Ilfocolor Rapid Half-Frame camera

I thought that I had sworn off single-use cameras, but a few months ago, I purchased three Ilford Ilfocolor Rapid Half Frame single-use cameras from Reformed Film Lab for $7 each. I probably should have gone with the special price of $6 each if I had purchased 10.  I’ve always had a sort of love-hate relationship with half frame 35mm. I loved the compactness of the cameras, but churning through a roll of film took some time, and the vertical format wasn’t exactly a favorite.  However, I figured that the price was too good to pass up, and I could always wind the film into the cassette in the darkroom and use the film in another camera should I want to.  

First of all, at this price, it was too good to pass up, and I opened the package to get a look at the camera — it looks pretty much like any other single-use camera, but with a viewfinder that matches the half-frame aspect.  A 27-exposure roll of film becomes 54 half-frames.  Certainly enough to evaluate the camera.  The camera has a built-in flash, activated by a switch on the front.  The film is stated to be 400 ISO color, and I have no idea what emulsion it is supposed to be, but it looks a lot like Kodak Gold 400.  It is NOT the same film that’s labeled as Ilfocolor 400 Plus Vintage Tone, which I will review separately. In addition, the only color film that Ilford/Harman is currently making is the Phoenix 200. So, these cameras are using some other outsourced film. They are made in China, not the EU. While the film is "expired" in 02/2025, it should be good for a few years more.

Over the course of a couple of months, I shot the roll and took it to Ball Photo in Asheville to be developed.  After scanning the film myself, I have to say that I am pleased with the results from this camera.  For one using this camera, like any other single -use camera, is easy. There’s no focusing, just point and shoot.  To be fair, I picked subjects that I thought would work well with the film format and exposure latitude of 400 ISO color film.  I used the flash only a couple of times, and you definitely need to be within 8 feet of the subject.

Here are some examples from the first roll, all scanned on my Epson V700 scanner:

Some of the images with clear blue skies had yellow streaks
in the sky as shown in the enlargement below.
 

I don't know if this is an emulsion defect, or x-rays or development. But it did not appear on other rolls that I had processed.  It did not go through any airport scanners, but maybe the shipment from China did? A curious thing.

I sent one of the cameras to my daughter, and I cannibalized the other one for the roll of color film inside.  Note - you need to wind the film into the cassette before you open the camera.  You can do this by taping over the lens with black tape and shooting the roll, and it winds into the cassette with each exposure, or in this case, unexposure!   Then, you crack open the camera to retrieve the cassette. If you have wound the film all the way into the cassette, a leader retriever will get the end of the film out.

Now that I see the results from this camera, I’ll have to see if Reformed Film lab has any left to sell. While I’m not ready to plunk down $500 for the Pentax 17, this Ilfocolor camera will give you a good idea what to expect with half-frame cameras.   I know that Kodak has a simple half-frame plastic camera, but their H35N sells for between $45 and $60, a far cry from the $7 I spent, and I would expect similar results from the Kodak.  The Kodak H35N does have a bulb mode and a coated glass lens, but I have yet to try one out.  If anything, the Ilford Rapid Half-Frame is a good introduction to the world of half-frame 35mm, and I highly recommend it if you can find one.  I ordered 10 more of them from Reformed Film Lab on 3/30/25, so they are still available.

Shooting 41 Years Expired HP-5

I recently acquired a bunch of rolls of Ilford HP-5 that expired in Sept. 1980. Now, you know that I like testing the limits of what one can get from expired film, and a black and white 35mm film that's that old probably is going to be disappointing, right?  Well, follow along and see.

In 1980, I was working on my Master's degree in Entomology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY.  It was the year that I spent over 2 weeks on the road to the Southwest on a field trip.  I used a Pentax Spotmatic that I borrowed from my advisor, and shot Kodachrome and Ektachrome along that journey - and I still have those slides.  It was my first experience with the wide open West, and I learned quite a bit on that trip.  I am sure that I did not know a whit about Ilford film back then, as I was so used to the ever-present Kodak, though I know I did shoot some awful GAF slide film prior to 1980.  

