of the film is reminiscent of Kodak Vision3 250D.
Even when shot at ISO 1600 and pushed 2 stops it still looks impressive – especially in comparison to now ageing stocks of Fujifilm’s Natura and Superia 1600 film.
The D in 400D stands for dynamic. Cinestill claim that 400D has “pretty amazing exposure latitude”. It can be exposed at EI 200 to EI 800 with normal processing, and be push processed up to EI 3200.
CineStill films such as 800T are well-known for their halation. I was not expecting to see as much halation on 400D as I did. In the car image below it’s quite subtle – you can see halation on the wheel and the brighter parts of the car.
In the image of my kids walking down to the beach in direct sun, the whole of my son’s back is covered in a red glow.
CineStill are practically begging you to push this film. On the canister there are little check boxes for you to label how many stops you’ve pushed the film, 1 stop, 2 stops and 3stops.
So far I’ve shot one roll at box speed and one roll at ISO 1600. Some of my images shot at box speed looked overexposed – I will be shooting more rolls soon just to see if that was a one off.
In my second video about CineStill 400D I put an ISO 1600 sticker on the 35mm canister and loaded it in my Fujifilm Natura Black F1.9. I then asked my lab to push the film 2 stops. The results look fantastic with surprisingly little grain.
In my third 400D video I explain why I think 400D is a better choice for night shooters than ageing stocks of Fujifilm’s Natura.
There are over 40 CineStill 400D sample images in the videos on my Matt Loves Cameras YouTube channel – I have posted a selection of these below.
Check the CineStill website or your local film retailer for stocks.
CineStill sold rolls of 400D in 35mm and 120 format for $14.99 USD during the launch campaign.
The second Matt Loves Cameras podcast film photography competition for 2022 has been launched. This competition is all about xpro, or cross processing film.
Continue reading →Check out the final list of entries for the 2021-22 Pantastic competition!
Continue reading →Pantastic zines arrived at Matt Loves Cameras HQ in July 2022 and are ALL in the post as at Monday 18 July. Expect yours in late July (Australia) or August (rest of the world).
The zine is a collaborative community film photography zine from the
Pantastic 2021-22 competition. Everyone who took part in the competition will have an image featured, typically it will be one of the judge’s favourites.
For just a few dollars more (and no added shipping) you can buy a mystery zine!
Under each drop down menu for your region there is a Pantastic 2022 PLUS mystery zine option.
I have single copies of the following zines you could end up with: Pantastic 2020, Sprocktastic 2020, assorted ‘Cafe Royal Books’ zines, and a copy of a Half Frame Club zine.
Adox Color Mission is an exciting new 35mm colour negative film released in early 2022. Here are my thoughts on Color Mission with sample images from my first two rolls.
Continue reading →Here is the Super 8 movie and the images that I describe in episode 53 of Matt Loves Cameras film photography podcast!
In episode 49 of Matt Loves Cameras film photography podcast I talk about pushing colour negative film with the Fujifilm Natura f1.9 and the Fujifilm Klasse S. Listen by pressing play above or by searching for Matt Loves Cameras in your favourite podcast app.
Pushing and pulling film are photographic techniques that involve two steps. First of all, you need to shoot your roll of film at a different ISO speed to what’s on the box (box speed). Secondly, and most crucially, something needs to happen during the development of the film for it to be considered pushed or pulled.
If you only do the first step listed above – that is, you shoot Kodak Portra 400 at ISO 200, and then you get it developed as normal – that is not pushing film. All you’re doing there is overexposing the roll by one stop. I hear a lot of people refer to what they’re doing as pushing or pulling film “in-camera” – but there is no such thing.
Let’s look at an in-depth example of pushing colour film. Grab a camera where you can set the ISO yourself and which has automatic exposure. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s pick the Canon AF 35 ML, which is a beautiful yet clunky early 1980s point and shoot.
On the camera set the ISO to 400, but then load up a roll of Kodak Gold 200. When you start shooting, the camera will choose shutter speeds according to the film speed that you set – ISO 400. In fairly bright light, the shutter speed might be say 1/250 second.
But in reality, it’s Kodak Gold 200, it’s rated at ISO200, it really needs twice as much light. A shutter speed twice as long – which would be 1/125 second – would’ve been the correct shutter speed if you had set the ISO selector on the camera to the film’s box speed of 200.
