I take images since school age. Since the time of studying medicine I used my home photography lab for developing and printing which I got from my grandfather. For the past fifteen years I took digital images, but since two years, the majority of my images are now again shot on film.
I am now particularly interested to explore the different films stocks which all have different looks, and I like choosing the right one for every occasion. Nevertheless, my standard film types are now Ilford FP4 / HP5. I also highly recommend ADOX CHS II (ortho-panchromatic), a wonderful, fine-grain film showing a perfect palette of grey tones superior to other film stocks – from my point of view totally underrated and a true insider´s tip.
For colour film, there is no way around Kodak. I prefer mostly Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Portra 400 and occasionally Ultramax 400 and Color Plus. Adox Color Mission 200 is very interesting and well suited for vintage type places, but its special colour palette makes it a film for defined occasions only. Next on the list for trying out is cine film from Kodak!
Contact: photo@tzoller.de
My camera gear
| Digital | Analog 35mm | Analog medium format |
| Leica M-P 240 | Leica R7 | Hasselblad 501c |
| Fuji GFX-50R | Leica R6.2 | Rolleiflex 3.5f |
| Leica M6 | Pentax 67 | |
| Nikon FM2 | ||
| Olympus XA |
Dev & Scan
I develop my film using Jobo development tanks, my favorite developer is Kodak HC-110 due to its versatility for all film stocks. Avoiding dust and stains on the film is essential, therefore I use and recommend Kodak Photo Flo. For scanning, I use my Fuji X-pro 2, the XF80mm macro lens and the Essential Film Holder with modifications. I also use the Novoflex copy stand for holding the camera, as recommended by Kyle Mc Dougall. I use Negative Lab pro for image conversion, and follow the excellent workflow suggested by Hashem from Pushing Film.
Printing – the real-life EPSON vs. CANON comparison
For digital printing, I used the Canon-PRO 300 for one year, and changed then to the EPSON P-700. To make the long story short: the print quality is identical (if it is not, you should work on your settings…). I prefer the EPSON printer over the Canon Pro-300 simply for a long list of practical and economical reasons, see my comment at Keith Cooper´s comparison video.
Practical / concept comparison between both printer systems:
| Canon image prograf PRO-300 | EPSON SureColor SC-P700 |
| Large printhead (carries all ink cartridges !) | Small, lightweight printhead, connected to ink cartridges via small flexible tubes |
| Small ink cartridges (14ml only) | Medium size ink cartridges (23ml) |
| Permanent exchange and stock management of cartridges, permanent waste of empty cartridges | Significantly reduced frequency of cartridge exchange, reduced waste |
| Higher price per ml of original ink (due to small ink cartridges) | Cheaper price per ml of original ink (due to larger inc cartridge size) |
| Use of third-party inks possible in theory, but almost impossible in real life, as ink level monitoring won´t be possible. Chips of cartridges cannot be reset. | EPSON chip can be reset, with some caution use of third-party inks possible. See excellent reviews and tutorials by Patrick Ludolph on this topic. |
| Wobbling of printer during printing, as the printhead has to carry all cartridges | No / minimal wobbling, as the printhead is lightweight, and connected to the cartridges with flexible small tubes. |
| 100% print quality | 100% print quality |
Just for those practical reasons alone, the EPSON using 23ml cartridges is for me the clear winner in all categories above.