I thought I’d give the Kowa 40mm f4 lens a go, that I got in that dodgy job lot last year. It was the main reason I purchased another Kowa kit as this lens was bundled with it plus it was cheap.
It’d a bit clunky so I thought I best put a roll of Ilford HP5 through it to see how the leaf shutter is performing.
Loaded up and as I closed the door lock it snapped off in my hand. At first I thought the pins a had just come out, but on closer inspection they had definitely snapped.
Luckily I can just about grip the lock with my fingers to open and close it, so not a huge deal, just annoying.
A quick roll of HP5 at different shutter speeds, it’s a bit of a miserable day so I left it wide open to see how bad it could truly be.
Dilemma number two for the day. This must have been the curliest roll of HP5 I’ve ever had. It took me a good twenty minutes to get it on the processor spool.
The shutter seems to be working ok at all speeds apart from T where it just locks up.
On inspection there also seems tobe something weird going on inside the camera. There are vertical copies of the subject between frames, almost like bleed, it’s very faint and not noticeable on the final print, but very annoying as I’m not sure how it’s there or if it will be a problem in the future if I decide to keep the 40mm lens. It’s not there with the 80mm lens.
The 40mm is ridiculously wide, this studio shot is about 2m from the chair. It’s also pretty soft at f4 as expected.
Mobile phone wide angle version…
Since there were chems in the dishes I used the last of a folder of Ilford Semi Matt FB 12×16 inch ready for Bromoil at a later date.
Here’s one of Blyth, maybe 30 years ago when I was first getting into photography.
And one of a little hidden away space at work, the John Rylands Library in Manchester. If it Bromoils well I’ll reprint it and correct that vertical.
I do like this Ilford Semi Matt Warmtone FB paper, you can’t see it in these digi pics but there is a subtle warmth to the images compared to the studio print on standard Ilford RC satin.
