Fujicolor Super HQ 200 35mm film was a colour negative film produced by Fujifilm. This film was popular with photographers seeking an affordable yet high-quality option for their 35mm film cameras.
Fujicolor Super HQ 200 offered a medium-speed ISO rating of 200, making it versatile enough to use in various lighting conditions. It produced vibrant, true-to-life colours with fine grain, providing sharp and detailed images. Its colour balance was optimised for daylight conditions but could perform well in mixed-lighting environments.
This film was designed for outdoor and indoor shooting scenarios, from portraits to landscapes. It was compatible with a wide range of 35mm film cameras and could be quickly processed using standard C-41 colour processing.
Fujicolor Super HQ 200 was also known for its high exposure latitude, meaning it could handle a wide range of exposure settings without sacrificing image quality. This made it an excellent choice for photographers of all levels, from beginners to professionals.
I grabbed the film box from the box of expired 35mm film I received from my friend last summer and loaded the cartridge into my X-700. With my MD Rokkor-X 35mm F2 lens attached, I drove off to a nearby area I know well and have photographed often, the Kingston Village Historic District.
It was early morning, and the sky was bright and sunny, giving me plenty of light to ensure I could expose the film at ASA 100. The film's expiration date indicated that it was about 20 years old. Had I known then what I know now about exposing expired film, I might have exposed the film at ASA 50.
When exposing each frame, I mounted the X-700 on my Manfrotto tripod to reduce camera shake. I first focused on the historic Kingston Grist Mill, later moving to the historic buildings around the Kingston Lock. My goal was to capture the light and shadow cast by the trees.
The Fujicolor Super HQ 200 was developed at Boutique Film Lab using the C-41 process, scanned at home using my Epson Perfection V600 and VueScan 9, and processed using Negative Lab Pro and Adobe Lightroom using my standard 35mm film scanning workflow. In Negative Lab Pro, I set the colour balance to "Auto-Neutral". This is the best setting, but I wanted to keep things simple. I adjusted the exposure in Adobe Lightroom by -1/3 EV. I also corrected for alignment and cropped in to remove the frame borders. I exposed the subject once or twice for some of the frames, just to be sure.
The results are better than I expected. While the colours may not be as vibrant as what might get from the unexpired film stock, the process produced usable results. This is my third time using expired Fuji film stock and my second success. The first success was using Fujichrome PROVIA 400F – Expired. The victory gave me the confidence to keep trying the expired 35mm film. At this success rate, I may give up buying and exposing fresh film stock unless the situation requires being sure I captured an image. But if that's the case, I would use my Fuji-X camera system. Digital is significantly less likely to fail1.
I got 22 usable frames from the 24-exposure cartridge. I have uploaded the ones I think are the best of the 22. I have three more cartridges from the box of expired 35mm film I received from my friend.
Name
Fujicolor Super HQ 200
Format
35mm
Features
vibrant, true-to-life colours with fine grain
Native ISO
200
Price
FREE
Exposed ISO
100
Lab
Boutique Film Lab
Process
C-41
Scanner
Epson Perfection V600
Software
VueScan 9, Negative Lab Pro, Adobe Lightroom
I have six batteries for my Fuji, which can shoot at ASA 80-12,800, with a maximum shutter speed of 1⁄32000 second at 22 frames per second. I have a 64GB memory card in the two slots, and the camera is configured to save a duplicate RAW image to each card. I can safely record 2000 images before the card is filled. ?
The new version of the Fuji XF 27mm ƒ/2.8 R is 22.7 mm shorter than the Nikon SE and about the same diameter. It's also considerably lighter at 84g / 3 oz.
It also sports about the tiniest lens hood ever...almost comical-looking. And yet, who wants a giant hood on a small lens?
There are a few more differences. The Nikon SE has nine elements, and the Fujinon has seven. The XF 27mm has an aperture ring, and the 28mm SE doesn't (neither did the original Fuji 27mm). The Fuji costs $399 (although, as Fujiphiles know, Fuji has periodic sales), and Nikon says the SE will cost $299 when available.
I keep reading good things about the XF27mmF2.8 R LM WR lens, which makes me smile, but then I am reminded that the lens is sold out everywhere, and the smile turns to a frown. It's good that I didn't sell my XF27mmF2.8 lens and place my order when the XF27mmF2.8 R LM WR was announced.
