spiderbraids

Spidersnaps: A grainy Vibe

2026-04-06T15:12:40Z

I already tried the low-priced Vibe 400 full-frame previously, so let's see how it does half-frame in the Kodak H35, as shot from last December to March :-) In short, rather grainy, especially indoors and lower-light conditions (and sometimes, even higher-light conditions :-\)

( A grainy Vibe )

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Spidersnaps: Back to business as usual

2026-03-27T16:25:07Z

After the previous Kentmere roll's underperformance, this roll of Kentmere Pan 400 in my Kodak M35 returned to its typical robustness in suboptimal lighting (in fact, a few of these shots were do-overs from that previous roll)... Not much more to say really :-)

( Back to business as usual )

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Thailand in the eyes of AI: A follow-up

2026-03-22T12:37:45Z

Another post on AI-generated inspo-slop about Thailand, that somehow manages to mention The Owl House and the Beatles (the post that is, not the slop :-) though there is Beatles slop in there too :-\)

( Thailand in the eyes of AI: A follow-up )

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Spidersnaps: A hopping good time with Fuji

2026-03-18T15:48:19Z

Picking up a disposable to cover a specific event in color while having black and white in my regular cameras... sounds familiar :-) Anyways, this time it was a Fuji Quicksnap, 27 exposures for THB600, which was steep, but still the lowest price I could find for a disposable with flash, given that other places were selling them for THB50 more (they also did have Kodak Daylight, 39 exposures for THB580, but that doesn't come with flash, and hence only suitable for daylight)

I couldn't find any info about the film itself on the package, but looking online, it turns out the Quicksnap has less sensitive film than the Kodak, ISO 400 vs ISO 800; that said, the film is apparently Fuji's own Superia X-Tra, otherwise discontinued in box-form :-) Also of note is that you don't have to worry about holding down a button for flash, as the Quicksnap uses a switch for the flash, that even pushes up a small plastic block that lights up, so there's no mistaking whether you have flash on :-) (That small plastic block also means that it cannot be dismantled for reloading as readily as the Kodak; I know from experience) Also, after taking the last exposure, the advance wheel advances the film straight into the cylinder rather than locking the shutter a few more times like the Kodak did, so no chance of losing a great moment to being on the lightstruck film leader :-)

( A hopping good time with Fuji )

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Spidersnaps: Lomo lo-fi

2026-02-27T16:10:49Z

Lomography brand films aren't commonly in stock at my usual lab, and they're usually out of my willing price range... However, one day the lab had a supply of Lomo Classicolor 200 for THB390 (USD13), and given that I had a provincial trip to a flower field coming up, I thought why not? Well, one good reason is that it feels like it's got the same sensitivity and contrast-iness as the Harman Phoenix I tried a while back, and at least on my Kodak M35, the shots outdoors (like the flower field) mostly worked nicely, but it really underperformed indoors, and even outdoor shots sometimes featured harsh shadows :-\ The final result was that I only got 29 scans from 36 shots (some looking very indistinct), and I suspect it'd probably work better with cameras where the exposure can be adjusted (That said, go figure that they still returned it as strips)

( Lomo lo-fi )

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Howzat, part 9: Rising Stars, falling fortunes

2026-02-23T13:48:02Z

Following the Women's Asia Cup Rising Stars, plus possible ideas for improving cricket's local standing :-)

( Rising Stars, falling fortunes )

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Howzat, part 8: Onward to Nepal

2026-02-02T13:41:08Z

My longest Howzat yet, covering the World Cup T20 Global qualifiers :-)

( Onward to Nepal )

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Spidersnaps: Quite a bit to SEA

2026-01-20T15:25:08Z

Despite Kentmere Pan 400 normally being robust even with suboptimal lighting, this one felt like it needed more than the normal amount, even after using the wide aperture of flash mode to help... on one hand, plenty of my shots were indoors, on the other hand, it seems like there might have been some sort of light leak at the top of the film :-\ (And when the lab returned the film, they made a point of showing how thin the negatives were, so they had to put it in a canister instead of strips)

( Quite a bit to SEA )

