Agfa Precisa CT100 in the woods

Although I don’t aim to make this blog too dominated by gear issues, I know that posts relating to equipment do generate the most views. An article about Agfa Precisa CT100 has been very popular recently, becoming my third most popular post. Indeed last night I googled “Agfa Precisa CT100” and this site came out third from top in the results, with the two top results being suppliers of the film.

So in that vein, here’s a little more about that very film. You can tell I’ve had the film in the camera for some time because these shots data from May, the annual period when UK landscape photographers thoughts turn to bluebells in the woods, with a bit of wild garlic thrown in the mix.

I’ve always found the colours of bluebells difficult to capture accurately on film, but Provia / Agfa Precisa does a fairly good job – whereas Velvia is too vivid and Portra a bit insipid for this task.

I loaded the Agfa Precisa CT100 film into a Mamiya ZM camera and set off to Plessey Woods in Northumberland with two Tamron Adaptall lenses, a 35-70mm zoom and a 135 telephoto. Most of these shots were taken with the 35-70mm lens. Although I took a tripod, I must have taken these images hand-held, as the limited depth of field in many images suggest I was sacrificing smaller apertures in favour of short shutter speeds – which might have been forced by a breeze blowing through the bluebells.