film photographers

[Dragon]

i know we have some photo threads about, but i'd like to know who shoots film.

my yashica 12 is currently being repaired so i hope to be using it in a week or so.

i've heard awesome things about fuli velvia 50 film (which has been brought back apparently). does anyone have recommendations on b/w film?

also does anyone have experience in developing film themselves and making contact prints?

[WrenchHead]

I've done all of this to some degree (Even shot a roll of fuji velvia 50 (not currently being made, but rumored to be coming back...)

Fuji Velvia:


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/38/122981516_89af6747fc_b.jpg

If you got this film drum scanned, it would rival most any DSLR camera on the market currently. That was scanned with my 70 dollar Epson scanner.

As for B&W, Kodak Tri-X is my favorite 35mm film. The problem being that the price has doubled in the past year. HP5+ is very good as well, but also costs about 40 bucks for a 100 foot roll. I have won 6 bulk film loaders on ebay over time (cheaply) and shoot only home-rolled film in 35mm. It's at least 1/2 the price of buying film retail, by the roll, if not closer to 1/3rd the price. So I recommend getting a Watson bulk loader or two and buying some plastic 35mm cassettes (plastic are better than the metal ones.)

I like shooting all types of B&W and hate people who stick with just one thing. They badmouth other films as being "harder to work with" or "inferior" but really you can make good photos on ANY of it, if you find the right developing chemical combo and routine. I can post examples of several film/developer combos I've tried. In the end, they all have subtle differences, but to most people, they all look similar.

Some people shoot ONLY tri-x or hp5, etc.. Kinda boring to me.

I've been shooting a lot of Foma film (czech republic) from

http://www.freestylephoto.biz

They sell it as a house brand (Arista EDU Ultra) and I like it all 100, 200, and 400 speed stuff. I guess I don't care much for the 200 speed in 120 size. In 120 size, the 400 is great! The grain is still visible and it's got a good look.

Anyway, it's cheap and looks nearly as good as Tri-X. The film is more 'flimsy' but once it's dry, there are no issues with printing it.

For me, using film is about the grain structure. If I wanted a sterile, grain-free photo, I can always get out my digital camera. So shooting t-grained films like Kodak Tmax 100 or Ilford Delta 100 don't really appeal to me.

http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.p ... d=&pid=983
This stuff is 50iso Ilford PanF+ film at a bargain basement price. I use it and though it's more tricky to work with than Tri-X, you can't beat the price.



Developing: I just use a Paterson 4 tank and have two plastic reels for it. You get one reel with the kit, and then buy another, so you can do 2 rolls of 35mm at a time. The reels pop apart to widen to accomodate 120 film. I could create a whole inventory list of things you'd need to buy minimally to develop film at home. It costs about 100 dollars to buy everything initially.

Each aspect of b&w photography could have a book written about it.. films, chemicals, papers, and the use of all of them.. So I won't go into developing. I use common film developers like D76, HC110, Rodinal, Xtol, and Diafine.



Contact printing is really only effective if you're doing 8x10 large format photography. If you have the chemicals and means to do contact printing, you might as well buy the enlarger and just do traditional printing. Over time, I threw together my darkroom. Half of the stuff in it, I bought at the ISU surplus sales, including a negative contact sheet easel.

I could come up with an inventory list of a barebones darkroom if you want. I just bought the basics and am now making prints... I imagine I have less than $400.00 sunk into my darkroom, including the sink and plumbing I installed. 90% of my stuff was bought used.

The payoff of all of this seemingly pointless, analog activity is your hand-made silver prints. I suppose the same sort of feeling someone gets when they rebuild a car engine or make a piece of wooden furniture:

[Pluto]

My photography teacher from high school made it seem like you could probably even spend less than that almost.

[WrenchHead]

You can spend less, but it's not nearly as fun

I spent just enough to do it right, and make it enjoyable at the same time. Things like buying a changing bag, so I don't have to find a dark closet to change my film in, etc....

[Pluto]

Oh, she meant because I could find a bunch of people to just give me stuff probably for so many are switching to digital and just wanting to get rid of their old developing stuff.
My parents were planning on building a darkroom for me in their house. I still want one but hell if I bring it up!!

