Film Photography Photowalk Plymouth

A film photography photo-walk organized by Soper Photographic in Plymouth and sponsored by Candido and Snap Photo Services.

I've abandoned my dry sarcasm for this blog - it really is just a factual 'report' of an event. A good event, mind, and may there be many more of this ilk.

So... a goodly crowd of avid film photographers turned up that Saturday morning at Soper Photographic in Plymouth to try out various Candido films - re-spooled Kodak Vision 3 movie film.

Candido Films

Candido films are re-spooled and repackaged movie films from Kodak - specifically Vision 3. These films have a 'remjet' layer that reduces friction and static electricity when it's speeding through a film gate on a movie camera. This means that they can't be processed using normal colour C41 chemistry. So Candido remove this black layer and place in their own 35mm spools. Apparently removing the layer changes the speed of the film - so Candido 400 is originally 250 ISO. Other changes are allegedly a halation effect around highlights. In this way Candido film is similar (or even the same) as Cinestill - but considerably cheaper! Which is all to the better... of course there are retailers who sell Vision 3 with the remjet layer - it's cheaper still yet the processing will cost you more.

There are various Candido films - ranging from 50 ISO to 800 - some are daylight balanced, others intended for tungsten lighting. The odd brave soul tried the 50 ISO - I chose the 400 daylight balanced film.

Camera

All shots were taken on an Olympus OM4 with the 1970s Tamron 35-80mm f/2.8-3.8 01A - one of the first zoom lenses ever made. It's got some barrel distortion yet sharpness and resolution is way ahead of other zoom lenses for the time. In case you're wondering what the odd attachment is on the viewfinder it's an Olympus Varimagni Finder - its got dioptre adjustment, magnification and can be turned to any angle. It was intended for macro and scientific applications. Totally useless for street photography but great for slowing you down when shooting landscapes with a tripod. The lens hood is an attachment for the long-dead Hoyarex square filter system - and a skylight filter (remember them?) was in the holder.

Plymouth & the Royal William Yard

The walk went from Sopers shop to the Royal William Yard - a former Royal Navy victualing yard built in the early 19th Century. The Navy relinquished it around 20 odd years ago and it's now been converted into residences, shops, workshops, cafes and so on. It's considered to be one of the most important groups of historic military buildings in Britain, it is also the largest collection of Grade 1 listed military buildings in Europe covering some 16 acres. Accessible by land and sea, the Yard has its own harbour with mooring facilities and Royal William Yard’s own ferry service, which makes regular daily trips from the Yard to the Barbican Landing Stage and back. The architecture is stunning - well worth a visit - and there are some decent cafes to be found there.

Needless to say by the time we reached the yard some folk had exhausted their 36 frames. Most had only a few left - including myself - so I resorted to my EDC for the last 30 minutes or so - a Nikon Coolpix P7100. The shots below, however, are all taken on film using the OM4. I have to say I rather like the vibe of Candido 400. Maybe some time I might inflict readers with the digital shots of the yard.

Thanks to Sopers for organising this great walk - and the supplied bottles of water! Thanks also to Candido for supplying the film and Snaps Photo Services who did a sterling job of developing and scanning the film.

Photographs here can be enlarged by clicking on one.