I watched the most recent episode of Apple's TV series, Home Before Dark. The episode is titled "Dark Rooms". During an emotional outburst, the main character, Hilde, breaks the lens on her camera and borrows her grandpa's old-school film camera. There is a great learning moment with the whole family huddled around Hilde holding the film camera. Her dad, Matt, explains that with 35mm film, you take pictures by exposing the roll of film, then when the roll is finished, you drop the film off at the drug store, and two weeks later, you get photographic prints by which time you've forgotten why you took them. Later in the episode, her dad helps her develop the images in the darkroom he set up in the basement of their home.
I have not developed a 35mm colour film since 1989. I'm inspired by nostalgia to develop a roll of 35mm film myself. I've got a kit from Film Photography Project in my shopping cart, but I'm nervous about completing the purchase.
I'm worried about failing.
Wednesday, 7 July 2021
"The discussion was 'what are we doing in the future in terms of engine', because we want to save costs, so we don't want to reinvent the wheel," [Toto] Wolff, who did not attend the summit but is protecting vested interests, told the FIA conference on Monday.
"We also want to have a relevant engine from 2025 to 2030, and we can't be old petrolheads with screaming engines when everybody expects us to be going electric.
"So these engines are still going to be fuelled [by zero-carbon fuels]. We are staying with the current V6 format, but the electric component is going to massively increase."
The FIA are increasingly aware that a sport primarily based on burning gas station amounts of fuel on a single weekend needs to adjust expectations for a world where the phrase internal combustion engine is increasingly seen in a negative light.
One of the things I love about my Fuji X-T2 is how easy manual focusing can be when using the focus peaking feature. On the Fuji, focus peaking detects the edges of the highest contrast in the scene and highlights them in bright colours (red, blue, or white).
I can adapt almost any manual focus 35mm film-era lens to my Fuji X and never worry about focusing. The ability to use decades-old 35mm film lenses on my Fuji X-T2 brought me back to 35mm film photography after a nearly thirty-year hiatus.
The digital Fujinon lenses for the Fuji X-series also have a focus ring with an instant manual focus feature. Just grab the focus ring and turn. In the viewfinder (or LCD), a manual focus indicator shows the distance to the subject (in meters or feet ), which is useful when zone-focusing. There is also a manual focus assist feature. When activated, the camera zooms in digitally, filling the viewfinder/LCD with a section of the scene for more accurate focusing. There is a digital split image focusing feature, but I have never used it. When using manual 35mm lenses at their largest aperture, I tend to use focus peaking and the "move the body forward-back" technique.
I enjoy using manual and autofocus lenses, but I prefer autofocus.
Saturday 10 July 2021
Inspired by Steve Schwartzman's horsemint portraits post, I grabbed my Fuji X-T2, FotodioX adapter, and a 1980's era manual film lens, my Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm F1.7 and headed outside to my garden.
I love this lens. It creates a beautiful buttery soft cinematic look perfect for a portrait photograph. My lens was part of a Minolta X-700 bundle I bought from a local amateur who had owned the lens and kit for over three decades.
The MD Rokkor-X 50mm F1.7 is constructed almost entirely of metal1. It feels hefty compared to my Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 lens, especially with the weight of the FotodioX MD-FX adapter, but it was a reasonably lightweight lens (165g) for its time. My X-T2 has a crop factor of 1.52, so the 50mm is roughly a 76mm full-frame equivalent when adapted to my Fuji.
Extirpation is when a plant or animal species ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. In densely populated areas like New Jersey, all the large native predators like the wolf, bear, wolverine, and cougar have suffered extirpation, allowing herbivores such as white-tailed deer to reproduce unchecked except by hunting. White-tailed deer are a problem in New Jersey.
Several years ago, I planted some Hosta, which I translated from my brother's garden in Stamford, Connecticut. Over the years, the Hosta have colonised a good section of the tiny garden and provided a short-lived burst of flowers in the summer. They are short-lived because deer find them tasty. This year I used Deer Out to keep the deer at bay; however, I still lost some flowers. But I had enough left over for this experiment.
The lens, camera and FotodioX adapter's overall weight make precise manual focusing extremely tough to nail at f/1.7. I was also kneeling on the concrete in the driveway. I used focus peaking to get the image to where things appeared sharp and then rocked my body back and forth to hit the right spot, but this made the kneeling even more painful. I need to invest in some garden knee pads. I gave up and went inside for my RRS L-bracket and Manfrotto tripod.
With the camera firmly placed to frame the flowers, I used the focus peaking and focus-check features on my Fuji to dial in focus. I captured three frames, one each at f/1.7, f/2.8 and f/4.
