Same Scene - Four Cameras, Four Films

On my (now not too) recent trip westward to Oregon, I made it a point that I would ensure that I would aim to have one scene that I would shoot with every color film camera at my disposal at the time.  As it was, I wound up holding off using my last shot on two of these cameras to ensure that I could perform such an experiment.

Finally, on the afternoon of June 20, at a stop called Corbett's View, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, I took the opportunity to snap away to get results that I could compare.  The samples, already featured in several of the Film Folio features, are shown below

Zeiss Ikonta A 521, Agfa Rollei Crossbird 200 Film

Agfa Billy Record I, Expired Kodak Ektachrome 200 scanned with Color Restoration. 

Welta/Rodenstock Citonette, Provia 100F.

Balda Lisette, Velvia 50.

Overall, light leaks aside, there is a lot of differences in how this same scene was rendered on four different cameras and films.  I thought I'd have a clear "winner" in the batch, but I can't say that I do.  Nor can I say that one of these completely fails in its rendering.  It is a very interesting example of how the same scene can be given a remarkably differing appearance based largely on the film.  

And as we head into colder weather, I'm certainly glad to have these vestiges of a trip west in warmer temperatures! 

Film Fun Folio #5: Agfa Billy Record and Expired Ektachrome 200

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 #5:
Camera: ca. 1951 AGFA Billy Record 120 folding camera
Film: Kodak Ektachrome 200 (expired in 2006)
Locale: Oregon
June of 2015

Even a momentary fit of boredom can be both a good and a bad thing. While perusing that all too well known auction site that has certainly captured the time and money of more than a few of us hobbyists, I elected to see if I could find any 120 Kodak Ektachrome that had only expired in the past year or so.  The good news was that I did indeed find an unused roll of Ektachrome.  The bad news was that it had expired in 2006.  This seemed to be a good choice on which to do a follow up roll of film using cross-processing, since faithful color rendition would not an expected outcome anyway.  I loaded it into the same Agfa camera on which I shot the first cross processed roll, but only a few exposures into the roll, I changed my mind about developing in C-41.  After all, I had never really shot a roll of badly expired film in recent memory, and I was curious what the results might be if I just developed the results in E-6.  Even if there was a fog or cast, I was curious if the images might be salvageable with a little help from Photoshop.  It seemed like a novel experiment for me.

The result is that you will see two images for each exposure below.  The first is one that generally replicates how the actual transparency looks to the eye, while the second uses the "Restore Fading" option in the scanner to try to correct the color shift.  This will definitely be a new way of presenting shots which I myself have taken. 

1 - Portland, OR - f/11 1/200 - Given the very nostalgic subject matter, I'm actually partial to the original image above over the restored image below, though the scanner software did do a very commendable job of restoring color to a scene awash in magenta, while keeping a somewhat muted pastel palette.