Kodak TMax 100 Portraits (Nikon F4)(Ukraine Girls)

 

Ukraine

Here are some of the film photography scans I took on my last trip to Ukraine last summer. I cancelled my return trip to Ukraine in July 2017 as wanted to concentrate on my Ironman triathlon training but managed to fit in another trip before the end of 2017 to catch up with my model friends. It feels like ages since I was last there!

Camera Gear

When packing for Ukraine last time I planned to do strobist work so decided to take my Nikon F4 SLR instead of my usual Leica film cameras. The Nikon F4 has a flash sync speed of 1/125 instead of 1/50 so it is easier to balance ambient light and strobes. For the Nikon F4 I took the Voigtlander Ultron 40mm f2 pancake lens as it is small and sharp and the Nikkor 60mm f2.8 Micro. All the film scans seem to be shot on black and white Kodak T-Max 100 so it looks like I was keeping it simple!  All photos were home developed using Kodak Xtol and scanned with a flatbed Epson v800 scanner.

Kodak TMax 100 Portraits (with Nikon F4)

Nikon F4 vs Leica Rangefinder – Any difference?

As I normally use Leica film cameras such as the Leica M3, M2, M4-P, M6, that are all rangefinder style film cameras I thought I would summarise how I find shooting with the more modern Nikon SLR that accepts auto-focus lenses.

I am short sighted and don’t wear glasses for photography so an SLR style camera is OK for me to use accurately if I use up close to a model (perhaps at =<1m distance) with a manual forcus lens such as the Voigtlander Ultron 40m f2.  For longer distances I have to rely on auto-focus lenses to capture a subject in focus.

The Nikon F4 is quite chunky and heavy with the 4x AA batteries in the battery grip vs. a solid yet more compact Leica film camera.  When I am packing small I would always pack a Leica as both the cameras and lenses are smaller.

Leica cameras such as my 1950s design Leica M3 are built to last and just keep going.  That said they do need recalibrating now and again to be able to capture accurately focused images using fast lenses with a shallow depth of field.  The Nikon F4 too is built like a tank.  I dropped my F4 down a flight of concrete stairs on a workshop in Zurich and to my amazement both the camera and Nikkor 60mm Micro lens continued to work when I caught up with it!  You couldn’t do that with a modern camera (I think!).

For image quality with film cameras it is down to the lens and choice of film probably more than the camera body itself.  If you select a good lens for the Nikon F4 I would say I probably could not tell the difference vs. a photo taken with a Leica film camera.  I think I compose better with a rangefinder camera like a Leica and probably work faster with it but in terms of sharpness I think generally speaking the images would be quite similar in most cases with both cameras.

Lastly if I could pick only one film camera I would chose a Leica M3 as I prefer cameras that don’t rely on batteries, that are as small as possible, it’s simplicity and the magnified viewfinder for accurate focusing.

Full details of the trip

For full details of this trip to Ukraine please see my Ukraine Models (#2) linked below.

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