Visual Journey: Wetlands

Not long ago, I went to Wetlands to take a walk with my wife... It is just 10 minutes away from Launceston, Tasmania but I have not been there and this is my first time, believe it or not. The place is like a swamp, except there are no crocodiles, haha. Here are some of the pictures I took of the location.









All taken with my film rangefinder, Bessa R4M with Fuji Pro 400H film and scanned with my new Plustek 7600 Ai film scanner. I just love this colour film. I love how the film renders blues in the skies and the saturation of the colours. Thanks to the scanner, there were profiles for any negative film from most manufacturers, so I had no problem getting the colours right. The grain, well looks pretty good, if you can spot it at all,except for the last shot. I converted the last shot into black and white in Photoshop, so there is some digital grain there. I get wider dynamic range shooting with this film, meaning I can get more details from the skies and shadows in one shot wihout resorting to HDR (High Dynamic Range) post-processings. I haven't really tested this film on people yet... I will do so and review how the film renders skin tones but no problems using the film for landscapes for sure...

I will not review the new scanner as you can find the reviews on the Internet. Briefly, it is very good and much more capable than most flatbed scanners, except maybe the Epson Pro v750. The only downside to the Plustek scanners that you have to feed the negatives or slides manually and that well it only scan 35mm negatives and slides.

The Epson Pro v750 is maybe as good as the Plustek 7600Ai and it is much more versatile as it can scan other film formats. There are only two reasons why I did not get the Epson Pro v750. The price, about AUD $300-400 more than the Plustek 7600Ai and the fact that I already have a flatbed scanner; the Epson v300. Perhaps the v300 will be upgraded in the future when I have medium format film cameras... More GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) kicking in...haha.

I find the place perfect for portraits and here are some pictures of my wife. These were shot on Olympus EP-1 with the Voigtlander 50mm f1.1 via an adapter, so yea they are digital...





















Although the lens render the bokeh a.k.a. the out of focus area a bit harsh, not as smooth as would like but it is growing on me. The signature look I get from the lens is definitely special and the lens is superbly sharp at f1.1 !!! though I mostly shoot at f1.4. That's all for now..