Camera Talk

Hi, all -

I'm itching to shoot the Spotmatic again after, like, 5 or 6 years. I have a well-documented aversion to 135, though. And I no longer have a dedicated film scanner. So before I committed to buying film, I figured I'd try scanning an old negative with the Epson 4990. Grabbed a random piece of film out of a box and scanned it.

img479a by Scott, on Flickr

Funny thing is, I *clearly* remember that day, that trip, and taking that picture. I'm guessing it was in the 2005-2006 time frame, most likely the Spotmatic. Might could have been a Super Memar. The scanner works fine for my purposes, scans will require a little more work than I'm used to with 4x5, so a little learning curve there. But I'm tickled to have found this image. I have boxes of old 135 film to go through now...

Scott

Neat story, Scott. I sometimes go through my old photos, and try to remember just what I was shooting back then. It's easier to do when the selection was limited. But my, how those two have grown.

PF

Nothing wrong with 35mm, or with that portrait. Your 4990 should be more than adequate for web scans.

Julio, my complaint with 135 is two-fold: The image quality *can be* unacceptable depending on grain and contrast (a subjective determination exaggerated by years of large format shooting), and the post-developing work involved for a hybrid workflow (such that I use) is excessive. Tons of scanning and tweaking involved. I generally end up losing patience for it. I combated this latter issue previously by shooting color and having dev/scan done by CVS or Costco. That's no longer available around here, and mail-off developing is no longer a very cheap option.

All that said, I *did* load up the Spotmatic with Kentmere 100 last week, and shot a roll using a new-to-me Super Tak 50/1.4 (yep - the radioactive ilk, mostly cleared under a bright LED). I finished the roll last night, developed the film, and under a loop the negatives looks impressive. The proof will be in the scanning, but truth be told, I had a complete and utter blast shooting the roll. If I can tolerate the digitizing and CS5 adjusting, this may be a fun diversion for a while. Have a trip to wine country planned this year; would like to bring this rig along.

Stay tuned...

Scott, I had to turn to B&W only, developing myself, years ago. Maybe I got used to the tweaking and scanner work, but honestly I do not find it worse than when I did wet printing many years ago. Especially since I got the Epson V600.

Your point on grain (and dust!) being a pain in 35mm is of course true. But that Spottie will do good work in wine country, I'd bet. At least as a backup for your LF.