Office building across the water
Olympus XA
Ilford FP4 Plus
2019
I shared a photo from about the same place a couple weeks ago, one I made with my iPhone. I recently got the chance to try some Ilford FP4 Plus, an ISO 125 black-and-white film, and I decided to try the shot again to see what I got.
I’ll do a more comprehensive review of this film tomorrow, but in short, me likey. The tones are just so, so good.
This is the office building I worked in until last Friday, by the way. My new job’s office is in Downtown Indianapolis. There are no man-made ponds there.
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Great shot Jim. Lovely tones and contrast on the decking, fence and buildings, but lots of detail in the water and clouds too. Nice work.
I’ve not shot too much FP4+ (maybe only a couple of rolls come to think of it, although I have a couple of unshot 120 rolls in the house), but I’ve liked the results on both occasions. My problem is that, even with today’s considerably reduced choice of available film stocks, there are still too many I like and not enough time for me to shoot them all regularly and so I often end up falling back on HP5+ as my trusted choice anyway.
The great thing is that these tones and contrast were effortlessly obtained with the XA. Such a wonderful camera.
Now that I’m 95% through the process of getting rid of cameras I won’t use regularly, and am moving out of constantly trying new cameras to shooting the good ones I already own, I will probably move from shooting cheap films to good films. I always bought films based on price because I was just trying cameras out anyway and if I got bad results I didn’t want to have paid much for the film. But now I’m shooting known good gear and will want predictably good results! The FP4+ is super lovely and deserves more of my attention.
I like this a lot. Also, I have an old film camera that belonged to my great-uncle that I recently got (hopefully) working. I bought film from Analogue Wonderland based on a post of yours, so thanks for that suggestion.
Awesome on all counts! What kind of camera is it?
It’s a Canonet 28. I guess I’ll know for sure how well it’s actually working when I get the film developed, but I did enjoy carting it around on a recent trip.
I had one of those for a while. I liked it all right. Compact and easy! https://blog.jimgrey.net/2009/11/23/canonet-28-with-canolite-d/
Yes, actually, I had looked at that post when I started to seriously look at working with this camera a few months ago. I see now that I didn’t put a “like” on it so I went back and did that. I like the weight of it and the way it feels in my hands. Also, as someone who has not really worked in film before, the fact that it seems easy to use really appeals to me.