Colours are nice and vibrant
I have to seriously use the film that I get within its sell by date. Having said that, this is the 2nd to last roll of film I have had sitting around for over a year. That film in question is Fujifilm’s Pro 400h color negative film. This didn’t have that colour shift that I got from my previous old roll of film (Kodak Chrome 100) which the post can be read here. But then again, that roll was, I would guess, about 10 years old.
My gear of choice for this shoot
I can see some real goodness in this film, but it is expired, and I see some grain creeping in. Oh – I almost forgot to mention the gear I used. As the title states, I used “digital eyes” (Pentax’s DA 40mm 2.8 XS) on an analog body (Pentax *ist film body). Wait, digital lens on a film body? Can that be done? Yes, it can – just know that most digital sensors are cropped (APS-C), which is smaller than a 35mm frame. So, the image circle on digital-only lenses are smaller than that of a film or ‘full frame’ lens.
Read more about this here.
L – Pentax M50 F/1.7
R – Pentax 40mm XS F/2.8
notice how much bigger the M50’s image circle is
What’s the drawback? Well, expect to get vignetting when shooting wide open. I was lucky enough that the maximum aperture is F/2.8, and the focal length is at 40mm. I think if the focal length is wider and with a bigger aperture, vignetting would be much worse.
Shot at F/2.8. Notice the very dark corners.
I ended up shooting mostly at F/5.6 to reduce this, and the effects seems like I wasn’t shooting a digital lens at all. Combined with the fact that the *ist is one of the smallest film SLR’s out there, and the 40mm XS is a pancake lens, this kit was extremely light, and super compact! The grip does make the kit a bit chunkier, but that is because the camera allows me to use 4 AA’s instead of the CR2’s the *ist natively uses.
Super small!
Ok, so now back to the film. I need to get a fresh roll and try it again. I did love this film, but not as much as I loved Kodak’s Ektar. (see My post here on it and Alvin’s here) I didn’t love the grain much, but again, it’s probably because it was expired. So, I won’t really say much more about this film since I don’t think I am giving it a fair shot.
Given the shots that this kit produced, I am more than happy to revisit in the near future. For now, enjoy the rest of what I thought was cool to display in this post. These shots were un-edited, aside for the watermarks.
Love the rusty tank
Great how the Freedom Tower is still distinguishable.
A couple just making their way to somewhere
Family just touring about
This alley was just cool
Daylight shot, GRAIN!
My old stomping grounds. I was surprised the lens held up fairly well despite the sun right up on me.
Not quite as good as the PanF version
Long exposure, came out pretty good IMO.
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