In 1980, Jimmy Carter was in the last year of a pivotal presidency.  In 1980, PacMan appeared as an arcade game, and Post-it notes were sold for the first time. That was also the year of the fantastic "Miracle on Ice in lake Placid, NY, as the under-dog USA Hockey team beat the Soviet Union in the winter Olympics. Believe me, that was an exciting game.  It was also the year that Mount St. Helens erupted, causing significant destruction and altering the regional climate for a short time. It was the year the 7 rolls of Ilford HP-5 "expired," locked away in someone's closet or camera bag to resurface 41 years later in a donation of photographic equipment.

As I examined the boxes of film, I realized that Ilford had done some things with the packaging that I had not seen before.  Each plastic canister was sealed with a plastic strip that has to be torn away to open it and remove the film. The film has the typical long "Leica leader" that used to be on 35mm films, but probably stopped by the early 1980s.  The film cassette is reusable, as the ends can easily be removed.  Of course, the box also housed printed instructions on a sheet of paper. Interesting note, is that the instructions tell you to expose at 1/250 sec at f/16 under a full sun.  That's overexposing the film by a stop if it is rated at ISO 400. Also, the film is HP-5, not HP-5+, still rated at 400 ASA.  

At first I thought it would be stupid to test the film, but then I realized it would be a good opportunity to see just what I could do with it.  I have shot long-expired Kodak Verichrome Pan with good results, as well as Kodak Panatomic-X. However, they are not fast films, and age better than a 400 ISO film.  Using my rule of thumb of losing a stop every decade, and factoring in that the film is black and white, I decided to shoot it at ISO 50.  I loaded a Vivitar V3800N SLR with the film and shot it all in one day in Weaverville. The V3800N is one of the cheaper SLRs that appears as many different brandings, but it's certainly capable enough for this simple test. I didn't bracket any of the shots, and used sunny-16 and the camera's meter to adjust my exposures.

In the afternoon, I developed the film in HC-110B for 5 minutes. I chose HC-110 because it seems to limit fogging on old films.  As I pulled the developed film off the reel to hang it to dry, I was really pleased to see that I had images. The film has significant base fog, but I knew that it would scan pretty well.  

I scanned the negs with my Epson V700 scanner, and the thumbnails of the pre-scan looked really good. The film has a slight cupping, like Kodak Tri-X, making the center of the scan a little less sharp. There are some blotchy lines across the length of some of the frames - and I don't know what they are due to.  Here are some of the scans below.You can see that they are little grainy, but overall, not bad.  My guess of shooting it at ISO 50 was correct. I certainly did not expect that the results would be as good as they are.

It's hard to judge the results without knowing the history of how a film was stored over its lifespan.  It could have been in any number of places, and I doubt that any of them would be a freezer.  The exciting fact is that this film, probably produced in 1978 or 79 is still usable (with some adjustment).  

I know that some people wonder why in hell anyone would use long-expired film. I certainly would not use it for anything critical, but part of the fun is seeing how much life that old roll of silver halides still has after all these years.  It's also a of a treasure hunt - sometimes one can find some film that will really amaze with its staying power. Other times, it's a dud.  These rolls of HP-5 are usable, but not without some minor flaws.  However, one person's grainy negative is another person's art niche.  I may put the remaining rolls up on Etsy, so check it out soon.

   

Film... lots of film!

some slow speed films

Last week I received a package in the mail containing some new (to me) films that I ordered. Three of them were Rollei-branded films, Ortho 25 Plus, RPX 25, Retro 80 S; Catlabs X Film 80, and Bergger Pancro 400.  I have previously reported on the Bergger film.  On top of that, I have an order of the Ilford Ortho Plus 80 coming to me.  All of these are b&w films, and I am totally amazed at the number of film stocks now on sale.  Even accounting for the re-branding of films by Kosmo, etc., it's obvious that we have more b&w film stocks available now than I can remember in the past 20 years.  The Darkroom has put up a handy guide to films that should be useful to the typical person shooting film.  The chart there shows 46 films, and those are all ones that The Darkroom can process.  It's obviously missing the Kodak Vision films (ECN-2 process), the odd emulsions that require special developers, and many of the b&w films that the Film Photography Project has brought to market.  So, when anyone asks "Can you still buy film?"  You can tell that person that there are over 50 different films available now.

