Long Live My Queen :)

My wife recently surprised me with a box from FedEx and asked me to open it, what added a little joy is that she took the label so I won't know the sender. I opened it and I saw a box from DHW Fototechnik, man I thought it was a Rolleiflex FX and brand new...to my surprise, it was Rolleiflex FX-N with our wedding date on the back plate.

Funny thing happened few days before the Rolleiflex FX-N reach our home. I bough a Rolleiflex 2.8f (I was about to buy the GX but went to the 2.8f instead) and when my wife saw it, she asked why I bought it now!! I explained it was a great price and I couldn't passed and she told me if I waited to next week. Now I know why, but I have now one classic and one brand new.

Enough with the words and see this close focusing beauty :)

Zeiss C Sonnar 50mm F1.5

This lens is unique classic in its rendering especially wide open. This lens has a pronounced focus shift if the lens is optimised for F2.8 (most C Sonnar are optimised for F2.8). However, Zeiss can optimise it for wide open if you send the lens to them. I followed a technique that I read in the luminous landscape's review of the lens, the trick was to lean a little bit forward when you shoot a subject in close distance wide open and it worked great for me. It's not blinding sharp lens but for portrait photography which this lens was designed for it is good enough.

The lens imperfection makes it unique and rewarding once you know how to deal with its limitation.



Here are some images.


Wide open

F4 or so where it sharpen up quite nicely

Provia 400X Pushed

Recently Fuji discontinued Provia 400X Slide film :(. I started this film few years ago and wasn't impressed by it. This summer, I used it a lot and enjoyed what it can deliver especially skin tone and the Yellow is just wonderful. This film was and still expensive to buy, I was fortunate enough to buy 8-10 years supply :) in 35mm and 120 format and store them in a freezer.

Anyway, this summer I tried to push it one and two stops and it handled it well. grain is there but manageable. I didn't try to push it to 3200 as I'm a bit hesitant to go for it but probably will try at one time.

Here are images of Provia 400X @ ISO 800 with Fuji Klasse S:
   

Here are images @ ISO 1600 also with Fuji Klasse S

AgfaPhot CT Precisa 100 (Cheap Slide Film) :)

Many knows Agfa CT Precisa 100, I didn't know till last year and got addicted to it fast. Many claim it was made by Kodak (When Kodak use to make Slide film:( ) and now it's Made by FujiFilm from Provia 100F Master roll. Anyway, at it current price it seems a no brainer if you can have E-6 films developed locally or at home using some of the E-6 chemicals kit available (Mainly Tetenal). This film reduce my consumption of Kodak C-41 (Ektar and Portra) as I can get by using ISO 100 during the day here in Saudi Arabia.

I buy mine from Germany from MacoDirect or when a friend is visiting Germany for whatever reason from DM Drug store. It's priced as or cheaper than Ektar and other professional C-41 and mostly cheaper than FujiFilm C-41.

The beauty of this film is that it has mostly natural grey balance and fine grain. It looks great projected too :)

Here is an ongoing thread about it in the Rangefinder forum

AGFAPHOTO CT 100 PRECISA

Here are few images

Unfortunately, it's only available in 35mm Film size and not 120 medium format :(

Plustek 120 again :)

I've tested so far with (35mm, 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9) and all of them is great. This scanner turns out to be great back up for my iQsmart2. The film holders are great and holds the whole strip (the way I cut them at least). It's also new and with warranty :)

I use silverfast to produce a raw scan and invert in Photoshop or ColorNeg plug in, it's extra step but it's worth. In addition, silverfast's iSRD is much much better than Vuescan's infrared from my experience and is even better than digital ICE.

I'll include photos from the scanner in HI-Res JPEG soon.

Enjoy.

Plustek 120 :)

I recently received my plustek 120 that I bought from Adorama (newer batch), and I can't be happier! I read many complaints about the first batch that made me think million times before I buy one, thankfully I did. I looked for a used minolta multi pro as it was cheaper than the nikon 9000 ED and even almost bought flextight 343. My main concern with the Minolta was the repair, nikon was the price and flextight 343 I actually paid the amount to the seller but shipping was a problem with USPS and carriers were extremly expensive so he refunded me. Then, I decided once I find new plustek 120 I'll go for it. If a problem occurs or faulty unit, I can return or fix. To my surprise the image quality was exceptionally great and pas my expectations. I wanted a scanner with infrared dust and scratch removal for my c-41 films.

Now after this little long background :), I tested with vuescan and silverfast and the scanner was amazing and quite. I'll add a photo with comparison between nikon 4000 ED and also 6x6 scan against my iQsmart2. My take on those images is:

Plustek is on par with both of them but the iQsmart2 has a smoother image or scan that can easily takes more sharpening without adding much artifact from the sharpening process. And productivity with the iQsmart2 is much better. I can scan full roll of 35mm film or two 120 film in one go! All I have to do is adjust the preview to taste and let it scan. I'm still learning silverfast which I find not as bad as people describe (IMO).

Images:

B&W slide JOY :)

I was informed by a great member of rangefinderforum that B&W slide is a joy to project and scan. Boy he was right. He gave me suggestion on what to try and where to develop it (thank you Jan).

I tried so far:

Agfa Scala, Rollei Retro 80s and Adox Silvermax.

Scala was developed in France while I was on family vacation by a lab called Akra which do mail order (international too). They are great with good knowledge about what to expect from those B&W slide. They do scala and retro 80s as far as I know. I visited them a lot while in Paris and the owners were kind and did push process with the same rate!

Retro 80s and Silvermax were developed by photostudio 13 in Germany which also do international mail order. They are just as good but they have more films that they can develop as B&W slide. Beside scala, they do the mentioned films plus agfa copex, adox CMS and many more.

The Silvermax for me was better than Retro 80s with better shadow detail. The Retro has a little warmer look which I like. Projected, both look amazing with a lot of details on them. I tried 35mm and 6x4.5.

Here are the photos (first two are with Zeiss Ikon and Zeiss C-Sonnar, Second two are with Hesselblad H1 and Hasselblad HC 120mm F4 Macro)

Enjoy.