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separate film M for both color and b&w?


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By last count, I have two original Leicaflex, three SLs, three M5s, a few FTbs and a Nikon rangefinder, but I rarely carry more then one camera and lens at a time. (What can I say; I get bored easy) I always have one loaded with color, and typically two with different speeds of B&W, and often I let the timing of the day determine what I take. If it's those magic hours in the early morning or late afternoon, I'll take color; otherwise it's B&W. Mood and variety too play a role.

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  • 5 weeks later...

My Lomo is broken at the moment, but when it isn't broken, I have it on me for colour film. My rangefinder usually had black and white, but lately (due to broke lomo) I have been using it with colour.

 

But since using my rangefinder for colour I have found the photos to be very different. I know that's obvious, but shooting in colour with an M and shooting in colour with a Lomo give two very different results. Not sure what ill do when my Lomo is fixed...

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  • 4 weeks later...

I use separate III/IIIf for 50mm and 35mm or 90mm to avoid lense change, both with color negative, while travelling I take an additional IIIf with me for bw. Very rare I also take my M6 with me, mainly because my wife doesn't like to take picutes with the III :)

 

Stefan

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When I'm on travel, I carry most of the times, more than one body. However, I shoot color with the M9 and use different speed of B/W films in the film M's.

M3 brothers by Istvan Penzes, on Flickr

 

My methodology too. M9 for colour, MP for Acros100 and M7 for Tri-X. Before venturing forth on any particular day, I'll make a choice between Acros100 and Tri-X, depending on the likely subject matter and conditions. Two bodies OK, three is pushing it - except when the urge to take my Rolleicord Vb as well becomes too strong!

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My methodology too. M9 for colour, MP for Acros100 and M7 for Tri-X.

 

In truth I'm not entirely comfortable using a mixture of both film and digital but I feel I'm heading towards going with neg film for colour and digital for B&W (though not on the same occasion).

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Ian -- interesting you should write that. i am using an M4 and M9 with the original intent of using the M4 for b&w. as time has gone by, however, i find myself enjoying the color negatives (mostly portra 160 shot at 100) more than the b&w. which has me thinking of swapping the m9 plus some cash for the mm. haven't done it yet, just mulling over the possibilities. over, for that matter swapping for m9 for an x2 and another film body. in the end, nice to have choices. one reason behind thinking digital for bw, especially the mm, is that most of the time i prefer b&w is in low light situations anyway.

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In truth I'm not entirely comfortable using a mixture of both film and digital but I feel I'm heading towards going with neg film for colour and digital for B&W (though not on the same occasion).

 

Interesting.

 

I would have thought film for B&W and digital for color.

 

Will you elaborate a bit on why you would choose the approach that you have chosen? :confused:

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Interesting.

 

I would have thought film for B&W and digital for color.

 

Will you elaborate a bit on why you would choose the approach that you have chosen? :confused:

 

I can't answer for him, but my feelings are similar. Digital can often produce wonky colors and you have to contend with fixing certain outside of gamut colors (especially bright reds), color aberrations, fringing, and color artifacts, etc.. Personally I feel film has the best potential to deal with color more realistically than digital, and it just looks better to me. Overall I find it easier to work with film color than with digital color.

 

Converting RGB digital to grayscale images you eliminate those issues. To me, B+W with digital looks okay (you can add noise for grain, etc..)

 

(btw, Photoshop CS5 has that Greg Gorman B+W conversion hidden away in the actions palette which works well as a staging point for B+W conversions. I'm not sure if CS6 still has it. imho, there's no real need for expensive plug-ins like NIK software since PS can do everything already although with a little bit more work to set up your own custom actions.)

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i started out with the bw for film, etc and really evolved in the other direction. i find that the grayscale bw conversion in digital gives me a wider gamut of gray than does film -- and i can go from there. the mm is even better than that from what i can tell, especially in low light situations. the color from digital is okay enough, but when i got back from a vacation in spain looking at my portra 160 and my m9 color, i kept going back to the film shots. perhaps there is some deep nostalgic thing going on, who knows, and i am going to try to get into a technical discussion because its besides the point. the point is what you like and what conveys the image you want to portray want portray. i am not shooting pictures as a profession (weddings, journalism, adverts, corporate portraits, and the like) -- if i were, the line of reasoning would be very different

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but when i got back from a vacation in spain looking at my portra 160 and my m9 color, i kept going back to the film shots.

 

This is my feeling. I look at the rich colours and microcontrast of my holiday film shots that were processed and scanned by a lab, and I know I couldn't achieve the same look with digital with my inadequate PP skills. I certainly wouldn't want to sit down and process over 100 shots like I used to.

I've been very impressed by many of the digital B+W landscapes I've seen on the net, particularly M8 and M9 conversions.

Pete

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