Film Fun Folio #25: Seagull 4A103 and Expired Agfa Ultra 50

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 #25:

Camera: ca. 1992 Seagull 4A-103 TLR Camera.

Film: Agfa Ultra 50 (expired 2002)

Locale: Central Maryland and Washington DC.

Color negative films really are not my thing.  Compared to color transparencies, I find their rendition to generally be quite anemic, their white balance often looking a touch sickly, and their contrast level just unrealistic compared to the dynamic world at large.

Getting back into film, I had read people posting comments online referring to Kodak Ektar 100 as "the Fuji Velvia of Color Negative Films." Well, my friends, I have tried many rolls of Ektar and while it is certainly nicer than the Kodak Gold of olden days, it certainly seems a far cry from Velvia.  

But there WAS a print film worthy of that splashy moniker, and it was not made by Kodak, nor was it even made by Fuji.  This film was a product of none other than Agfa, named "Ultra 50" and it was an incredible product.  It, along with its less saturated sibling "Portrait 160," constituted the only color negative films that I ever loved.

Sadly, Ultra 50 is no longer made, but its dwindling expired stocks can still be acquired at a rather sizable premium.  I recently elected to snag a roll of 120 stock that had expired in 2002, and elected to see if it was still any good.  I loaded it into my long-owned Seagull (which almost certainly saw a roll or two of this film decades ago) and rated most of the shots at about ISO 25 to account for expected loss in sensitivity.  Still I worried about how the color in this vivid film might portray after all this time.

Well, let's just say the old film still has that special something.  See for yourself!

1 - Washington, DC - f/4 - 1/300 - I elected to do a little bit of deliberately shallow depth of field on some of the shots since I had a TLR to assist in focusing, and the results were generally pleasing.  What is really pleasing is the color rendition on the Ultra 50! 

Film Fun Folio #12: Seagull 4A-103 and Fomapan 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 #12:

Camera: ca. 1993 Seagull 4A-103 TLR Camera

Film: Fomapan 200

Locale: Central Maryland

The gum had hardly set on the roll of Rollei Retro 80S that I had finished in the Seagull for the Film Fun Folio #10 feature, when I elected I wanted to feed the Seagull another roll of black and white.  Impressed with some of the dramatic skies I had gotten from Fomapan 200, I wanted to try to put this film to use once again to try to maximize this tendency, and here are the results.

1 - Ellicott City, MD - f/3.5 1/300 - I started the winding process too soon in the Seagull, so the first exposure was not aligned with film, losing this one in the process. 

2 - Ellicott City, MD - f/4 1/125 - Finally a result.  Good tonality, and nice grain to start the roll off.

Film Fun Folio #10: Seagull 4A-103 and Rollei Retro 80S

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 #10:

Camera: ca. 1993 Seagull 4A-103 6x6 120 twin lens reflex camera

Film: Rollei Retro 80S

Locale: Central Maryland

You never know where you might get a tip about photography.  It can come in the most unexpected of places.  Somewhere above the badlands of South Dakota, a lady sitting next to me on a Portland bound Alaska Airlines flight took notice as I began to fill out the header information on the "Exposure Note Sheets" attached to some of my folding cameras, and began to tell me of an analog photography store in the far northeastern section of Portland called "Blue Moon Camera and Machine."  Intrigued, I checked out their website and found that they actually had a film in stock that I'd been curious to try, but had always seen as being out of stock at online outlets, or only available in a 5-pack: Rollei Retro 80S.  The film is a bit of a pricey one compared to other B/W film stocks, including even Rollei RPX25, but the curiosity to have a chance to try this film won out, and I made my way past this fascinating store during my stay in the Portland area to pick up a roll.  It was not until I got back east that I actually elected to use this film, opting to try it on the very camera that got me hooked back into film photography, the Seagull 4A-103. Not only did I think that the film would work well with the Seagull's tendency for softness at the frame edges, but I was admittedly missing the TLR shooting experience.

1 - f/5.6 1/300 - Okay, I now know not to trust the Seagull with the position of the START band on this type of film, as this exposure didn't even make it onto the film itself, but the backing paper in advance of the film. I don't even recall of what I took a photo. 

2 - Washington, DC - f/5.6 1/300 - When I saw even just the negative for this first shot, I was amazed at the lack of grain and sharpness.  I'm just as impressed after scanning.  This Rollei film is off to a great start! 

Film Rewind - A second take on some Film Cameras

If a look through the chronology of my posts is to be believed, I'm a "camera whore."  I get a camera, shoot a roll or two through it, and then stow it away as my fascination turns to the next novel project or acquisition in my repertoire.  

I am very proud to say that is not the case.

The story and interest in the machines does not end with the publishing of the article.  In fact, the article often sets about to be the springboard for even more new and novel fun with the camera once I have gotten a taste of its strengths and limitations.  As such, I thought it would be a nice idea to publish this follow up as a sort of "where are they now" feature. Enjoy! 

Seagull 4A-103

It's the very camera that got me interested in film photography once again, and after a little bit of trial and error, I got it working once again.  Since discovering the portability and fun of the folding cameras, I've used the Seagull less, but it is still a wonderful camera to use, though often maligned by "serious" photographers. Ironically, it is the medium format camera I've had the longest, and yet it is the newest in my collection, as every other 120 camera I own was somewhere in the world on the day I was born.  Below is a Provia 100F image taken with the Seagull.  I had to secure the camera on the rear of my car, causing the light bleed in the lower corner. 

The Return to Film: The Seagull 4A-103 (Part 2)

And it worked!   May as well cut to the chase!

You may recall in my initial "Return to Film" write up (or you may not), I was daunted by a focus calibration issue that was plaguing my hopefully triumphant return to film. Fortunately, I caught this when I was only partially through the next roll of film, so I could see a true before and after effect from the shots after I repositioned the lens in its socket and did some rough testing to compare the appearance of focus between the viewing lens and the focusing wheel's guide.

Here are a pair of photos taken before the focus recalibration...

The Return to Film: The Seagull 4A-103 (Part 1)

It seemed the basis for the PERFECT article, if only... 

Time has a way of getting away from a person, only to make it's duration known at a later date, when a specific thought comes to mind.  For me, it was seeing some photos that made me realize that I had shot just 3 rolls of photographic film in the past 12 years!

It is pretty unnerving to look back at how quickly the world of photography changed.  In 1998, I was shooting entirely on film stock, mostly slides.  By 2002, my Casio QV-3000 3MP Digital and I were inseparable.  The ease of use, instant previews, and instant results were definitely something lacking in the world of film.  I can recall day trips in the 1990's where it was commonplace for me to shoot three rolls of film in a single day.  And then upon finding my groove in the digital revolution, an entire decade had elapsed, and there was a realization that I'd shot as much film as I'd have occasionally shot in a single day.