Fujifilm

[Martin Wynne]

.
I still have a few unused rolls of Fujicolor Superia film -- and now a Fuji X100F digital camera. So this was an interesting watch. As usual, slow the Youtube playback to 0.75 if you prefer to listen calmly with time to take it in.

Martin.

 

[Paul Boyd]

I have a few new-ish rolls of Fujifilm in the freezer, although I had to buy Kodak for a while. It's fun shooting film, but an expensive hobby these days - it makes you think carefully before hitting (sorry, gently pressing) the shutter button!

 

[Jim Guthrie]

Interesting. I worked in BBC Film Units in the 70s and 80s and used mainly Kodak 16mm products, but the Fuji High Speed A250 film was regularly used. I always remember that Fuji's problem was delivery since the product came from Japan by ship and always seemed to be held up in Rotterdam Generally Kodak was more popular since it ran better in the modern 16mm cameras. The backing of the film was quite important in getting the right amount of friction in the gate of the cameras and Kodak's products were better.

There was another film producer - Ilford, here in the UK. But they only produced black and white stock. I remember setting up for a black and white film in BBC Glasgow in the late 70s and the cameraman's preference was for Ilford over Kodak. So I contacted Ilford to order up some stock and had the greatest fight getting them to send me anything. The BBC was the single biggest user of 16mm film stock in the world but Ilford didn't seem to know that. In Ilford's defence, the BBC had pretty well stopped using black and white stock in the early 70s, so Ilford had had pretty well no dealings with them since then.

Jim.

 

[Rob Manchester]

Can't resist the chance to jump in when Martin talks about photography

I watched the Fujifilm v Kodak video the other day after it came up on my Youtube homepage - somebody must have got it promoted to the top. I guess there are many other cases of companies just sitting back and being phased out by more active ones. You have to predict the future and move with the times otherwise you get left behind.

Fuji Velvia used to be my choice for colour back in film days although you needed a nice day or a tripod - no image stabilisers back then and the lenses weren't as good at wide apertures either. Ilford was always popular in B&W although they mistified a lot of people by launching XP-1 which was a B&W film nominally rated at ISO400 that could be developed in C-41 colour chemistry rather than the ID-11/Perceptol mixes traditionally used with FP4/HP5 B&W films. You could push XP-1 upto ISO1600 using the colour chemistry without suffering the grain associated with pushing traditional B&W.

36 shots to a roll ! Digital changed all that although maybe not always with better results. The fastest shooting digital Nikon I have ( D3S ) shoots upto 11 frames per SECOND. Best carry a few spare memory cards. Mind you that was on a traditional DSLR with the mirror slapping up and down between every shot and a mechanical shutter. These days electronic shutters go way beyond that ( Olympus goes to 50 FPS and I some are even higher )

I wish I had spent some money 20 years ago stockpiling the decent film cameras when they were being sold off for peanuts - prices are going up all the time on them now - usually when somebody posts on Youtube how great they are.

Rob

 

[Paul Boyd]

Can't resist the chance to jump in when Martin talks about photography

I watched the Fujifilm v Kodak video the other day after it came up on my Youtube homepage - somebody must have got it promoted to the top. I guess there are many other cases of companies just sitting back and being phased out by more active ones. You have to predict the future and move with the times otherwise you get left behind.

Fuji Velvia used to be my choice for colour back in film days although you needed a nice day or a tripod - no image stabilisers back then and the lenses weren't as good at wide apertures either. Ilford was always popular in B&W although they mistified a lot of people by launching XP-1 which was a B&W film nominally rated at ISO400 that could be developed in C-41 colour chemistry rather than the ID-11/Perceptol mixes traditionally used with FP4/HP5 B&W films. You could push XP-1 upto ISO1600 using the colour chemistry without suffering the grain associated with pushing traditional B&W.

36 shots to a roll ! Digital changed all that although maybe not always with better results. The fastest shooting digital Nikon I have ( D3S ) shoots upto 11 frames per SECOND. Best carry a few spare memory cards. Mind you that was on a traditional DSLR with the mirror slapping up and down between every shot and a mechanical shutter. These days electronic shutters go way beyond that ( Olympus goes to 50 FPS and I some are even higher )

I wish I had spent some money 20 years ago stockpiling the decent film cameras when they were being sold off for peanuts - prices are going up all the time on them now - usually when somebody posts on Youtube how great they are.

Rob

Hi Rob, and everyone else,

I have a load of film cameras still, mostly Canon, but haven’t dared look at current prices! One I’m pretty sure I couldn’t buy now in working order is the Canon T90. To get one both without the shutter problem and with the eyepiece is very rare, and I have one! It’s a weird camera - modern-ish EOS to all intents and purposes, but with FD mount lenses. Amongst my vintage cameras I have a Box Brownie set - I have film for that with a whole 8 frames per roll!

My 80-year-old mother has had a digital camera for some time and more recently an iPhone. I swear she still thinks she only has 8 frames - taking a photo is An Important Event!

For developing film, I’ve found a great little company in Southampton called The Film Safe. (I have no connection to the company). Negatives come back unscratched, which seems to be a bonus these days, and the digital scans are great. The scans are just a backup in case the developed negatives get lost on the way back. The problem though is that even a single 35mm film is now considered a “Small Parcel” by Royal Mail, priced accordingly.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[Bunchie3174]

One of my numerous skills is being a (former) whizz with a film spiral and dev tank. During my uni days I used to earn beer money developing films for other photography students. I loved the whole film process from the first time I tried, as a teenager, in our downstairs toilet right up to the last attempts.
Printing from 6x6 and bigger was favourite.
Went wholly digital around 2003 purely for business reasons. Still miss the smells and mess