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Thailand in the eyes of AI

2025-12-31T14:56:29Z

Closing out 2025 with the most bizarre story I've ever covered here (and this is someone who went at length on the rarity of surviving Scottish Gaelic dubs)

( Thailand in the eyes of AI )

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Spidersnaps: Double the Gold

2025-12-30T13:33:35Z

Having tried Kodak Gold in full-frame in the summer, I decided to see how it performed half-frame in the Kodak H35, even if late rainy season into winter probably wasn't an ideal time... Nevertheless, I had two provincial trips during this roll, and wanted to get them (well, at least the well-lit shots) looking as good as possible :-)

( Double the Gold )

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Spidersnaps: Spot-On

2025-12-27T02:42:25Z

Here's a very special one... In 2024, my father showed me that he had a Pentax Spotmatic F, a classic 1970's film SLR as opposed to my usual point-and-shoots, and told me that if I was interested, I could go have it cleaned... I finally got it cleaned at Mega Plaza (near the roadway arch seen in a couple previous rolls) for something THB1500 in January 2025, and loaded it with Kodak Vision3 250D for THB260 :-) Chris Chinnock called the Pentax Spotmatic F "very well made and very simple camera with no bells and whistles, it just does what you need it to do without getting in the way." While Jim Grey called it "Pentax's ultimate achievement, M42 screw mount at its best. And for me one of the top 3 Pentax cameras ever built." High praise, and well-deserved :-)
It took almost the entire year to get through this roll, since the camera was too large and heavy to take to uni every day for use as a daily beater, though I did do so for a few days early on, but I mostly took shots near and around my home, with the camera making a larger thunking sound than my usual point-and-shoots... That said, even as a "basic" SLR, having a light meter, adjustable shutter time, and a focusable lens opens up opportunities that my daily beaters could never hope to achieve, like closeups, great indoor/nighttime shots, or freezing quick sports action, and many of the shots look so much better (and sharper :-)) that either of them would have made :-)

( Spot-On )

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EPG fails, round 5

2025-12-24T13:33:06Z

Time for the another installment of the most unlikely annual tradition on my blog...

( EPG fails, round 5 )

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Howzat, part 7: One tourney after another

2025-12-20T11:31:46Z

November saw Thailand host two straight international WT20I tournaments, The Quad Cup (officially, the "Women's T20i Quadrangular Series in Thailand") and the inaugural Women's Emerging Nations Trophy, with only a few days' gap between the two events, followed by the SEA Games in December...

( One tourney after another )

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Spidersnaps: Back to Max

2025-12-19T17:30:01Z

It's been a while since I ran Kodak Ultramax through my camera, in this case the Kodak M35; as reported at the time, Kodak redesigned the box to be more similar to the Gold and Colorplus I've tried earlier (though ironically, it now has yet another new box design as a result of Eastman selling it themselves, at least in the US) Current price is THB430 (USD14)

( Back to Max )

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Howzat, part 6: More from the local cric scene

2025-11-11T16:30:26Z

Time for another look into the local cricket scene in Thailand, with some relevant international news...

"I feel like ICC in general doesn't give much thought to Women's ODI cricket, otherwise we would have had Thailand and Scotland at the World Cup already." -- Dizzydan015

I would have settled for a spot in the 2022-26 Women's Championship cycle, or even a chance to have that last spot decided on the field by playing Ireland; Thailand weren't supposed to simply miss out on that and the World Cup in one fell swoop immediately after making the Super 6's in 2021 :-\ (That the ICC didn't offer this same opportunity in 2025, thus keeping the Championship a closed-shop for full members, just feels like an extra insult to injury; I would have even been okay with Scotland qualifying for the Championship instead of just giving the new spot to Zimbabwe) Anyways, here's what's been going on in the local scene lately:

( Warning: Link heavy )

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Short fic repost: Say My Name (Aisha, Nex, Piff)

2025-10-21T16:18:55Z

As of today, it's been 7 years since UnaDiNoi-Winx shut down (wow, time sure has flown by), and given that this year saw the shutdown of its owner's other Winx-related site about Aisha and Nex, I decided to repost a short fic that the owner posted at both of her sites during the brief overlap that both sites existed...
( Say My Name )

