Film Photography Podcast 156 – December 15, 2016
The internet radio show for people who love to shoot film! Hot Student Film Cameras! Pentax 6×7! R.I.P Polaroid Pack Film! Canon del Soul! Tariq Tarey Portraits! Light Meters! Svema Mz3 Film! Books of the Month and More!
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SHOW NOTES
Film Photography Podcast – Episode 156 – December 15th, 2016
Show Notes By: Alex Luyckx
We’re getting into the Holiday Spirit here at the FPP, so grab your egg nog, hot chocolate, or Mr. Brown Iced Coffee and come gather around the fire with Michael Raso, Leslie Lazenby, Mat Marrash, and Mark O’Brien! The gang discusses the Pentax 6×7, Canon Del Sol, Student Cameras, Fuji Pack Film (RIP), Svema MZ-3, Portrait Photographer Tariq Tarey, Light Meters, and a couple books!
While we’re all familiar with “The Fridge” aka the Mamyia RB/RZ67, which is pretty much a Hasselblad on steroids, some might find it a little intimidating and unfamiliar and what something that they have seen before, something more 35mm like. Well Mark shows off his Pentax 6×7, think a K1000 on steroids. This is a beast camera with a massive pentaprism sitting atop it. The original Pentax 6×7 was released in 1969 and with three additional models coming afterwards with the last being the 67II in 1998. These are medium format SLRs that look like a traditional SLR and shoot a massive 6cm by 7cm image. They work great for landscapes even portraits according to Mark, but he really does prefer to shoot the camera on a tripod as they can wear a bit if you’re shooting handheld. For portraits, Mat is keen on people running with the 105mm f/2.4 lens, but for everyday use, Mark would recommend a 90mm lens. On the used market the older ones don’t get much love, it’s the youngest, the 67II that fetches the highest price these days. Just watch out, they do need a battery to work and once they go, they’re dead.
Good-bye FP-100c film 🙁 – While this year has been pretty good for the film photography market, there has been one dark part that is the end of Fuji Packfilm. Yes, year saw the end of production for Fuji FP-100c, as it joins FP-100b and FP-3000 in the graveyard of Fujifilm. And while there is still some stock floating around out there the price has been going up as the supply dwindles. And while CatLabs is working on producing their own version, the price is likely to stay up around 30 bucks a pack because it will be more of a boutique film rather than a large scale commercial film. But for Fuji their focus is on their Instax line of films and camera and have just released a Black & White version of their Instax Mini film (which looks pretty awesome), so the gang hopes to see it in the Wide format and the announced Square format as well!
Canon Del Sol – Canon’s hot idea in 1995 is Leslie’s camera to show off and all she can ask is what were they thinking! During the 90s Canon’s SureShot line of Point & Shoots but among them was this little odd offering, the SureShot Del Sol as it was known in the American markets (Prima Sol in Europe and AutoBoy SE in Japan) had some pretty standard specs a 32mm f/3.5 lens, full auto exposure, and DX reading for film speeds. So what made this camera stand out, well it was the power source. As you might have guessed by the name, it’s the sun. That’s right this camera charges the internal lithium-ion battery with a camera mounted solar panel. The charge didn’t last long (about two hours) and it took forever to actually get the battery charged. Also if you have it charging with film in the camera, well it’s now in its own easy-bake oven. Leslie’s example isn’t working, so if you have any experience with this odd-ball camera, please let us know: podcast@filmphotographyproject.com
Shooting portraits – Mat has been working for several years now with a fantastic photographer in the Columbus, Ohio area named Tariq Tarey! It’s not just photographic talents that Tariq has, its people skills as well! Tariq, works with immigrants, specifically refugees new to the Columbus , Ohio area. Tariq seeks to connect with the subjects on a human level first, they aren’t just subjects to him to be posed and exposed – they are a fellow human being. It’s a lesson that is valuable for any photographer to learn because in the end you get a better photograph because you connected with the person outside the photographic context first. Learn and observe first, ask permission always, and realize that your subject is human, not just a lamp or a table, or a building (as Mat explains).
Light Meters – If you’ve been listening to the FPP for a long time, you’ll realize that there is only one light meter for Michael Raso – as a student it was drilled into his head that the Gossen Luna Pro F (also known as the Lunasix F or Porfisix) is one of the best meters out there! The best part is that you can get your hands on one for maybe 100 bucks! Of course there are several solid meters both old and new within that price range. Leslie and Mat have both worked with and like the Minolta Flashmeter IIIf of if you have some more room in your wallet, the IV or V are good options as well. Don’t want to go with an old used meter, Mark suggests the Sekonic L-208 and even new it’s around one hundred. And as always if you really want a solid meter that is super inexpensive, there’s the Black Cat Exposure guide or apps for your smartphone.
Svema MZ-3 film – One of the wonderful hand-rolled films in our store is Svema MZ-3, this is a super slow film out of Eastern Europe that leans towards blue sensitive. Normally the film is rated as ISO-3, and like many slower films it doesn’t take well to being pushed. Leslie of course has been playing with it, and has managed to get it to ISO-12 and developed in Diafine. It doesn’t do well with TD-3 (a technidol clone), and produces fairly flat images. But there are plenty other options, a listener has developed in Caffenol-CL with good results, there’s also Ilfosol 3 and HC-110.
Books! Mark O’Brien has once again dived into his extensive photographic library and came out with a pair of books for this show. The first is Double Take by Richard Whelan, this is a rather unique book. Richard has taken two photographs of the same or similar scenes or themes but shot by different photographers to compare how individuals work, compose, expose, and present images. It just shows that no two photographers are the same in how they approach the craft. It makes for a great read according to Mark and is a wonderful learning tool. The second book is more of a how-to guide and that is Richard Farber’s Historic Photographic Processes. If you’ve ever thought about getting into Alternative Processes in your printing this book is your bible. While there are hundreds of websites on the subject, this ties everything together into one unified volume compete with the listing for ingredients, how to make the chemistry, and the process to create the images.
And that wraps it up for this show and for 2016! If you’re looking for gifts for a film photographer on your list or just a gift for yourself look no further than the FPP store! We’d love to hear from you about your 2017 plans so drop us a line at podcast@filmphotographyproject.com or by the postal service: Film Photography Podcast PO Box 264 Fair Lawn, NJ 07410 and with that we’ll rock you out of 2016 with Michael’s favourite Christmas tune from 2015 by the Smoove Sailors! (Download it here)