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What a year

It’s been almost a year since my last post. While I wish I had the time to compile better photos from the past year, most haven’t been converted, some haven’t been developed, etc. Frankistax has kept me busier than I ever could have imagined, something I am extremely grateful for. I’ll catch back up on…

Medium Format Fall: Gallery

A collection of shots from this past fall. Shot on the Mamiya RB67 and Pentax 645.

A Quick Roll of Lomo Purple

Lots of projects in the works- Frankinstax production and processing quite a few medium format images of fall are a couple you can expect to see here soon. I decided to shoot a roll of Lomo Purple on the Maxxum 9000 to break things up a bit. Click to enlarge.

Cinestill 800T: One Of My Favorite Rolls Yet

There’s nothing notable about any one of the photos I shot in specific on this roll, but as a whole I’m happy with a larger than usual amount of shots. Maybe it’s a combination of the cinema grain, ease of post processing, high ISO or something else. It being one of my favorite film stocks…

Fuji 200 & 400 35mm: The Sleeper Filmstock

A single roll of Portra 400 in 35mm is around $18, Gold 200 if you can find it is around $14. Fuji 200/400 from a reputable shop is under $10/roll. I often wonder why it hasn’t caught on yet. The color rendering is great, the film is just as versatile as UltraMax, and it’s half…

Vintage Lenses & Focus Peaking

While I do love tapping the touchscreen for an instant focus area, the look and feel of vintage lenses brings character to photos. This coupled with the relatively low prices compared to new autofocus lenses, and how many focus peaking options are present is why vintage lenses outnumber new autofocus lenses in my collection 3:1.…

RB67 & Mt. Evans

Hearing that the road to the summit has been closed for the season, I decided to take a bike ride up with the RB67 on my back. The haze/overcast made conditions less than ideal, but I quickly went through a roll of Ektar, Gold and Portra 400. Ektar Gold 200 Portra 400

Mt. Evans: Digital Preview

Knowing the road to the peak of Mt Evans was closed at the halfway point, I figured this would be a good opportunity to get some shots without a lot of other people around. The main purpose of the trip was to try out landscape shots on my new RB67, but I brought along the…

Olympus E-M1X Demo

I had the chance to demo the E-M1X for a few days and figured why not. I was hoping to test converting negatives using pixel shift, but the supplied lens just wasn’t cutting it (upon second look, there’s an asterisk on the Olympus website stating the magnification rate was a 35mm conversion). The AF system…

August Heat

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been working on offering prints for sale, film testing a few cameras and just trying to stay cool. Here are a few recent shots I think came out pretty well.

Expired Gold 200: Time to Learn NLP

I do think shooting film has both it’s creative and financial benefits at times- film testing cameras for the first time, going on a casual photo walk or just wanting to change things up. In the past I’ve struggled to get high quality scans with expired film. With this past roll I’ve realized this was…

Pike Peak Day Trip: Gallery

All shot on a Pentax 645, some are on expired Portra 160NC, the other Gold 200. The overcast day was a bummer, but here are a few I was able to salvage.

Ricoh 500 with Dubblefilm Pacific: What a Pain

I think the most alluring traits of shooting film is the complete disconnect from my cell phone, dealing with modern technology and the mechanical feel that comes from majority of film cameras. That being said, as a general rule of thumb I only shoot on cameras with built in light meters when possible. The Goodman…

Canon G1X Full Spectrum Conversion

I’ve been wanting to experiment with full spectrum photography for a while, but with converted cameras being hard to come by in the used market and conversions running ~$400, I was left looking for alternatives. It’s no secret that I’m a loyal Fuji shooter, however their use of soldered components makes conversions a risky operation.…

Another Day, Another Yashica Repair

Picked up another sub $20 Yashica listed as “as-is”. As expected, the battery terminal was corroded and in need of resoldering. This one didn’t need a new shutter pad, possible due to being a GT model, and not the usual GSN. Very satisfied with the results from the test roll-

20 Year Old APS Film

The negatives were so dark, neither I nor the lab thought anything had come out. These were the shots worth salvaging over two rolls. They really should bring the film format back, while it’s limiting, the form factor of APS cameras is hard to beat.

Pushed Portra at Coors Field

With the lack of availability of easily accessible Portra 800, decided to give 400 +.5 a shot. Really pleased with the outcome, I may need to find a lab that can push more than .5 for some experimentation. These shots from before and after the game are some of my favorites.

Shooting with a cheaper camera than the roll of film: Minolta Hi-Matic S

Occasionally I find myself browsing eBay for film cameras, sorted by ending soonest. With the resurgence of film photography and limited information published regarding product lineups, prices on used cameras is all over the place. I’ve found success in coming across lesser known sub-models, that may have nearly identical features to the whatever the trending…

35mm Panoramas using the Goodman Zone and a 220 Pro-S Back

There’s a few different methods online for loading 35mm film into a 120 back. I choose to take a developed roll of 120 (Denver Digital Imaging hooking it up as usual) and cut a leader of about 11″. From there I cut the leader off the 35mm and carefully taped it to the 120 paper.…

3D Printing & Photography: Polaroid Land Camera – 120 Film Conversion

I’ve always been a believer that the best form of recycling is reusing. I was pretty excited when I came across a 3D printed kit made by James Skelton that converts old Land Cameras to shoot various formats of modern film. It took a bit of work, but I did get a couple rolls through,…

3D Printing & Photography: Goodman Zone

The more you look at modular camera systems, such as the RB/RZ67, you realize how basic a camera really is. I had never heard of the Goodman Zone prior to Googling “3D printed camera”, and I had no idea what I was missing. Total investment for the project is fairly minimal, and with the current…

Finding Repair Manuals, Cleaning Battery Corrosion and Film Testing

Not knowing much about film cameras, I had no idea where to start. My first eBay pickup was a Fujica SLR bundle. I was most intrigued by the included fisheye, which seems to sell for upwards of $500 when listed correctly. While I enjoyed the Fujica, I wanted to continue trying out new gear and…

Infrared Photography

I’ve always loved the Dr. Suess like colors IR photography creates, and it aligns with my style…minimal editing. These photos were white balanced in-camera, post was simply swapping the red and blue channels. I look forward to summer as more foliage blooms and IR can be explored further. These were shot on a converted X-T1,…

Continuing My Hunt For The Perfect 35MM Camera

Turns out, there isn’t one. A few shots from my Mamiya ZE. I really enjoy this camera, although there’s nothing particularly special about it. The lenses are high quality, the light meter is accurate and it’s comfortable. I find this is my go-to 35mm SLR When wanting something a bit more compact, my go-to has…

Fifteen Years Later

These images were shot in 2007-2010 on a Canon 1D. Developed in 2022, lab scanned. I had a very, very basic understanding of film photography at this time. I credit the Canon auto modes for the quality of these photos. Whiles there’s nothing spectacular about the composition or content of these photos, the tones, grain…

Why Cohen Brothers if this is a solo project?

When I recall my introduction and start into photography, two events come to mind. In middle school I joined the photography club. We were lent Sony Cybershot point & shoots that saved to floppy disk. While this was cool, and probably a better use of my time than eating Doritos and picking my nose. The…