Film Fun Folio #9: Kodak Autographic 3A and Provia 400X

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #9:
Camera: ca. 1928 Kodak Autographic 3A 122 format folding camera
Film: Fuji Provia 400X - expired December 2014
Locale: Central Maryland
June of 2015

I had certainly enjoyed the experiences of creating images of a more panoramic nature by adapting 12o film to cameras using obsolete film formats.  I dove into this realm by first using 120 film in a 116 format camera, and later followed it up by shooting a few rolls through an ancient 122 format camera.  The results from the latter, while encouraging, also gave me some room for improvement.  If I was really going to get some favorable results from this camera, it seemed imperative that I shoot at f/16 or greater.  Since shooting stopped down so far in all lighting situations would be tough using slower films such as Velvia 50, it seemed only practical to use a faster speed film.  However, I'd been underwhelmed at the color rendition of this camera on negative film, and wanted to use slide film to test this theory.  This resulted in me having to use one of just two rolls I had left of a renowned but discontinued film: Fuji's Provia 400X.

1 - Sykesville, MD - f/16 1/100 - So, with only 5 shots to use, I select a sprawling farm as my first shot. Only thing is, I just can't seem to get the horizon to line up the way that I want it.

2 - Cooksville, MD - f/16 1/100 - Finally, I get the horizon right, but the vast humidity of the morning clouds the lens with moisture, resulting in a barely visible scene.

3 - Cooksville, MD - f/16 1/100 - Okay, now I'm making a little bit of progress.  A light leak spoils some of the frame but overall, this is beginning to embody what I had hoped to accomplish with this old camera.

4 - Laurel, MD - f/20 1/100 - I expected this exposure to brim with color since it was so fully lit, but instead the color rendition falls a bit flat.  That said, at least it manages to avoid the problems in each of the first three shots. 

5 - Frederick, MD - f/16 1/100 - This scene rendered a good bit less spectacular than I remember it being.  Photoshop managed to bring the results to something within reason, but it could only do so much.  

Thoughts: I expected a lot more from this roll than I got.  Using my lessons learned from my previous trials with this camera, I thought I was making the right adjustments, and felt confident in using one of my two rolls of Provia 400X.  In the end, I think most of the tepid results stem from the "100" shutter speed of the Autographic being closer to 1/50, resulting in overexposure that I could only adapt to a limited degree in post-processing.  Perhaps, I'll make some further adjustments with this in mind on a future roll.