Bokeh was nice and circular at f/1.7, but highlights in the background became hexagonal once I stopped the lens down. This lens has six non-rounded blades. Here are three examples of how the bokeh looks at f/1.7, f/2.8, and f/4. I skipped f/3.32.
The flower at f/1.7 has a dreamy look that I love, but the DOF is too shallow. The bokeh of the f/4 image is less soft and feels a bit muddy, but the DOF is better. That f/2.8 is the sweet spot with pleasing bokeh and just enough DOF.
While I prefer the f/1.7, I think I'll experiment using this lens at f/2.8 for a while.
I practised using the Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm F1.7 at f/2.8. First, at the Brick Farm Tavern and Sourland Mountain Spirits.
After cocktails, we drove to East Broad Street to order takeout at Tomatello's Latin Cuisine, a clever assemble of the word tomatillo and the owner's last name, Tello. We had a large order for Bhavna, Shaan and myself. While the restaurant prepared our food, we walked around East Broad Street and Seminary Avenue.
East Broad Street is a popular location for showing off cars and motorbikes.
Sunday, 11 July, 2021
Lens-Artists Challenge #156 – Black and White
This week, Anne Sandler hosts the Lens Artist Challenge #156. She has picked the topic of black and white.
I love the colour of colour photography. The colour reminds me of the vibrancy of life. In the West Indies, where I grew up, colour is everywhere. People paint their homes and shops in bright reds, greens, blues, pinks, yellow etc. When I was a child, the mode of public transportation was a large diesel truck with a wood cab mounted to the flatbed with the body painted in whimsical colours of the owner's choosing. The local fishing boats were similarly painted in a multitude of colours.
Bhavna is from India, and the women of that country wear vibrantly coloured saris and kurta pyjamas. There is even a festival, Holi, that celebrates colour.
I don't often photograph in black and white. Except for winter, almost all of my photography is colour photography. Why winter? It seems that people in the United States must dislike colour. How else to explain the drab colours of the cities and suburbs? How else to explain the beige and grey cookie-cutter homes that pepper the suburbs of the North Eastern United States? When I drive around New Jersey, especially in the winter, I often wonder why so very few think to paint some colour to their homes and shops front so that we could enjoy a break from the seemingly depressing days of winter when the trees have no leaves, the ground is covered in a mixture of dirt and snow, and the skies are cloudy all day.
I have included examples of my black and white photographs from my early days as a student photographer to more recent ones photographed on my Fuji X-T2 and Minolta and Pentax 35mm film cameras. I remember back in the days shooting Ilford HP5 400, Kodak Tri-X Pan 400, and Kodak T-Max 400, but in the last two years, I have tried using film again after nearly a 30-year hiatus. The original Tri-X, T-MAX and Ilford are no longer available, but I could shoot modern versions of these films. I love Ilford HP5+ 400, but I have also exposed rolls of RPX 25 and RPX 100.
When I process digital images to black and white, I use some of the same tools Anne uses, but most often, it's a mixture of things. Sometimes, I use Silver EFX Pro, and sometimes I use in-camera film simulation recipes. Sometimes, I apply an Adobe Lightroom preset and tweak the image to my liking. I don't use one set method. I use whatever works to create the image I want. However, I get the best results when I shoot in B&W on my Fuji X-T2 using the ACROS film simulation, or I flip to B&W in Adobe Lightroom and edit the images using the Lightroom histogram exposure, shadows, highlight and whites slider.
The Kingston Bridge is the oldest in Somerset County and part of the Kingston Mill Historic District. During the American Revolutionary War, the previous bridge was destroyed by General George Washington to halt advancing British troops.
The Kingston Bridge is the oldest in Somerset County. The stone arch bridge carried New Jersey Route 27 over the Millstone River in Franklin Township. Part of the Kingston Mill Historic District has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986. During the American Revolutionary War, the previous bridge was destroyed by General George Washington to halt advancing British troops.
Dedicated in 1913, The Lincoln Highway ran east to west from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The highway, one of the earliest transcontinental roads in the United States, initially passed through 13 states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California.
Until 1919, the Kingston Bridge carried part of the Old Lincoln Highway, which started at the New York Central Railroad's ferry terminal in Weehawken, New Jersey and followed a winding path through New Jersey to Trenton and over the Calhoun Street Bridge and the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. In 1927, the Lincoln Highway in New Jersey was assigned U.S. Route 1. Eventually, portions of the Old Lincoln Highway were subsumed or bypassed by Route 1 and Route 27.
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