One of the first real trips I did on film was with a newly acquired pro-level Nikon F100 and some rolls of Kodak ColorPlus. My Nikomat FT2 metering was proving to be unrealiable, and as I was using my Nikon D750 digital camera, I had a perfect situation of being able to get the best of both worlds …
This was a blessing in disguise, as it wasn’t until after the trip that I realised that Kodak ColorPlus is NOT the film to be using if you want half-decent, serious, photo images. Thumbs down for being naive on my part, thinking all film was the same 🤪
It’s worth noting that the location of the most iconic photograph of Cobh – St. Colman’s Cathedral and the row of brightly coloured houses, is not entirely obvious. I was noticing tourists walking around with their cameras looking very confused (and dissapointed) … This is because the photo requires some climbing of a high street wall on Spy Hill Road, scrambling along it, and grabbing your shot of houses on Lower Middleton Street, with the Cathedral behind them, while hoping you don’t fall ! 😉
I have to give credit to the matrix metering of the Nikon F100, as it was a tricky image and it handled it with ease 🙂 Lower Middleton Street itself is beautiful, and I enjoyed using my 80-200mm f4 lens to grab a close-up image.
That said, for all the bluster about the infallibility of matrix/evaluative metering over center-weighted metering, I did notice that exposure of bright sea-front images and dark shadow side-streets, were not 100% on-point … lesson learnt for later photo outings, continue to use exposure compensation.
As I say, while my lens were sharp (50mm f1.4, 80-200mm f4, and 18-35mm f4.5) the Kodak ColorPlus film left something to be desired … the images were softer than I expected and over-saturated.
To be fair, I chose ColorPlus because I was still finding my way with colour film, didn’t want to waste money on more expensive film if I didn’t really have enough experience under the belt. However, this was the last time I ever used ColorPlus, as not all film is created equal ⚖
Retro cameras don’t have to equate to vintage photos …
Aside from the learnings gained about film choice and metering, another big chunk of experience gained was that of camera choice : hauling around a Nikon F100 laden with 4 x AA batteries and heavy 70’s / 80’s lenses is not very practical after 2-3 hours of sightseeing … this was also the last time I would be using the F100 😮🪝
Hard to believe one road-trip to Co. Cork would offer so many lessons, it was excellent, and put me in good stead for the months of film rolls to come 👍
Until my next blog post, keep snapping 📷 Paul
Irish Analog Adventures 