Announcements, photography, Rail transit marathon, Tips and Technique

FilmPack-8 First Trial

I recently downloaded DxO’s FilmPack8. Over the last few weeks I’d been experimenting with the older FilmPack-7 and I wanted to sample the latest offering to see what I can do with it.

My approach is not scientific, but rather a trip into the past.

I’ve been scanning my father’s black & white negatives and I came across a roll of 35mm Kodak Plus-X that he exposed in 1963. Many of these photos were made around Bird-in-Hand and Paradise, Pennsylvania, near where Kris and I now live.

Some of the photos depicted Pennsylvania Railroad GG1s near Irishtown Road in Bird-in-Hand (I’m saving those for a later post), others show Strasburg Rail Road’s excursions in its early days.

He has some interesting photos made with a Leica M and a telephoto lens.

Saturday, Kris, Seamus-the-Dog and I were driving around, and I decided to emulate some of my father’s images of the Strasburg Rail Road using my Nikon Z7-II digital camera. Then I converted one of the images using DxO FilmPack-8 with the Kodak Tri-X plug in.

Although exposed in the same general vicinity as my father’s image from 63 years ago, it is not in precisely the same place. I was aiming to re-capture the spirit of the earlier image, but not recreate it.

I thought they make a neat comparison.

DxO is offering a discount to Tracking the Light readers. If you are interested in buying DxO PureRaw, FilmPack 8 or other DxO programs, the discount code “TRACKINGTHELIGHT” will work for 15% off for any new customer at shop.dxo.com.

My father’s image exposed with a Leica M using Kodak Plus-X in 1963, 35mm neg scanned with an Epson V600 scanner, file scaled using Adobe Lightroom.
My photograph from Saturday (Feb 21, 2026); Nikon NEF RAW file exposed using a Z7-II with 70-200mm lens, file converted using DxO FilmPack8 with the Kodak Tri-X 400 plug in to resemble the visual quality of that traditional black & white film.
Same file as above, with some nominal adjustment to contrast and exposure to make the image more pleasing while retaining the classic black & white film appearance.

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