Wyndham Championship Prep, Leica M4 Testing & Kodak Tri-X Film
Posted by Pat Hathaway | August 5, 2026
The coffee is a dark, unapologetic roast this morning, the coastal fog is stubbornly clinging to the Central Coast, and Big Boy Dan is back at my kitchen table, frantically scribbling on a legal pad. If you read my last dispatch, you know Michael Thorbjornsen’s unbelievable Rocket Classic miracle completely wiped out Dan’s betting bankroll in Detroit. But gamblers have short memories, and the relentless PGA schedule waits for no one.
Sedgefield Delusions and Donald Ross
The Wyndham Championship is the final stop before the FedExCup playoffs, teeing off tomorrow morning at Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina. Dan is currently lecturing me about Donald Ross course architecture and the intricacies of Bermuda grass greens. He is absolutely convinced that Sedgefield’s tight fairways are going to reward the veteran ball-strikers, completely ignoring the fact that his “bulletproof” veteran logic just failed him miserably in the Midwest.
If you want to follow the actual analytics instead of Dan’s gut feelings and legal-pad math, you can check out the official tournament preview over on the
PGA Tour’s website. I told him I’m keeping my money locked away. You couldn’t pay me to bet on golf right before a massive playoff push. The desperation in the field makes the leaderboard entirely too volatile.
Coastal Chrome and Mechanical Purity
While Dan obsesses over Thursday’s tee times, I’ve been busy making sure my vintage gear survived the desert. After spending Monday morning cleaning the Mojave alkaline dust out of my Leica M4 rangefinder, I needed to test the mechanical shutter speeds under a real load to ensure I didn’t ruin the timing gears.
I grabbed a few fresh rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400 film and took the truck down to a classic car meet near Carmel. If you want to know why this specific black-and-white emulsion has been the gold standard for photojournalists and street shooters for over sixty years, dive into the analog deep-dives over at
PetaPixel’s photography portal. There is simply no better combination for shooting polished chrome and cracked vintage leather than a 1960s German rangefinder paired with a roll of gritty, high-contrast Tri-X.
Syrup Developers and The Gallery Hub
I spent Tuesday night in the darkroom running the rolls through HC-110 developer. It’s a classic, thick syrup developer that gives the film a sharp, aggressive bite and beautiful tonal separation. If you’re building out a home darkroom or looking to escape the digital grind, you can still source all these traditional chemistry supplies through massive analog distributors like
B&H Photo Video.
The results from this batch were spectacular. The Leica’s 35mm f/2 Summicron lens rendered the sweeping fenders of a 1957 Chevrolet with absolute surgical precision, and the mechanical shutter didn’t stick a single time. The Wetzlar engineers knew exactly what they were doing.
I scanned the best frames this morning and pushed the high-resolution files directly to the
California Views Gallery Hub. Take a look at the deep blacks and the organic grain structure. It proves that a well-maintained, fully mechanical camera doesn’t need AI autofocus or a microchip to capture the soul of a machine.
Comments
BigBoyDan: Sedgefield is a shot-maker’s course, Pat. Thorbjornsen just got hot with the putter, but that doesn’t work on Donald Ross greens. I’m doubling down on the veterans.
JudgeRoy: A properly timed Leica M4 and Kodak Tri-X. A triumph of mechanical purity, Patrick. I am thrilled to see you haven’t relapsed and picked up that digital Sony toy again.
Video Recommendation
If you want to see why Kodak Tri-X 400 remains the undisputed king of black-and-white film stocks, especially when shooting high-contrast subjects like classic cars, check out this great field test.
Why Kodak Tri-X 400 is Still the Best B&W Film (YouTube)
