Shooting an Expired Roll of Fuji Sensia 400
My friend Takuma inspects the reeds at a local pond. Half the roll was shot when he came to visit from London. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Rummaging around at my local market I sometimes come across interesting, expired rolls from yesteryear which make for fun experiments. Slide film is what I look out for in particular as there are so few options left, and what is left is now very expensive. Expired negative film tends to be more predictable, simply give it more exposure and you will normally end up with a decent image, even if the colours are a bit shifted. Slide film on the other hand is much more unpredictable. Due to its nature as a reversal film, you can’t blast it with more light, yet its age can give you images that are faded with little contrast.
The British Schools Museum is a remarkable lone survivor from an era before state education. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
The inside is laid out much as it would have been in the Victorian era. 1/125s 50mm F5.6 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Shame was a tactic used to discipline naughty children who were made to where signs to broadcast their mistakes. 1/60s 50mm F2.8 Kodak Retina iiiS.
But ultimately when I’m picking up these rolls for so cheap, there really is nothing to lose by just having a go. High ISO slide films are now non-existent so I’m even more keen to pick up those and I just so happened to come across a roll of Fuji Sensia 400, which I thought would be the perfect way to shoot my first roll of slide film with my grandad’s Kodak Retina iiiS. The higher ISO giving me more leeway to use smaller apertures that suit these older rangefinders.
No trip to Hitchin could be complete without visiting St Mary’s Church. 1/250s 50mm F11 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Photographing the inside was a struggle handheld. 1/60s 50mm F5.6 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Coming back on a different day with a tripod meant I could use longer exposures, smaller apertures and get cleaner images inside the church. 1s 50mm F11 Kodak Retina iiiS.
I was impressed by the dynamic range in this image, there’s still a good amount of shadow detail but the highlights aren’t too blown out either. 1/4s 50mm F11 Kodak Retina iiiS.
A close up of a patterned cloth to give a better ideal of how much detail this film and camera combination could resolve. 1s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
As I had no idea what results I would get I decided to just photograph fun things with it, rather than anything serious. About half the roll I shot when a friend came to visit me from London and the second half was a few odds and ends, mostly local, but I also decided to push the boat out a bit and shoot a three-photo panoramic of the view from the top of hill at Greenwich Park. I shot the roll at ISO 320 to give a little bit more exposure to compensate for it being expired, but not too much that I would start to overexpose the roll. A few images came out a bit underexposed but otherwise I think I got it about right.
A couple of musicians jamming away in the town square. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Takuma looks out across a panoramic view. 1/125s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
Every year I photograph these Virginia Creepers and they never disappoint. 1/60s 50mm F4.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
As this roll of film is ISO 400, expired (the date is unknown, but I suspect it was about twenty years expired) and being shot through an old camera and lens that doesn’t stand up to later SLRs like my Nikon F100, the levels of detail are not brilliant, and the colours are certainly washed out and purply. But who cares? I’m just thrilled I got useable images out of it, especially as some of the memories captured are really fun ones. And that for me is what film photography is all about, enjoyment and capturing memories in a physical and tangible way. I guess I’ll have to do a bit more rummaging.
The mighty and gnarled Bunyan Oak. 1/250s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS.
The berries from the Rowan tree growing out of it. 1/125s 50mm F5.6 Kodak Retina iiiS.
My three photo panoramic taking atop the hill at Greenwich Park. This was taken handheld and I’m pleased I managed to hold it straight enough to get this final image. 1/125s 50mm F8.0 Kodak Retina iiiS Three photo panoramic.
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