Ilford Film

5 frames of Berlin with my Ricoh 500G and Ilford HP5, Ilford FP4, Ilford XP2 and Fomapan 400

By / / 5 frames with... / 3 Comments

Yes, the title is long, but for a good reason. This trip to Berlin was my third or fourth photo expedition with the Ricoh 500G. I’m still getting used to this lovely little camera, which I bought three months ago. This 40€ purchase was in excellent condition, apart from the light seals, which I had to replace. After shooting a few initial rolls of film, I was keen to find out which film would be best for a given subject and lighting situation. So I packed my bag for Berlin with the following mix of films: Ilford HP5, Ilford FP4, Ilford XP2 and Fomapan 400.

Photographing a Butterfly Conservatory – Black and White, What Can’t It Do?

By / / Photos & Projects / 4 Comments

My wife and I usually spend some time somewhere in the warm sunny south over the course of our too long winters in Ontario Canada.  Not so this year.  We were however looking for some respite in late February so we booked a short overnight stay in Niagara Falls.  One of the less sensational attractions …

Photographing a Butterfly Conservatory – Black and White, What Can’t It Do? Read More

Shooting f/8 Until Sunrise – My Experiences and Methods

By / / Photos & Projects, Processes, Tutorials & Guides / 8 Comments

I absolutely love long exposure night time photography, for me its a far more spiritual mindful time to shoot and that element of doubt and anticipation of just what you are going to get is heightened. To me that’s film photography in a nutshell, that nagging doubt and anticipation then reward rather than instant gratification and certainty that comes with digital. 

Olympus OM1 & Ilford HP5

5 Frames with an Olympus OM1, a roll of HP5 and a Bridge

By / / Photos & Projects / 40 Comments

I have a few film cameras that all mean something emotional to me (my Olympus XA2 I won in a photographic competition aged 12, my OM1 was my only camera for about 20 years until I added my Minolta Autocord, the Nikon F801 is a copy of one I took travelling around the world and I look after my Dad’s Nikon FE that he bought when I was a nipper) but I don’t use them anywhere near as much as I should, not least because I love my digital camera (Fuji XE3) with it’s perfect blend of retro feel, image quality, size and convenience. 

With this in mind I have been looking for excuses to use my film cameras and all the lovely rolls of Ilford HP5 I have bought over the last year or so. Hence I have come up with a project to photograph some of the bridges over the River Thames near to where I live using a maximum of one roll for one day’s shooting.

5 Frames with the Kodak Retina 1a & Very Expired Ilford FP4

By / / 5 frames with... / 23 Comments

Word is, Folding Kodak Retinas are a lovely piece of kit, provided your winding mechanism isn’t broken. I had a beautiful Retina iia with a dodgy winder. F2 Schneider lens, nice clear rangefinder, I sent it to Dave, my camera wizard, full of hope. In the interim I bought a Retina ia as a possible donor. The difference between the two models were that the one lacked a rangefinder so had a smaller top section, and the lens was an f2.8, other than that the one and two were identical. They were manufactured side by side by the Nagel company in Stuttgart, Germany. Official lists state they were manufactured from 1951-54 but some people think it was as early as 1949. The build quality of both is superb and, while not cheap, they are still relatively inexpensive, for the time being. Well, my iia was unfixable, ok probably not unfixable per se but it needed hugely expensive professional help which made it unviable.

Scroll to Top