Peter

Carbon monoxide is a most convincing culprit indeed, my dear Holmes.

A little late but still: happy 2026! Cheers to another year of #filmphotography magic.

For me, a whole new chapter begins as I retired from work on 31 December.

I wish everyone good health, happiness and hopefully positive interactions here on BlueSky.

Sounds almost like a scene from Sherlock Holmes 😊

Congratulations! Looks nice and warm.

In transit Brussels-London with the Eurostar this morning. Security staff at Brussels South Station (Gare du Midi) told me that their scanners are film safe but still hand inspected my rolls of Fujicolor 200&400. A good start to the journey 😊
#filmphotography #believeinfilm

The Minolta α-Sweet II (a.k.a. Maxxum 5) is a surprisingly good, lightweight camera, about as compact as an SLR gets. During my summer holiday this year, I brought it everywhere, with a 3-lens setup: Minolta AF 28 f/2, 50 f/1.4 and 100 f/2. Great little kit. Mine has only slight yellowing of the VF.

Ah, OK - then it is because of my lack of understanding of the Contax G system. There are pretty big differences in the user experience between the G1 and the G2, then?

In almost all the mounts I own, I end up carrying 3 primes: 20-24mm, 40-50mm and 85-135mm, but the challenge is indeed to find such a kit in a system that’s both lightweight, compact and fairly fast to use.

What if you had, say a wide, a normal and a telephoto lens? Would that make the G1 / G2 better suited as an allround, "only" camera?

YouTube video by Alex Luyckx Ranked Results III | B&W Film Developers

Another Tier List? Sure! In this video, I rank all the developers I've reviewed—every, single, one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H63x...

#tierlist #filmphotography #photography #believeinfilm #shootfilmbenice #youtube

Also, I suppose that houses in HK are not super-well insulated?

Compositionally, those birds sitting on branches are just gorgeous, and I am also completely in love with that close-up shot of a bird with the distinctive white circle around the pupil.
Congratulations with this series!

I was quite happy with the results I got from a roll of Fujicolor 200 just a few days ago, so I went ahead and ordered a 10-pack at EUR 99 from retrocamera.be
Maybe not the cheapest but still at the lower end.

Yes, and there aren't many affordable choices faster than 400. I have shot a dozen or so rolls of "Paul&Reinhold" from Rollei (nominally ISO 640), mostly at 320 with very poor results. My latest roll, shot at 640 but with great attention to exposing shadows sufficiently, came out much, much better.

Indeed, the affordable options probably won't come back, and it's inevitable that people will compare the cost of film to a medium that has no direct day-to-day operational cost.

The mirror slap in an SLR also influences motion blur but I have never made a comparison with a rangefinder.

Exactly. I also try to stick to that rule as much as possible. I can totally see how fast street scenes can become a challenge, especially now that daylight in the northern hemisphere is becoming scarce.

Do you literally mean a full second of exposure time, handheld? Is that even possible? I think my best result with a non-stabilised 35mm SLR and a 50mm lens, where I could see no motion blur in a 13x18cm print, was 1/15s - and I was about 30 years younger than I am today!

I don't know if it is possible to completely replicate the film look and feel with a digital camera. I sure can't but that doesn't mean I never shoot digital. I feel privileged that I can choose the technology that suits my projects best. I can't see myself giving up on film anytime soon!

A close-up colour shot of a Renault Formula 1 race car displayed indoors in a museum. The car features a bright yellow, white, and orange livery with prominent sponsor logos, including ING, Total, Pepe Jeans, and Bridgestone Potenza on the tires. The front wing is wide and angular, with red endplates and aerodynamic elements. Behind the car, other vintage and modern racing cars are visible out of focus, including blue and yellow vehicles. The environment has soft lighting, polished floors, and automotive posters on the walls.

Camera: Minolta α-9 (a.k.a. Maxxum / Dynax 9)
Lens: Minolta AF 28mm F2 RS
Film: Fujifilm Color 400

#believeinfilm #filmphotography #minolta #35mmfilm

I think the grip contacts are linked to "Eye-Start" so both are either on or off but, e.g.
@alexluyckxphoto.bsky.social
is a great connoisseur of this camera; maybe he can tell.
I switched it off in the beginning but now I am completely used to it and actually find that it speeds up my shooting.

Ah, yes, the contact strips. Do they still work, then?

Nice! To me, it feels like receiving a postcard from the city where I was born 🙂
Oh, and the 400H is just such a gorgeous emulsion.

I can imagine. Nothing you can do about that material disintegrating, is there? I mean, I haven't seen any skins for sale or anything like that.

A4: Very late, sorry, but here goes:
I typically share very little of my work online, though I do post a few #filmphotography pictures here on bsky. For the last 3 years, I have been part of a workshop where we organise an exhibition in June each year, so that's where I share my work.
#photochat

Yep, it's heavy but fantastic to handle. Ergonomically possibly the best camera I've owned. For hiking and travel, I have the 7, which is also very nice.
As someone who's been used to manual focus most of my life, autofocus is a boon for my ageing eyes.

I do also use LR as a catalog for film scans, btw

A3: For digital, mostly Lightroom Classic and a bit of Hasselblad Focus.
For film, I avoid editing and post-processing as much as possible. I get low-res jpgs back from my lab that I can’t do much with, anyway, and I find that rather liberating.
#photochat

Will do, thanks!

Cool! So, fully deployed, it becomes a four step ladder? Is it plastic? How much does it weigh, approximately?