May 2018
The arrival of my F3 was a cause for celebration and an excuse to use my final roll of Kodak BW400CN. I liked this film a lot and was sad to see it discontinued.
I had been saving this film for a special occasion and this was it. A vintage car club was exhibiting their treasures in the town park. With so many elegant shapes and details available I was happy to take my last roll out of the fridge.
So far as I could detect the F3 was completely unused. I could not see a scuff mark or spec of dust anywhere. New F3s from the final few years of production are not uncommon but this one from around 1999 had no original box.
I chose a 40mm f/2.0 Voigtlander and an early Nikon 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF for my outing. The zoom is surprisingly good at f/8 and a bargain for the $50 I paid.
I was keen to try the B&W tonings offered in DxO PhotoLab. None of the shots here are pure black and white.
The shots below are all at 50% tonings except for selenium which is 100%. The shot at the top of the page is Sepia. The two below are Sepia (left) and Selenium (right).
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Next are Gold (left) and Sepia Gold (right).
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Below are Sepia Terra (left) and Ferric Sulphate (right).
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The F3 was a wonderful new experience. I had previously enjoyed using the all-mechanical FM2 and the aperture priority FE2. Both are excellent little cameras and sensational value.
The F3 was a step up in every department except for shutter speed. The sedate 1/2000 of the horizontal shutter theoretically precludes some high speed film and fast lens combinations but I have not had an issue so far. I expect that the massive over-exposure latitude of print film will obviate any problems.
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I did not enjoy the feel of the shutter release on this outing but a $1 soft release button cured that. The 80/20 aperture priority meter is accurate, with a convenient exposure lock on the front of the body. My entire roll was most consistent at E.I. 200.
Of course the film rewind and reload procedures are decidedly old-school compared to my F6; neither is the F3 the best tool for action photography. There were no problems focusing the 40mm f/2 through the large viewfinder but f/5.6 at 200mm was a challenge when the viewfinder focus circle went dark.
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In short, a lovely walk in the park with a superior film camera. My next effort will be to tie down the best exposure and filtration for Ilford XP2 Super, testing it in the F6 with Tamron VR lenses. I foresee much more monochrome film in my future.
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The following day those same cars were on display in Wodonga. I loaded the F6 with Portra 160 and fitted an old Nikon 55mm f/3.5 Ai-S. This was, as expected, excellent at close range but beyond a metre or so the results were less good. Chromatic aberration was quite high, being easily visible on the mesh grills. Fortunately this was easy to fix in DxO.
I also had the problem of fitting the cars in the viewfinder. A better choice would have been the Voigtlander 40mm I had used the day before. However, the colourful sights of this rare outdoor exhibition were saved. My photography is just a hobby, to help me remember those days when I chose to go out with my cameras and enjoy myself.
Portra 400 and 800 have a tendency to emphasise cyan in dark areas, not just in sky-lit shadows where it could be expected, but in areas that really should be black, like car tyres. Some reduction in the cyan channel mixer is usually required.
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All post-processing on this site is done using DxO Photolab. I was an earlier adopter of this excellent imaging software and have continually upgraded. For my film work I find that the ClearView slider is the most valuable, being employed to some extent in almost every shot. Often this is the only tool I use.
Here are two examples of how well it works to remove glare from the original scans and enhance the colours. The effect is not unlike putting on a pair of Polaroid sunglasses.
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