[WrenchHead]

OH.. well that was true before ebay became commonplace.. Everyone thinks their Beseler 23C is worth 500 dollars now. PHoto gear has a decent resale value online. Plus you'd have to have a several year span to round up everything you need, so I got impatient and started buying something.. Half of my price includes paper and chemicals, which are new.

[Dragon]

wrenchhead: http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.c ... ected.html

thanks for the write up. i'll probably just get stuff to develop the film and then scan digitally.

a co-worker has a yashica as well and mentioned that it's fun to do contact prints off 120 film (not enlarging it). i was just wondering what the actual process consisted of.

[Pluto]

Craigslist needs a bigger audience in Ames so I can get more stuff for cheap.

[WrenchHead]

it's easiest to do contact printing with a photo enlarger as the light source, because you can control the time of exposure, and the lightbulb shining through the condenser head provides even lighting, as well as the correct balance of green and blue wavelength light to expose photo paper.

It's the same as a normal enlargement, but you sandwhich the negative and a piece of photo paper together under glass for weight. Flash it with light, like you would an enlargement, and then develop it the same way.

You could fit all 12 frames from a roll of 120 film out of a Yashica 12 camera onto an 8x10 sheet of photo paper like so:



The yashica makes 6x6cm sized images which is about 2.25" x 2.25". Kind of small for viewing as you would a normal 4x6" photo.

As you can see, since light turns photo paper black, you get black surrounding areas on contact prints.

This is a scan of a 5"x5" enlargement print I made, which is more of a normal size you could hand to people to show them:



Part of the excitement of medium format photography is knowing you can make 40x40" enlargements if you want, still having a lot of detail.

I guess what I'm getting at is that if you are set up to do contact prints, you can probably make enlargements as well. I'm guessing your friend may have an enlarger that only uses up to 35mm film, and they cannot put 120 film into it, therefore they've gone the contact route.

My enlarger will handle up to 6x9cm negatives, but I had to make my own 6x6 carrier for it because I can't find an original one anywhere. My enlarger was made in the late 1950s.

[Dragon]

thanks for the info!

btw, what's your flickr name? (the 1st picture is linked from flickr so i just assumed you have an account there)

[mrmustache]

I love to shoot film as well, and I try to keep it as cheap as possible. I stick with medium format cameras, and use a lot of classic cameras from the fifties. I'm getting an agfa isolette ii professionally cleaned to get the rangefinder working again, and I think that will become my everyday shooter. I primariliy use hp5+, but like wrenchead i also have experimented with foma film, getting the arista.edu stuff and some expired foma film from 1996. I don't think i get as good a tonal range with it as with the ilford or kodak films, but that could be the way i develop them too. I'm just using diafine to develop right now, as I only have a small bathroom in my apartment to develop the film. I have a cheap film scanner to scan the negatives-i don't often make prints myself.

I play with color film a little bit, but the cost deters me some. i have a lot of expired kodak films i plan on using this summer. eventually i'd love to have a full darkroom, but i'll wait until i find my post-college job and get a real place to live.

[WrenchHead]

This weekend's haul (minus two other rolls of 35mm I shot Friday...)



It's enough to wear me out.

[agent_o4]

I've recently started shooting developing and printing B/W again (last time was in high school). Started when i found an enlarger on craigslist for super cheap. and opened the box that had all of my dad's darkroom stuff in it.

[Dragon]

when i started this thread i brought my camera to a local shop around here for an estimate to get fixed. a week later they called saying it'd be $78. i told them to go ahead and fix it. a week later they called back saying they didn't have the part to fix it. i was miffed b/c i thought that the reason for the estimate was if they could fix it (ie have all the dang parts).

i got it back and let it sit on my desk for a while. i sent it out last week to mark hama. he used to work at yashica. he does repairs on most if not all yashica tlrs. he's taking the whole thing apart and completely overhauls the camera replacing any defective part. 6-month warranty after all the work is done. i should be getting it back this week, if not, then next week at the latest.

once i get it back and know that it's working i'm going to order some rolls of velvia 50 and then a couple rolls of each:
ilford: delta pro 3200, hp5+ 400, fp4+ 125, panf+ 50, delta pro 400
kodak: tmax 400, tri-x pro 320
arista: edu ultra 400

i'll shoot each roll and try to get an idea of which stuff i think looks best.

any recommendations for other film to try?

and if you've used any of this film any pointers for how each react? (ie, highlights get blown out easy, etc)

i'm really excited to use this camera. and i'll be bringing it to AK when i go in july. i'm just bummed that my schedule is full with studying for the gmat i'll be taking right before AK. so i won't be able to play with the camera too much.

also i plan on picking up a red filter for this camera too. any recommendations for regular red vs deep red vs light red? or should it not make too much of a difference?

