Ensign Selfix 1620 sample pictures

I’ve developed some black & white pictures from my test run with a Selfix 1620 folding camera today, and this post is to publish the resultant scans. As I said in my previous post, I used Ilford ID-11 instead of caffinol for the development, and the negatives looked quite good when I first saw them as they came out of the tank. Well, I’m pleased to say that I’m still happy with them now I’ve scanned them and had a better look in Lightroom.

Ensign Selfix 1620 Sample Pictures

After importing into Lightroom, I did a little bit of exposure tweaking and patched a few dust spots in some areas where they were most noticeable like in the sky, but I still think these pictures are remarkably well exposed and have very good definition. There are a couple of shots where I didn’t correctly nail the focus, but I’m not surprised at that since it’s all down to guess work. Also, the subject is all a bit boring and some of the shots really don’t work in black & white, but that isn’t particularly important because I was really just taking test shots.

All that aside however, I’m still astounded by how well these pictures look considering the age of the camera, the fact that the light was measured using a light meter app on my phone, and the fact that they were all hand held with lowish shutter speeds and using a camera which is 60 odd years old.

It just enhances my desire to get a decent quality medium format camera.