Frugal Film Project 2024 - February

I found myself in the Bavarian city of Memmingen in the last week of February, a perfect opportunity to shoot some film for the Frugal Film Project. For those new to the project, the aim is to show that you don't need fancy photo gear to get great photos so in order to participate you select a camera-lens combo under $ 75, some cheap, well, make that less expensive film and shoot a roll every month for a year. I've opted for a Canon EOS 1000N with a 24-85mm lens and Agfaphoto APX 100/36. I also develop the film at home using Adonal developer.

The Memminger City Hall dates from the 1500s

The city

Memmingen can trace its roots to Roman times and has been a Free Imperial City (Reichsstadt) since 1286. It remained so until the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1803-1806 and the city was annexed by Bavaria in 1803. The Memminger old town (Altstadt) has been beautifully preserved and is a joy to behold.

The images

Below you'll find a small impression of Memmingen. Enjoy!

House Zum Widder was the seat of the Stubert family in the 1600s-1700s

Fellow photographer Pedro Stubert at the Memminger Train Station

The Old Cemetery

The tower of the Kreuzherren monestary

Storks nesting at Zum Storchennest

A memorial to the Franco-German war of 1870-1871

Detail of a facade

The Seven-roof house (Siebendächerhaus)

Remembering the crew of Halifax B.II JB803

At 23:53 on the 30th of April, 1943 No 77 Squadron Halifax B.II JB803/KN-G piloted by Sergeant Gordon Watson took off from RAF Elvington. Its target that night was Essen, a German city in the Ruhr industrial area. The Battle of the Ruhr was in full swing.

The aircraft

The Handley Page Halifax was a four engined heavy bomber in use with the RAF from 1940 until 1952 and was broadly comparable to the more famous Lancaster bomber. The Halifax B Mark II was powered by the legendary Merlin engine of Spitfire and Hurricane fame. 1,966 Halifax B.II's were built, not only by Handley Page but also by other manufacturers. Later versions of the Halifax used the Bristol Hercules engine that proved to be a better match to the Halifax airframe than the Merlin. 

JB803 was an English Electric built Halifax B Mark II and was delivered from their Preston factory to the RAF somewhere between the 21st of February 1943 and the 1st of March 1943. After acceptance it was used almost immediately. Known missions of JB803 are:

11/03/1943    Stuttgart raid

21/03/1943    Essen raid

29/03/1943    Berlin raid

02/04/1943    Lorient raid

03/04/1943    Essen raid

04/04/1943    target unknown

08/04/1943    Duisburg raid

10/04/1943    Frankfurt raid

14/04/1943    Stuttgart raid 

16/04/1943    Pilsen raid

20/04/1943    Stettin raid

26/04/1943    Duisburg raid

27/04/1943    Mine laying

28/04/1943    Mine laying

30/04/1943    Essen raid

The crew

JB803 carried a mixed Royal Air Force/Royal Canadian Air Force crew of seven that night:

Pilot Sergeant Gordon Watson, RAF Volunteer Reserve service number 1383608

Flight Engineer Sergeant Ian Douglas Crawford, RAF service number 634710

Navigator Flying Officer Arthur Edward Parsons, RCAF service number J/11636

Bomb Aimer Sergeant Leon Hannam, RAF Volunteer Reserve service number 1383305

Wireless operator/Air Gunner Sergeant William Robert Louth, RAF Volunteer Reserve service number 1198324

Mid Upper Gunner Sergeant Raymond Shepherd, RAF Volunteer Reserve service number 929961

Tail Gunner Flight Sergeant Thomas Deuel Scarff, RCAF service number R/95040

The mission

Watsons crew was going back to the Krupp factory in Essen. After takeoff from RAF Elvington at 23:53 Watson steered JB803 towards Cottesmore Light and proceeded afterwards to North Walsham, Happisburgh and Egmond before heading to Essen. After reaching their target they would return via Egmond and Hornsea and land back at Elvington. It was their 13th mission as a crew (with the exception of Louth who was on his sixth flight with Watsons crew and Shepherd who was on his fourth). Their Halifax was loaded with two 1,000 lb general purpose bombs and thirteen incendiary bombs of two types.

