Island in the Net by Khürt Williams
Technology and Photography Musings. Established circa 2000.
I woke up this morning thinking about Dad. I miss all those moments we spent listening to records.
The inner sleeve is on the couch. I sit and read the jacket. Dad cleans the record surface and stylus while the pre-amp and tube amp warm up. The polished vinyl gently drops onto the platter. The turntable spins. The tonearm and phono cartridge gracefully move into place. No words were spoken. It was time to listen.
I am disappointed with the result, but I am still happy to try this 35mm film.
NOTE: I'll begin this experience report with a brief disclaimer. It's been less than three years since I returned to shooting 35mm film after switching to digital photography over 20 years ago. I've inundated myself with as much film education as possible between web articles and advice from experienced film shooters. But, with my former experience way in past and limited recent experience, this review is coming from a relative novice point of view.
I discovered Silberra the film and Silberra, the company, while reading Jim Grey's 7 August Recommended Reading post linked to Kosmo Foto’s Silberra Color 160 experience report.
... recently, three other films have appeared. They're not Lomography films, nor are they coming from Kodak or Fujifilm, the last two giant colour film producers. These three films come instead from Russia's Silberra, a boutique film brand which has until recently concentrated on black-and-white film.
Silberra's colour films span a trio of medium-speed ISOs: 50, 100 and 160. Where exactly they come from is a little bit of a mystery. The company's own website offers little info, and in fact didn't even list the 160 version of the film before a consignment of it arrived at London's Photographers Gallery at the end of 2020, which gave me a roll of it to test.
A lot of 35mm film has been discontinued over the last few years. We list ADOX Silvermax and SCALA 160, Fujicolor Pro 400H, and FujiChrome Velvia 100. This has driven up the price of remaining stock and the costs of other 35mm films as photographers seek alternatives. A single 36-exposure roll of Fujifilm Pro 400H sells for over $40 on Amazon.com, the only store where I have seen the film, listed for sale. But what the universe taketh away, it also giveth.
After reading Stephen's experience report, I decided to give Silberra Color 160 a try. I ordered a single roll from Blue Moon Camera ($11) and exposed the roll during September and October. I captured various subjects under varied lighting conditions. I only sent the film roll to Boutique Film Lab for processing ($5+$10 shipping). The developed and uncut negatives arrived this week, and yesterday I scanned them in using the Epson Perfection V600, Silverfast 9 and Negative Lab Pro. I followed the same guidelines for scanning and processing the scanned images I used for Kodak Pro Image 100. The recent update to Negative Lab Pro promised even better results, so I was excited.
The number of keepers from the roll of 36 was relatively low. Many of the images were out of focus or blurry. I'll admit that I am still re-learning how to use 35m films (after a 30-year hiatus), but I got more keepers when using Kodak Pro Image 100 or Kodak Vision 250D. I like how darker skin tones are rendered in Kodak Pro Image 100. Overall the images seem more neutral. I don't particularly appreciate how Silberra renders skin tones.
I am disappointed with the result, but I am still happy I could try this 35mm film. I learned that Kodak Pro Image 100 might be the ideal and currently available 35mm film that produces results that I like. I'll be sticking to that for a while, at least, until Kodak discontinues that film.
I enjoyed a fun evening at Beneduce Vineyards with friends and family, capturing the moments on the Kodak Vision3 250D film.
Beneduce VineyardsWhile I have a few camera shops nearby where I can drop off a roll of 35mm film. Most don't develop the film themselves but outsource the process to New York City or Philadelphia labs. I have been mailing my undeveloped 35mm film to California and New Hampshire labs and paying for developed negatives and scanned images. Developing and scanning costs about $25-$30 per roll. Shooting film is an expensive hobby.
I bought an Epson V600 Perfection Photo scanner to scan some old family portraits earlier this year. It was a fun but tiring exercise, but I was happy to preserve some family photographic history. I wanted to develop my photo-scanning skills to eliminate the cost of scanning film. I also wanted to see if I could match or improve the scans from the various labs. At first, I used Silverfast 9 with the Epson V600 but needed help finding a consistent workflow. But after reading Matt Wright's article about Picking your Color Negative Film Stock, I installed Negative Lab Pro for Lightroom, followed Matt's advice, and rescanned some Kodak Pro 100 negatives. The results were so much better than what I have received that I sent out my last few rolls for development only.
Film photography can be frustrating unless you develop your film and scan at home. I may expose a roll of film over a day or a few weeks. You mail or drop the film off at a lab for developing and scanning. You wait. A few weeks later, you get your negatives or scans back. Unless you shoot polaroids, there is no instant in film photography. The scans below are my own from a set of negatives from a roll of Kodak Vision3 250D that I exposed in August. The film roll was developed by Boutique Film Labs in Juliet, Tennessee.
It was the weekend after I broke my Fuji X-T2. I want to achieve another success with the Minolta XD-11 and Kodak Vision3 250D.
We were at Beneduce Vineyards to hear "Fitz" perform in the band "Winery Katz". Fitz and his wife Monica are friends with our other friends, Matt and Jean. Matt is a guitar instructor who performs as one-half of the Acoustic Road duo. A month earlier, during our visit to Unionville Vineyard to hear Acoustic Road, I had asked Fitz when he would be perfuming. He replied that he was performing with musicians on August 14, and we immediately reserved a table. He cheekily named the band "The Winery Katz". Bhavna told her family, and before we knew it, we had three more couples with us - Bhavna's older sister, Nilima and her husband Mukesh; her younger brother Uday and his wife Bhairavi, and Uday's work-mate Oleg and Monica. The more, the merrier. It was a fun evening.
The sky indicated we might get wet, but it lasted only a few minutes. We had a fabulous time dining on wine and charcuterie.
