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sa1739

Cinestill 800 & Contax 139

In a desperate bid to be down with the dudes I invested in a roll of Cinestill 800 . It's hard to take an interest in film photography and not find yourself lusting at some of the cool images taken with this film . Its famous for its cinematic effect and pleasing reaction to artificial lights . Its also pretty expensive so I did feel this was a slight indulgence . My Contax 139 had been showing subtle signs of a light leak so I figured a few daytime shots on this stuff should show them up. The repair seems to have worked and I'm glad to say the light leak has gone .


I don't have a light meter . I just used a free AP on my i phone for exposure settings , the light meter on the camera appears to be very trustworthy and in most situations its seems to be spot on.


So a week ago I headed down to Penzance with the camera and a tripod , it was quite strange to be out at night having been locked indoors every evening during lockdown . It was a mild breathless night with clear skies , perfect. I had no plan . I literally drove around following the glow of artificial lights , pulling over and then taking shots . I felt I looked like some dodgy night stalker !


I had a horrible feeling most of the images would be useless , whatever the situation the light meter AP was showing F11 @ 1 second which made me suspicious . I expected black under exposed images , actually they were all slightly over exposed , thats obviously preferable . Most images below have had the exposure reduced , the highlights lifted and a little bit of sharpening up in lightroom. I can't get the cable shutter release working with this camera so all the shots were fired on the self timer . I got very lucky with one of them as train came across the level crossing as the shutter fired , BINGO!


Oliver doing what he does best


It is what it is

Daytime light leak test on a dog walk around penrose

Praa sands

Ive never spotted this building before , opposite the Godolphin arms at marazion

Penzance train station , I will return to this venue and do it properly in the dark rather than at dusk

Newlyn Fish market

Newlyn Harbour , waiting for it too get dark

Mackerel boat making a landing

Bingo !

Sainsburys Long Rock

It is what it is

The obligatory Gas station Cenestill photo

As above

Shot one

Shot 2 THE WINNER !!! Total fluke . A train came across the crossing as the timer hit 10 seconds !

By now I could not see a thing in the view finder I had no idea if it was in focus or what I was likely to end up with . Ill take that as a lucky goal


Conclusion


Yea its great . I will use it again with the confidence to take my time rather than blast my way through a film in one day . I will be more patient next time

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