Fujifilm Pro 160S 35mm Film

[Contarama]

I have a wedding to attend next weekend and I just ordered 3 rolls of this Pro 160S Fujifilm. My plan is to set the Contaflex @ shutter speed 250 or 500 and see if I can get the meter needle spot on somewhere around f5.6 (preferably) or maybe f8. I intend to use the 115 with these settings for some portrait shots. I was also thinking about trying some basic sunny 16 rules with the 35mm lens to get some table and group shots. I also have the 50mm with various filters and a hood plus I have the 85... Any ideas???

My main question is about the Fuji 160S...I have read all kinds of great stuff about this film I was just wondering if any of you all have used it and what your thoughts about it were? I also have some pro 400 already on hand and was thinking about maybe using some of that too...any thoughts about the 400???

Also any advice or strategies or whatever concerning my plan for this wedding would be greatly appreciated...

It is going down at 6:30 the 19th the alter will be on the bank of a pond facing west in an open area...if it is sunny with no clouds I am going to have some well lit faces...

[Brian]

I do not have any first-hand experience with this film, but you should be good with these settings. Weddings can be shaded, the bride and groom often in a Gazebo. If that is the case, best to start using a hand-held meter.

I'll check what I used at the last wedding. I wimped out, put the M8 on Auto but used exposure compensation. The Brid's dress is easiest to "blow". if you expose for it, everything comes out dark. Best to add an f-Stop to a number of shots and bracket the exposure.

[Contarama]

The Brid's dress is easiest to "blow". if you expose for it, everything comes out dark. Best to add an f-Stop to a number of shots and bracket the exposure.

Thanks for mentioning this Brian I wouldn't have thought of that as I have no experience shooting a big white dress and with my propensity to burn pictures up I probably would have ruined them all...now I will be aware.

Hopefully the film makes it on time if not I have 2 rolls of 400 pro and a couple of rolls of Superia Reala 100 which I have good luck with.

This will be an interesting wedding as there are three other "amateur" photographers besides myself that will be shooting pics...they all three have bad to the bone Nikon and Canon DSLR's...so it will be a little old barvarian made mechanical film job vs modern day giants...I am bringing along my Sony P&S 4 megapixel beestinger too...going to try and outshoot them both ways!!! hahaha

[Brian]

I went Digital for the last wedding I attended- used the Leica M8, a Jupiter-3 5cm F1.5, Nikkor 10.5cm F2.5, and Ultron 35/1.7. Some old friends that had not seen me in years, noted I was still using "old Fashioned cameras". Could not believe I brought a Digital. I was the only person able to shoot the reception with "existing light". The J-3 is the one modified for close-focus, shown in the project section here. I thought about bringing Digital, but wanted to cut the CD for them. I do not like the Store scans, the M8 images are better.

I did let people know the lenses on the camera were 50+ uears old. Except the Ultron, of course.

[Contarama]

God Bless 50 year old camera lenses... :)

[Contarama]

OK first event rehearsal dinner I shot with 50mm lens fitted with skylight filter and a hood Fuji 400 Superia Xtra. Then changed to plain Fuji 100 and the 85mm. No 160...we'll see what happens. Wedding Day tomorrow I am gonna try burning through 2 rolls of Fuji Pro 400 taking a big gamble! The camera is functioning exactly like it should. I'm using strictly the 115 tomorrow... :)

4 or 5 folks called out the old Zeiss Ikon today...a Contaflex with a 50mm pancake and rubber hood contrasts very well with big bulky Canon DSLR's with huge zoom lenses...I let them know it was 50 years old... ;)

[Brian]

Did you get the wedding pictures back yet?

[Contarama]

Brian...it was basically a disaster...I am glad I wasn't the official photographer...I wasn't using the film I am used to and I wasn't using the right lenses...I shot with the Nikon and 135mm Nikkor Q and got a few decent pics...I totally screwed up and tried using the 85 and 35 with the Contaflex when I should have stuck with my plan to use only the 115 all of the time (I did get a few 115 shots the day before that were nice)...I totally missed getting a good wedding day photo of the groom and bride together (bad bad)...the ones I got are blurry and underexposed or both (this was trying to get to close with the 135 and not using the 115 and not shooting wide open and messing up the stop down stuff).

At any rate I learned a lot...

I have a roll of the 160 C (I screwed up and ordered c instead of s) in the Nikon with 135 right now...gonna try some outdoor woods landscape crap...

I basically failed in my mission and not really because of the equipment or film but because of my own ineptitude...good photography is not easy...especially for a neophyte...even with a digital camera (some of my digital 4 megapixel P&S stuff is pretty decent) ;)

I have put up a few new pics in the gallery so you all can see...

[Brian]

I will give them a look. I did weddinds for friends when I was in my 20s. I enjoy doing them, had been almost 20 years since I've shot one. Fast 50, Fast film. Indisensible.

[bwcolor]

You simply discovered the first rule of photography. Never try a new combination.. new lens,camera, film, or lighting/light control and expect to be able to control the outcome. Theory and getting it right in your head is followed by a series of misadventures. Having exhausted all mistakes, you die and take the secret with you. Time to change one thing at a time.. have fun. I screwed up my first paying job many years ago. I purchase, what at the time, was one of the best portable strobes, Ascor. The mistake that I made was believing that it actually produced the rated light output. Every photo was underexposed. I got paid and they liked the photos, but I knew that I produced a series of awful photographs.