Matjiesfontein – somewhere between Reggie’s Portra, Fujicolor 100 Gold and Timeless Negative

Great film simulation recipes to create analog looking images in a vintage destination.

We visited an interesting “museum town” called Matjiesfontein (pronounced: Mike-ease-phon-tain) during a recent road trip. It is a little peculiar place, located in the middle of nowhere, off one of the major highways connecting Johannesburg and Cape Town. The town was established in 1884 and was a Health Spa in its heyday. Today, Matjiesfontein is not much more than a historical, yet functioning train station.

Images shot straight out of my X100VI in Fujicolor 100 Gold

The fact that the town still exists AND that it still has a working train station is very unique for South Africa and nothing short of extraordinary.

Firstly, our railway system leaves much (if not everything) to be desired. Apart from the odd freight train, you will be hard pressed to spot any train transporting passengers anywhere across the country. Abandoned, overgrown train tracks are found much more in abundance.  Yet, this little, far-flung train station is frequented by the exclusive, luxury train, Rovos Rail, that offers bespoke train safaris throughout Southern Africa in refurbished vintage trains and allows its passengers to relive the golden days of train travel. There are a variety of routes on offer and the one that stops over in Matjiesfontein connects Johannesburg and Cape Town over a three-night journey. It is one of those once-in-a-lifetime kinda trips for many a train enthusiast. It costs a pretty penny but I’m sure well worth it if the sound of a vintage train humming over train tracks is your thing.

The second astonishing fact is that, in a country that struggles with an incredibly high unemployment rate and many other social as well as political issues, the maintenance of historical buildings isn’t necessarily a top priority. To see this little town, that also “boasts” a hotel, a pub, two museums and a pink church, so well kept, is indeed a nice find.

Matjiesfontein is located in the middle of the harsh and hot, yet beautiful Karoo, far away from any major city or other infrastructure. There is not much to do other than feasting your eyes on a handful of old buildings and your stomach on the food offered by either the Lord Milner Hotel restaurant or the Laird Arms Pub. Yet, it is such a unique place that I recommend a visit. 

Images shot straight out of my X100VI in Fujicolor 100 Gold

We arrived while the famous Rovos Rail was rolling into the station which was a special sight to witness and was probably also the reason why there were a number of old vintage cars parked along the main road in front of the train station.

Images shot straight out of my X-T5 + XF56mmF1.2 in Reggie’s Portra

This was incredibly fortuitous as I was looking for subjects to capture with a selection of film simulation recipes that give images a vintage look and feel. An old town, historic buildings, a vintage train AND oldtimer cars – does it get better than this? Needless to say, I had the best time!

Recipe Tip #1 – Reggies Portra

Initially I was shooting with Reggie‘s Portra since I love the general look and feel of this recipes for hot summer days with blue skies and puffy white clouds. I find myself chosing this recipe quite often recently and I can safely say that it always proves to be a good choice. This occasion was no exception.

Reggie’s Portra is versatile since it utilises Auto WHITE BALANCE and a CLARITY setting of “0” makes it easy to use.

A side note to all the “RAW” shooters out there: the dynamic range setting of DR-AUTO may make it tricky, if you plan on converting your images into different recipes later (in Camera or in X RAW Studio) and if those alternative recipes call for a DR setting higher than what you achieved with DR-AUTO. This may not be a major issue but remember that results may looks slightly different than anticipated.

Recipe Tip #2 – Fujicolor 100 Gold

I had used Fujicolor 100 Gold during a previous visit to this place and really enjoyed how it rendered my images. So I quickly dialled the recipe into my X100VI since the vintage vibe it lends to images was perfect for the legendary Rovos Rail parked at the train station.

Recipe Tip #3 – Timeless Negative

Another recipe on my list was Timeless Negative – the version of the Fuji X Weekly recipe that is based on Eterna. I hadn’t shot much with it until that day and was curious to see how it would performed in this location.

Oh boy, did it deliver! The results remind me a lot old prints from my parent’s memory box of family pictures, vintage postcards or photographs from history books. And in addition to creating beautiful straight-out-of-camera images, the added bonus is, that this recipe is highly versatile. It uses Auto White Balance which makes it great to use outdoors, in sunny conditions and in the shade as well as indoors. All in all, Timeless Negative with Eterna gets a double thumbs up from me. The perfect look for this time and place.

But in all honestly, I love all these recipes – a lot! – and, if you haven’t already, I can highly recommend and encourage you to try them.

Timeless Negative was also one of the recommended recipes featured in the most recent episode of SOOC that aired on Thursday, 12 December 2024. Tune in to learn more about this and other recipes based on Eterna. Ritchie and I looked at sample images and discussed other Fujifilm and film simulations recipe related topics. It’s the last episode for 2024 so get your fix before the holidays!

I hope you will give these recipe a try and when you have done so, make sure to share them on Instagram and tag me @nathalieboucry! I can’t wait to see how these looks perform for you!

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