Exploring Monochrome: Canon A-1 and Ilford Delta 400

This post has been a long time coming. Last winter I loaded my old Canon A-1 film camera with a roll of Ilford Delta 400 to see if I like it better than the venerable HP5 emulsion. In addition, I will be testing out my new yellow and orange filters to see what effect they have on this film stock.

A Monochrome Start to 2026

It wasn't something that I intended, or set out to do, but it seems that monochrome photography might be a recurring theme in 2026. A renewed interest in black and white film can be partially attributed to a road trip to Denver, with an inevitable stop at Englewood Camera to look at the used gear. On that trip I discovered an FD 100-300mm manual focus lens at a price impossible to ignore. That particular lens just happens to emply a 58mm filter size, the exact size of my set of monochrome filters.

Happy Solstice

Thought this might be the perfect time to get my spring solstice, end of winter newsletter published! Coincidentally, I just got back a couple of rolls of film that I've been working on throughout the winter, just in time for this publication.

Exploring Horsethief Park in Winter

Exploring Horsethief Park in the snow was something I've been wanting to do for a while now. I've been on this trail in winter before, up to the falls anyway, but I've never taken the fork to the north at the beaver ponds. I've been wanting to take my film camera to the ponds and shoot in monochrome for some time now, and this was the day. I had a few frames of Ilford FP4 left in my old Canon A-1, and I took it up the trail to finish them off.

Major Weather Miscalculation

As I sat in my chair with the doggies and drank my morning coffee, I checked the weather and decided to go out and shoot a video on a subject I've been kicking around. And that subject is shooting monochrome pictures with a mirrorless digital camera.