Covid or not, Chinese New Year 2021 is upon us : a lot less feisty than usual, with masks and social distancing, here we go again.
Chinese New year is upon us
CNY 2021 will be on Friday, 12 February, but for a couple of weeks now, some stalls have open in Chinatown, and people start to go do their shopping. Yes there are less stalls than usual, and Chinatown has lost quite a few businesses these last months. Also there will be no Lion dance this year
You will see more of it surely, Chinatown is always happening and picturesque. Above some shots of an aquarellist, and in the top middle an art exhibition part of SPIF (Singapore Photography International Festival).
A walk in Bishan Park before the end of the year
Shots were done on Kodak 160 slightly expired, shot with a Leica IIIc and Elmar 50mmF3.5. Filem was processed and scanned at Whampoa photo. Whampoa does an excellent job as usual, but the pictures seems a bit underexposed, maybe the roll was a bit more expired that I thought.
On a more technical note, I always wonder why people use 50mm finders for the Barnack Leicas, as its suppose to be what the viewfinder window is doing. But actually I found when shooting this roll that the I missed a few shots because of framing. In the absence of framing lines using the border of the viewfinder is quite uneasy.
The weather has been very bad in Singapore recently so I did not shoot anything since the first of Jan. Good opportunity for my usual reflective post on 2020. The COVID has of course reduced the photo opportunities this year, no travels since February, less local events. Anyway, I still managed to spend some time on my hobby : burn some film.
Camera #1 : Chau Long Market Hanoi one year ago
Below is a breakdown of my 52 roll in film types:
Row Labels
Count of Film No
Fuji Across
8
Ilford HP5 Plus
6
Rollei Retro 80s
6
Kodak TRI X
5
Ilford Delta 400
4
Cinestill 800T
3
Shanghai GP3
2
Ultrafine Xtreme 400
2
Kodak TMY 400
2
Polypan 50
2
Ilford hp5
2
Kodak Portra 400
2
Kodak Ultramax
1
Kodak Colorplus
1
Ilford Delta 3200
1
Kodak Pro Image
1
Kentmere 400 pan
1
Fuji Neopan 400
1
Ilford Pan F
1
Rollei Superpan 200
1
Film brand
Rolls
Ilford
14
Kodak
12
Fuji
9
Rollei
7
Cinestill
3
Shanghai
2
Ultrafine
2
Polypan
2
Kentmere
1
Grand Total
52
I mostly shot black and white again. Mostly because I converted to Caffenol in the middle of the year, and have now processed around 20 rolls using this method. I lost 4 rolls more of less in the process, but I have a good standard procedure now. I also bought a roll of HP5+. Both steps make me shot black and white film for a lot cheaper.
Camera #2 LeicaIIIc Arab Street Singapore
Ilford in getting to the top of the list this year, surpassing the usual Kodak. I think Kodak is very close only because of the color films. In term of black and white, Fuji is this year in front of Kodak. I bought some expired Acros 100 which gives super good results in Caffenol.
Below is the breakdown of cameras I used:
Cameras
Rolls
Leica M6
18
Leica IIIc
10
Hasselblad 500CM
7
Leica M4
6
Agfa Isolette III
4
Nikon F3
4
Nikon F
1
Heineken
1
Minolta Himatic 7s
1
No surprise the 3 Leica bodies and the Hasselblad are still trusting the top of the list. The M6 is really a picture making machine, actually I just had the joints redone and the crank fixed.
Camera #3 Hasselbad 500CM
I did not buy any new cameras this year still I made some nice additions to my kit. I bought a new Sekonic 308-X meter as the old one died, a friend offered me a Keks EM01 light meter, which fits on the cold shoe o fthe M4 or IIIc, a very nice add on.
Camera #4: Leica M4
I tried to fix the rangefinder of the Isolette III and managed to shot a few rolls with it, making it climb to the fifth rank.
Camera #5: Agfa Isolette III
Actually I bought a second body for parts which has a few issues, so I may play to fix it or send it for service.
Curiously I digged the Nikon F3 from the Nikon box (I have a Leica box, a Nikon box and a various box). I gad very pleasant results mostly with the 50mm F1.4AIS.
Camera #6: Nikon F3
Lugging a SLR around is not longer a pleasure and this guy is so beaten up that I am a bit ashamed to carry it in the streets, but amazing results this year.
Camera #6 : Nikon F Photomnic
I only shot one roll with the Nikon F, with the 50mmF1.4 Non AI, on Polypan 50. My two photomnic meters are no longer metering or I can t be bothered to buy new batteries to use them. Using the Sekonic is just as good.
Finally two rolls with the Minolta 7S, great performer, still flimsy and the underwater Heineken Camera whose housing is leaving his last days.
Also the nice discovery of the year is the Whampoa Color photo lab which does a great job for processing and scanning color films.
The first shot of the last roll of the week (Kodak Portra 160 slightly expired shot with Leica IIIc and Elmar 50F3.5)
Happy new year dear friend reader! Let’s hope for everybody that 2021 will be different from 2020.
I am cheating a little bit as this is not strictly speaking the last roll of 2020, I have a roll of Portra 160 in the Leica IIIc, that I will finish soon and that technically I will call the roll 51 of 2020 ( I’ll come back to this on the next post).
I love Rock’n roll
So number 50 is a roll of Fuji Across 100 version one, expired sometime last year, shot in the Leica M4 with the Summaron 35mm F3.5 ltm.
28121
Once again I have processed the roll in Caffenol CM, scaling the recipe for 500 CL, with a certain success.
Anchor
As my regular readers have already found out, I was back to Geylang Lorong 3, with some friends. A place that will soon disappear, so no chance to see it again in 2021 rolls.
Heem
I put my favorite pictures at the top of this post, this is my third attempt at the back alley and I am quite happy with this one. And the guitar really rocks.
On most of the shots the Caffenol reveals great details and contrast. I am very happy with this roll. There was also very small dust cleaning required after scanning.
No-parking
The tiny Summaron is super sharp and easy to use. I have used the old Chinese made adapter (not my genuine Leica one) and it seems the focus is spot on even for closer shots.
CCTV ?
Is this the place where even CC TV Cameras get stolen?
Selfie in the making
Good think to tag along with friends is that they can make subjects.
The briefcase
This makes me think about one of these movies where spies or thieves exchange a big suitcase of cash. I did not dare to peak in that one, maybe I should have?
The final hourClose up
Below a couple of unrelated pictures of the same roll, different styles with the same set-up
Hello, here is the first post of the new year. So let me whish you a happy and prosperous new year, happy 2021 everybody, lets hope the situation will improve and I won’t spend the next 52 weeks shooting the same parts of Singapore again and again. And of course the same goes for everybody (Of course a lot more serious things need to be fixed first before our hobbies can be considered).
So these are pictures from roll #51 of the year 2020, another trip with Geylang Lorong 3 with the Hasselblad 500CM loaded with a roll of slightly expired Portra 400. The Roll was shot at 320 ISO, processed and scanned at Whampoa color center and slightly adjusted in Lightroom.
The sky was cloudy that morning, but colors are quite vivid. I forgot to bring a light meter so I used the Keks EM01 light meter that was on the Leica M4 and changed the ISO when switching Camera. It looks that I managed not to f*ck up any shots.
The last shot has a defect as I think thing the back has an issue with the spacing of the frames, so part of this shot went over the end of the film.
The blog got 4000 views n 2020: 2.5 tomes more that last year : thanks to all the readers for stopping by. Also on days to come, I have a nice roll shot with he M4 on the same location, and of course as every year the summary of what I shoot with which camera and some other silly stats.
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