Fujifilm

Fujifilm Neopan Acros II on Nikon FA

in

It's not your dream yet.

As you're aware, British weather can be a little bit of a variable. This time, I decided to control my environment, get a little bit more technical, go into a studio, and shoot with this film to make sure that I would capture each image to the best possible standard.

Neopan Acros II is a panchromatic film. Which means, it is sensitive to all spectrums of light. It's made on an acetate base. The reason why it's made on an acetate base is the previous versions of film stocks, which were made back over 120 years ago now, were extremely flammable. As film stocks improved over time, they moved towards an acetate base, which was less flammable, and more stable as a film stock itself.

This film has a ‘box speed’ of ISO 100 but officially has a speed rating between 50 to 800 ISO. If you're familiar with film stocks, then you would know that Acros I existed prior to 2018. Fujifilm have upgraded this film stock. If you're going to be shooting with this film stock, you should expect to get really fine grain, and really crisp shots. With that in mind, we should find that the mid-tones are well balanced, and we're going to get some really nice detail in the highlights and the shadows.

Neopan Acros II is very simple and straightforward to use. You might be outside on the street. You can just get your camera out and roll up some in your chosen 35mm camera. You can start shooting straight away within 60 seconds. Alternatively you might be on the beach, a hillside somewhere, or even you're having a studio portrait shoot. It will be challenging to take a bad picture with the Neopan Acros II.

As you can see from the images already, they're showing some serious contrast, the dynamic range of the film is fabulous. As mentioned before, ranging between 50 to 800 ISO. So, even if you decide that it's a little bit too dark, you can push the film a little bit further, and you should expect to get some great results from it.

There's only a limited range of ISO 100 black and white film stocks out there. Generally, the most popular ones are by Ilford. Ilford Delta 100 and Ilford FP4. You've also got Kodak T-Max 100, and Fomapan, I believe, also do a 100 ISO range as well.

Fujifilm say that you can push this film from 50 ISO all the way up to 800 ISO, and it has excellent reciprocity. Now, I think that's a challenge. And for sure, I want to try and go out, and see what I can get by pushing this film further too. Why not you too?

Building on a previous point about it's wide exposure latitude, this means that you can really use this film for a multiple range of projects. Whether it's sports photography, whether it's landscape photography, portraits, and Fujifilm themselves on their documentation, say that you can use Acros II for Astrophotography. Yep, it's there. I think that's worth checking out. So, if you live somewhere where you've got beautiful open skies at night time and fancy a little test, go for it.

As this is a panchromatic film, I think it will be fun to see how it handles and manages filters. So if you've got some filters at home, take them out, take them for a whirl, see what you get with them.

Now there's two reasons why you probably don't want to shoot with Neopan Acros II. The first one is, it's £12 pounds a roll, that's $16 [US] dollars guys. That’s quite pricey. Shout out to anyone in the US: Can you just ship me some Neopan Acros II? I'd really appreciate it. Seriously, that's probably one reason why you probably want to test it out, and if it's for you, then great, go ahead, shoot with it if you can.

The second reason why you probably don't want to shoot with this film is because obviously the grain is substantially less than what you would get on other black and white film stock. If you prefer the mysterious dark, sort of grainy sort of look that you get with HP5 or Tri-X, or T-Max, for example, then this film is definitely not for you. Now, I say that with a caveat, because I don't know if I pushed Acros II to 400 or 800, whether it would start to exhibit similar qualities. And then, the only way I'm going to do that is by doing it myself. It might be worth pursuing if that's the sort of look you're going for. Just on a hunch, I don't think it will be, as you see it with HP5 or Tri-X, for example.

I think Neopan Acros II is a reliable film stock if you're shooting on ISO 100.

You've got the wide exposure latitude, which is available to you, should you want to push it. And they themselves say that it has excellent reciprocity. Although, I think that remains to be tested. And you can see from the highlights and the shadows in the images that I've shown you, that the image has come out really, really beautifully.

So definitely, I would highly recommend going out and shooting with it. Obviously, the downside is the expense involved. But I think if you love photography, and you're exploring new ways to shoot, maybe you'll find something new with this film stock that you resonate with, and you will create something really cool.

Choosing the favourite image can be tricky too, no? Which one was your favourite from the shoot?

Do go ahead and subscribe and turn on the bell icon so you'll know exactly when the next video of this series of videos is gonna drop and I look forward to seeing you in a workshop with me very, very soon.

For more Subscribe and turn on the notifications for your weekly video drop!

Pushing Fuji XTRA 400 3 stops on Nikon FA

in ,

Nikon FA with a roll of Fuji XTRA 400 had been sat waiting to be shot... but by the time I got to checking it again it had expired. Now more than ever was a good time to experiment with some 400 ISO film. 

