Another try with a different ISO 800 film provided some great results. A short visit to London and some night-time shooting allowed for some great testing grounds.
A recent short weekend visit to London allowed me to experiment with the Lomography ISO 800 film. Lomography is a company / community focused on producing analog films and cameras, with a very wide varied of instant cameras, expired film, and experimental film. So far I have tried their ISO 100, 400, and 800 film and have been very impressed.
These were all shot over the course of a few hours on a Saturday night. I wanted to test both indoor and outdoor shots at this ISO rating. ISO 800 is decent for indoors without flash, but I figured it could also produce some nice outdoor shots given central London would be very illuminated, especially at this time of year.
As always, you can click on these photos for a full screen version.
Christmas decorations on Jermyn Street, London
I picked up a few suits in Charles Tyrwhitt (highly recommended by the way) and saw this legend on the way out - I just had to grab a shot of him. Happy with the result.
I really like this shot - these shoe tree holders covered the entire wall...
Unfortunately this is what happens when you get a Leica - you have a sudden urge to take a photo every time you see a mirror! (actually I was trying to finish the roll and figure it would be a good enough shot...)
Interesting shot of Piccadilly Circus - it actually was not that dark but I pointed the camera (and light meter) right at the colourful screens in order to use a higher shutter speed.
Indoor shot of a fluorescent menu board....@Meatmarket
A bit on the dark side, however this film probably works very well in bars or concerts. It captures available bright lights very nicely.
Decent rendition of available light and it adds to the mood of the place. Not bad for an indoor handheld shot.
Christmas lights on the Strand, Central London. Good result given I was under street lights and had to also deal with car lights. This film renders quite well for city nightscapes.
The following shots are my favourite. A very carefully balanced Leica on Waterloo bridge with about a 1 second shutter speed. This is where film really excels, a digital version of the same shot would be likely produce clearer buildings, but the sky would be rendered as very "noisy" (pixelated) - what we see below is film grain in all its glory.
Iconic Big Ben - I will likely print a larger version of this for my wall.
Pretty bad-ass truck - somehow it is a bit out of place in southwest London though...
The end of the second roll. I could probably give this photo some artistic name about twins looking in the mirror, however it was more of a "what coffee are you drinking?" moment.
As a geographer / cartographer, this is probably the worst map I have ever seen. Ever.
So there you go, Lomography ISO 800. This is the same ISO as the Fuji 800 film I used in Dublin. They are both good but I think this one has a nice "grainy" look to it - the Fuji is probably more of a professional film that keeps grain at a minimum. They're both going on my "to keep" list though.
Overall result: PASSED
Another week gone...onto week 8 next, which will be some funky rescale film!
Thanks for stopping by and as always, get out there and take more photographs!
Cheers, Neil
