Fun with Film: Kodak Supra 100

The world of Color Negative Film has gotten to be a bit dull to me - not dull as in "unsaturated," but more so dull in that there are not a lot of fresh options when I care to see if I can try out a new palette. 

Fortunately, there are, at the moment, a number of expired film stocks still found today, under 15 years old, that can still produce good results.  While these films may not be readily available, or even consistent from roll to roll, they can at least make for a fun new shooting exercise to throw into a trusted camera to see what you get.

One such film is Kodak Supra 100, an emulsion that appears to have shown up on the market around 2000, just as the world of digital photography was about to take off.  The introduction of a slower 100 speed film during an era when compact point and shoot cameras (that tended to need faster speed films) had gained so much traction in the market is an interesting and refreshing thing to note.  I'd presume that this film was marketed towards serious amateurs using SLR cameras or similar equipment.  

Information on Supra's selling points today can be a tad scant given that many web pages contemporary with the period the film was sold, have since vanished into cyberspace.  It seems that this film's main strengths were a vivid color and fine grain in comparison to the Kodak Gold and Royal Gold products at the time.  Supra was discontinued in all speeds around 2003, and remaining stocks of the film appear sporadically on eBay and other sales outlets, often in quantities of 5 rolls or less.

I happened to snap up a small lot of expired film from an ebay auction that included one roll of Supra, and was curious to see what this film could do, though the most recent examples of the film I could find on the web were a bit too "Lomo" for my tastes.  I elected to set out close to home with this film loaded in my Exakta VX, swapping from the Domiplan 2.8 to the Primotar 3.5 lens, and then finishing the roll in the Minolta A5 in order to see what sort of color the latter camera might provide.   

At the onset of the roll, the Supra provides a look that certainly doesn't look like a roll of film that was likely 15 years old, offering up bright colors that embody the vivid morning on which I rambled about.  Grain increase is evident in the sky, but is by no means distracting. 

Supra handled contrast well, offering a natural yet vibrant rendition that still showed adequate shadow detail. 

One of the advantages of the Exakta's waist level finder is not having to pull a muscle to get a low shot like this.  Contrast is a bit low, but the Domiplan offers up some bubbly bokeh.

Shot at a near wide open aperture, this image still gives off a good color with particularly true to life green tones. 

Another shallow depth of field shot doesn't offer the same bokeh as my lower perspective shot from above, but does show the vivid color strengths present, even on this old film stock. 

With a somewhat backlit scene, the Supra's colors are still quite nice.  The blue sky rendering tends to be a bit more flat however. 

Another try at a shallow depth of field shot shows off a nice result on what is typically an overlooked lens in the Domiplan, as well as the rich green tones this film can provide, even under overcast. 

The film's rendition wasn't always consistent however. as the yellow hues here tend to suggest. 

Skin tones in the shots above and below aren't very flattering, with a greenish cast evident.  This seems a film more suited to landscape work. 

A mid-afternoon shower provided me a quick chance to see how this film performed in such conditions, and it responded with a similar cool green cast. 

I switched to the Primotar for the last few images, and found results to be acceptable, but not particularly stirring. 

The Primotar however, had the disadvantage of having all of its shots taken under overcast.  STill, the tones here are particularly lush and pleasant. 

Again, a cool, but not distracting, tone embellishes the images taken on Supra 100.

My last shot on the Exakta was this one, proving that even with a slow f/3.5 lens and a vivid waist level finder, it can be tricky to get the shallow depth of field effect desired.  The image lacks any true focus, but the color rendition is quite lovely. 

After switching to the A5 for the last few shots, I didn't get a lot of sun with which to shoot.  Still, the Supra delivered some decent results in light that it was not really optimal for, even when it was new stock. 

When given a modest amount of sun, the Supra tended to have a bit more of the green cast that made it work well under overcast, but in this case, it gives off a soft muted portrayal. 

But with the sun at my back in softer light, the muted look was actually pretty favorable. 

A pair of close focus shots under overcast have a nice balance, and the fine grain works well in spotlighting the sharpness of A5. 

A wide open shot doesn't quite nail focus, but still gives off a lush result. 

Closing out with this one, the sky takes on a hazy hue that is a bit unappealing, with an excess of pale yellow in the green tones.

Supra, in my view, provided impressive, but not stellar results.  The grain structure was quite good, and the colors could render nicely.  Generally, the film has aged well, but was still prone to some shifts and casts, particularly under light to moderate overcast. 

Looking through the results of this roll, it seems as if Kodak was aiming to compete with Fuji's Reala with their Supra film.  Having tried both films, I can find things to like in both, but am certainly partial to the Fuji product.  I wouldn't actively seek out a stash of Supra in the future, but if it came my way in a mixed lot, I would certainly shoot it without hesitation, provided that I was shooting landscape images and the lighting was favorable.

Minolta's Metropolitan: The A5 Rangefinder

"Wow, but you're handsome."  That was my very first thought. 

As someone who owns rangefinder cameras made from the 1940's through the 1970's, I tend to be a bit dismayed to see how the outward appearance of this genre of cameras gradually grew to be a bit less attractive as the years went onward. The svelte design of a flagship camera like the 1948 Konica I had become less endearing by the time the Auto S2 was released less than two decades later. Both are excellent cameras in their own way, but the earlier camera possesses a sleek design that had been jettisoned as the camera took on a faster lens and improved functionality in the form of exposure metering. 

Looking at some of my other rangefinders of the 1960's, I'm not particularly smitten by the overall look of the Ricoh 520M CDS, Taron Marquis, or Yashica M-II.  But then I happen to acquire a little gem of a camera from the 1960's that really impresses me with its outward appearance...

