I’ve been hanging onto a few HP5 rolls, ready to be shot on my badass little Contax TVS which only recently arrived. I was able to track down an OG, version one with zoom-tab in completely new and mint condition from Japan for a couple of hundred dollars. It’s a pretty modern camera in terms of electronic performance, functions and overall speed for something that was produced in the 1990s.
For a film point-and-shoot it’s about as close to a dream shooter for me as possible due to its size and functionality. While the camera is still new to me and I’m still in the process of learning it’s functions, I can tell it’s a keeper for sure.
I decided to take the little champagney-silvery box out in Melbourne to the Queen Victoria Market, along Elizabeth Street and into Bourke Street Mall for a quick shoot around. For some ungodly reason, I decided to shoot this roll in the “Panorama” mode and the jury is still out on whether or not it was a success. While the results aren’t terrible, it’s pretty clear that the Contax TVS is not the Hasselblad X-PAN (but, is decent enough if you’re keen on poorly executed panoramas).
I doubt I’ll be using the panoramic mode again, but I’ll definitely shoot HP5 in the future.
Ilford’s HP5 is probably my favourite Black & White film stock ever, this roll really just confirms that for me. Finally, I have broken up with my last photo lab, collected my negs and this roll and all rolls moving forward will be scanned by the legends at Hillvale.
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