To be frank I don’t really like the make of the book. The page quality is great but the images don’t show well because of the high contrasty prints. The idea behind the series is great again but the series is too small to form a book as huge as this. So the end pages are filled with random images from behind the scenes in terrible quality and taste.

What makes this book is JJ’s styling and his clothes. They are just beautiful and the way he positions his characters leaves you with very lingering emotions. His work exhumes charm and timelessness. Also his idea of vintage merging with the new works beautifully. The atmosphere in the images accepts the old like it accepts the new, as its own.

Its rare to find a good photo book by a Indian artist. You don’t come across one often and when you do, you realise that flawed in one way or another. Its the same case with this book. The ideas are great and so is the work but the post production is terrible. I don’t know if its a style but I thought when it came to images which imitated images of Royal India, they would also work on quality and tonal range of the time. But images by JJ seem too high contrast without any tones. Hence they don’t translate well in prints.

Do you want this book in your collection. I think its a beautiful study of Vintage style and royalty. The styling in this book is immaculate and simple enough to be called profound. Its a great book but its very expensive (Rs. 3000 I think) and there is an alternative by Raghu Rai called Indian Portraits which too studies Indian Royalty. But if you’re a fan of the designer and would like to see a fusion of contemporary with the vintage and some great styling, this is the book for you.

Now I assume most of you out there have a Canon or Nikon kits. Now in lesser than 100$ you can extend the same kit to use film just by adding a new body which has the same controls and handling like a digital body.

When I started shooting film, I was using my first DSLR Canon 1000D. Now it would have been almost impossible to shift to film but I got my hands on a very cheap Canon Rebel X. Its a very basic consumer grade film camera and the make of the body is very similar to a 1000D digital camera. Because since the starting, I’ve made sure that I don’t buy zoom lenses as the quality drops in comparison to prime lenses, it was a seamless transition to use all my EF lenses (other than the kit lens for 1000D) on my film camera and shoot it exactly how I would shoot with a digital camera.

The 5DMKII VS EOS ELAN 7

And just if you’re thinking why can’t film use EF-S lenses, its just because film is Full Frame. So just like all the high end cameras, it won’t let you mount lenses made for smaller cameras.

Now I use the Canon 5DMKII and I have upgraded my film body to Canon EOS 30, which is made much like its digital counterpart. The same goes for Nikon cameras. If you own a Nikon DSLR and want to move to film with the same lenses, the N series makes it seamless. They use the same full frame lenses and that means you can basically extend the same lenses on your both cameras. Essentially, you can choose to shoot film or digital by simply switching the bodies.

When choosing a camera for your current kit extension :

- All cameras which we’re talking about are last generation film cameras. So they will be autofocus. Make sure that you don’t get an older generation camera.
- The biggest issues with cameras of this generation is Sticky Shutter and leaks in battery compartment, so check them before you buy.
- If you’re using a non-full frame camera (like a Nikon D90 or a Canon 7D) then make sure that your lenses are full frame. Lenses specially made for smaller sensor cameras will not be portable to film cameras. Below is a list of different company tags which are NOT compatible.

Canon: EF-S
Konica Minolta: DT
Nikon: DX
Pentax: DA
Sigma: DC
Sony: DT
Tamron: Di II
Tokina: DX

Other than that, you’re good to go! Moving from digital to film is the easiest this way because you don’t have to learn anything about the camera operation but can focus on the medium’s intricacies itself.

Image Via Indian Photo Culture

The nation that prides itself as the next superpower and claims to be always third,second or first country to put rockets, satellites of several denominations in space is also a nation that was/is incapable of producing a low tech item such as a 35 mm camera. Its closest attempt in getting a “Made in India” camera was enacted during mid 1970s in a CSIR facility, National Instruments, at Calcutta. The camera sports the tag, National 35 Sprinty BC. It retailed for Rs 780 in 1977. The issues of India Today and Sunday carried the advertisements for the camera in their late 1970s issues.

You can read more about the camera on the the Indian Photo Culture Blog or in this in-depth report about a revisit to the lab where the cameras were being made. And if you’re really excited, then you could also buy the camera from some chap in Nagpur here.

And the exciting products from India don’t end here! No no no! Next I present the Indu roll film. Made in India with Indian technology, it scares the labs like a deer in front of headlights. The review is that the emulsion is so thin that it almost tears off after developing, rarely ever making a decent image.

I wanted to conclude this post with a giveaway, a AGFA camera which was made in India but well its not working (you didn’t really expect it to work after such a post) so thats postponed! Till next time maybe!

Its sometimes so delightful to find a book so interesting in a location which you’d never expect it to be. The same happened with me in Jodhpur, as I went through the Museum Shop in Mehrangarh.

Next in line is the Yashica D with original leather box and lens caps – SOLD

The camera is operationally perfect but its leatherette is coming off from the front. Conditon 7/10. – SOLD

Next in line is the Yashica Mat 124G – SOLD

This camera doesn’t come with lens cap – SOLD

The condition is quite nice and the camera is clean and operational. Condition 8/10 – SOLD

Jonas’s first camera, this Olympus OM1 is in great condition and comes with 3 lenses, 6/10 – SOLD

The Olympus 50mm 1.4. Condition 6/10 – SOLD

The 28-70 F4, condition 5/10 (the lens zoom is not smooth so I wouldn’t rate it any higher even though the glass is good) – SOLD

Olympus 28mm f3.5, condition 6/10 – SOLD

Also on sale this amazing analog light meter, Lunasix 3 with its original leather cover. Condition 7/10

The last on the lot is a beautiful Mamiya 6 RF Medium Format Camera – SOLD

This really rare camera comes with all three lenses which have been made for it. The 150mm, the 75mm and the 50mm. Condition 9/10 – SOLD

If you’re interested in any of these cameras then please email me with the name of the camera as the subject on abhoan@gmail.com. The costs will not be open for negotiations but trust me when I say that Jonas & I have made sure that the costs are bare minimum and he just wants these cameras to be out with people who can use them rather than them sitting in a camera bag.

