See the future of photography in fake black-and-white film

Share All sharing options for: See the future of photography in fake black-and-white film

Last year I tried to counterbalance the lack of news at CP+ by shooting film to cover it. This year I had a little less time at Japan's biggest photo show, but I thought I'd try to do something different again.

I've been using Fujifilm's upcoming X-Pro2 camera in recent weeks — full review coming soon — and there's a new film simulation mode that aims to replicate the company's Acros black-and-white emulsion. It's a little more advanced than the film simulations that Fujifilm has included with its cameras for years; it's more of an algorithm than a simple tone curve. The biggest difference I've noticed so far is the addition of a grain effect at higher ISOs, and generally it gives pretty contrasty yet balanced results.

Since I don't get to shoot much black-and-white photography for The Verge, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try something new while testing the X-Pro2 out further. CP+ is a chaotic mess of a trade show, and it seemed even more packed than usual this year — not ideal conditions for monochrome, which tends to work best with simple compositions. Still, here's what I came up with.

Grid View Canon is pretty confident in its cameras' autofocus abilities, placing fast-moving gymnasts in its booth so you can test for yourself.

A Panasonic camera keeps up with a model train.

Canon's new mid-range DSLR, the 80D, sits at the bottom of a pyramid of bigger models.

Nikon's new D5 is likely to be the choice of many motorsports photographers soon. The company set up a mini racetrack for visitors to test the camera's speedy performance.

Attendees testing Olympus cameras. The Pen F logo is so metal.

Parasols at Panasonic.

Amazingly, Sony brought back its spinning toy eagle this year. I expect it to be a mainstay for decades to come.

The Nikon DL 18-50 is a really interesting compact camera with a 1-inch sensor and unprecedented 18-50mm-equivalent f/1.8-2.8 lens. Barring any major disasters it could be an incredible travel camera — there's never been a high-quality pocketable wide-angle option like this before.

I felt bad taking this picture of Ilford quality black-and-white film with fake black-and-white film.

Casio's Smart Outdoor Watch is out soon, and the company's splittable FR100 action camera works with it — you can use the watch as a viewfinder instead of this detachable screen.

Pentax isn't shying away from the fact that its K-1 full-frame camera is long overdue — it's showing off the prototype it first displayed at Photokina over fifteen years ago.

Sony's new G Master line of full-frame lenses.

Many camera makers put models from their history on display. This is a Semi Olympus II from 1938.

As I leave, a visitor takes a 360-degree photo of the sunset with a Ricoh Theta.



