Broken

Nikon F2AS Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Kodak Gold 100 C-41 - Shot in the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg VA. sometime in the fall of 1992. I liked the play of light and shadow. I rediscovered this image while testing a new film scanner.

Scanned with a Kodak Pakon F-135 Film Scanner using Pakon's OEM software.

Caffenol Concoction - Caffenol premix from Labeauratoire

For those of you wanting to try Caffenol or Coffee Developer for black and white film, but do not want to track down all the ingredients, this is the product for you. Caffenol Concoction is a premixed packet of Caffenol that allows you to just add water and go.

For those of you wanting and easy entry into the world coffee developers purchase information can be found here: http://www.labeauratoire.com/caffenol/cc.html

Monolithic

Nikon F2AS Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Kodak Gold 100 - An image from the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg VA, shot in the Autumn of 1992. I rediscovered this negative while testing a new film scanner. I like the sense of isolation the narrow depth of field creates.

Scanned with a Kodak Pakon F135 Plus using Pakon's OEM Software.

Decay

Nikon F2AS Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Kodak Gold 100 - Some new archive mining inspired by a faster film scanner. This was shot in the Autumn of 1992 at the Lynchburg Old City Cemetery, one of my favorite shooting venues since my arrival in Lynchburg VA. I love this cemetery in Autumn. It is filled with healthy mature trees that provide amazing color. The contrast of the somber mood of the cemetery and the festive colors of the trees can be amazing.

Scanned with a Kodak Pakon F135 Plus Scanner using Pakon's OEM software.

Scanner Test - Kodak Pakon F135 Plus Scanner

Nikon F2AS Nikkor 50mm f1.4 Kodak Gold 100 -  I picked a roll shot years ago to test my Kodak Pakon F135 Plus scanner. I wanted a roll with strong colors and some challenging lighting to get a good feel for the scanners capabilities. Generally the scanner preformed very well. Scans had good sharpness and contrast, with accurate color reproduction. I saw minor issues with dominate color shifts toward cyan when image contain a lot of red, but this was easily corrected within the scanner software prior to exporting.

Scanned with a Kodak Pakon F135 Plus using Pakon's OEM software.

New Scanner - Kodak/Pakon F135 Plus

I have always liked shooting 35mm for the conveniences of the greater number of exposures per roll and smaller lighter cameras. Heading out with one or two 36 exposure rolls can cover a long day's worth of shooting with limited bulk. The downside to this, when working with a hybrid analog/digital workflow, is exponentially higher time spent scanning once the film is developed. Up until this point, I have been using a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III and Silverfast's SE Plus scanning software for all my 35mm scanning needs. This scanner software combination is capable of producing great scans, but workflow can be slow and tedious. So much so, in recent years, I have shied away from shooting 35mm in favor of medium format. Not all together a bad thing, but I do miss the more casual nature of shooting 35mm. I am much more likely to keep my Olympus XA2 or Stylus in my pocket for day to day shooting, than lugging one of my Kiev 60s or even my point and shoot Fujifilm GS645Zi. Hopefully my most recent scanner acquisition will even the playing field for back end workflow between 35mm and medium format 120 film.

The Kodak/Pakon F135 Plus is a 35mm roll film scanner designed for low volume analog/digital retail labs in the early 2000's. You would commonly see them in chain drug stores supplementing their digital printing operations. I know, I installed a few of them as a field service technician in a past life. They were a way for smaller locations to have film scanning and printing capabilities without the foot print or capital investment of the high end Fujifilm Frontier hybrid digital systems that the bigger retailers were installing. Made by Pakon with Kodak branding the F135 Plus was no speed demon when compared to the higher end scanners of the day, but it would scan a full, uncut roll of 35mm film in a few minutes. Coupled with one or two tabletop dye-sub printers and a CD burner a lab could have a reasonably capable analog/digital lab in a small foot print.

The quick rise of digital as a replacement for film brought and end to Pakon, which closed their doors a few years back, so the once $2,000+ scanners can now be found ebay selling for around $250. Due to their age, you must keep in mind that the software only works with Windows XP and there are no Mac drivers available at all. That being said, the software will work on a Mac running Windows XP on Parallels  Desktop and I have seen a few reports of it running on Windows 7 in XP mode. Luckily I had an older Dell Dimension 4700 laying around that had more than enough horsepower to handle the software.

I have installed the software and done some initial test scans and I have to say I am pleased with the results. The 2941x1960 pixel 16 bit RGB scans are very good quality, perfect for proofing and prints up to 8x10. Digital Ice dust and scratch reduction technology is built into the scanner and appears to be effective in reducing negative imperfections during scanning. The software is not pretty or intuitive, but it is functional and relatively easy to learn. The initial color and exposure judgements made by the software are close and can be tweaked before exporting the files. For critical work or large prints, I can still fall back on my Dimage Dual Scan III, but for getting a decent initial scan onto my computer, this is a great new tool.

I will not dive into operational specifics, as the are a number of great tutorial already up on the web. A Google search for Pakon F135 Scanner will get you started.  Sample scans to follow in futures posts.

An Awwwwww Moment...

Kiev 60 Arsat 80mm f2.8 Foma Fomapan 400 Adox Adonal 1:25 - Three of the neighborhood feral cats using a lawn chair to escape the mid day sun. One adult and two kittens showing the softer side of cat life.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson's OEM software.

Hen of Chicks...

Kiev 60 Arsat 80mm f2.8 40mm extension tube Foma Fomapan 400 Adox Adonal 1:25 - A just watered Hen an Chicks plant basking in the mid-day sun. My first experience using Adox Adonal (Rodinal) at 1:25 dilution. Sharpness is great and grain is better than expected. I love the magnifying effect of the water droplets.

Scanned with an Epson V500 Photo using Epson’s OEM Software.

Lomo'Instant Camera on Kickstarter

Here is a great KickStarter Project from the Lomography Society, a NEW INTANT CAMERA! Check out the links for details, but features like manual exposure control, add on lenses and long exposure capability , make this and interesting competitor to the great instant cameras Fujifilm is currently producing.
Lomo'Instant Camera on Kickstarter

Ilford posts a step by step film processing guide for beginners

Ilford has posted a new guide to black and white film processing for beginners. It is, of course, built around the using their products, but the PDF is very detailed and a great way to get you film wet with processing. Click on the links above to download the PDF.

Impossible Project - Instant Imperfection

Polaroid Macro 5 SLR Instant Camera Impossible Project Coloring Instant Print Film - Four shots from a recent pack of Impossible Project instant film. Though none of them achieved the intended image, I thought they were interesting enough to share....

Cactus Flower Blow Out

Fuzzy Rose

Mal-Focused Maple

Dark Black Widow

Instant Fiesta...

Polaroid Macro 5 SLR Impossible Project Instant Color Print Film for Spectra Cameras - Just some more instant film fun, the Macro 5 SLR has incredible macro abilities and the twin built in flashes give great even illumination. The color rendition of the Impossible Project film is always interesting, even if hard to predict at times, but then again this has always been true of integral type instant films.

Scanned with a HP G4050 Scanner using HP's OEM software.