Delta 3200 pushed to 25000 first attempt

[Hamish Gill]

I decided to use my Nikon F4 for attempting to push some delta 3200 to 25000iso
http://www.realphotographersforum.com/film-conventional-cameras/3705-preparing-big-push-nikon-f4-low-light-photography.html
I thought it would be nice to give this a go over the course of my birthday evening out ... these are all the results ...

Not great ...
mostly under exposed ...
I do like the grain in the ones that have turned out ok though ... so im going to try again ...
I wonder if i had put the camera on spot metering i would have got better results... or maybe the camera was a bit confused when trying to -2ev at 6400iso setting...
Or maybe i was just too drunk ...
One way or another, there is room for improvement!
Im thinking shooting a roll of 120 film in the blad will yield a smaller grain (when viewed at this size) and so might work even better ...
all fun and games!
Processed in ilford ddx for 25mins at 20 degrees

 

[Pete Askew]

But much better than I was expecting Hamish and I really like a couple of those, especially numbers 2 and 5. Not sure if spot metering would help but I suppose you could at least decide to ensure that the element you wanted was correctly exposed was and just leave the rest of the scene to chance as it were.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Cheers Pete, yeah, the well lit ones are quite nice I think!
All the rolls of 3200 that I used to shoot and dev with ilfosol were no less grainy than this! Ddx is seemingly very good for this sort of thing!
Just loaded the blad with a roll of 3200, and set the finder to expose 3 stops under ...
So here we go again for a second attempt!

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'll tell you joy of this ... Shooting indoors under light bulb light at smaller apertures... Focusing is a lot easier when you don't have to worry about fractions of cm DOF ... I know I can do this with the d3 ... But shooting at 25600 ISO seems to often feel like I'm sacrificing somthing ... Whereas doing it with film feels like I'm trying to achive somthing!
Funny that eh?!

 

[Brian Moore]

You have grain the size of boulders in these foties Hamish.

doing it with film feels like I'm trying to achive somthing

Interesting point Hamish. I feel the same way. When I shoot with my 7d its usually for convenience and for the ability to capture massive quantities of foties relatively fast and easily. (My kids' dance events when I'm in the audience for example, or else the foties of the horseys at the race track.) However, when I want to take photographs I opt for film. (Backstage/sidestage dance shots for example, or just about anything else.)

 

[Hamish Gill]

I'm the same at the moment, but it's not so much the rule for me ...
My relationship with the two mediums varies drastically, sometimes I prefer being able to see what I have taken straight away, somtimes that ruins it for me through seeming a more shallow process.
I started writing a film vs digital thing ages ago ... I should finish it really...

There is a chap on a hifi forum I frequent, "fine art" photographer ... He shoots film and pretty much only film. He says digital is a facsimile of the real thing, is nothing but a convenience. He completely looks down his nose at it ... It winds me up and we have gotten in to a few rows over it...
I often find my self taking the side of digital, which in its self annoys me as I don't think digital is better but I don't like his attitude toward it ...
Then because it's a hifi forum with people who like vinyl loads of other people get involved saying how digital is infirior ... Without realising that the discussion is about a digitally scanned photo on a computer screen ... And probably a lot of thier vinyl was digitally recorded!

The important bit is always the photo at the end... What comes before that should mean nothing the the person viewing the photo... What comes before, the process, is the relationship between the photographer and his tools! For me that relationship changes and varies all the time!
I think though I am starting to work out better what I like about digital and what I like about film ...

It a bit like my relationship with whisky and lager ... I like both of them equally! But somtimes you wouldn't get me drinking one over the other ... Sometimes I just don't want a whole pint of fizzy liquid! Sometimes a really want a pint of cold refreshing liquid!
Even the simple fact of lager coming in the quantity of a pint can make me love it or loath it depending on my mood ...
I'm like that with film and digital ... Shooting digital to me at the moment seems shallow, pointless and not enjoyable ... But I know for a fact this mood won't stay with me forever!
It's a problem really, as it makes having a discussion about the merits of one over the other difficult for me ... But as I say, I think I'm starting to really get to grips with what I like, don't like and both about both mediums ...