It's Black and White

As a teenager back in the 1970s, I pretty much taught myself photography. I devoured every book I could get my hands on from the school and public libraries and with that information along with the little instruction slips packed with every roll of Kodak film, I got pretty good at shooting Sunny 16 with my Kodak Retina rangefinder using mostly Kodak Plus-X Pan 125 film and developing it myself in Kodak’s D-76 developer. One camera, one film, one developer. I kept it simple and I think that really helped me learn.

I have more than one camera now but I really would like to get back to using one black and white film for most of my photography and see if I can become a better photographer. I’ve said I was going to do this multiple times here on the blog but the lure of this film or that has always led me astray. So lately, I’ve been working my way through the available black and white film stocks to see if I can find the one that really sings for me and use it consistently for a while.

I bought a few rolls of Film Ferrania P33 160 ISO film some months back and shot my first roll here. I liked the results and took it to the beach. I liked those results too. I just finished my third roll and I continue to be pleased with this film. I shot these using my Minolta X-700 with the 50mm f/1.7 MD lens. This first one really put the Minolta’ s TTL meter to the test. I should have metered specifically for the white wash mitt under such sunny conditions, but at least all of the detail didn’t totally blow out. I took this as I was washing my old BMW 435i the weekend before I sold it.

Later that same day, a quick snap inside of my dinner table and plate of tortellini.

I took the X-700 on a weekend getaway up the California coast to charming Mendocino. Hollywood used Mendocino as a substitute for a New England coastal town in the 1971 film The Summer of ‘42.

I like Ferrania P33 a lot. Maybe because it reminds me a little of my beloved Plus-X. Availability is hit or miss. I bought four rolls from Freestyle Photo and the next time I checked, it was out of stock. I am just finishing a roll of Tri-X in my Nikon N90S and there’s some Eastman 5222 Double-X in the Nikkormat FTn. More black and white fun to come.