Sticking with my theme to do something different each month for the Frugal Film Project, I decided this month to bring the trusty Nikon F80 and my March roll of film with me on vacation to Hocking Hills, Ohio.

Look for a full post with all of my Hocking Hills images from that trip in the near future, but for now I’m just sharing the images I shot on the F80 for the FFP. For most of the trails we hiked on, I carried a medium format film camera and the F80.

Given the nature of the EZ400 (Foma 400) film to have a steep sensitivity fall-off after 1 second, I bracketed most of my shots to ensure that I had some success. I usually don’t bracket my shots when using film that I know very well, like Ektar or HP5+. Usually I consider that to be a waste of film, but I wanted to ensure I got it right with this somewhat new-to-me film. It was very dark and overcast during the whole trip, so even without an ND filter I was usually looking at a few to several seconds at f/16. So I won’t have as many shots to share this time compared to January and February.

Below are my favorites from the roll. Click on them to see them bigger.

There would have been some images of Cedar Falls as well, but when we made it down to the falls and I set up to take my first shot, the battery on the F80 died. You see, taking long exposures with a “modern” camera that uses batteries is a sure-fire way to kill the battery. And, of course, I didn’t have any spare CR123 batteries with me in the pack or in the car. I’ll blame the fact that I am so used to shooting with medium format film cameras that don’t take batteries - it didn’t even enter into my mind to worry about it. I had more back at the cabin, but that didn’t help me when I was standing in front of Cedar Falls. That’s OK, I had a working light meter and my Hasselblad 500cm, so I made the best of it.

A few thoughts on the EZ400/Foma400 film. It is grainy as heck, and as far as I can tell is really closer to a 250 speed film. Like I said in my last FFP post, it is starting to grow on me a bit. I think any of the above shots would make a nice print even with the grain. Does it make me reconsider doing any serious work on 35mm instead of medium format? Nope, not in the least. I’ll still stick with medium format if I am shooting with the idea of selling something or printing large, but, I think 35mm does have its place and I am quite happy with what I’ve experienced with the EZ400/Foma400 so far.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading!

Jeremy