Castello di Sirmione is the central landmark in the old town of Sirmione and a great place to visit early in the morning before big crowds of tourists flood the place.
Sometimes one takes pictures expecting they won’t turn out great because, like in this post, the circumstances are stacked against the photographer. You take a look at the results and think to yourself “I knew it.”, and after browsing through the images again and again you get stuck every time you see them. There is something. Something that makes you not want to discard them despite their obvious imperfections. In the presented case, it was obvious that the waning light would pose a problem with holding the camera steady enough for sharp images. But Harman Phoenix 200 is already a grainy film. Does the bit of blur even matter? I like the composition, the colors. What more do I need?
Vacation in Italy, in the middle of summer, right at Lago di Garda. Camera in hand, wandering through the snickelway (an alley, according to dict.cc), taking pictures of whatever finds your fancy. Good times! A roll of Ektar finds its end after a long journey from Germany to the US, back to Germany and finally exposed to a sunny day in Italy. It survived abuse at many airports, security checkpoints in New York, and finally in the film processor. Scanned, cropped, converted, sifted through, cut down to eight frames, and finally on your screen for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure, whatever floats your boat). Thus, a purpose fulfilled.
I recently read somewhere that Munich is one of the most walkable cities in Europe. From personal experience, I can attest to that sentiment: There is much to see and enjoy around the central city area at the Marienplatz. While sunny weekends attract tourists and locals alike, bypassing crowded areas and basking in the town’s history is possible. All images from this post were taken on a single early afternoon stroll through Munich.
My first roll of Harman Phoenix 200 shot at ISO 125 in my Rollei 35 at the Königssee in Berchtesgaden. While Phoenix is officially rated at ISO 200 by Harman, I heard that it technically should be rated at ISO 125. So that is why I shot it at that sensitivity. Another thing I saw on the web is, that lab scanning yields a strong red color cast because the film base is transparent instead of the usual orange used to minimize halation. Scanning and conversion at home are supposed to not suffer from this issue. I can confirm that from my experience after developing, scanning, and converting four rolls of Harman Phoenix 200. The colors straight out of the default conversion with Negative Lab Pro look subdued but pleasant. The grain makes images look a little fuzzy, but fine details like the name of the boat in the first image are still resolved.
I had some space left on the last roll from my trip to the Königssee and a Leica Lemarit-R 135mm f/2.8 that wanted to get out for a test run. Thus, I grabbed the camera and went for a walk.
The second part from my trip to the Königssee.
Nestled between several mountains from the Alps, the Königssee is a beautiful tourist destination in the Berchtesgadener Land. I used this trip to try my new Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8 lens and two rolls of Adox CMS 20 II. The roll was developed in Adox Adotech IV as per the instructions on the bottle. Touted as the finest grain film available, I wondered what Adox CMS 20 II can do. It turns out the grain is nearly invisible at the resolution that my scanner is capable of. And the lens does exactly what it is supposed to do.
The Kalimar Six/Sixty, the successor of the Soligor 66 and the Fujita 66 is an odd little fella. It looks like a TLR, but it is a SLR. I found it on the electronic bay and curiosity got the best of me. The Kaligar 52mm f/3.5 lens has a scratch on the rear lens element, but no issue is visible on the ground glass. Focusing looks like it does not go up to infinity, but according to my collimation efforts, this is an issue with the ground glass not sitting at the correct distance or the mirror sitting at the wrong angle. The images in this post are the result of two test rolls that I shot walking around the neighborhood. First impressions are disappointing if you expect the kind of quality that you get from a Rolleiflex TLR or a Hasselblad. The images are soft all around, getting worse towards the edges, and the lens vignettes heavily. Nonetheless, the softness has some charm to it and a different lens paired with the Kalimar might perform better.
A few snaps taken during the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Los Angeles.
