shilly-shally-ing and back to basics

flying to India next Saturday for a week.

has me facing a difficult choice: which shall I take between my Nikon D600, Nikon Df, Fujifilm X100s or Fujifilm Xt-1 ?!

I think I'll go for the latter because of its small size vs the Nikons, and its dust-proofing vs the X100s. Still, the X100s is even more discreet for street photography in crowded places - and I do love my Df...

Jusr goes to show how GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) creates ridiculous problems rather than solving anything. However, I do want to say that one of my new year's resolutions was not to acquire any photo gear in 2015 - and so far, so good !

Anyway, a bit earlier today I finally got round to doing something I'd been delaying for some months: scanning two rolls of film I'd taken (I think) in September of last year. The lab I usually go to had their machine out of order and offered to send my film to some guy they knew; when I got it back, the negatives weren't cut into bands of 5-6 like they usually are, but simply rolled, uncut, in the plastic film cannisters.

This made it, as you might imagine, rather challenging to arrange the negatives in my flat-bed scanner (Epson photo 700). Still, I managed to start the job, if not quite finish it.

The results were a fantastic and powerful breath of fresh air !

Quite apart from their photographic quality or lack thereof, the rendering of Kodak Tri-X film taken with my Nikon F2AS and Nikkor-S Auto 1:1.4, 50mm lens (i.e. a kit that's about my age ! - though since I'd shot two films with these two differenc cameras, could also have been my Rollei 35s, of a similar vintage I believe) was just amazing. Contrast, grain, soft focus (as compared to the surgical instruments that are my digital cameras), just bursting with mood and character !

I hadn't done so much film lately, but whatever else I may pack next Saturday, pride of place will be given to one of my film cameras along with a stash of Kodak Tri-X !