After crossing the Dutch coast line they were intercepted by a Messerschmitt Bf-110 night fighter from 11./NJG 1 flown by Feldwebel Heinz Vinke, Feldwebel Karl Schödel and Unteroffizier Johann Gaa. Vinke and his crew were based at Bergen airfield on the Dutch coast that night. Vinke located the Halifax and shot it down. Vinke was a night fighter ace, racking up 54 kills before he and his crew themselves got shot down and killed whilst flying Bf-110G-4 werknummer 740136 by Flight Officer Hardy in a Hawker Typhoon on February 26th, 1944.

Watson ordered his crew to bail out and all but Scarff and Watson himself did so. They died when their bomber crashed and exploded at the Noordpolder near Muiden, the Netherlands at 02:26 on May 1st, 1943. The rest of his crew landed in the cold water of the IJsselmeer lake and never made it to shore.

Watsons crew lies buried at the Muiden General Cemetery with the exception of Sergeant Louth. His body was never recovered.

The memorial

The current memorial for the crew of Halifax B.II JB803 was erected at the Zuidpolderweg at the site where the Halifax crashed in 1943. It was unveiled on September 5th, 2020. Each year at May 1st the local community gathers at the memorial to remember Watson and his crew.

All photos shot with a Canon EOS 1000N fitted with a Canon EF 24-85mm f/3.4-4.5 USM lens, Agfaphoto APX 400 blackd and white film, developed in Adonal and scanned with an Epson Perfection V850 Pro. 

Winter 2023

Now that spring has arrived I find myself looking back to winter - my photography last winter that is. So what have I been up to in the last three months?

45 Squadron Phenom 100 ZM337 landing at RAF Cranwell

Winter weather

Contrary to popular belief we sometimes actually have winter weather in Dutch winters. Not much, true, but I guess we lucked out. With actual ice and snow around my good friend Joeri and I dropped everything we were doing and headed out into the freezing cold.

Joeri trying out my Pentax 50mm f/1.2 lens

Skating at Lake Naarden

Just a few days before I managed to get my hands on a 45mm pancake lens. A perfect time to see what this could do. Joeri thought pretty much the same thing, trying out my Pentax 50mm f/1.2 lens on his Sony A7. Check out his thoughts on this combo.

My small automobile after the first snow

Snow on the meadows

More snow on the meadows

Sadly the snow thawed away after a few days, being replaced by rain...

Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 80mm f/2.8

Another find was a pristine Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 80mm f/2.8 P6 mount lens at a local photography fair. I was keen to put this lens through its paces so I called up Joeri and off we went.

No trespassing

Joeri toting his trusty Sony A7

The grey brick road

In this case I grabbed my Pentax 645Z and used an P6-Pentax 645 adapter. I am very satisfied with the way the lens performed, this copy is a keeper.

Canon EF 35mm f/2

Another lens I got acquainted with was the Canon EF 35mm f/2. I've had this lens for a while now but somehow I always reached for the 24-105 or similar lens when out and about with my Canons. This is the original 35mm, not the later IS version. I actually enjoyed the 35mm more than I expected. I shot both digital and film with this lens, here is an example of a film shot:

Soviet anti-aircraft gun at the Vesting Museum

Ihagee Exa Ia

This winter I bagged not only a few lenses but a new (to me) camera as well. 

Ihagee Exa Ia fitted with a Domiplan 50mm f/2.8

This really is a fun little camera. It certainly is different from the mainstream cameras and I guess that this is part of the fun. I did a write-up of my experiences if you're interested.

Cobra Warrior 2023

In the last days of March I decided to travel to the UK to catch RAF exercise Cobra Warrior 2023. With aircraft from faraway places like India and Saudi Arabia attending this made for an interesting few days in England.

An Indian Mirage 2000 in typical English weather

The flight line at RAF Barkston Heath

A Finnish Air Force Hornet in the evening sun

Flying daily patrols over eastern Europe is this RC-135W

All in all I am quite pleased with the shots I managed to take.

Spring

This is it for winter 2023. See you in the spring!

Camera review: The Exa Ia

The camera

This review is about the Ihagee Exa Ia single lens reflex camera. Ihagee from Dresden in Germany is perhaps most well known for their Exakta line of cameras but they also manufactured the Exa line of cameras alongside the Exaktas. Three models were produced, the Exa (1951-1962), the Exa I series (1962-1987) and the Exa II (1960-1969). The Exa and Exa I are basically different versions of the same camera with interchangeable view finders. The Exa II was a simplified camera that was produced alongside the Exa and Exa I.