So you go around shooting that roll of film in your Canon AF 35 ML and if you’re anything like me, you will have shot the whole roll in no time. So far, the whole roll is one stop underexposed. The ISO 400 selector made the camera choose faster shutter speeds than the ISO 200 film needed, so not as much light was exposed onto the film.
Now colour print film like Kodak Gold 200 has a good exposure latitude, so if you did this whole process by accident, typically one stop underexposed wouldn’t be a huge problem. But what if you’re not happy with that? Or what if you did this whole process on purpose to push the film? Easy, have your film pushed. Before we get to the next step, make sure you mark your finished roll of film with a marker pen so you can remember which one needs pushing.
Find a lab that can push colour negative (C41) film. Usually it costs a little bit more, the lab I use – Ikigai in Melbourne – charges $3 a roll extra. Look at your lab’s website, or get in contact before you send your film in.
How much you ask your lab to push your film is measured in stops – a stop is a doubling or halving of light. So in the case of us shooting Kodak Gold 200 at ISO 400, we’d need to push it 1 stop. If we shot the roll of Kodak Gold 200 at ISO 800, we’d need to have it pushed 2 stops.
Make sure you let the lab know which roll you need pushed when you send it in. As above, mark it on the canister and give them specific instructions, don’t leave it to chance.
When the lab pushes colour negative film, they will either change the temperature of the developer, or they will leave the film in the developer longer. This change in the development process will compensate for the film not getting as much exposure when you shot it.
Note that this process doesn’t add more light to the image, the only way you can do that is in camera.
Typically when you push colour film it increases grain, contrast, and saturation. With that increase in contrast, highlights become brighter and shadows become darker.
If you did this whole process the other way round, the process is called pulling film. For example, just say you shot ISO 200 film at ISO 100, that would overexpose your roll of film by one stop. Most colour negative films have a wide exposure latitude, so overexposing your film by adding an extra stop of light is very common. A lot of film photographers love the look of overexposed colour negative film.
If for some reason you weren’t happy with that, you could in theory ask the lab to pull your film one stop. Having said that, most labs do not recommend that you pull colour negative film. It often results in the negatives looking flat and with less contrast. Pulling film is much more common with black and white film.
Below are some sample images from the Fujifilm Natura Black f1.9 loaded with Lomography 800 colour negative film.
I can’t set the ISO on the Natura, so I had to fool the camera into thinking it had ISO 1600 film inside it. I bought some ISO 1600 DX code stickers and put that on my Lomo 800 film canister. I knew the sticker had worked when the NP (Natural Photo) symbol appeared on the back of the camera. Natural Photo mode is activated automatically on the Natura when you load ISO 1600 speed or faster film. The camera automatically shoots wide open at f1.9 and adds exposure compensation to make natural looking photos without flash.
After I finished the roll, I asked my lab to push the film 1 stop in development.
The Fujifilm Klasse S is a very advanced premium point and shoot. No ISO 1600 stickers were needed here, I dialled in ISO 1600 into the camera’s menu before loading my Lomo 800. I then asked the lab to push the film one stop in development.
Due to popular demand, Pantastic is back! Grab a cheap plastic focus free panorama camera and join the fun! The camera rules and competition details are below. Don’t forget to keep listening to Matt Loves Cameras for updates! You can also check out the Pantastic 2020 competition entries for inspiration.
Scroll down for the camera rules, competition details, and entry form link.
The competition closing date has now been extended to 17 April 2022. If you’ve already submitted an entry before the original closing date of November 2021, feel free to send some more entries in! If you haven’t entered yet, get cracking!
Fingal Head taken on the Vivitar IC101 Panorama with Ilford HP4.
Examples of eligible cameras include, but are not limited to:
As long as you adhere to the rules above, you’re in.
Light, footloose and focus free!
Purple Grain is the collaborative community film photography zine from the LomoChrome Purple competition. Listen to the second and final part of the judging by pressing the play button above. To view all the competition entries and listen to part one of the judging, check out theLomoChrome Purple competition entries page.
Fifty copies of Purple Grain have been sent out to addresses all over the world along with limited edition postcards and Matt Loves Cameras stickers and fridge magents.
