We have added Fuji TONE WP printing paper for contact printing to our selection.
This is an RC paper, medium weight and glossy. Its long exposure times make it an ideal choice for large format contact printing as it allows manipulation of exposure over a period of 60-100 seconds (depending on your setup). The paper has rich blacks and nice grey tones. You can find a closer assessment here.
Deep black, burning white – add some extremes to your shots with Fuji HR II Minicopy. This film has an ISO rating of 6 and needs careful contrast management when developing. But this effort is well worth it when seeing the results. The highlights are nicely blown and particularly using stand-development one can observe interesting edge effects. Japan photographer icons Daido Moriyama and Eikoh Hosoe are reputed having used this film in the past.
Polaroid is no more so the only remaining option for instant photographs are the excellent Fuji Instant peel apart films. While the old Polaroid 550 and 405 holders can be used, we recommend using the Fuji holders PA-45 and PA-145 respectively. They are well built and slightly shallower than the Polaroid holders, making them very easy to use with almost any large format camera allowing the insertion of such holders (spring and Graflok backs alike). We offer new and used holders in very good condition.
Hello again to all you faithful readers of the Megaperls Webshop news and many apologies for a lack of updates. We have been running the site at full steam over the last months and thank everybody for their continued support and recommendations on the web.
The biggest news and most recent significant addition are the re-released Velvia 50 films. Early tests show that it lives up to the heritage of the previous Velvia and well worth going back to if you enjoyed shooting classic Velvia in the past.
Another fantastic addition is the Provia 400X. While it is not a cheap film many photographers state that the film’s quality in terms of grain and colour fidelity of that of a 100 speed film and people are very impressed.
MS-MAG rangefinder viewfinder magnifiers made by MS Optical R&D have been a hit and continue to see a lot of demand. The manufacturer have told us that 1.35 magnifiers will need to be manufactured soon which may lead to a brief interruption in supplies between production runs. Less so for the 1.3N, which fits Bessa R, Epson RD-1 and Zeiss Ikon series rangefinders – due to lack of domestic demand they will no longer be made once current supplies run out, so it is recommended to secure yours as soon as possible.
As previously announced, Neopan black and white film in 30.5m/100ft bulk rolls were no longer manufactured since March 2007 and supply is virtually exhausted for Neopan 1600 Super Presto and Neopan 100 Acros in this format. We still have good stocks of Neopan 100 SS and Neopan 400 Presto, but as always it is recommended to act sooner than later if you like those films and wish to continue to rolling your own.
Please note that Megaperls Web Shop will be on holiday from July 14th until July 21st. Orders placed after July 13th will be fulfilled on our return later in July. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, but like everyone else we need a little break from it all sometimes.
This site was hacked a few weeks ago and I spent several hours putting it back. In the course of doing so I wondered what for. There was no obvious answer so I have decided to discontinue this weblog, which I started more that four years ago.
A personal presence on the web has become common and in general I feel I have leveraged the net enough in the last few years. At present, I am not sure about the need to express myself here in this form and after some contemplation concluded that discontinuing this is the right thing to do. Even writing these words makes me feel uncomfortable, but then, let’s give it one last post.
What will happen next? I will switch from Web 2.0 to Life 1.0, go private instead of public, talk to friends, family and people directly on specific issues instead of throwing out thoughts to nowhere. When there is too much content and too little thought, it is time to move on.
I will take down the top-level parts of the site and all content in the coming weeks and will replace with something else, probably some sort of modest and minimalistic photoblog that I have on my mind. Naturally the Web Shop will remain unaffected by this and continue operating as normal, although I will retire most of the gallery too, except for those parts which are linked to from other sites.
Many thanks. Sayonara.
Velvia 50 is back in production – in the UK at least. This is a surprise to many and we did not hear anything about it in Japan. We have some selected Velvia 50 films in stock, but do not plan to supply it in the long term, subject to Fujifilm future changes.
We have added Provia 400X in 35mm and 120 format to our selection. Be sure to try out this new high-speed reversal film stock.
We have had reports of negative experiences with customs authorities in the following countries: Canada (additional documentation for all shipping options, delays), Germany (opening of sheet film boxes, delays, charges), Italy (excessive delays). While we do our best to ensure a smooth import we remind customers that we are not responsible for all customs obligations to their authorities.
We have had confirmation that QuickChange cartridges have been phased out of production in March 2006 and supplier stocks are depleting. We have accumulated some film stock dated 12-2006 in Velvia and Provia and keep trying to offer used film holders while we have cartridges. The time of availability of the modern Grafmatics-type 4×5 film system is coming to an end and we recommend to make your purchase decision for holder or additional cartridges soon.
We just learned of a price hike from 1 Sep 06 for Fuji reversal films (not sure about all films, but certainly all Velvia & Provia) today. The increase is estimated at 10% on current prices. As always our prices will be adjusted accordingly.