[WrenchHead]

I bought 20 rolls of Kodak Tri-X 400 (since it has more wide spread tech info published about it) and am liking it a lot.

I also bought an accurate Gossen Digisix light meter (used on ebay for $100.00) that I've been happy with.

As for a red filter, look for a dark red one like a Hoya 25A (or sometimes called R2.) It'll knock off two or more stops in speed, but will help black out a blue sky and make clouds stand out nicely. Just beware that they punch up the contrast, and turn red objects white and blue objects black.

Great for getting that Film Noir type of look:


And even if you're photographing things that aren't red or blue or even green, it will pump up the contrast:


I usually stack a red filter and a circular polarizer in order to darken the sky as much as possible, like so... However it knocks the speed of 200iso film in this case to 6iso




You can't beat Arista EDU Ultra film for the price.

My favorite 120 films I've used so far are (in order) Tri-X 400, HP5+, Neopan 100, Neopan 400, Tmax 100 and 400 (identical behavior). I use the Arista EDU Ultra stuff for cost savings, and like the results, but the film base is hazy, blue, and curls like mad. Most people don't like that, but I put up with it.

I'm probably going to spend the extra on Tri-X for the time being, even though it's about $3.00/roll even in bulk quantities.

Let me know how happy you are with Mark Hama's work given the cost of the repairs. I have several non working, but NICE Yashica cameras I'd love to send to him if he can make them work as new.

It could be the fact that I'm using a light meter instead of guessing my exposures, but this Tri-X just has a lot of tonal range and my scanner picks up a really wide histogram (good, more information) when using it. This all adds up to an image with more dynamic range. I'm just gettting started with TX 120 film, but I know it'll make me happy:



This image looks blah to someone not familiar with film and proper exposure, but it's a metallic white car in a very sunny situation (EV 17+) and I still managed to not kill the highlights and you can tell the shape of the front fender by the grille. I was impressed anyway...

[Dragon]

i got my camera back yesterday. i sent it out on thursday last week, he said that he'd have it a week. so he was very quick with it. i wasn't expecting it back until later this week or next.

now it's time to buy lots of film.

[WrenchHead]

I just took a look at the Yashica 12, and it should be great. Looks pretty similar to my newer Yashica Mat 124.

I have a more primative Yashica-A which also makes nice photos.

[agent_o4]

do you reuse your chemicals when processing film? and if so how many rolls until it's spent?

[WrenchHead]

It depends on the chemicals.. I reuse stop bath (cheap) and fixer. Most of my developers are a one-shot deal. It costs about 30-75 cents in chemicals per roll of film I develop when itemized out. Film in bulk costs me about a buck a roll.

It's much more spendy than 'going digital' but it's worth it to me. A gallon bottle of Kodak D76 developer lasts me just about 20 rolls of film. So at 5 bucks, that costs 25 cents per roll for the developer. Fixer is spendy, but you reuse it for a long time until it is exhausted. Probably 30 rolls of film per batch you mix up.

Stop bath lasts indefinitely with films, but gets exhausted quicker when you're using it with paper prints.

It costs about 100 dollars in supplies and chemicals to get set up to develop your own black and white film at home. This is for a good solid kit of supplies that make it easy and enjoyable. You can do it more cheaply, but it isn't as enjoyable.

[andrewk]

I like to shoot film, but I don't have the skill to self develop... Is there some sort of online learning I can do?

I know I can google it, just looking for recommendations-

Nice photos guys-

Andrew

[agent_o4]

when I bought fixer it was right in the same 5 dollar range for a gallon mix, the only part that is making it more expensive is because I'm using the same stuff for paper and film fixing. How are you testing it for exhaustion?

I'm using d76 as well, and in the past I've run about 6 rolls on the same chemicals, except the stop which changed colors after 2 rolls. however I was increasing the times each roll. sounds like my practices should be modified slightly. oh I was using stock solution on the developer for those too.

