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.

Fuji Klasse S (GREAT FILM P&S)!

Here It's with its BIG Brother :)

I was in the search for Film P&S with aperture priority and manual ISO override, thought about the Contax T3 and Minolta TC-1. Then I came across NEW fuji klasse S and it's much cheaper than the Contax T3!! So I didn't think twice, I bought from Japanese online shop. When it arrived, I noticed it's a little on the big size, but still NEW and serviceable by the manufacturer (FujiFilm).

The lens is really sharp and contrasty especially stopped down, and is sharp also wide open (38mm F2.8 fujinon EBC). I always thought fuji glass is underrated or over looked in favor of the German brand lenses. I love Zeiss lenses, I have them in Minolta-Sony SLR mount and ZM lenses too. However, Fuji is experienced in making great lenses and their lenses are second to none IMO. Some may argue that it lacks characteristic which could be but I don't see it! I like the way it renders and its bokeh is not the best but still ok depends on the situation or the surrounding, even fine lenses looks to produce busy bokeh at time. 

It's not a review or anything like that, it just I find little is written on this great P&S camera (there is also Klasse W which is 28mm lens, but I went to the Minolta TC-1 instead when I found excellent condition and great price)

The Pictures are with T-Max 400 and HP5+

Enjoy.

Some more R09 (Rodinal)! This time with the BIG negative 6X9

This time I tried Rodinal developer with medium format (Fuji GW690III) 6x9.
The film is Fomapan 100, not grainy but I like how it renders.

I still like it for 35mm film but I think the grain is much much pronounce, not ugly but larger and a bit tighter than I'm used to. I'm beginning to get used to it, I'll use it more with slow film (35mm though) and see how would it work. For medium format it shouldn't be a problem with bigger negative.

Meanwhile, here are couple of pictures:

Don't mind the spots on the images, my wetting agent is really bad! :)

Finally I bought and tried Rodinal (Compard R09 one shot) BIG THANKS TO MACODIRECT

I finally bought Rodinal! I contacted many places and stores before with no luck, even Adox they apologized and said they cannot ship it. Freestyle and others are describing it as ORM-D which cannot be shipped except ground shipping.

After 2 years or so, I came across macodirect.de and asked them about R09 one shot (Rodinal formula) and they said they can ship about everything they sale (also rollei and fuji c-41 chemicals which others don't ship internationally).

I shot ilford HP5+ at iso 200 and went ahead with developing, and I was surprised that I can see the grain through 5x loupe and see it clearly! I'm not bothered with the grain as film contain grain and that's what makes it special. HP5+ is a classic cubical grain and it's extremely beautiful with Kodak HC-110. I'm just a little disappointed that after all this wait I believed Rodinal was really special, but I discovered (up until now) I can do the same with HC-110 and do it easily. However, I only tried it with HP5+ and recently with ilford Delta 100. Both looked normal to me, but since Rodinal has a great shelf life I can still try on many other films and keep experiment with it.

Photos will follow.

Enjoy :)

Some more Ektar Goodness :)

Those images were shot with Minolta Maxxum 9 and Sony Macro twin Flash.

I took those images indoor, first image was with SpyderCube to scan the other frames easily and it sure did a beautiful Job. I usually bring SpyderCube with me when I use negative color films and during scanning build on it. 

Those reds are beautiful and I already printed one photo at 13x19" and the photo came out pretty good and I know if I scanned it bigger (drum scan or so) it could look even better, but it's good enough for me :)

Enjoy.

The gorgeous Kodak EKTAR 100

My favorite negative is Kodak Ektar 100. Sometimes it's very hard to scan, but mostly and with little knowledge you get around it during post process. Curves and color balance on most software should fix the problem.

Ektar is very sharp and fine grained. GREAT STUFF, I wish Kodak can keep it running as long as they can.

Enjoy.

Few Of old Photos From Jeddah, KSA

Those photos were from two years ago, it was taken with Pentax 67 "Dropped into the sea RIP" and Velvia 100F.

It was one of the first positive film that I developed. Viewing the slides with a light table and a loupe is great and the amount of detail on those slides just amazes me.

Hope you enjoy them, any comments are criticism is welcomed.