We don't have the plethora of  positive color films that existed 20 years ago, and that can easily be explained by the fact that pro shooters accounted for the majority of E-6 and Kodachrome sales that were quickly taken over by the digital onslaught.  For the publishing industry, digital was a real boon, as the workflow no longer involved the darkroom as being the intermediate step.  For the art photographer, it was a more personal choice.  However, the mere fact that Kodak released Ektachrome once again last year is a good sign that a major gap was being filled. 

As far as C-41 films, there are enough choices out there to make most people happy.  While I shoot color film, it still represents a minority of my film usage.  I do use digital for a majority of my color work -- and my Nikon Df is one hell of a camera.   My first choice is b&w film, for a lot of reasons.  I like the moods that I can get with different films, I like being able to experiment with using low-ISO films and odd emulsions, and I like the way b&w film shows the world that I photograph.  In addition, film grain - the lack of, as well as the presence of, can really add another dimension to an image.  I think back to some early shots that I did with Kodak's high speed recording film - it had grain like nothing else, and I wish that I had used it in the right situations to make that grainy stuff work as an asset to the image.  On the other end of the grain scale, Ilford Pan-F and Kodak Tmax 100 are really excellent films.   To me, the allure of so many different films is that a film stock becomes part of my creative process. 

One other thing to note, is that I am working on a zine devoted to monochrome shooting.  I'll say more about it as I get closer to a final product, but I hope to have it ready by January 2020.  The first issue will focus on low-ISO films. 

As these November days move into December days, I am very happy that I moved to western North Carolina.  We have far more sunny days than cloudy ones this time of year, and those low sun angles represent more opportunities for shooting b&w film!

Ilford FP-4+ - A great medium-speed B&W film

I have long been a fan of Ilford's films -- and if you shoot a lot of monochrome film, you'll know that Ilford is a brand that is monochrome only.  I have reviewed a lot of films on this blog, but have skipped many popular emulsions, because I figure that everyone knows about them.   However, with the resurgence of film, I realize that some films definitely should get a shout out.  A few years ago, Kodak discontinued their Plus-X Pan film.  Plus-X was a very good old-style film with good grain, latitude, and with an ISO of 125, it was great for allowing a shallower depth-of-field in brighter light than Kodak Tri-X.  Kodak felt that the Tmax 100 was a good substitute and it also used less silver than Plus-X, thus saving them money. In any case, Ilford has been making FP-4+ for a long time, and it remains an excellent medium-speed black and white film.  I feel the images from it have a great tonal scale, and there is no type of subject that it does not do well with.  It has excellent latitude and sharpness, depending on your developer.

I have been shooting with FP-4+ for almost 20 years, and while it is obviously not the only 100-125 ISO film out there, I consistently get good results with it.  My typical developer is D76, diluted 1:1 for 11 minutes.  D-23 for 6 minutes also works well.  Since it is a current film, the Massive Development Chart will give you other choices.  It is available in 35mm, 120, 4x5, and 8x10.  I find to be the ideal "every day" film for me.

Here is a small sample of images from my archive of images shot on Ilford FP-4+ film:

Developing B&W Film. Just Do It.

It's been sort of interesting seeing some people in social media look for easy ways to develop film. Some people seem to think that there should be a shortcut for immediate results.  Others think that only a darkroom will enable them to develop film, and then there are some that want to develop the film in the canister, etc.  While I understand that there are inquiring minds out there, and there is always a guy saying something about "inventing a better way," I want to tell you this: THE NEGATIVE IS YOUR STARTING POINT.  DON'T FUCK IT UP!