[WrenchHead]

I'm using Ilford Rapid Fixer, which kicks the butt of Kodak's Fixer. It costs a bit more, but is mixed from liquid instead of powder. It works much faster and doesn't have a hardener in it, so the water rinse times are greatly reduced after using it.

AndrewK, I think anyone can pick it up. The easiest way to learn is to watch someone who knows how to do it. I learned how to do it back in 1993 by reading a faded notecard on the wall of my highschool's 'darkroom' because I was bored in study hall and started developing all the yearbook photos. I was doing some things wrong though, which I learned last year when I revisited this screwy hobby.

The textbook we used at DMACC has everything you need to know about photography. The trick is that it makes much more sense after you've done the things talked about in the book, so you can burn it all into your long term memory. The book is titled A Short Course in Photography.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Course-Phot ... 21-8139329

All the books I own say the same stuff, but this one is laid out the most logically. I bought mine at Borders here in Ames for 40 bucks.


Agent_04: stop bath should last a lot longer.. Indicator stop bath changes colors (yellow to purple) when it's exhausted though. So once it's purple, it's time to change it out. I use D76 as a one shot developer. I mix it 1:1 with water so you can't reuse it afterwards. I find that gives me the best accutance (sharpness) and contrast. Most people develop film 100% D76 though and pour it back into the bottle.

I just stock up on powder packets of D76 and have never run out between my orders to the photography places online. I also use HC110, Rodinal, Diafine (not so much anymore), and Xtol. Xtol gives something extra special I think. More contrast or something hard to explain.

I had to buy a 5L sized container to store the Xtol in. Kodak only sells it in 5L packet mix size for some stupid reason.

Here's one I did last week in Xtol.

I shot some Tri-X 400 at 800iso (pushed one stop) and developed it in Xtol 1:1 ratio:

[agent_o4]

These are a couple of my favorites so far, the scanner seems to have messed with them some the contrast and overall brightness is different than my prints.

[mrmustache]

I like to shoot film, but I don't have the skill to self develop... Is there some sort of online learning I can do?

I know I can google it, just looking for recommendations-

Nice photos guys-

Andrew

i'd highly recommend taking the photography class at the workspace in the memorial union. their photography class is one night a week for 4 or 5 weeks, and gives you the basics to develop film and make prints. plus, you get to use the workspace's darkroom for free for the remainder of the semester. i think a lot of communities have 'adult-learning' classes like this too.

[andrewk]

Thanks guys- I will look into this class... Sounds like a good investment.

[WrenchHead]

That's a cool macro of the cactus.

[Dragon]

it's been a while since i've stopped back in this thread.

since the last time i've shot a lot of film. 9 rolls in AK, with 3 of them being velvia 50. my first few rolls were grossly under exposed. i was using a red filter and didn't realize i needed a +3 ev (i was only doing about +1/1.5 ev). i picked up a gossen luna pro a few weeks back when i was in ORD, and i've had much better exposures.

here are some shots from the wedding in AK and scenery in AK. the shots from the fomapan that have light leaks was my fault. at the end of the roll the winding mechanism locked up and since it was after 12 i thought it just got jammed. so i opened it up and found that it thought there was 1 more shot. my own stupidity, but i like the leaks on it those shots. to me it gives them some more character. the shot of my cousin coming out of the church is one of my favorites. it turns out that it's her favorite as well, even from all of the shots the pro took. i plan on making an enlargement of that one to give to her this weekend at our family party.

grandpa's still got moves
ilford delta 3200


family portrait 02
foma fomapan 400


mr & mrs robinson
foma fomapan 400


about to tie the knot
foma fomapan 400


classic mercedes benz
fujifilm velvia 50


a new day at midnight
fujifilm velvia 50


boat
fujifilm velvia 50


some more alaskan scenery
fujifilm velvia 50


ice climbers
fujifilm velvia 50


a few weeks back i started my darkroom class. i've had a lot of fun so far. i've developed 1 roll myself, made a contact print, and made 1 enlargement so far. my g/f just picked up a ton of darkroom equipment for about $120. we're going to turn her extra bathroom into a darkroom. she's taking the class with me as well.

i do have to say that developing film is very rewarding. even though it's a lot more work than digital, i've been shooting a lot more film lately. i want to post more photos, but i'm doing a summer project with some friends down here that'll be displayed in mid-sept, and i can't post any of those photos to flickr until it's done and over with.

i have to save up and invest in a film scanner now. it seems like most people are happy with their epson perfection 4490 series.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Velvia is amazing.