Below is a sneak preview of some of the spreads in the zine – these may change before printing.
For all US orders and all international destinations other than the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Price includes shipping and a copy of Purple Haze.
LomoChrome Purple is a film that I have fallen in love with over the last year. If you’ve never tried it, I hope that this article and the sample images will inspire you to pick up a roll or five.
In this review of LomoChrome Purple, I give a brief historical overview of LomoChrome Purple and the film that inspired it, details on the colour shifts you can expect, the variable ISO nature of the film, an example of the same scene shot at different film speeds, sample images of LomoChrome Purple taken on four different cameras, and lots more! If you prefer audio, click on the play button in the header above.
I love LomoChrome Purple so much I decided to run a Purple competition through my film photography podcast Matt Loves Cameras. Entering is easy: shoot a roll of Purple between 1 February 2021 and 15 May 2021, then send me the best four images! The aim of the competition is to produce a film photography community zine by mid 2021.
LomoChrome Purple is a film sold by Lomography. Introduced in 2013, an article on the Lomography website from January that year lead with the headline “Introducing LomoChrome Purple – a color negative film that yields infrared results!“. It’s been described as a colour-shift film and even a “purplescale” film thanks to its signature look.
Woah wait, what was that about infrared? Is this an infrared film? No, read that headline again: despite its funky colour shifts, Purple is a colour negative film. This means it can be developed in the same C41 chemicals as other colour print films such as Fujifilm’s Superia lineup and Kodak’s Gold and Portra lines.
Lomography said that the development of this new product was due to demand from their customers. They frequently name dropped a legendary film as its inspiration: Kodak Aerochrome.
Kodak Aerochrome Infrared film 1443 (also known as Kodak Ektachrome Professional EIR) was an infrared-sensitive, false-colour reversal film. Kodak developed Aerochrome for aerial photographic applications, such as vegetation and forestry surveys, hydrology, and earth resources monitoring, where its infrared properties were a big advantage.
Yellow filters (or sometimes orange filters or other colours) were typically used on camera lenses to enhance the effects of the film.
Aerochrome was intended to be developed as a colour transparency or slide using process AR-5, but the Kodak data sheet also details how achieving a negative is easy with process AN-6 or C-41. Most infrared film today is developed as a transparency using the E6 process.
Despite their original scientific and military applications, Kodak’s infrared films were often used for artistic purposes due to the unique way that they rendered the world, giving a surreal view of otherwise ordinary scenes.
In 2013 the Lomography website was still selling non-Kodak infrared films, but stocks were dwindling. Kodak Aerochrome had been officially discontinued in 2011 and was sorely missed.
Enter LomoChrome Purple, Lomography’s great hope to replicate the feel of shooting infrared films. Purple had two big advantages over infrared: it didn’t require any special filters, and it could be processed in widely available C-41 chemicals.
Lomography launched LomoChrome Purple in January 2013, with customers receiving the first rolls a few months later in July 2013. Lomography stated that making Purple “takes a little longer to produce than other emulsions” which could explain the delay.
The first run of the film was 4000 rolls of LomoChrome Purple in 120 (selling for around $11 USD a roll) and and 3500 rolls in 35mm format (selling for around $9 USD a roll). It’s important to note that this was around double the cost of regular colour negative films at the time, yet reports were that the film was flying off shelves during the first couple of years of its release.
Looking back at reviews of the film from 2013-2014, there was the usual mix of enthusiasm and scepticism from the community. Some people loved it, some hated it, others couldn’t see the point. In other words, the reaction was pretty much like any other new product launch in the photographic industry.
In 2017 Lomography announced a reformulated emulsion which “increased the film’s sensitivity to red hues, improved exposure at the recommended setting of ISO 400, and significantly reduced grain”. Curiously, these were the same benefits stated with the launch of the 2019 formula a couple of years later. All recent boxes of LomoChrome Purple bear the text “New 2019 formula”.
In early 2020 Purple became available in 110 (a format Lomography have long championed), as well as in Lomography’s simple use 35mm cameras.
To quote Lomography: “blue becomes green, green becomes purple and yellow becomes pink! Red tones stay red though, which keeps skin tones looking natural in a sea of trippy hues.”
