join me for the first part of a 3 city tour of east asia. of course i could not resist and brought along my leica mp and plenty of 35mm film!
I was lucky enough to visit multiple locations in Asia for a recent work trip, namely visiting Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei. Of course for once I couldn’t resist bringing along a camera. Whilst I didn’t have a huge amount of solo time there were still plenty of opportunities to take snaps here and there. I always find it amazing how much more present I am when I have a camera with me, always on the lookout for a good composition.
My camera of choice was my Leica MP armed with a 35mm and 135mm lens. Actually in the end I didn’t use the long 135mm that much, but I find it very useful to have for a just in case and it is a killer lens. Films of choice for the whole trip were 2x Ilford HP5, 4x Harman Phoenix 200 , and 1 roll of Kodak Vision 500T. Interestingly, I always thought of Harman as Ilford film, but something to do with licensing splits the company in two, more on that in this article.
I was also a bit concerned about travelling with so much film through so many airports as there is a lot of bad press online about the new CT scanners destroying films and people never been able to have them hand checked. I had no concerns at all, maybe I was just lucky or polite (or both). In Munich, they gladly took them and put them into an older scanner. In Japan it was incredible and they clearly deal with film all the time. The security guy hand inspected them and practically handed them back to me as origami (handing me the film one by one with both hands!). I think Seoul and Taipei all had the older scanners and for that I just throw the film into a domke lead bag and have never had an issue.
Anyways, enough about airport scanners and onto the shots. I took 2 rolls of film in Tokyo for the 2 days we were there: 1x Harman Phoenix 200 and 1x Kodak Vision 500T. I actually was not going to use the Kodak Vision because I find a lot of the work online (especially using Cinestill 500) of Tokyo Neon lights is a bit predictable. And funnily enough, I think the Ilford Phoenix shots came out much clearer and more interesting, despite it being over a stop lower in light.
harman Phoenix 200 shots
All these shots were taken on Harman Phoenix 200. I was not planning on taking so many night shots but we just ended up outside a lot and I took every chance I had. Actually I was quite surprised by the results given I was shooting handheld at ISO 200, mind you with a 35mm f1.4 lens.
I love the contrast in this shot. This film really produces some interesting colours when shot in bright sunlight but with high contrast scenes. Nothing like an empty road with straight lines to catch the eye of a wandering photographer!
Shot from my hotel room. I believe these are all government buildings.
Tokyo is actually greener than I thought. The bottom part of this park always had older people doing exercise at dawn.
A bit too much grain, it nearly looks like a painting.
Some very funky shopping centre. Those cat statues are the stuff of nightmares.
Grain galore. I quite like this shot though. It was super busy and this was a public holiday.
Bright lights in the Shinjuku district. Lots of nightclubs and game shops.
Great shot even if red overdose!
I am really very impressed with how this film performed at night given its relatively low ISO. I love how these shots came out, even though you cannot really make anything out in the shadow part of the shot.
Really cool camera shop with the largest selection of film I have ever seen, unfortunately not visible in this shot as hidden in the shadows!
More night shots. I generally like the vibe of these shots but the dark shadows really makes it hard to imagine what the scene was like. Trying to address this in post processing would just lead to an explosion of grain.
Kodak vision 500 t shots
I decided to use the Kodak Vision 500 T film as we had planned to be outside a lot on one of the days so figured what better place than Tokyo at night.
One of my first shots using the long 135mm lens from my hotel window.
Actually these are taken on different films. Left is Kodak Vision and right is Harman Phoneix. I much prefer the Kodak version as it is more true to life, but somehow the Harman effect can be quite interesting in scenes with less strong of a light source.
One of the many small restaurants.
I love the imperfection of this shot. Lots of foot traffic!
This caught my eye as an interesting composition and I figured the lighting would work.
Seemed light a popular restaurant based on the queue, but the architecture of it caught my eye as it was surrounded by expensive retail stores.
You get used to seeing this kind of thing in Japan!
I love this shot, I nearly made it my post cover. Definitely one to print for the wall.
Famous shoe store, I really liked the window design.
These vending machines are everywhere in the city, really quite convenient and also make for great night shots.
7 Eleven galore. You’ve probably not experienced Tokyo if you haven’t gone into one.
In the distance is the famous Shibuya crossing.
Shibuya crossing before and after. It is quite an experience.
A couple of vertical shots.
Overall observations
I absolutely loved Tokyo even though I was only there for just over 2 days. I will definitely have to go back on holiday although I can see myself getting completely stressed out thinking about the multiple camera setups I would need to take. I feel like I only really scratched the surface but what impressed me overall the most was how clean the city is, how many people are out shopping, and generally how humble and customer oriented the Japanese are.
As for my photographs, I am quite happy with a few of them and they serve as a nice memory. The night ones were challenging and I was a bit disappointed with the Kodak Vision 500T performance based on previous usage but on the up side the Harman Phoenix 200 performed really well. And I think I managed to avoid for the most part any of those Tokyo cliche shots.
Definitely worth a trip back in 2025 and probably with medium format film in hand!
Thanks for stopping by for a short photowalk of central Tokyo.
Cheers,
Neil