If you're only doing 35mm, you might want to look at the Nikon Coolscan series.

BTW, how did you get those slides developed & scanned?

[WrenchHead]

I'm using an Epson 3170 from three years ago. I bought it for 70 bucks on Epson's website on their 'Clearance Center'. You can get the 4490 for about 100 bucks shipped if you don't mind refurbed.

The Epsons are hard to beat for price. Obviously a 2000 dollar Nikon medium format scanner would look lovely sitting on my desk, but nobody pays me to make pictures.

My favorite of the wedding shots is 'About to tie the knot' The light leak adds to it.

The grandpa dancing shot looks really grain-free for Delta 3200, if you shot it at 3200iso. All good stuff. I don't shoot slide film since I'm usually out dinking around and Walden charges 5+ dollars to develop-only E6 stuff. I'm thinking of getting into it on a 35mm level though for street photography. I'm planning on doing more travel in the future and slide film has a special look you don't get with digital (and is hard to imitate in photoshop.)

Those were all with the Yashica 12, correct?

[Dragon]

i might do some 35mm at some point, but i'm digging 120 film at the moment and shooting with a tlr. it's a shame the cheapest coolscan that'll accept 120 film is ~$2,000.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Ah, 120 film. I'm going to stick to Canon 35mm since I just dropped almost a grand on this lens

[Dragon]

i got this batch developed/scanned at a local place here in raleigh (jw). wasn't too impressed with their scan job for the price.

i have some other rolls that are scanned on the epson 4490, but i won't post those until after my summer project is done (part of the rules).

Those were all with the Yashica 12, correct?

correct.

i will probably buy that epson once my funds get back up after this last round of traveling (best friends wedding and family party). i need to find a money tree somewhere.

i plan on making ~7" enlargement of that delta 3200 shot on wed, so i'll see how clean the grain is on that. i really liked the grain on the fomapan 400.

i love the look of the velvia 50. i want to try some other slide film for landscape shots in the future. as of now, velvia 50 is very enjoyable. i was amazed at the colors on the film itself when it came back from development.

[WrenchHead]

[s]If you want to get into medium format, hit up ebay for a Yashica-A TLR. They usually sell for under 50 dollars and get you into the game respectibly, rather than turning out crap with a Holga

Not that some people don't make excellent art with Holgas, but this gives you some control over aperture and shutter speeds.

Speaking of which, I have a perfect working Yashica-A that I don't need if anyone in here is interested. I'd sell it for about 45 bucks + shipping. I already had one and bought this for a friend, who had already got one.[/s]

Sample pics:





I also own a lot of redundant equipment if any of you are looking for things like enlarging lenses (75mm ones and 50mm ones for both 120 and 35mm film.)

I'll sell it cheaper than ebay prices and have examples of it all being used.

Not to sound like a desperate merchant, but I'm just trying to get started at narrowing down my equipment, and maybe some of you'd be interested.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

I can't get Velvia 50 (B&H says "coming soon") unless on eBay, so I'll try the 100F for now.

[Dragon]

check a local camera store for velvia 50, peace camera down here had some (i was able to pick up a 5-pack in july).

hey WrenchHead, how much would you be willing to part with the 75mm lens for the enlarger? the enlarger the g/f picked up is an omega condenser enlarger (this one maybe?) and only came with 2 50mm nikkor enlarger lenses. do you need a certain type of lens to fit it?

[WrenchHead]

No, enlarging lenses all have M39 threads (like old leica screwmount cameras.)

I have a Schneider lens that kicks major butt that I'd sell for 50 dollars. I have some el-cheapo Vivitar lens that works well that I'd sell for 30, and I think two others that I'd sell for about 20 bucks each. I'm using an 80mm el Nikkor. I have the matching 50mm Nikkor. I like them both. The Schneider is probably optically superior to the Nikon lens, but oh well, I'm not using it.