While all of this is true, your results may depend on the lighting conditions that you shoot in, and how you rate the film in terms of its ISO value, or sensitivity to light. You might also find some cool surprises along the way: what they didn’t mention in their promo material is that pink becomes yellow!
As for natural looking skin tones, well, they’re not bad, but I’m not sure I would describe them as natural. Let’s just say that they’re a whole lot better than LomoChrome Turquoise which made people look like smurfs!
For a side-by-side comparison of Lomo Purple versus a regular colour negative film, compare the two images below.
The top one was taken on my Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim with Lomochrome Purple. The bottom one was taken on my Superheadz Wide and Slim with Kodak Ultramax 400. The Superheadz camera is a copy of the Vivitar that has the same design, focal length, and quirks such as harsh vignetting. Both cameras have the same fixed aperture and shutter speed.
As you can see, the pink boat becomes pale yellow, the golden brown sand becomes purple, the blue sky becomes green, the yellow buoy becomes pink!
LomoChrome Purple is a variable ISO film, meaning that you can expose it within a wide range of light sensitivity (as measured by the ISO standard) with good results.
If you are shooting Purple in a camera where you can set the film speed or ISO yourself, Lomography recommend any speed between 100 and 400 for best results. Your choice will depend on the effect you’d like to see and the lighting conditions available to you.
If you have a newer camera with lots of fancy electronics, you may not be able to set the ISO yourself, which might be an issue. These cameras typically read the DX code on the film canister to set the speed of the film automatically for you, but LomoChrome Purple film canisters have no DX code.
In this case, the camera will typically default to its standard ISO speed, which is often 100. Check your camera manual though – some brands like Konica default to ISO 25 for non-DX coded film!
If you want to be really adventurous, you could use the film in a camera like the Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim, which has a single shutter speed, single aperture, and no way of setting the ISO at all. Pop the film in and go shoot in bright light for best results. I’m very happy with the images I achieved with this combination in the beautiful Queensland light.
A higher ISO speed such as 400 will typically produce more intense red and purple colours, whereas a lower ISO speed such as 100 will be a paler rendition of the film.
You can see in the images below, the ISO 400 image (far left) has more intense red and purple colours, with the sky being more green. The ISO 100 image (far right) is a paler, more muted version of Purple, still retaining some of the films characteristics. The ISO 200 image (middle) is a mix of the two, though perhaps more like the ISO 100 version.Apart from the three images below, all other images in this review were shot at ISO 200.
The manufacturer of LomoChrome Purple has been the subject of much speculation in the film community. Some of the original 2013 films were “Made in Europe” while others were “Made in China”: all of 2019 formulation films I have say the latter.
Could it be that LomoChrome Purple is a regular colour negative film made by one of the big manufacturers then finished in China? Or is there a factory somewhere in China pumping this stuff out from scratch?
For now that seems to be a closely guarded secret. Chinese involvement would typically point to China Lucky Film, but it’s reported they stopped the manufacture of colour films several years ago.
A common complaint you will hear from seasoned film photographers goes as follows: “Chrome is a word used for slide films, why are Lomography using it on colour negative films?”
It’s true that the suffix -chrome has been used throughout photographic history for slide films such as Fujichrome, Kodakchrome, and Agfachrome. So yes, you could be forgiven for being confused by the name, but it wasn’t always that way.
The first ever film to use the suffix -chrome was sold by a company called Wratten & Wainwright at the dawn of the 20th century. It was a black and white film called Verichrome. The company was bought by Kodak in 1912, and the Verichrome name was resurrected years later for a Kodak black and white film.
Somewhere along the line, Kodak used the suffix -chrome for their colour reversal films (Kodachrome) and the suffix -color for their colour negative films (Kodacolor). This has also been the case with other film manufacturers such as Fujifilm (Fujichrome, Fujicolor).
My take is this – go easy on Lomography. The name “LomoChrome” seems to be a hat tip to the inspiration behind Purple: Aerochrome. In the last few years, Lomography has named other colour negative films with this branding i.e. LomoChrome Turquoise and LomoChrome Metropolis.
Throughout 2020 I shot four rolls of LomoChrome Purple on four different cameras:
I absolutely love the images I’ve shot with all rolls of Purple, perhaps more than any other film I’ve shot in recent memory. There’s such a fun, dreamy feeling to the images shot on LomoChrome Purple, giving you a different perspective of the world.
