I'm Martin, a amateur photographer from England that likes to shoot street photography, landscapes, seascapes and odd image of dogs.
Sheerness, England 2018
I haven’t been out much of late, health letting me down again. I like this shot not only because of it’s colour but it’s warm tone. Sad memories too, firstly this was taken with my Leica M4-2, which I should never of parted with and secondly the film. AGFA Vista 200 sadly no longer available.
Leica M4-2 with the Summicron 50mm f/2 lens
Tenterden, England. 2022
Think I was drawn to the hat and the car, shame he wasn’t reading a book really. I normally do try to avoid taking street pictures of people with phones. It seems everyone’s got one either sitting or walking, it’s like a drug that they are all hooked on twenty four, seven.
Leica MP, Summicron 35mm ASPH, B&W neutral density filter on Kodak Pro Image 100 film.
Another image from my archives, taken back in the summer of 2017 from a short holiday break to the Norfolk broads, England. My wife said to me I had taken some nice pictures in Norfolk, I’d found I had taken a couple of rolls of colour print in Norfolk that summer, had them developed, scanned and forgotten all about them. Having found this shot I now use as a desktop wallpaper on my Linux PC.
I haven’t done very much photography of late as we are in the process of moving house. I say moving, we are having work done to the new house before we move in which is Victorian built around 1850’s so a lot of work to be completed. We expect to be actually moving in to the new house end of April, start of May. Hopefully, once settled and restrictions have gone I can get out and about shooting again.
Taken on a Nikon FE, 28mm f/2.8 Ai Nikkor on Kodak Color Plus 200 film.
This little fella is a rescue dog from eastern Europe and his previous life was to be tied up outside all day. Now living in the UK, with long walks everyday, everything is curious, fascinating or puzzling for this little dog. He stood staring at us for a good couple of minutes while we chatted to his new owner.
Leica M3, Summicron 50mm f/2 using my Weston Euro Master V meter and taken on Fujifilm C200 film.
As many of you know I don’t often shot colour C41 or even E6 films, which for the life of me I don’t honestly remember when I last shot slide film. Having taken some colour images in Honfleur, France and watching Youtube videos, like by the German photographer Robin Schimko who sometimes uses colour film for street photography, I’m coming around to the idea of shooting a little more colour in my photographic life.
Kodak Pro Image 100 film
So I thought next year on our next trip to Normandy I try and use only colour film, just carrying my Leica M3 and Summicron 50mm. There is a possibility I might have a Leica Elmarit 90mm f2.8 lens as well in my camera bag if I can find a good example. I have both the Summicron 35mm lens plus two 50mm Summicron’s and for a long time now have been thinking about getting a Leica 90mm lens. Don’t not think I’ll be buying a Summicron 90mm non APO or APO versions as although it’s extremely good lens, it is enormous! The Elmarit 90mm f2.8 is far smaller with a E39 filter thread as my other Leica lenses and having seen the specifications on the Summicron 90mm lens I think will be like shooting a rangefinder with a house brick attached to the front of the camera. This lens weights in at 17.1 oz or 484 grams compared to the Tele-Elmarit of 7.957 oz./225.6g
Ken Rockwell review of the Summicron 90mm lens https://www.kenrockwell.com/leica/90mm-f2-m.htm
Onto the results of using Kodak Pro Image film, in a funny way to me this film look reminds me of the old Kodachrome in these pictures below. All pictures have been shot with no filters, shot with different light conditions and where exposed by using +1 stop with my Weston Euro Master lightmeter.
Click to enlarge images.
I used various C41 films over the years, I think mostly either AGFA Vista 200, Fujifilm Superia 200 or Kodak Color Plus 200 but like many I miss the good old days being able to purchase reasonably priced 100 ASA colour print films. There are of course a few options on the market, Kodak Professional Ektar 100 is a great film but the colours look a little rich for my taste, Kodak Portra 160 Film for a pack of five is twice the price of the Pro Image film pack. Another option would be to use a slide film like Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100 but the price at £15 or $19 a roll with the processing cost on top seems somewhat high and to me looks as it would be better used for high end portraits or landscape images as would any of the dwindling offerings from Fuji’s Fujichrome stable.
Recently I purchase a five pack of Kodak’s Pro Image 100 film and am pretty pleased with the results of this first test roll. I don’t do reviews but this film I found to give a very good render of all the colours I observed when shooting this film. The only issue I found was during scanning with my Nikon Coolscan V scanner was I did find the images appear with a blue cast and never noticed this with either Agfa Vista or Kodak’s Color Plus films. This was corrected easily with Gimp 2.8 and the only other step I had to undertake was a little straightening on some of the pictures.
All images taken on my Leica M3 with the Summicron 50mm f/2 on Kodak Pro Image 100 film in October of this year.
Development of this film was done by https://www.ag-photolab.co.uk/
Robin Schimko website: https://www.fotodesign-rs.de/
As many of you know my work, I very rarely shoot colour film. So when I said to my wife I’m going to shoot some autumn pictures last Sunday, a voice came from the other room ”you are going to use colour?” So frantically looking in my photography fridge upstairs, luckily for me there was one last roll of Agfa Vista 200 colour film left, dated October 2018… Phew.
This shot hasn’t really got much in the way of autumn colour but I liked the late afternoon light and shadows across the cemetery. Only in post processing on the computer did I notice the grave in the foreground, the foot stone is propped up with white bricks!
Taken at Sheppey Cemetery, England on my Leica M4-2, Summicron 35mm f/2 ASPH with Agfa Vista 200 film.
This is my dog Charlie who’s now a year old. I took this picture in the house we stayed at in Vimoutiers, France. I don’t often shoot colour film, mainly because of the subjects I like to take pictures of tend to lend themselves to black and white images really.
Sunlight was coming from the window behind the sofa over his head, and more from the patio doors opposite. The light reading was not easy with my Weston meter to get this shot, so I took the reading from the sofa it self, which is a brown leather and out of direct light. Charlie is a not pure black like when he was a puppy in the first image ‘Welcome’ his coat is more a smoky grey colour now so the image of him looks a little washed out with the light coming from behind, although I am very pleased with the result of the picture.
Taken on Leica M4-2, Summicron 50mm f/2 using a Weston Master V and taken on AGFA Vista 200 film.
The Shootist 