Simple and elegant, the Minolta A5 puts forth an attractive and clean look. 

I call it my "Metropolitan" as the gorgeously raised "M" logo, looking more like an upside down "W," strongly reminds me of the solitary "M" logo associated with New York's Transit system during the later part of the same decade.  It's clean, simple, and even a bit elegant. It seems right at home in the decade in which it originated.  It's specifications are more or less identical to most decent Japanese rangefinders of the era, sporting an f/2.8 lens and a capable shutter that shot as fast as 1/500 of a second.  Another spare item generously granted to me for trial by Mike Eckman, the A5 impresses me with its clean look.  

The A5, interestingly, lacks one feature that was to be a main selling point of cameras of the era, a meter.  The nice offset to this is that the camera has a size comparatively smaller than most cameras of the era with either selenium or CDS meters.  The lack of meter read-outs also makes for a clean and not terribly complicated looking camera model.    

Top deck of the A5 retains a clean no-nonsense look.  Note the offset of the settings on the lens barrel.  The clean look carries over to the rangefinder, which presents bright lines and a a simple but effective rangefinder patch.

Just as with its appearance, usage of the A5 is also not terribly complicated for the most part.  It's a simple matter to set exposure settings and look through the nicely sized rangefinder, and confirm focus using the decently sized rangefinder patch.  Brightlines assist in framing on the Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 lens.  An LV scale is seen on the opposite side of the shutter speed dial, but I elected to pass on even learning how it was used, electing to simply stick to setting speeds based on Sunny-16 rules and inference.

The one thing that was a bit challenging to adjust to with the A5 was the non-standard dual offset to which the settings are aligned.  Neither the distance nor the shutter/aperture combination lines up to the top center of the lens barrel, as often occurs on other models.  Instead a notch on the right side of the lens barrel points out the shutter and aperture combination, while rather indistinct points on either side of the base of the barrel point out the distances in both feet and meters.  

What has thrown me off a couple of times is a "V" marking on the left side of the barrel, which, at the wrong angle, looks as if it is pointing to the speed and aperture.  I thought I had the camera set at f/2.8 at 1/500 of a second, but I was actually set for f/22 at 1/8 of a second.  

If you don't take your time with the A5, it is possible in the right setting to get confused about what your settings are. 

This one minor hiccup aside, operation of the Minolta A5 was essentially flawless. The quiet shutter seemed to perform just as expected, and fired off snappily.  The camera doesn't feel overbearing at all, but similarly doesn't feel like it isn't up to the challenges it may face.  It's just a nicely polished machine that manages to combine elegance with just enough capability to make a great take-along with one's favorite film.

I wouldn't call Ilford FP4 my "favorite" film, but it is among my go-to films to get good slow speed results with good tonality and contrast.  It seemed a perfect fit for me to try with the A5 for some late March images with the Minolta. 

Bokeh from the Rokkor lens wasn't always great, but provided decent enough soft rendering of distant objects.  Contrast was a bit low when shot wide open.

A little bit of ghosting was evident from the lens, but generally, it performed quite satisfactorily.  I noticed that the rangefinder was spot on in its alignment with the lens. 

FP4 film tends to work well with monument type settings, and shooting the A5 made composing and shooting quickly fairly easy given its easy layout. 

Guesswork of exposure settings combined with a personal interest in minimizing depth of field on some subjects led me to over expose some shots, but the tonal curve of FP4 at least made them salvageable.  One of the nicer examples of bokeh from the Rokkor lens. 

Stopped down a bit, the Rokkor was quite sharp, even when shooting in less than optimal lighting.  

A pair of shots of the main gate of Lorraine Cemetery show shots taken at near and distant focus settings.  Both came out quite well. 

A stop at a church in Baltimore on a foggy morning provided me a few good photographic subjects to spotlight some of the best of the A5, though this is not the best example. 

Bokeh on this shot isn't soft enough, but the sharpness of the birdbath is very well done. 

The Minolta worked well with the tonality capabilities of the FP4 to produce some nice photos, such as this, whose focal point was the "1922" date near the door. 

Just an excellent rendering of a very dreary scene by the A5 on the Ilford film.  I'd hoped this shot would come out well, and was quite pleased with the result. 

Lettering, when properly focused portrays with excellent sharpness on this fairly modestly sized camera. 

One of very few shots that I seemed to underexpose a bit.  Still, the results are good. 

I do tend to find that the bokeh rendering leaves a bit to be desired with this camera, but this is largely made up by the excellent sharpness. 

Another very dreamy shot taken on a foggy morning. 

The Washington Monument near the Appalachian Trail provided a subject for a couple of shots from the A5.  I really stunk at getting proper horizon perspective. 

The distant details become a bit indistinct, but yet again, the foreground part of the image upon which I focused rendered with some great sharpness. 

A country road a few weeks prior to the advent of leaf season.  It was a bit of a grab shot but I like it a lot. 

Another mountain side scene that shows some photographic interest to me. 

An overall scene of Myersville that I realize I shot a tad too quickly.  The satellite dish that I didn't notice at the time becomes too prominent in this composition. 

The Minolta A5 does nothing that no other camera can do.  It lacks the security of a meter, and doesn't have a particularly fast lens. But it works, and it works well.  It couples together a healthy complement of features, and packages them into a clean and well designed body that is fairly compact in comparison to other rangefinders of the era.  My "Metropolitan" won't always be the first camera I think of when I go out shooting, but it will be a contender when I want a dependable, compact, and fairly easy to use rangefinder for some time of enjoyable film shooting!