I’ve had way more keepers using Purple than I’ve had on other rolls. Perhaps the only time when I’ve had less than fantastic results was during a weekend away when it rained for 48 hours and the sky was grey (see below).
I’ve always thought that there’s an art-science continuum with photography. At one end you have experimental, arty photographers that embody the philosophy that Lomography promotes: “don’t think, just shoot”.
At the other end you have the technical photography crowd that like every shot metered and exposed correctly and only shoot with precision equipment. In between those two extremes there’s everybody else. I think that LomoChrome Purple is more likely to appeal the arty crowd rather than the technical crowd.
No. Although there are similarities, it’s unfair to compare the two as they’re fundamentally different emulsions. Is Purple a fantastic film in its own right? Yes, yes it is. Get out there and shoot a roll and find out for yourself.
Grab a roll of LomoChrome Purple and join the fun! Below are rules for the competition and details on how to enter. Deadline is 15 May 2021.
Check out the LomoChrome Purple competition entries so far!
A few years ago on holidays I read a little gem of a book by advertising legend Paul Arden “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be.”
Arden was a creative director at London advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, and was responsible for some of the most famous British advertising campaigns of all time.
To quote his obituary published in The Independent “Arden was the ringmaster behind the whole creative circus that saw British Airways become ‘The World’s Favourite Airline’, The Independent become the new intelligentsia’s favourite newspaper, Margaret Thatcher the nation’s favourite leader and Silk Cut their favourite cigarette.”
In the case of the British Airways , it’s said that Arden’s ads changed the fortunes of the airline. (He was also in charge of the Fujifilm account during this time, though in his obituary, there was no mention of that becoming Britain’s favourite film.)
I read this little book about once a year, it’s funny, insightful, and full of snippets of advice and inspiration for creative people.
Even the cover has a clever little play on words under the title… it reads “The world’s best-selling book by Paul Arden”. I was most impressed when I first saw this, was this really the world’s best selling book? Then it dawned on me, it’s the world’s best selling book written by Paul Arden.
Much of the advice in the book is aimed at copy writers and people working in ad agencies, but the book also contains many pearls of wisdom for all creatives from all walks of life.
Below, I’ve taken nine quotes from the book and interpreted them in a way that you can apply to your photography. I’ve added some photos to this page from my camera testing around Brisbane in the last couple of months.
I love this quote so much. Arden follows that up on the same page by saying “Without having a goal, it’s difficult to score.” Words to live by.
So what is your vision of where or who you want to be? What is your ultimate photographic aim? To sell prints? To create zines? To start a blog or a podcast? To become a Magnum photographer?
Start talking steps towards that goal today.
If you want to become a portrait photographer, look at what skills and equipment you’ll need to succeed in that objective. It could be said that everything else is a distraction.
If you’ve always wanted to put your prints in an art show, or create a zine, or start a blog or podcast, map out a plan over six or 12 months on how you can get there.
What can photography from different genres teach us? Quite a lot actually.
Study another type of photography that you usually wouldn’t be interested in. If you’re a street photographer, look at fashion photography. If you primarily shoot black and white, look at colour travel photography.
Pickup some newspapers or magazines in your local library, or go exploring on social media. What can you learn from trendy wellness magazines? From Instagrammers? What do they do well in terms of how they present their photography? What can you learn from them? Probably quite a lot.
Sometimes when we make a mistake with a roll of film or a camera we do have a inclination to beat ourselves up about making an error, whether it be ruining the rolls in the development, dropping the camera, or having an entire roll of bad exposures or missed focus.
But failure is part of photography, just as it’s a part of life.
Here’s an interesting reminder: Scientists fail all the time, they call their failures ‘experiments’, and they’re allowed to fail multiple times before success.
Next time you have a disappointing set of images, take a close look at them. What worked? What didn’t work? What can you can you do better next time? it’s all part of the creative process.
How often do we post our photos to Instagram and Facebook hoping to receive an avalanche of likes and comments?
It’s natural to do this, something that social media companies have exploited with the design of their platforms, but it doesn’t encourage the most useful kind of feedback: constructive criticism.
The real value is by asking others how you can make something better.