What you'd do is just unscrew the 50mm lens and install the 75mm one when you wanted to print 120.

[agent_o4]

I know it's not monumental but I pushed my first couple of rolls today. For some reason I just had a hard time getting the idea of push / pull to click but now that I've tried it all makes sense.

I also found a quick test for fixer, use the leader / tail ends of rolls you cut off before loading. You hold them in the fixer until the clear and time it.

[WrenchHead]

Yep, I always cut the end off of my 35mm roll to use as fixer tester. I have a bottle of Edwal Hypo-Chek that I use to test my fixer to know when to replace it. But using the film leader gives you the proper time to use, so you don't underfix or overfix.

Overfixing can end up almost bleaching out your negatives (pretty hard to do though.)

I take my 'leader clear time' times two to get my fixer times.

eg: end piece of film takes 1 minute to clear in fixer, I fix the film for 2 minutes.

You can't do this with 120 film, so it's a guess. I suppose you could snip off a little piece from the end.

I had my first at-home developer failure last night. Kodak Xtol I mixed up 6 months ago died on me. I ruined a roll of Tri-X I had pushed to 1600 iso and was quite annoyed. Miraculously, my scanner could discern an image:



I was annoyed, since I spent a 1/2 hour exposing that shot

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Did you use any ND filters?

[WrenchHead]

No, that was taken around midnight under a partially full moon. I probably overexposed it, but I underdeveloped it by about 5 stops, so it was a moot point

[agent_o4]

this guy shows that you can develop B&W in coffee
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/

[WrenchHead]

I made 'Caffenol-C' last winter and did it a few times. It's really REALLY smelly and slimy and stains anything it touches brown.

I made mine from washing soda, instant coffee, and 1000mg of vitamin C tablets.

It doesn't smell like coffee, but like pee and nastiness.

Anyway, the cost of the developer per batch is probably about 25 cents, but I think it's worth it to pay a bit more for D76 or something tried and true. My results were 'passable' but it's much easier to work with a negative that isn't stained brown.

Here's a couple of my results:

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

I shot some rolls of Velvia a few weekends ago in the mountains. Man, that film is UV sensitive! Over 90% of my slides had a strong blue cast.

This filter would fix it ($110!) or I can remove the cast in Photoshop. I think I'll go the latter route and put the money saved towards a Nikon Coolscan IV.

I don't have the space to develop my own B&W film, but I'm going to try shooting some Efke ISO 25 this weekend.

[WrenchHead]

In the mountains, you'll get much more UV than we do down in the lowlands of Iowa, so it can be an issue. Slide film only has about 3 stops of tonal range (sort of like digital, but worse) so you have to meter really accurately. They might have just screwed up the developing or printing of your shots though.. I bet if you were to scan the negatives with a Coolscan or anything, they'd look fine.

Where did you buy the Efke 25 at? I should try some. I think they're still in business!

You might try a bargain basement UV filter to see if you really need one first. B+W or Heliopan are nice, but they are so damn spendy. It's basically a piece of glass to cut UV

I use a 5 dollar korean Circular Polarizer and am protecting my lenses on a few cameras with 5 dollar UV filters that have noticible benefit to the photos. I only have them on there to protect the lenses from scratches.

I'm not really sold on 'good filters' I have Hasselblad filters for my 50mm Distagon lens, and they work just like any other filter brand I could buy.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Well the difference in build quality is definitely there! I had 2 broken Hoya CPLs (one arrived broken, the other broke as I was removing it from the lens). So I returned that piece of shit and got a B&W Kaesemann polarizer. No problems at all since, but it set me back $165!

My shots were bracketed +/- 1 EV so it couldn't have been bad metering, plus I made sure not to expose beyond 5 seconds because of reciprocity failure.

And the limited dynamic range on slide film does suck a lot. Seeing clear plastic skies on my slides prompted me to move this to the top of my buy list.

[WrenchHead]

I don't know what it is about the shallow dynamic range, but it makes slide stuff look special. Almost 3D like. That could just be because of ViewMaster stuff being on slide film though, I suppose.

I have a ton of expired slide film (mostly kodak) in my fridge that I should probably shoot up and get developed. I love looking at the developed positives with a lighted background.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Yeah, I love the way the layers of silver get gradually stripped off from dark to light. It's such a cool effect, but scanning unfortunately flattens it out.

