Monday, November 08, 2010

Lomography 120 Film ISO 100 Is Shanghai GP3

Lomograph 120 Film ISO 100 Is Shanghai GP3

Last Saturday on a photo walk I found out that Toronto had an official Lomography store. Of course I had to check it out here's a place that you can buy a $40 Russian camera from Ebay or $300 in the store. Interesting stuff but way over priced except for this 3 pack of 120 black and white film that was going for$10 taxes in. The store manager said it was repackaged Chinese Shanghai GP3. Surprisingly I had wanted to try some because I had heard some good things about the film.

Specifications:
Made in Shanghai, CHINA,  for professional photography, practising photographing and developing.
  • The film is made by coating a panchromatic photographic emulsion on a polyester or triacetate film base.
  • It could be used both for professional and amateur photographers for all-purpose providing fine-grain at full tonal range.
  • Unit item weight:30 g
Suggested Developing time:
20C degree:

D76 stock - 8 minutes
D76 1:1 - 14 minutes
D23 12 minutes
Rodinal 1:50 15 minutes
D72 1:4 4 minutes 

 
Made by the SMPIC Photosensitive Materials Factory of Shanghai, an industry leader with more than 40 years of experience in making photographic materials. 
The parent company, SMPIC , was founded in 1973 and is currently joint venture partner in China with Polaroid and Fuji Xerox, making cameras and office machines, and is also a major producer of high-quality optical glass.
SMPIC makes their photosensitive films to very high standards of quality, easily the equal of the major international brands. Each boxed roll is heat-sealed in a paper-plastic laminate high-barrier wrap, and can safely be stored in a refrigerator or freezer without worrying about moisture damage.
Definitely Shanghai GP3 because of the edge code of "SGPFF" It had a slight strange plastic smell when I was loading on to the developing reel. I haven't seen the punched hole near the end before. Also the sticky end of reel tape did not have any useful glue (make sure you carry an elastic band in your pocket), cheap backing paper with grey on black printing and a curl with enough springiness to act as leaf springs for a truck.

Walk In The Park
My first roll of Lomography/ Shanghai GP3 film.

This film is rated at Iso 100 and I shot the roll at 100 Developed 11 minutes in Agfa Refinal 19c this is a 2 stop push with no agitation after the first 20 seconds because the telephone rang and I forgot about the film. Except for  one shot with blown highlights they turned out OK. I suspect the film should be rated at ISO 60, Nice tonality not that sharp. Light to medium blue dye in the pre-soak water. The film curls badly but doesn't bow so it is still easy to scan. See previous photo for more details about the film.

My  second roll I developed  8 minutes at 19c agitated every minute or so. The result was much better tonality also better sharpness for some reason.

Swedish Underground
Rare find in Toronto a Volvo C202, C303, Laplander or Valp

My favourite out of the second roll the tint comes from my scanning method to pull out more from the negative.
Broken Bench In Fall

The third roll was developed with Xtol 1:2 plus Rodinal 1:112 for 14 minutes at 19c scanned using the same method as above.
Cold Winter Light

Unlike Kentmere films it is a useful budget film to have in the bag for a slightly retro look.Flickr slideshow of my shots using Shanghai GP3 

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Using Olympus 35 sp Rangefinder For Night Street Shooting With Fash

Left Over Gear From The G20 - Halloween on Church St

The Olympus 35 sp (produced 1969-1976) had some interesting advanced for the time feature. One of the features is flash control: By setting the  flash guide number (GN) on the aperture ring-dial  the rangefinder's aperture setting is slaved to the rangefinder focus distance. The farther away the the subject is the more the lens opens up to compensate for light fall off of the flash with distance.  For this type of event this method has certain advantages over an auto flash which is often fooled by bright or dark surfaces.

Add to the camera a small flash with a coiled connecting cable and this allows for some interesting handheld off camera flash use. Most of you need no reminding  the benefits of using off camera axis flash over on camera flash. So far I have only used this for night street use but maybe I will try some Bruce Gilden flash in the face style shooting.

Pink Devil - Halloween On Church
More of 2010 Halloween On Church St.
 
Not So Scary Night of The Dread
Contact sheet for the annual Dufferin Park The Night of the Dread. Here are the rest of the shots taken that night.

So ends the first stage of the experiment
Conclusions:
  • Aperture slaved to flash guide number and the rangefinder' focus distance works well for getting good exposures.
  • Flash handheld off angle is better then on camera flash and you can still focus OK
  • For close work a flash diffuser would really really help and also allow a lot more background to show up.
  • For this use B&W is better then colour.