Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“Stupid is as stupid does”— Forrest Gump
I was really looking forward to attending the Vehicle Vault’s June Cars & Coffee event that has now rebranded itself as Espresso and Exhaust. My plan was to photograph the cars at the show using Lomography’s Lomochrome Metropolis 35mm film with my Contax 167MT and Yashica 50mm f/2 lens. Lomo claims the film can be rated between ISO 100 to ISO 400 but based on my experience with Lomo’s Redscale film, I planned to shoot it at ISO 200. The Contax recognizes DX coded film but there is no DX coding on the Metropolis film cassette. In fact, the cassette has a label saying there’s No DX coding.
I was wondering if the crazy gas prices would affect attendance and there were noticeably fewer car exhibiting than during the previous two months, even though the weather could not be nicer. But there were more spectators in attendance, many of whom decided to park in the West side of the exhibition area making it look like there was more show cars than there actually where.
The highlight for me was seeing a turbo-powered Isuzu Impulse tweaked by Lotus; the first one I’ve seen in person. My photography of the show was going well and I really was enjoying shooting the Contax, quickly burning through 36 exposures. When I got to the end of the roll and pushed the rewind button (there is no manual rewind on the 167MT) it made a funny noise and the LED display blinked off and on.
When I got to my car and opened the back I saw the thing all film photographers dread. A whole strip of film lying naked across the inside back of the camera. Instead of calmly analyzing the problem and slamming the back closed, I freaked out yanking the film out of the camera. Wait…I did think about it for two or three seconds before freaking out. One the way home, I tried to analyze the situation and came up with three possibilities:
- Batteries. I had previously tested this camera with no problems but with electronic cameras almost all incidents are battery related. Most likely.
- Camera: The Contax 167MT was launched in 1986 and is 36-year old camera with a “who knows what” history purchased on eBay from Japan, so it could have problems. Possible.
- Film: The film could have been improperly loaded when it was spooled. Lomography ain’t exactly Eastman Kodak, so it’s possible. Least likely.
When I got home I opened up the camera’s optional battery holder P-5 that holds four AA batteries instead of the 167’s standard four AAA. I swapped in fresh Energizer AA’s and loaded the camera with expired (2013) Fuji Neopan 400 Professional and headed down to McCabe Meadows to shoot a test. Instead of cars I photographed lots of people whizzing by on bikes, quickly gobbling up the 36 exposures. Then it came to the moment of truth: Push the button (Frank) and the film whizzed back into the canister. When I opened the back all was as it should be as seen at left. So…
I decided to take the film to Mike’s Camera to see how they handled black and white film; previously the only black and white film they processed for me was Ilford XP2 Super, a C-41 monochrome film emulsion. All their C-41 color processing for me has been exemplary but then they dropped the hammer, saying it would take two weeks. They said that black and white film is processed in their Boulder location, which is 47 miles away. Previously, I sent black and white film to The Darkroom in California which was 1,058 miles away and they turned it around in about a week from from I dropped the film off at the Parker post office.
Then I decided to make some lemonade after all of the less than exciting aspects of the day’s activity. The Darkroom had processed and scanned my previous roll of Fuji Neopan 400 Professional, so plans are afoot to make a video for my YouTube Channel comparing the results of how the same film was processed and scanned at two different labs. Since it takes Mike’s two weeks to process and one week has already passed, look for a video in a week or ten days…
PS: Just a reminder: My video Why Film, Why Now is live now on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at a my reasons and philosophy about why I’m a film photographer.
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