Maybe you could ask a photography friend for an honest opinion of your work, or what do you do best? Ask them to be brutally honest about your strengths, and what you could improve. It might surprise you, and it might just make you a better photographer.
As an advertising man, Arden meant this point literally. Instead of using felt tip pens for layouts, he tells the tale in the book of when he used water colours for a layout and the client were so impressed they increased their advertising budget significantly.
“Change your tools, it may free your thinking” says Arden, and that point can be made with photographers too who are in a rut.
If you usually shoot large format, why not get out there with a 110 camera.
If you like point and shoots, why not shoot a few rolls with an SLR?
If you shoot with a Leica, why not give a plastic toy camera a go?
It may just free your thinking.
We all get mental blocks… the way to get unblocked is by losing our inhibitions and stop worrying about being right.
Arden suggests two tricks to get rid of creative blockages
The first is to do the opposite of what the situation requires. That could mean shooting sports with a TLR, or portraits with a point and shoot.
The second is to look out the window and whatever catches your eye, make that the solution to your problem.
“Ideas are open knowledge” says Arden “Don’t claim ownership.”
Got an idea on how to do something or solve a problem? Tell people. Arden says that if you give away everything you know, it forces you to replenish and look for new things.
What does this mean for photographers? Share your knowledge. Get together with others and talk about what you do. Be generous and helpful to others. Generally, I think this is something that photographers do pretty well, though of course, there’s always room from improvement.
How could you make more of a difference with the knowledge you have?
Arden has some good advice: “Whatever is on your desk right now, that’s the one. Make it the best you possibly can.”
The same thing goes for photography. We’ve all been guilty of finishing off a roll in a camera we don’t particularly like to get it out of the way.
Test rolls – take photos of the dog in the back yard and a gazillion.
Now I make a special effort to drive to different places I haven’t been to before with the sole purpose of exploring and taking new images. As well as testing these cameras, I’m also building up a library of images shot in different colour negative stocks and I also have plans to create standalone reviews.
In the book, Arden explains that you shouldn’t hand your work over to a supplier hoping they will produce the magic for you, rather, you are the magic.
The same could also be said about photography, don’t expect a film or a camera or a lab or a location to bring the magic by itself.
I’ve seen some pretty ordinary photos taken on some very expensive cameras, and I’ve seen some extraordinary photos taken on cameras that most people wouldn’t touch with bargepole.
Just recently, I took some really lovely images in Brisbane with a Canon Af-7/8, a cheap plastic point and shoot, and Kodak Pro Image 100, one of the cheapest consumer print films.
YOU are the magic!
Buy “It’s not how good you are, it’s how good you want to be” by Paul Arden for around $10USD on Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so if you do buy anything you will be sending a small commission my way.
Finally, the wait is over! The new film photography community collab zines from the Matt Loves Cameras podcast are here! Below are details on the two zines, with links at the bottom to buy. Please…
Listen along as Roxanna Angles and Matt Murray judge the Sprocktastic 2020 competition entries!
Listen on your favourite podcast app or by pressing the play button above.
Sherry sends these lovely sprocket images in from Alberta, Canada! Taken on her Sprocket Rocket with Fuji 400 film.
Hi Matt I loved the Sprocket Challenge. I have a couple of personal projects on the go, and this worked in nicely with them. The ocean is a significant part of our lives where I live at Kaikoura, and I wanted to show this with some key subjects;
I shot the pictures with my Mamiya RZ67 ProII using Lomography 400. Pictures are hard-earned; The 35 cartridge is mounted in the magazine using adapters and I tape a 120 paper leader to the 35 film so I can sneak a couple of pictures onto the film before the magazine registers number 1. This involves a shuffle of using Multi setting to shoot the picture and Single setting to advance the film. Once you reach frame 1 on the counter you’re away. I use a 220 back as it counts all the frames so I kind of know where I’m up to.
