Author name: Phil Harrison

Phil spent 25 years as a professional photographer after leaving Photographic College in the mid 1970’s. In his early years, he worked as a medical photographer, based in a hospital in the north of the UK and later came upon a change of direction to industrial photography and film/TV production. In the late 90’s Phil gave up professional photography and trained as a Train Guard, retiring a few years ago. He mainly uses "standard" lenses (50mm/80mm/150mm depending on format) with his film cameras, having given up digital cameras entirely. He doesn't specialise with his photography, enjoying photographing anything that appeals.

Godox Lux Senior with B/W negative film – by Phil Harrison

By / / Accessories / 3 Comments

The photo above shows a Voigtlander Vito B with bulb flash, which was the kit I used in the 60’s for my interior photos and my current camera with what looks like a very similar bulb flash. However this is a very clever electronic flash that collapses neatly into its own body after folding up the reflector petals. The Lux Senior has both Manual and Auto settings, it does not have TTL. It is perfect for film cameras but is also safe on digital cameras. I’ve been using an old Cobra auto flashgun with a piece of white card as a reflector to get a soft light, which is a bit messy and slow to use, but gives a nice light. The Lux Senior doesn’t give as soft a light as the card reflector but its big reflector is not as harsh as most direct flashguns.

Popping off a Roll of Colour Negative – Portra 400 pushed +2 – By Phil Harrison

By / / Photos & Projects / 12 Comments

It seemed like a good idea to drop a roll of 35mm colour negative into my camera and go and pop off 36 exposures in a couple of hours, or at least it would have been two years ago. Two years ago you could choose from a number of budget films for under a fiver or posh films for a tenner. Now there are no budget films to be had just poshly priced films at around £16 a roll, such is the shortage of 35mm colour negative film. All that seems to be readily available in the UK as I write is Kodak Portra 160 & 400. Then there’s the used film camera prices which have steadily increased over two years, some extraordinarily so – a 1990’s Leica M6 35mm Rangefinder body was £1600 now £2850…what?!

Yashicamat

5 Frames with a freshly serviced Yashicamat and Fomapan – by Phil Harrison

By / / 5 frames with... / 8 Comments

A couple of years ago I treated myself to a very tidy Yashicamat that was made in May 1965. I wrote about the camera here. I discovered recently that the shutter speeds had become faulty, finally succumbing to age (57 years) and making the camera unusable. Fortunately Newton Ellis & Co in Liverpool will service TLR’s. They get a full strip down and repair.

Canon Epoca – A Review of A Twice Owned Camera – by Phil Harrison

By / / Point & Shoot / 2 Comments

I blame Kosmo Foto! His article on Ten of the quirkiest compact film cameras reminded me I had once owned a Canon Epoca is a fun camera to use and working well for its age with a pretty good zoom lens. It’s quite heavy and a bit unwieldy but for cheap fun it’s hard to beat., it prompted me to look for a working model and I was lucky enough to find one in good order, they are not expensive, for £20. I found some of my photographs taken with this camera in 1992/3, there’s even a photo of me with the Epoca in it’s case around my neck.

ADOX Colour Mission 200 – A new colour negative film – By Phil Harrison

By / / Film / 7 Comments

For those of you who haven’t heard of this film I’ll start with Adox’s sales copy:

ADOX has released Color Mission – a film with delicately vibrant minty greens, peachy reds, airy grain and a purpose at the core. The name is intentional: those small 35mm rolls are on a big mission to give the analog community a beautiful product while investing into the future of film research and production, which is one of the most sophisticated challenges in the analog industry.

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