Photographer: Kevin Pazmino
A Fleeting Heart
© Kevin Pazmino 2013
All Right Reserved
www.pazminophotography.com
Efke R100 127mm
Film Taped to ANR 120mm Glass from Better Scanning
Rolleiflex “Baby” 4×4 Black circa 1960’s Schneider Xenar 3,5/60mm
For those die hard Baby Rollei fans here is what I’ve learned using the rollei. Extremely difficult to focus in bright and in low light forget it! The Xenar lens is not very sharp in comparison to other Xenar full medium format glass. It is really soft from f3.5-5.6 after that it gets dramatically sharper and is by far the sharpest at f16-f22. I find it really difficult to shoot at this range because lighting conditions are never really present at f22 unless using strobes with a soft box. There currently is only one color film for the baby Rollei which Rollei Cross Bird. I dont recommend crossing this E-6 development type film. You get crazy purples and greens and not in a “cool” pleasent way. There are two BW 127 films out there that I know of EFKE R100 and Rollei Retro 80s but I believe that the machine that cuts the BW film is broken and they are phasing out 127mm film. If you are able to find film the best results for the EFKE is to shoot it at 200iso and push it 2 stops. The Rollei Retro is really contrasty, expensive and difficult to get good results. I’ve only seen this film at its best in Rollei Low Speed RLS developer. Develop rls at 13.5 mins let it sit for 30secs then agitate for a min then agitate for 10 seconds every min. Here is the thing about RLS..IT GOES BAD within 6 weeks. So if you open it use it all right away or find a dark super air proof bottle. If not your whole roll will be blank. This happened to me several times until I figured out what went wrong (many tears where shed during the learning phase). Good luck out there and keep film alive specially 127!
Kevin says: “In May of 2010 I decided to play with a Baby Rollieflex 4×4 TLR, a camera that I inherited from the passing of my father in law David whom I greatly admired. I was amazed looking at the world through the camera he used 40 years ago and how it brought me closer to him. I took 12 shots in Downtown Los Angeles and crossed my fingers when I dropped off my first roll, a week later the prints blew me away. I never had an interest in photography until that moment. Since then I have not been able to put down a camera. I carry one with me everday to help me take time to stop and notice the beauty that is life. For me photography is my religion, my meditation, and my outlook at life at that moment. I hope the images I share allow people to see the beauty of world as I see it and if im lucky bring a few smiles because of them.”