Hanging to dry.

While my comment above may seem a bit harsh, let me explain.  You will learn nothing about development if your first inclination is to short-cut a process that you know little about.  I get it, we all like things to be easy. But things get easier the more you do them and become more familiar with the routine.  Think about the first time you drove a car. So many things to watch for!  After a short while, you get comfortable with it.  After a long while, you hardly have to think about what you are doing, but you still have to pay attention.  It's no different with developing film.  You can't get to your destination without putting in the time.  You can't expect it to be any different with photography.  The negative is your base piece of information. Film costs money. Why would you want to potentially ruin an image that you took the time to compose and shoot. Does your photography mean that little to you?  Believe me, many have tried quick methods, "time-savers" for developing film, and those methods have been found to be a waste.  If they were not, they would have been widely adopted. But they were not.   Some of the reasons we see people wanting shortcuts are probably as follows:
(1) coming entirely from a digital background to film
(2) not being mentored by a film user, nor taking any class in traditional photography
(3) not reading any books about darkroom practice
(4) impatience and/or ignorance because of the above

So, you have some b&w film.  It's easy to develop if you keep things simple.  To start, use only one developer. Use only one type of film.  Then, when you think you have a handle on things, you can begin to explore other developer/film combinations.  Some people get so into trying many films and developers that they never really achieve a consistent result to know what actually works well. So, keep it simple and become proficient with one film and developer so that you know what a good negative looks like.  I have lost track of how many rolls I have developed, -- it's certainly in the thousands.  Even then, I do not get complacent.

You need:
daylight developing tank with adjustable reels (Paterson style tank)
dial thermometer
plastic jugs for developer and fixer. You can use water as a stop bath.
plastic measuring cups or graduated cylinders for mixing
sink with running water
timer
film changing bag or a completely dark space to load the film into the reels to be placed into the developing tank.

Some of these items are available at the Film Photography Project Store.

About chemicals -- Most b&w photochemistry is relatively benign, and except for used fixer, it is safe to dump down the drain.  Unless you are doing industrial volumes, that is.  I don't think that applies to any of us.  While I may say Kodak D-76, it's actually available more cheaply from Freestyle as Legacy Pro L-76 developer, which is what I have been using as of late.

You can download an app for your smartphone that will time your development process from the folks at the Massive Development Chart.  That will also save you time looking up development times online.

When I started developing my own film in 2000 after a hiatus of 26 years, I had just the basic equipment and supplies.  I didn't have a darkroom then, and used a changing bag.  I practiced a lot with a junk roll of film to get adept at loading it in the changing bag.  I used plastic reels then, and still do. They just work better for me --  thousands of rolls later, I still use them.

My recommendation for a film/developer combo --
Ilford HP-5+ and Kodak D76 mixed 1 part water to 1 part stock solution for 11 minutes developing time at 20 degrees C.    This makes the developer a one-shot use, and is quite economical.  That makes total time for development, fixing, washing at about 25 minutes.

There are numerous videos on  YouTube to show how to develop film.  Most are useful if you have not done it before. The Ilford pdf on b&w developing is also very useful.  I highly recommend The Basic Darkroom Book by Tom Grimm, but there are many other books available.

Once you have your negatives dry, you can scan them and do whatever post-processing you wish. Or, you can print them in a darkroom, which is a whole chapter by itself.  Store your negatives in strips in the PrintFile Archival preservers. I use the sheets that hold 7 strips of 35mm, 5 across.  You may like the ones that hold 6 strips of 6 across.  I use the 120 sheets too.  Store them in 3 ring binders.  label them so that you know what, when, where, why, and how.  Keep a notebook and record your developing.

Does this sound like a lot of work?  It really is not.  But if you are unable to develop at home, you can send it out to The Darkroom and they will do it.   However, you are missing out at one of the things that makes film photography special. Take the time to do it yourself, and you will see and appreciate the magic.

Bill Bresler, shot on HP-5+.