127 Day December 2021

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Ilford HP5 Plus

I haven't posted very much on this blog for the last few months, for various reasons, but I didn't want to miss observing 127 Day yesterday, and I did also have the time to develop and scan the negatives, not wanting to add to a backlog of half-written blog posts or unresolved tests of films and cameras. I shot one whole roll of cut-down Ilford HP5 Plus, and a couple of short rolls of off-cuts from having previously cut down medium format HP5 to 127. I chose the Baby Ikonta in order to get as many shots from the film as possible, with the nominal 3x4.5cm negative format (and, with a little care, on a whole roll of 127 film with the Baby Ikonta one can get 17 pictures rather than the 16 numbered frames). I revisited a number of the shots that I'd taken in this summer's 127 Day in July (although not using the Vest Pocket Kodak due to its light leaks); the weather condition were less conducive than the overcast July day then, with very flat and dull light and increasing rain. I did consider pushing the film one stop in development to increase contrast, but went with the standard time for box speed as I'd taken quite a few shots with the sky featuring rather prominently, and I thought that this might make any definition in the sky even more difficult to pull out. The results were very much as I would have expected given the lighting conditions, and even with a 400-speed film I did shoot with wider apertures than I might have liked for the Baby Ikonta's Novar lens, but for a ninety-year-old triplet lens, it performs well enough.