(There was a Voigtlander Bessa R2A and a Diana for sale which have been taken off now)

I’ll mark out the cameras as “SOLD” as soon as they keep going. Cheers! And yes, the cameras are in Jaipur. They can come to Delhi / Mumbai but beyond that you’ll have to pick them up. Can’t ship cameras as really don’t trust these courier companies.

Some camera porn for your weekend

The last few days have been very kind in terms of finds and acquisitions. Firstly now my Canon kit is now loaded with a fantastic 24-70 2.8 L lens. Its freaking fantastic and I love it. Is it better than my super fav 50mm 1.4? Not really, its not comparable in terms of sharpness or depth or weight (all of which are better in the 50) but it brings one ability which is unsurpassed by the 50. Its the ability to move from 24mm to 70mm without fumbling with prime lenses. Its been a pain for a long time to move from wide to tele on the street but this lens makes it so much better.

Then thanks to my dear friend Shreya Sen, I got back my flash which had been just lying around in Bombay for more than six months. It wasn’t firing or charging and thanks to her now I finally have a operational manually controllable flash.

Its Alive! Finally after 6 months of repair!

Also I’ve been hunting around for old pictures and I came across a really nice batch in Bombay. The polaroids from one of the series are in the first picture of this post and trust me when I say this, those images, the full series is just brilliant. I also met up this time with Priyansha Jain, a designer based in Bombay / London and she showed me what she’s been finding in her trips to Rajasthan.

The Little Slide Box

Its been so dusty in Delhi that my scanner even after a basic cleanup is full of it. So you might be able to see a lot of these small lines on the scans, all because of the fine dust in the scanner. As the Epson Gurgaon Service center is as worthless as a doped up monkey with a screwdriver, I’ll have to end up cleaning it myself one of these days.

BTW, One of my friends is putting out some of his best film gear for sale and I’ll be posting it on the blog soon. So keep a look out for a brand new sale!

About the new roll : This is the very first time that I used this film and I truly love it. Its got a very clean look to it with beautiful deeply saturated tones. Extremely cinematic and sharp, this film is great for use in daylight or with high contrast flash. As the ISO is very low, you expect to get clean shots even after pushing it to 400 ISO. It also gives a lot of room for shadows because of its high dynamic range even in color.

“Caring For Photographs”, the title being quite self explanatory, is 186 pages thick, hardbound and printed by Time Magazine publications.In fact almost all of the information comes from the archival department of Time magazine. The printing is great, almost 80% in black and white and sections are divided in the book with light grey end sheets.

There are five sections overall, each section talking about more topics in detail. Now this is a old book, published in 1975 so you really can’t expect any relevance to today’s technology. There are parts which have no value anymore with the introduction of high end flatbed scanners in the consumer market along with photoshop (which is better because of the non destructive workflow). But then there are some techniques here which are so beautifully explained chemical processes, irreplaceable by photoshop.

The most relevant for film photographers here would be how to store and archive negatives, mounting them or cleaning prints. The book has detailed descriptions on what to do and what not to do to make sure that your negatives last forever.

I didn’t really expect but the book also talks about how to display prints, different types of mountings. But my favorite has to be the section on “Family Of Man”, the epic show which has been considered one of the greatest photographic shows ever to be organized by Time. The book talks about how it was organized, how images were selected and the final landmark exhibit which was displayed and attended by over 270,000 visitors.

Its a great book to have but only if you’re interested in archival and restoration. I don’t think its a book for digital photographers because most of the information in this book is non-transferable to the new medium. Also this information can be found online if you just search long enough. I got it, a used old copy for a 100Rs (2$) so I’m happy but in the end of it all, not a must buy.

Idea Creative comes from a rich heritage in film photography which once existed in Bombay. There were huge labs working film as it was the primary medium for cinema and photography. With the decline of film usage, most labs shut down, putting technicians out of work. So a few of them came together to create Idea Creative which I feel is one of the highest quality professional lab in India for Film & Print.

Today Idea Creative would be able to develop 120mm, 35mm, Large Format films for you. They also house a Epson V700 scanner (flatbed) for decent quality results. There is a working darkroom where all films are handwashed (means no scratches or anything) and a working black and white analog printing setup for images as big as 24″x24″. In terms of digital printing they have two huge Epson printers for art quality printing.

How to reach :
Just take a cab to “Maratha Udyog Bhawan” in Prabhadevi. From the red light, take a right. You’ll find the lab about 500mts inside that road, next to a small temple and usually a water tanker standing in front of it.

Address :
Shop No. 1, Sharma Bldg,, Prabhadevi, (Next to Prabhadevi Temple), Mumbai, Maharashtra 400025, India
Email: idea.creative@ymail.com
Website: http://www.ideacreative.in/
Phone: +022-6573-0184
Opening Times: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm, Sunday Closed