Which film would you shoot at the South Pole?

miha · Oct 19, 2019

jawarden said:
I can't speak for everyone but my experience has been a happy one and if I were going to the Pole I'd have no hesitation to bring Kodak along for the ride, assuming it's fresh film.

Thank you. TMX 120 in Rodinal works for me very well but have been avoiding it for known reasons.

etn · Oct 19, 2019

Wow, visiting the pole, this is great! I have always been fascinated by polar exploration, reading the books by Nansen, Amundsen and the other guys. I will probably never go myself, though (I'm a bit of a sissy regarding cold climates, and not being involved in polar research whatsoever means I'll probably never have a chance to go.) So please post a lot of pictures here, film or digital, doesn't matter. We want to see

One question:
The temperature at the South pole in summer is, what, -25°C perhaps? this is the temperature of the freezers where we store our films before use. How do films react to light at this temperature? Do they lose sensitivity? Is the substrate flexible enough? Any problem to be expected?

Sirius Glass · Oct 19, 2019

AndyH52 said:
I'm really sorry to have to say this. No, seriously, I don't want to. But my children, who've suffered through many years of Dad jokes, would kill me if I didn't answer the question.

What kind of film would you shoot at the South Pole?

Pole-aroid, of course.

Color me green with envy.

DREW WILEY · Oct 19, 2019

Pan F is going to have great difficulty handling the high contrast range which exists with shiny ice etc. I've never been to Antarctica, but have photographed a lot of snow and glaciers in mountainous terrain. TMax films will do a far better job in this respect. Acros is a little more forgiving relative to exposure than TMax, but has about a stop less range in the shadows. Have a reliable light meter with you, and a spare battery to be kept warm in a pocket. I'd rate TMax100 at 100 and ACROS at 50. Practice first. If you rely on bracketing, you'll not only waste a lot of frames, but potentially miss out on things. "Latitutde" is an exposure myth in cases like this. Know the limitations of your film if you want sparkly highlights. Have your shutter speeds tested. A trip like that is pretty expensive, so don't skimp on the quantity of film either. True film will probably handle the lighting range with a lot more authority than digital, though you might want to use that for color shots just for convenience.

cmacd123 · Oct 19, 2019

reddesert said:
In southern summer the weather at the Pole will likely be very bright and clear.
If you haven't already read it, read the Kodak technical guide to arctic photography: https://125px.com/docs/techpubs/kodak/c9.pdf

I was going to suggest the same resource. And particularly the sections on page two about winterizing. perhaps your technician can at least remove any oil and replace it with dry lubrication.

the other issue mentioned in the guide if film brittleness. I wonder if one might want to select a 120 film that comes on a polyester base.

Alan Edward Klein · Oct 19, 2019

AndyH52 said:
I'm really sorry to have to say this. No, seriously, I don't want to. But my children, who've suffered through many years of Dad jokes, would kill me if I didn't answer the question.

What kind of film would you shoot at the South Pole?

Pole-aroid, of course.

Well, for color, you'd want to pick one with a warm palette.

mshchem · Oct 20, 2019

Kodak TMX T Max 100 and a K2 medium yellow filter. I would use an incident light meter. Keep it simple. You can shoot the TMX at different ISO and develop accordingly, but you start to mess with contrast.

A K2 filter will give you normal looking skies. Orange dramatic, and a 25A red will give a very dark sky that will make it look like you are on Mars.

Or shoot Ektar and be surprised at all the color even at the pole.

Robin Guymer · Oct 20, 2019

How many airport X-ray scanners are you taking your 120 film through? I took 40 rolls of 35mm to Antarctica in March and tried to have them hand checked at every security area as I was going through 8 to and fro from Australia via B.A. & Ushuaia. The film rolls not in their canisters and in zip lock bags only got scanned twice so most airports were obliging but 120 film is sealed in wrappers so I don't know how the security staff will view that for hand scanning. In New Zealand they hand inspected every roll.

Ray Morgenweck · Oct 20, 2019

.......when I was young I was a Cub Scout. Our meetings were in a small church hall. Once, we had a Guest, who had been to Antarctica. The presentation, was a Slide Show. It was Awesome, Memorable to me nearly six decades later. Moral of the Story.....shoot SLIDES!

abruzzi · Oct 21, 2019

the other thing to consider is moving from outdoor (very cold) to indoor (warm) and try to find ways to minimize the possibility of condensation. I wonder if you unloaded the film outside into something like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Medium-For...774305?hash=item23c6b790e1:g:Yf8AAOSwhGBdi4AB

before you brought it in, it would have time to warm up in a dry environment?

Sirius Glass · Oct 21, 2019

Before taking the camera into the cold seal it in a plastic bag and do not open the bag until the camera becomes the outside temperature; before bringing it in seal the camera in a plastic and do not open the plastic until the camera is the indoor temperature.