I use a 65mm lens as it equates to my favourite focal length of around 30mm. Unloading needs to be done in the dark, undoing the back and spooling the film back into the reel for developing which I did in a Lab Box with Cinestill Cs41. Scanning is with a Canon EOSR mounted on a homemade copystand, with lightbox and Lomography Digitalisa holder. Two shots are required for the pano film capture to use the camera sensor fully, the two Raw files then head over to my MacPro and are stitched in PTGui and then processed using FilmLab App. A little retouch spotting and a slight contrast adjustment for output. I enjoy the colour random-ness of Lomo 400 in my world where colour always needs to be correct. Thanks for the inspiring fun! Andrew
Here are the pictures for the Schprocktastic Challenge (Yes, I did write this wrong simply because I thought it was funnier 😁). I wanted to stand out from the crowd a bit on this one. I figured you would get plenty of Sprocket Rocket panos so I opted to use something a bit more rare: the BlackBird Fly. For those not in the know, it’s a 35mm TLR that exposes the film vertically. I took it to a local skatepark, that’s when I realized it was the wrong camera for the job. Have you ever tried to capture a fast moving subject with a waist level viewfinder that flips the image left to right? That was definitely a challenge. I’m really proud of the shot of the kid on a scooter I took there. Even the shadow is perfect. For the one with the chain, I had to dance around a field covered in raccoon poop… I never knew they could produce so much doo-doo! So here are my best four. They were all taken in my home town. All shot using the BlackBird Fly (orange version) on Foma 400 dunked in Rodinal.
I used Lomography’s Sprocket Rocket for these images, for the B&W I was trying Ilford XP2 Super, the colour film was some random expired 200iso I found online. I really like how the vignetting ended up framing the moving fishes. I think that is my favourite. The goggly eyes on the trees was just one of those strange happenstances. I was walking along one of the main avenues in Lisbon and found them staring at pedestrians while we waited for the light to turn on a crosswalk.
I used the Lomography Sprocket Rocket, a simple toy camera which I have come to love. Ilford HP5+ was the film of choice, developed in FPP D96 for 9 minutes, followed by a water stop bath and finished off with Ilford Rapid Fixer before being scanned with the Epson V550. My favourite of these images might just be “Oh, Deer”, featuring the downtown Columbus, Ohio skyline and a bronze deer sculpture by Santa Fe artist Terry Allen – I like the whimsy of it and the fact that it’s different than my usual fare. “The Ridges” was taken at an abandoned psychiatric facility on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. “The Mighty Hocking” proved to be a little too mighty, as it flooded the Athens region several times, leading the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to re-route the river in the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Drive” features the view just outside the Tall Pines Area of Walnut Woods MetroPark in Groveport, Ohio.
I used ORWO DN21 (same as Lomography Kino Babylon 13 only much cheaper on a bulk roll), shot in a 1950s vintage Wirgin Auta 4.5, 6×9 folding camera, Schneider-Kreuznach Radionar 105mm f/4.5, with 35mm to 120 adapter set. Film was processed in replenished Xtol stock for 7:00 (corrected for temperature). The film has a little light leakage from a bulk loader accident. I like the Abandoned Siding best — it’s got the “far from anywhere” vibe that goes with slow B&W film adapted into a 70 year old camera.
G’day Matt, I’m pretty new to shooting sprockets. I have always liked the look of exposed sprocket holes. I recently bought some 35 to 120 adapters so that I could shoot x-pan like panoramic photos with my Mamiya RB67. The ability to shoot sprockets was a nice bonus. My submissions are from a single roll of Ilford Delta 100. These were taken about an hour south of my home in central Florida. Its an area I occasionally pass through while working and have wanted to photograph for a while. I processed the film with my usual developer – HC-110 (B). Some adjustments done in Adobe Lightroom.
Hi Matt! My pics are made with a bright blue Lomography Sprocket Rocket. I received one for Christmas from my son 4 years ago and it really has become my cure for times when I’m bored with photography. I typically use Kodak Pro Image 100, or Fuji 200 and for long night exposures my cable release is a paper clip and a rubber band. The artist studio is probably my favorite image, though certainly not the best. I was volunteered to help frame some paintings for an artist who had become quite sick. His studio was just as he’d left it when he was finishing his last painting months before and it was a great experience to stand exactly where he had been standing and try to imagine his thought process in the painting. The corn field and tree were in the fields around his studio. The night image is from a restaurant called Beast, desolate on a Saturday night after curfew.
Thanks for the great shows!
Kerry
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Belo
Shot on velvia 50 in a Fuji GSW690III. My first time shooting 35mm in a medium format camera. It was great fun, I will definitely be trying it again. My favourite is the sunrise shot over the sea. Next time I think I’ll try some faster film stock and a color negative film.
