A few from the first roll out of the F2

[Gary R. Smith]

I loaded the new-to-me F2 with a roll of 36 exposures of Portra 400 and shot in various places over several days using two lenses.


This is at the Ridgefield Nat'l Wildlife Refuge where I regularly go to shoot birds (with my OM-1 and 300/4 Pro). I liked how the algae looked against the water. Shot using the 105/2.5 (same lens used to shoot the famous Afghan Girl portrait). This same lens was used to shoot the next shot of the egret (since I was too close to get anything other than a head shot with the OM-1).

Since the box speed on the film was 400, I thought I'd try a shot inside at Powell's City of Books. It turned out just fine I think.

The next shots are from a trip to the Oregon coast with a different lens: 35/2.

This shot is at Short Sand beach - a place that I'd been past several times but I'd never stopped there. It's a short hike off the main highway. Lots of driftwood in the cove from recent storms. The above shot is looking southwest while the shot below is looking northwest.

In general, the camera handles much like the Nikon FE. It is pretty heavy tipping the scales at about 1.6 pounds without a lens. I struggled a bit with the meter through the viewfinder and eventually settled on using the meter reading on the top of the finder. One interesting thing is that since the camera is fully mechanical and due to the way they designed the shutter, the shutter speed is infinitely variable. So, if you have your aperture set at f5.6 and 125 would be too slow and 250 would be too fast, with the F2 you can dial in a shutter speed in between to get what the meter thinks will be an exact exposure.

While I am often quite happy to edit my film results these images were only resized (no color, noise or sharpness edits).

This last shot was taken at Cannon Beach, Oregon. While the gull is too far away for this to be a "bird" shot it is a nice beach shot.

I'm not thrilled with the grain of the 400 ISO color film. Maybe I'd have been happier if the weather had been sunnier?

 

[Gianluca Drago]

Quite an enjoyable series, @Gary R. Smith. It makes you want to be there. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Wes Hall]

I’m curious if you had a hood on the 105 Gary- the egret and short sand beach in particular looked very challenging lighting to shoot in- you’ve certainly got some nice exposures there, really good tonality on the last beach shot too.

I find grain and 35mm a tricky appeasement to my tastes, less satisfied than what I see in 120- and developing/scanning etc adds another layer. I’d say give the stock another go, but maybe experiment with subjects an lighting- I find most seem to play favourites.

Incidentally, reading this makes me miss my F2 I had- was a fabulous camera and outside my Sigma SA9, probably the most accurate exposures and just satisfying to use.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I’m curious if you had a hood on the 105

No hood. I think there was a version that had an integrated hood?

Short Sand beach was shot with the 35/2.

The egret was shot from the car (as was the red algae and the water scene).

I’d say give the stock another go

I had also just gotten a roll of Kodak Gold 200 back that I seemed to like better - of course it was 120 shot with the Rollei. I suspect the Portra 400 just being faster and the different lighting was partially responsible for my discontent. That and the fact that I posted the film shots with virtually no postprocessing. I'm not against running denoise on my film shots.