Tuesday 25 February 2014

Coming soon....Ektar 100 colour negs

That's my first roll of Pan F Plus in about 10 years off to Ilford for processing.  Freshly loaded in the Nettar is a roll of Ektar 100 colour negative film from Kodak.  Looking forward to seeing what I can achieve with "the world's finest grain color negative film".


Friday 21 February 2014

Zeiss Ikon 'Ikophot' light meter


Back in the days before convenient in-camera lightmeters became the norm, photographers could do one of two things to help themselves chose a suitable exposure for their photographs.  They could take their best guess, often judged from rough guidelines in their camera manual, or they could use a handheld lightmeter.  These often used a selenium cell which produced a voltage proportional to light exposure.  In a meter such as the Ikophot this exposure was represented by a needle jumping along a scale which could be read off against the previously assigned value for film speed, giving the user corresponding aperture and shutter speed values.  These were then set on the camera and voila! Perfect exposures every time...


The Ikophot sits in an attractive brown leather case with a short brass chain which allows the photographer to secure the lightmeter to the wrist.  The case flips open and folds back giving a bulk which makes the meter feel secure in the hand.  There's a little push-on hood secured to the case which can be slipped out and attached to the meter for taking incident meter readings.


One of the good things about selenium light meters is that the cell generates enough power to work alone without the need for additional batteries.  When I first got it, I wondered how accurate my Ikophot would be after all these years.  But with no battery to drain, I've tested it alongside the meter on my Canon 600D and got identical results.  Now we have to wait and see how the first roll of film shot with this little vintage meter turns out.  Watch this space.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Follow Backwards To The Modern World on Bloglovin

Yep that's right, get down with the hipster kids and follow my blog with Bloglovin.

In other news, the next piece of vintage kit to feature will be this lovely little light meter from Zeiss Ikon.