RRS 6×9 and Kodak 2254 – Something went wrong and I ended up with about 8 exposures on the same frame. I was pretty surprised by the results and even think they it actually worked out.
The colour pic of Droitwich canal was taken with an Agfa Clack box camera on fuji C200 film. The two sepia pics were also taken with the Clack but on Kentmere 100 one is of a memorial cross at Claines parish church near worcester and th second which is probably my favourite is the road bridge over the river Severn in Worcester city centre. The black and white pic was taken with a Holga WPC (wide pinhole camera) on Kentmere 400 again at Claines parish church.
Picked up a lovely red Sprocket Rocket to take on this challenge : ) Film is Ilford HP5 develop at home with the lab-box and cinestills df96 monobath. Pictures are different scenes from around my local town of Chapel Hill North Carolina.
Yikes, when did I last shoot 35mm? I’ve never shot sprockets before, but I read up online, and figured 35mm would fit nicely in an old Lubitel 166B from the early 80’s. I home-develop in Rodinal, so the film needed to be mono, and what they had in the shop was Ilford Delta 400, so that’s what I used. First time for this film. It wasn’t til after I loaded the camera that I read the bit about getting a count of how much winding on is needed, when there’s no numbers visible in the red window (the red window being shut, to protect the film, in the absence of backing paper). At it turned out, I got 13 exposures on my 36-exp roll. Plenty room for more, with less winding, but I was keep to avoid overlap. And I wasn’t too sure how much field of view, in either direction, would be caught on the firm – hence the framing is a bit iffy. The foggy field and the standing stone involved a 35-mile round trip by pushbike specially for the purpose, so they’re probably favourites – I like how the soft focus of the Lubitel works with the soft light. The trip to Loch Faskally was for the autumn colours, not so obvious here, but I wanted to get some people into my top four. Splash was taken from the dry safety of a parked car, out the window. All the negs came out a bit dark. Scanned with Olympus OM-D EM-1 ii, and tones adjusted in Lightroom. There’s plenty detail on the negs, with scope for some local adjustments too. Thanks to Al Clark, also in my part of Scotland, for sharing the post with the link to the Challenge. Would I do it again? Hell yeah!
All photos taken with ONDU pinhole cameras loaded with FPP Sprocket Hole Film.
The film is Svema color 125. The gravestone images were taken with the ONDU MkIII Multiformat using the 6×9 mask. Eastern Cemetery is in fact the oldest cemetery in Portland, Maine. Rusty Cow Girl and Sunflower Sprockets were taken with the ONDU MkIII 6×6 Pocket. They were taken at Pumpkin Valley Farm in Dayton, Maine during a portrait shoot with my daughter in and around the sunflower field.
Mary Green
Mrs Mary Green
Rusty Cow Girl
Sunflower sprockets
I used the Lomography Sprocket Rocket Panorama camera for all of the images. The Spring Valley image was taken on Iford HP5 developed in Kodak HC-110. This is my favorite image of the bunch with the Bridge in the center and the blur on the sides, it looks like a dream. I have taken several images of that bridge but this one turned out to be the most unique one. All of the color shots were taken on Fuji’s 200 color print film developed in Cinestill C-41 kit. All against Matt’s advice of using a 400 speed film. I chose that film because I was using a flash at night on some of my images and did not want them washed out. However they were not worthy of the sprocket’s competition or damaging Matt’s eyes for life. I don’t know if I will use this camera again I preferred using the plastic pano over this one.
Hi there Matt!
I teach public high school photography and was on a photo tour in Greece when quarantine began. We hurried home and went into lockdown for weeks, but then we began to slowly and carefully do day trips out and about. I shot these at Gold King Mine & Ghost Town in Jerome, Arizona on a Holga modified to fit 35mm Lomography 800 film. I’ve modded my Holga before so had a pretty good idea what I was doing here. I like shooting the Holga or my Sprocket Rocket because they’re lightweight & give wild results. Developed at home in Unicolor & self-scanned. Minor digital edits.
My favourite is the old yellow race car. All of these are double exposed but I like how the car racing number is also floating above the car itself.
I’m not eligible to win, but here are my Sprocktastic entries! Taken on a Lomography Sprocket Rocket.
