It’s being done in Rochester NY, Kodak’s home town.

1978 Dylan photos from an exposed but unprocessed roll.

I thought I was bad for leaving a roll on the shelf for 5 years! Though in both cases it worked out just fine. I wonder how many 30 year old hard drives or SD cards will still work?

Maybe it’s just the craziness of late Fall but shipping things to and from me has gone off the rails. First the usually reliable FedEx managed to misdirect an express overnight envelope I paid $18 to ship. It arrived a day late and partly damaged. I called FedEx to get a refund. They claim the refund was applied to my credit card but it wasn’t. Called a second time to sort it out. They took my number but never called back and still no refund. I guess I’ll be calling again.

Then a photo book I ordered from the Kodak Gallery was shipped via Canada Post and disappeared into the ether never to be seen again. Fortunately I contacted Kodak and they are just going to make and send another one. But still where did the other one actually go?

Attention Polaroid fans. A new instant film camera. Cool!

From pdnonline.

The Tokyo Camera Style blog can be found here. I’ve added it to the blogroll on the lower right of the page.

Kodak Ektar 100 35mm film. Canon EOS Rebel K2. 50mm f/1.8 lens. I bought the whole kit for about $190. Makes me wonder why many amateur photographers spend $3000 or more on new digital gear?

I think there’s a blog post coming on that topic.

I’m just now getting a chance to set up my “new” Nikon F80 for its first shake down. I just popped in a new set of lithium CR123 Energizer batteries. I mounted a 20-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G lens which is supposed to be another of those cheap wonders (like the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8). A plasticky lens with great glass in it so I’m eager to put it to the test. As usual with a new film camera I’m loading up a roll of the cheap but very good Fuji Superia X-TRA 400. With the colorful fall days almost here I can’t wait to get Ektar 100 into my cameras and get out there.

Walking across the street last week with my laptop bag over my shoulder I experienced something that one never wants to feel. The sudden loss of mass as the pricey bag carrying my laptop disappears when strap comes loose and the bag lands hard on the ground in the middle of the street. Seems a little metal pin that holds the OXIO bags strap just popped out without warning. I could not find the pin as it was lost somewhere on the ground  in traffic. At first I thought the computer escaped without damage but last night I noticed that there is a nice dent in the corner and a bit of plastic trim has popped out.

If this was some $15-20 laptop bag I might chalk it up to getting what I paid for but this OXIO bag cost something like $80 when I bought it about 2 years ago. It certainly does not get much wear and tear on my 15 minute daily commute so it came as quite a surprise to me to have something like this happen. The fact that the bag itself did not fully protect the computer only added to my disappointment.

I checked the companies website but the warranty is only one year (!?) and even in the warranty period the customer has to pay to return the defective bag. Not very customer friendly IMHO.

My summer travels took me to the site of this historic wooden covered bridge ( also known as the “Kissing Bridge” ) located in West Montrose  Ontario. It seems someone thinks it would be a brilliant idea to dig a massive gravel pit just 180 meters from this bridge.

Others have more sense. To find out what up with that check out the BridgeKeepers website.

Just got my first test roll of Ektar 100 back from the lab. My initial impression is that it’s an extremely colorful film with very saturated reds and blues ( a little less so with green). The grain is extremely fine as advertised and it’s quite sharp. Also I noticed that late evening dark water has a nice black,inky quality. It’s a bit challenging to shoot this ISO 100 film late in the evening in shadow areas. It will need longer exposures and there seems to be quite a bit a latitude to play with exposure compensation. I left everything in terms of exposure as is on the camera just to get an idea of what the exposures are like and how much room there is to experiment with. Kodak couldn’t go wrong if they decided to release an ISO 400 version of this film.

Just got another batch of digital prints back from Kodak and I have to say they look exactly like what I see on my computer screen. I did encounter one bug though in placing the order. When using Safari on the Kodak Gallery web site for some reason the option to ship to a retail location (and thus get free shipping) does not show up. Works with Firefox fortunately. For more on the Kodak Gallery versus some of the other photo services (Costco, Blacks) see my earlier post.

From New York City via DHL. A nice mix in there with a roll of older Portra 800, Portra 160NC (neutral color),400NC and VC (vivid color) and a roll of brand new Ektar 100. I have a roll of Ektar 100 in the Rebel K2 right now with four frames left to go. After that I’ll get to testing this new batch.

Looks like good progress is being made in reproducing Polaroid instant film.

Two weeks came and went and still no shipment of expired Kodak film. I was beginning to wonder what happened? Then this afternoon I received an e-mail. Seems there was a mix up in the shipping information. So the film is still on its way but I’ll have to wait just a little longer.

A server issue it seems. I’ve noticed this myself over the past few weeks with slow performance and failed page loads. Hopefully it will get sorted out before long.

Nice photo!

They can how ever make for some eye catching photos. Oh and yes it’s easier to get the photo when you’re at a safe distance hence the use of the long lens for this shot even though I would have preferred using the 50 mm f/1.8.

I don’t like snakes that much!

The Mozilla Firefox mascot in real life.

Clear summer skies made for good viewing of the annual perseid meteor shower this week. We made it out to a star party and managed to see 12 shooting stars in about an hour. In the photo someone is using a green laser to point out sky objects of interest.

Taken from outside The Rooms art gallery/museum looking towards the Basilica of St. John the Baptist. Both structures share the crest of a hill overlooking the old harbour and the narrows leading to the Atlantic Ocean.

The other I was pleasantly surprised to get the following message ;

“Hello Kodak film enthusiast,

Just wanted to let you know that you are one of the 400 Flickr users who get 10 free expired Kodak film rolls! Expect your package over the next two weeks.

Thank you so much for your interest; we really appreciate it!

Best,
Kodak”

Thanks Kodak. As I showed earlier expired film can be just fine even when kept at room temperature. This film has actually been stored properly so this should be a lot of fun to shoot. I’ll post more information when it arrives.

In this case its Canon. Strange and funny. Via YouTube of course!

Latest quarterly results show, once again, that film is where the profit is.

More information can be found here (Francais) and here (English).

Ok so sometimes one takes awhile to get around to developing that roll of film that has been sitting on the shelf for 5 years. Still for exposed film kept at room temperature it held up really well.

Just saw today that the Shopping Channel here in Canada was promoting the Fuji S1500 SLR for only $250. Wow what a deal! Or at least it would be if the S1500 actually was an SLR.

It’s not.

Think they might have some disgruntled customers next week?

Very cool.

Excellent as always!