Huss · Oct 22, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
Before taking the camera into the cold seal it in a plastic bag and do not open the bag until the camera becomes the outside temperature; before bringing it in seal the camera in a plastic and do not open the plastic until the camera is the indoor temperature.

excellent advice

GLS · Oct 22, 2019

Sirius Glass said:
Before taking the camera into the cold seal it in a plastic bag and do not open the bag until the camera becomes the outside temperature; before bringing it in seal the camera in a plastic and do not open the plastic until the camera is the indoor temperature.

Surely only the second step is necessary, as the issue to avoid is moisture condensing onto/into a cold camera. I can't imagine what the first step would realistically achieve.

soboyle · Oct 22, 2019

Not sure how many airports yet, but I've heard about the newer 3D xray scanners can toast film toot sweet. Will have all film hand inspected in both directions.

Robin Guymer said:
How many airport X-ray scanners are you taking your 120 film through? I took 40 rolls of 35mm to Antarctica in March and tried to have them hand checked at every security area as I was going through 8 to and fro from Australia via B.A. & Ushuaia. The film rolls not in their canisters and in zip lock bags only got scanned twice so most airports were obliging but 120 film is sealed in wrappers so I don't know how the security staff will view that for hand scanning. In New Zealand they hand inspected every roll.

soboyle · Oct 22, 2019

I've settled on FP-4 for the trip. The 125 speed will work out well for shooting outside with the shutter speeds my Bessa 2 can handle, and I'm using a tripod anyway, so will be fine for any interior shots. Thanks for all the suggestions and help. The film shots are a tip-of-the-hat to the early explorers who went to the Pole in the early 20th century. I'll be shooting both the FP-4 and Polaroids at Pole, in addition to my digital cameras. I'll report back out how the cameras handle that cold. I checked today, the temp at Pole is -65 F, -95 F with wind chill. That should moderate somewhat by the time I arrive in mid November, but it's still going to be in the minus 20's-40's. Will be interesting to see how these cameras do in that environment. I'll be in McMurdo for a week also, which will be much warmer - at or above zero. Will be using them there as well.
If anyone is interested, look into the NSF's Antarctic Artist and Writers Program, that is how I'm getting to the Pole.

DREW WILEY said:
Pan F is going to have great difficulty handling the high contrast range which exists with shiny ice etc. I've never been to Antarctica, but have photographed a lot of snow and glaciers in mountainous terrain. TMax films will do a far better job in this respect. Acros is a little more forgiving relative to exposure than TMax, but has about a stop less range in the shadows. Have a reliable light meter with you, and a spare battery to be kept warm in a pocket. I'd rate TMax100 at 100 and ACROS at 50. Practice first. If you rely on bracketing, you'll not only waste a lot of frames, but potentially miss out on things. "Latitutde" is an exposure myth in cases like this. Know the limitations of your film if you want sparkly highlights. Have your shutter speeds tested. A trip like that is pretty expensive, so don't skimp on the quantity of film either. True film will probably handle the lighting range with a lot more authority than digital, though you might want to use that for color shots just for convenience.

DREW WILEY · Oct 22, 2019

FP4 is quite versatile and should do fine. But I'd be concerned about the temperature in relation to how Polaroid needs to self-develop on location. Digital is battery dependent, so keep a spare warm in your pocket.

soboyle · Oct 22, 2019

It's hard to say how the Polaroid will perform in those temps, from pulling exposed shots from the pack in the camera to development time. From my experience the FP3000b B&W film can be left for an extended time before peeling is required, so I will pocket the prints (assuming I can pull them) and wait until they are warmed up inside before peeling. I'll test that and see how that works, improvise from there. It may be that the chemicals will freeze and not spread when pulled, in which case it may be a one shot at a time approach, and wait until the camera warms up before pulling the film.

DREW WILEY said:
FP4 is quite versatile and should do fine. But I'd be concerned about the temperature in relation to how Polaroid needs to self-develop on location. Digital is battery dependent, so keep a spare warm in your pocket.

mgb74 · Oct 22, 2019

There is a person on this forum who has actually "been there, done that" in terms of film photography at the South Pole. I don't know if b/w though. If you haven't already, you might want to do a search.

DREW WILEY · Oct 22, 2019

Extreme temps aren't unique to the antarctic. I have a family member who used ordinary non-winterized 35mm film cameras for extended arctic and antarctic climbing expeditions. The only problem was allowing a meter battery to get cold. Fully mechanical gear seems to work best. But tourism antarctic style is now rather frequent, and people take all kinds of photo gear. Hard-core Himalayan mountaineers whom I've known have ended up regretting "upgrading" to fancier things. I've done plenty of cold weather mountain photography with multiple formats, including mechanical 35mm, Med format SLR's and rangefinders, and especially view cameras, both 4x5 and 8x10, but nothing quite as cold as what is in question. But if it's cold enough to have an "unbreakable" camera case shatter with a light fall, I guess it's cold enough.

Which film would you shoot at the South Pole?

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