Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
It’s called Bertha, it’s a gigantic camera built out of a desire to find out what photography can reveal beyond certain limits.
From the first moment I started experimenting I sensed that there are still many ways to go, past and present can merge, just as old and new technologies, historical knowledge can find new contemporary interpretations.
It looked like it was the end for Tetenal. At the beginning of 2019, Tetenal went into liquidation but was rescued by a management buyout, including all photochemical formulas, the Tetenal brand name and the production facilities. Now, they’ve announced their first new developing kits, the “MagicBox”, for C-41 & E-6 film and RA-4 colour paper, under the new brand name TETENAL 1847.
Designed as a technical high-resolution copy film, Ilford Ortho film has thus far only been available in sheet film formats. Now, Ilford has expanded the formats to add 35mm and 120 medium format roll film. The black and white film is rated at ISO80 in natural light and ISO40 in tungsten.
Harman Technology, who owns the Ilford brand, has also announced the 5th generation of Ilford Multigrade paper. Multigrade V RC Deluxe replaces the Ilford Multigrade IV RC papers released 25 years ago.
When it comes to weird lenses, the first name that springs to many minds is YouTuber Mathieu Stern. So, who better to go visit the weird lens paradise at Camera Rescue? So, that’s exactly what Mathieu did. He hopped on a flight to Tampere, Finland, to check out their huge collection of kit. Fortunately, he shot a video so the rest of us could see some of the cool lenses he got to play with and tell us more about the Camera Rescue project.
For most of us who own cameras, we’ve at least heard of a darkroom, even if you’ve never been used one or been inside one. It’s been a part of photography for as long as photography has existed, and there are many still around today, despite the world going digital. A lot of people still shoot film, and there are plenty of darkrooms around the world you can hire, even if you don’t have your own.
One appears in Stranger Things quite frequently, and it’s somewhere we often see Jonathan go to develop his photos and make prints. One viewer, though, seems pretty confused as to what the hell this “red room” is. This viewer took to StackExchange to ask the question. Poor Ansel would be turning in his grave.
Fujifilm has announced that it will be implementing “a worldwide pricing revision for its photographic films and photographic papers”. Fujifilm says that they’ve been facing the rising cost of film and logistics. They say that they’ve absorbed some of the costs through structural reforms, but can not risk sacrificing the quality of their product, so prices are going up.
Scanning film is one of the biggest issues with shooting film today. It’s not that it’s particularly difficult, it’s just a pain because most of us tend to do it so little. Maybe a roll or two every few weeks. Pulling out the scanner and hooking it up can be a chore, so we put it off and just never get around to it. I’ve got plenty of rolls here that have been developed but not scanned yet.
Photographer, Matt Day, however, has a simple solution to this problem. A solution that’s compact, quicker to set up than a scanner on your computer, as well as being faster and easier to actually “scan” in your images. Using a simple copy stand and an LED panel, he can get through a lot of film through very quickly and easily.
I’m not what you’d really call a “camera collector”, although I’ve collected enough over the years that it’s been a long-running joke between myself and several friends that “he who dies with the most cameras, wins”. I buy cameras, including film cameras, in order to use them. They have a purpose when I acquire them, and then I just don’t get rid of them.
I think we’d all lose to Juho Leppänen and the team at the Camera Rescue, though. It’s their goal to rescue 100,000 film cameras by 2020. Jordan Lockhart from Cameraville went to visit Juho in Finland to find out more about Camera Rescue and what they do with all these cameras.
Towards the end of last year, Tetenal Europe GmbH, one of the largest and possibly oldest manufacturers of photographic chemicals in the world announced that it was entering a restructuring phase to help save the business. Now, according to imaging + foto-contact, Tetenal HQ in Norderstedt, Germany has informed their employees that the company would be closing down, and is expected to shut the doors completely on April 1st once the current production runs have completed.
Sometimes, you come across a DIY film camera that’s just beautiful in its simplicity. The LIMES 120 is one such camera. Made from an old Hasselblad medium format film back, it shoots 120 roll film and sports either an Industar 110mm f/4.5 lens and a tea can, or a pinhole.
Created by photographer Daniele Sandri, a comparison of the camera was recently posted to the Branco Ottico website to show off each of the two lenses.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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