Pentax ME super & Fuji Superia 400 pushed to 800
I took the images and wrote this post pre-pandemic
Does loading Fuji Superia into a Pentax ME super make for super duper images? Not likely but film in a camera is a recipe for fun in my book.
Knowing that I was going to be taking pictures in some lower light situations I chose some faster lenses such as the Vivitar 28 f2.0 in the above image as well as a 50mm f1.7 and a Vivitar 70-150 f3.8 which may not be the brightest lens but gives a bit of telephoto while still being compact. (I believe there were restrictions on the size of lens you could bring into the stadium seen in some of the images so I did not want to draw attention to my ‘state of the art’ kit.)
Additionally I set the camera to ISO 800 and pushed the film 1 stop during development. Using a Unicolor C41 kit this is achieved by increasing the development time by 1.25X for the one stop. So the normal developer time of 3.5 minutes is extended to 4min 24 Seconds (4 1/2 minutes unless your super fussy and think it would make a difference) I was happy with the results this gave me. The amount of grain is slightly increased but then it is as well if you were using natively 800 iso film.
July 19th, 2021 at 9:47 am
Wallace… I can’t remember why or how I ended up on your email list, but it was interesting reading a recent blog on ‘The Taco Method’ and then an article on the Pentax ME Super. Back in the early 70s (?) I bought the MX as I only had and was shooting only 2-1/4 as a freelancer while finishing for my BS degree. While I didn’t use the 35mm as much as the 2-1/4, I built up a nice little lens inventory for the MX. I was a USAF Aerial Photo Specialist, ’66 thru ’70. And I was attached to both a B-52 squadron and then the 600th Combat Photo Squadron out of Tan Son Ngut. I then ended up at the 601st Photo Flight, Det. 3 in Ubon, Thailand. It was after I got out in early 1970 that I started freelancing in the Los Angeles area. I had a B&W darkroom at home, and also shot Kodak color print film. It’s interesting and also encouraging to see young photo students starting out in the basics of B&W photography. Technology is often shared without much understanding of the art of photography while flooding the field with new digital technology. Thanks for the interesting articles.
September 12th, 2021 at 10:49 am
Thank you Al I am glad you found some value in the posts. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and I wish you all the best.