Over a few weeks I carried my Nikon FA and looked for opportunities in the evening to shoot a few shots until done. 

If you are pushing film to the max and shooting at night, you should expect there to be a muddy brown tinge to the images. 

In a nutshell, I found that in very low light conditions a muddy brown look gets more amplified. It is possible to reduce this in post after if required but depending on what your aiming for you might just keep it. 

The last image of the petrol station was one of my favourite shots from the roll. With a bit more experimentation using brightly lit areas it would be fun to see how else other 400 ISO film would fare! 

Overall, it certainly worth playing with in different conditions but remember to end all good shoots with a good a place to eat! 

Expired Film on Yashica Mat 124G

in

Whatever you may have heard, shooting film is generally quite an expensive venture. So why not try and find a way to make it just a little more affordable than usual? With that in mind, I went off searching for expired film. I had for a while wanted to shoot on Velvia Fujichrome 50 but I hadn’t really set an intention of specifically looking for this film when I went about researching. After googling expired film online and then venturing through eBay, I looked through quite a lot of different rolls available online. At the time, I knew I wanted to shoot Medium Format so at least that narrowed the search down to 120 film roll.

eBay became the main source of expired film researching. In a way, it is pretty lazy but made logical sense with the ease of the search process. Anyway, I narrowed the search focus to £10 and this helped to filter the results. Lots of different rolls available from Black and White to Colour Reversal films. Film stocks which were recently expired were generally the most expensive. As a rule of thumb, as the age of film increases the cost of film decreases. However, the bidding process online I feel adds an inflated price to the film stock which is based more on desire than in actual practical value of what is being bid for.

Velvia Fujichrome 50 is a well-respected and well sought after film. If you’re serious about your photography at some point you have purchased this film for your own use. After much research about this film stock on online forums and discussions with fellow film photographers I was quite excited when I first came across this batch of expired roll from 1998/99. The images showed generally well looked after boxes of the film and whilst I didn’t know how well they had been stored (Refrigerated film is the most sought after!) it fit my price point for £10 so I threw it in the virtual basket and parted ways with some sterling electronically.

I wanted to explore something away from the city so chose a seascape location that I had never been to before. Eastbourne looked like a good shout and had some variety which would fit in nicely with some film photography. Every journey is made more enjoyable with some company, so Lucas joined along for the drive down. I packed up my cameras and asked Lucas to bring along his Yashica Mat 124G which he had been raving about for a while now. He had been given this camera from a friend of his he found it lying around and thought Lucas would probably make better use of it. I figured why not? Just see what happens with the Velvia?

Traffic was quite heavy on the way in and admittedly I had not really planned out a route to a specific point. A bit of fly-driving led us to some fortuitous free parking near the beach. The weather however was holding up and plenty of good light with some cloud. We headed out and dumped our gear on to the beach. After scoping out the options we metered up and then Lucas pulled out the Yashica Mat 124G. The wind was picking up so with his back to it, he briskly loaded up the film in the cold breeze.

The Yashica had been through a lot. It reminded me of when I took my Nikon for a service a few years back and the delight to which the shop keeper had for seeing such a worn camera. The camera’s scratches are just a testament to the quality of the product but also that it was used for a purpose. It wasn’t just a keepsake. I dialled in the ISO settings and adjusted the shutter speed in line with the on-board light meter - it was working just about right when matched with my handheld light meter.

The TLR format gives you a totally unique experience. Adjusting to the waist level finder is fun along with everything flipped the other way! At first you have to adjust and get used to the setup. It can be quite easy for you to walk around with the camera like a duck with its head stuck in the sand - but with a view! Be careful, if it’s your first time walking around with one, you can easily lose awareness of what is around you.

Seeing things from a new perspective got me moving and interacting with my surroundings in different ways. It almost feels like you are more connected to your frame and along with the limit of 12 shots on the roll you take much longer and think more carefully about the shot you are about to take. If you don’t own a TLR but would like to get an idea of partially what it’s like you could hold your phone or SLR at waist level and click away (mind you that would not be the same experience in many ways!).

Given the age of the Yashica, I wasn’t surprised to find there were some issues with shutter. A few times I was left thinking whether the shutter was still stuck inside and whether I had overexposed the shot or not? Other times it worked just fine. Seeing that I have some spare roll, I’ll need to give those a whirl to see if my hypothesis is correct! That’s for another time, however. I didn’t venture too far with the camera; time was limited as it was late afternoon. I focused on getting some street style snaps of people walking by and then took a few of the buildings along the walkway before turning back towards the ocean to finish off the roll.

All in all, it was a fun experience, I’m quite pleased with the outcome, even though it was just 3 shots. The shots themselves had lost their colour rendition but a little tweak in Adobe Lightroom into Black and White really made the images grainy and textured. The images communicated of a time gone by and I really loved what I got!