Diffusion

I find it ironic that anyone would take a sharp, or sharpish modern lens and purposely put a filter on it that renders the images less sharp, but that's what I've done with these. To be fair, the Fotodiox diffuser doesn't so much take away sharpness as add haziness. I've been interested in the effects that diffusion and softening filters have in scattering light, but haven't done much with them. Part of the reason for that, I think, lies in the fact that I mostly shoot at small apertures where this kind of filter has a much reduced effect.

Today however was different, I bought a couple rolls of Across II (ISO 100) and thought I'd shoot this roll wide open. Wide open with the TTArtisan 28mm is only f/5.6 but I wondered if this might lend to a more noticable effect with the diffusion filter. The TT 28mm has a somewhat odd filter diameter of 37mm, but since I have a 37-39mm adapter, I thought I'd give it a go.

I can't remember what grade of diffusion this is, or if Fotodiox even has grades of diffusion as it isn't marked on the lens, but I find the effect here quite subtle. I think I like it in some instances. I should do a more scientific comparison and do the same shot with and without diffusion. I might do just that.

I'd mostly forgotten what a nice film Acros II is. If it remains available and not insanely pricey I'll probably get some more. This roll was developed in Clayton F-76+. This is only the second time I've used this developer, but It seems very good with no real drawbacks. Jim Grey has a nice write up about it on his Down the Road blog.