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Spidersnaps: Not always so Lucky

2025-10-05T13:06:45Z

Time for another cheap film, this time the Chinese-made and recently-relaunched Lucky SHD 400, retailing for THB220 (<7 USD) at my usual lab, in the Kodak M35 :-) Despite the name, things weren't always so lucky with this one: while the outdoor shots mostly looked great, indoor shots were not so good, and even some outdoors shots lost plenty of low light details in shadow... In short, you get what you pay for with this film

( Not always so Lucky )

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Spidersnaps: Happy anniversary

2025-09-21T12:50:16Z

Time for another new film, this one Ilford HP5 Plus :-) It came in a different package than normal since it was a limited 140th anniversary edition, and I got it for THB 340, so it's a bit on the high side for B&W film :-) HP5 Plus is Analogue Wonderland's best-selling black-and-white film, and their claims are "This black and white film is perfect for low-light situations and produces deep, rich tones and excellent sharpness." Sure enough, the low light situations mostly managed to put decent pictures even without flash, so if you're shooting in lots of low light situations, it's definitely worth the splurge :-) Though given the price, I decided to run it half-frame in the Kodak H35 to get my money's worth :-)

( Happy anniversary )

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Feeling a little wistful

2025-08-21T13:03:12Z

While the Winx fandom is looking forward to a new era with the CG reboot, another quietly ended this past week...

( Feeling a little wistful )

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Spidersnaps: Color at my disposal

2025-08-15T16:29:44Z

I had black and white in both of my cameras in June 2025, but there was one event that month I really wanted to cover in color, and with the rolls nowhere near being finished, I decided to pick up a disposable Kodak Funsaver for THB 620 (about USD19, and that was actually a discounted price), which is steep especially for 27 exposures (!) Obviously the extra money goes into the camera mechanisms, but what also makes the Funsaver different from typical box film is that Funsavers are loaded with 800 ISO film, thus making it twice as sensitive as 400 ISO film, and therefore more capable of getting pictures, as long as you hold down the flash button firmly for indoor shots that need it :-) (Although, strictly speaking, these disposables can be reloaded and even enhanced while we're at it, that's something for other more capable persons :-))

( Color at my disposal )

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Howzat, part 5: A look at the local cric scene

2025-08-06T16:28:58Z

Time for another Howzat :-) (Warning: Lots of statistics stuff)

( A look at the local cric scene )

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Well, That Happened: Eli-ohhh, this isn't good :-\

2025-07-08T13:44:26Z

Time to bring a short mini-series out of mothballs...

( Eli-ohhh, this isn't good :-\ )

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Spidersnaps: Good as Gold

2025-06-05T16:08:46Z

Given March-April is peak summertime around these parts, and having previously tried Kodak Colorplus, I decided to get Kodak's other ISO 200 film, Kodak Gold (THB 360 or about USD 11 at last check) and took it through its paces in my Kodak M35, taking in the last days of the uni employee sports festival, followed by student sports :-) Plus flowers, and even a little bit of stargazing at the end as well :-) Analogue Wonderland gushes plenty about its versatility, and though I mainly aimed it at shots taken outside, I did manage to get some okay shots indoors too (albeit still looking slightly underexposed, even with the wide aperture of flash mode) Let's see what turned out :-)

( Good as Gold )

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Spidersnaps: All shook up

2025-05-30T16:23:40Z

Or, an imminent lack of Vision :-\

It's been quite a bit since I used cine film, and judging from this post I might not have the opportunity to use it for much longer :-\ (Petapixel article on why, but long story short, there are essentially two Kodaks, and the one selling regular film doesn't want the other one to sell cine film to anyone except film production companies) Anyways, this one's Vision3 500T (now THB 270), half-frame in Kodak H35, with the usual problems of having the scan returned as full frames (because my ECN2 lab only does it that way) where having bright scenes and dark scenes on the same frame result in over/underexposure in the scans :-\

( All shook up )

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The Amazing (return to normalcy for the) Race 37, eps 9 to 12

2025-05-28T15:43:08Z

We bring season 37 to a close with my 100th post in the TAR tag (whoo!)

( Of pizza, laundry, tiles, and sailing )

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