Japan on 35mm Film
So let’s get it out of the way, i turned 40. The only benefit of this is that i have an awesome wife.
Those who know me know that i don’t like parties let alone one that celebrates me, so when my wife asked me months and months ago what i wanted to do for my 40th all i said was “I don’t want a party” and thats where it begins.
On Friday the 7th of February i went to work like any other day, around 4pm that afternoon i come back to my desk and there is my wife with a box. She brought a cake to celebrate my birthday because i “wasn’t going to be around for it”. Hmmmm that got me thinking, so after the embarrassment of singing me happy birthday with my work colleagues and eating some epic South American cake my mum made, my wife then tells me that we need to get going because we are flying out somewhere that evening.
Let me make it very clear, i had no idea what so ever that this was happening, no clue, no inkling.
So we get home and she’s got a half packed bag for me and tells me to add anything else to it and get all my camera gear ready that i wanted to take.
On a side note, sadly i busted my digital camera (Fujifilm X-T2) which needs repairing so i packed my Contax S2b with my Carl Zeiss 35mm f2.8 and 50mm f1.7. I also threw in my Fuji GW690III and my Fujifilm X-T10 with 1 lens the 35mm f1.4 for those evening shots that i wouldn’t be able to get with my film cameras.
So the question had to be asked, what type of weather do i pack for? Do i pack my boardies to go for a swim? My response “its going to be cold”.
That got me thinking for destinations, ruled out the close obvious destinations that are always hot or currently in summer like Bali, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand. The first country that came to mind was Japan or if not Korea.
So we get to the airport and check in and at this point in time there was no hiding where we were going, and yes it was Japan.
This was the 4th time i had been to Japan and ever since getting back into film ive wanted to shoot film there, japan and film just go hand in hand and after getting my film back im even more convinced. One thing i didn’t have a lot of at the time was film, but i knew i was going to a place where id have plenty of different stocks to choose from.
This trip I decided to try some different film stocks, I already had some rolls of Kodak Colorplus 200 and Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400 that I bought and had in the fridge waiting for me to try but not enough to get me through this 8 day trip. Eventually when I got there I bought some Fujifilm Superia Venus 800, Fujifilm Superia Premium 400 and some more Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400. I’ve been shooting with Kodak Portra 400 & 800 for most the year and thought it was time try some other stocks.
While in Japan I also bought myself a Yashica ML 24mm f2.8, wanted something slightly wider than the 35mm. Sadly the Carl Zeiss was a little out of my price range, but the Yashica is in typical Japanese grade.
Japan trips i tend to over plan to make sure we can get the most out of the trip, as i didn’t know it was happening we stuck around the Tokyo area, exploring maybe 1 hour from Tokyo on different days and a day trip out to the Fuji 5 lakes region.
Here are the shots from the trip all shot on the Contax S2b with either the Carl Zeiss 35mm, 50mm or Yashica 24mm. Shots split via film stock.
Contax S2b - Kodak Colorplus 200
I had shot Kodak Colorplus 200 before but was an expired roll, but was keen to give it another try. To be honest another big factor was that they are cheap. Im super happy with how the shots came out with this stock, plenty of detail and colours are nice. Ill be keeping a spare roll of colorplus in fridge i think.
Contax S2b - Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400
First time shooting Superia Xtra 400, and i’m instantly a fan. Ive really been enjoying the greener rather than the warmer which lends itself to the Fujifilm stocks. Also reasonably priced, i think i’ll be switching my Kodak Portra 400 to the Fujifilm Superia Xtra 400 for a while to learn more about this stock. Also got my favourite image of this trip from this stock which is the clothes store with the 2 girls walking past it and the pink neo PIN NAP above them.
Contax S2b - Fujifilm Superia Venus 800
Much like the reasoning behind the Superia Xtra 400, i’m into the green colours at the moment so wanted to try a substitute to Kodak Portra 800. Im not as convinced with the Venus 800 as i was with the Xtra 400, but it’s my first roll. Brought a bunch of these back with me so will have to take it through its paces.