Ihagee Exa Ia fitted with a Meyer-Optik Görlitz Lydith 30mm f/3.5

All Exa cameras, with the exception of the Exa Ib and Ic, use the Exakta mount that Ihagee introduced with their Exakta cameras. The Exa Ib and Ic use the M42 mount, enabling the use of loads of M42 lenses from all kinds of manufacturers. Ihagee didn't manufacture lenses for their Exakta's and Exa's themselves, this was done by companies such as Carl Zeiss Jena, Meyer-Optik Görlitz and others. 

The Exa cameras have a guillotine type shutter rather than the more usual focal-plane shutter. This results in slower shutter speeds than we are used to these days with a modest top speed of 1/175th of a second.

Specifications

Camera:                Ihagee Exa Ia

Built:                    1962-1977

Mount:                  Exakta

Shutter speeds:     1/30th - 1/175th of a second, B

Self timer:            no

Size:                     130 mm wide, 97 mm high* and 46 mm deep

Light metering:     no

Hot shoe:              no

Battery:                none

* with the pentaprism viewfinder fitted

Shooting

My copy is an Exa Ia built in the mid-1970s. It has the Exakta mount and was also built with different names (Elbaflex 175, Exakta 100 and VX-100). I managed to obtain my Exa Ia together with a few lenses and an Exakta camera which needs some TLC before I can shoot with it. The Exa is pristine and works like a charm. I love the simple smooth lines of these cameras and part of the attraction of the Ihagee cameras stems from the fact that they were built in Dresden as there is a family connection there.

Using this camera feels very intuitive apart from the shutter button, this is located on the left side of the camera body. This is a leftover from the early Exakta designs, kept in place to be able to use the same automatic aperture lenses that the Exakta uses.

I've used two lenses on the Exa thus far, the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Domiplan 50mm f/2.8 and the Meyer-Optik Görlitz Lydith 30mm f/3.5. I also own an Exakta-Pentacon six adapter that I wanted to use with the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 80mm f/2.8 but alas, this adapter doesn't lock into place in the mount of my Exa. I've got a few more 50mm lenses and a 135mm lens to try out in the coming days and weeks.

I've taken the camera to some of my local haunts, the Vesting Museum and the fortress city of Naarden.

Images

All in all I am pretty pleased with the performance of the Exa Ia. I expected this to be a backup for my Exakta but it has really stepped up to be the main camera for my Exakta mount lenses. In fact, I am thinking of adding an Exa Ib to my collection to use in combination with my M42 lenses. This is how much I like this little camera.

Experimenting with expired film

Recently I've been given a bag full of expired 35mm color negative film. It contains film from a myriad of brands with different ISO values. As I have no knowledge on how these films were stored I really have no way what to expect. 

Experiment

I decided to do a little experiment with some of the film stock. As the colors would be unpredictable I decided to shoot one of these film brands and develop it with black and white developer. I selected two rolls of Etos Kleurenfilm 100/24 that expired in 05/2003 and loaded a roll into my Pentax LX. I grabbed an SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/1.4 lens as the day was rather overcast. 

Film

Etos Kleurenfilm 100/24 color negative film is a film branded for the Etos line of shops and has a DX code of 013613. When running this number through the Big Film Database I found that it was actually rebranded Ferrania Imation Color HP100 film. This film is now discontinued and I can't recall shooting with it before. Certainly not as Ferrania, possibly as a rebranded film early in my photography years.

The shoot

With my trusty Pentax LX loaded off I went to the Fortress City of Naarden. Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lenses have always been a joy to use and I had not used my copy for a while so I decided that I would try to get some wide open shots from this lens. I shot at box speed and finished both rolls.

The results

After reading up online I decided to use Adonal developer diluted 1:50 for 10:30 minutes at 20 degrees Celsius. Straight out of the tank the negatives looked very dark, however that might have to do with the orange tint to the base where my usual black and white film has a clear base.

After scanning sepia-like images appeared. Nice dreamy shots thanks to that 50mm f/1.4 wide open but oh boy, these shots are grainy! I'd love to hear from you if you've done this as well, have tips/tricks etc. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.