You can get Efke from B&H (who are being annoying with their 2-week vacation) or http://www.freestylephoto.biz.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Stupid people are bidding the Coolscan IV up to more than retail price on eBay. I found a sweet deal on the Coolscan V near Seattle though. Picking it up tomorrow after work!

[Dragon]

so far i've developed 3 rolls myself, and made enlargements of some of them. here are some scans from the negatives.

i'm thinking about picking up one of the new canon flatbed scanners with LED lights. it's about the same price as the epson perfection 4490 that a lot of people seem to like for scanning 120 film.

i've also got to buy a lens hood for this camera, and i'm going to buy some self adhesive felt to put on the inside to reduce flare. right now it's painted black on the inside, but, some light can still bounce off the sides.

the dreaming trees


camera:
yashica-12

film:
ilford fp4+
f/3.5 @ 1/2 sec

kodak d76 1:1 @ 10 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
kodak fixer @ 10 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[Dragon]

it's a dog's life, i wanna lead a dog's life


camera:
yashica-12

film:
ilford fp4+
f/3.5 @ 1/2 sec

kodak d76 1:1 @ 10 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
kodak fixer @ 10 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[Dragon]

your love's the warmest place the sun ever shines


camera:
yashica-12

film:
ilford fp4+
f/16 @ 1/15 sec

kodak d76 1:1 @ 10 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
kodak fixer @ 10 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

[Dragon]

wake up every day with a dream

camera:
yashica-12

film:
ilford hp5+
f/3.5 @ 1/8 sec

kodak d76 1:1 @ 9 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
kodak fixer @ 10 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[Dragon]

i'm really liking this arista.edu ultra/fomapan.

little league


camera:
yashica-12

film:
arista.edu ultra 200
f/5.6 @ 1/125 sec
filter: red rollei

kodak d76 1:1 @ 8:30 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
ilford rapid fix @ 5 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[Dragon]

motorbike


camera:
yashica-12

film:
arista.edu ultra 200
f/5.6 @ 1/125 sec
filter: rollei red filter

kodak d76 1:1 @ 8:30 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
ilford rapid fix @ 5 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[Dragon]

251043


camera:
yashica-12

film:
arista.edu ultra 200
f/4 @ 1/125 sec
filter: rollei red filter

kodak d76 1:1 @ 8:30 min with agitation every 1 min
kodak stop @ 30 sec
ilford rapid fix @ 5 min
water rinse
hypo wash @ 3 min
water rinse
photo flo @ 1 min

scanned with an epson 4490 @ 1200 dpi for posting to the web

[WrenchHead]

Good stuff. You should be able to get away with fixing times half that. 5 minutes in kodak fixer for FP4+ and about 2 minutes in Ilford Rapid Fixer for the Foma 200.

Speaking of Foma 200, it may have a fragile emulsion, but for the money it's dang good stuff. Sort of a pain to work with the curly negatives, but at 1/3rd the price of Tri-X it's hard to complain.

I see what you mean about a lens hood. I'm not sure why you get the white flaring like in the park bench photo other than maybe the lenses being sort of primitively coated (or possibly not coated?) But I think the Yashica 12 is newer than the Yashica A cameras I've used. I don't own any hoods for the old cameras yet, but I see several slip-on versions on ebay that'd work.

[Dragon]

the 10 min was what our instructor gave in class, and that was with non rapid fixer from kodak. the 5 min was what was listed on the ilford rapid fix container. i'll see if there's other recommended times from the film brands for fixer. but thanks for the heads up on fixing. fixing the rc paper went from 10 min to 1 min, which is a very nice change.

i haven't noticed the fragile emulsion yet, and it hasn't been too bad for me. the eastern europeans definitely know their b/w film though. a guy i work with loves czech b/w film, and said that there is some seriously talented photographers out there. he used to go to exhibits/expos when he lived in russia and that area and was very impressed. not to mention this film is dirt cheap. i still have some rolls of other brand to finish, but it's enjoyable learning about how different types of film react.

there's a plastic hood i can get for $25, or spend $50+ for a metal one. i'll just keep my eyes out for a good price on it.

[WrenchHead]

I'm thinking more along the lines of 10.00 for an aluminum hood and 5 for a plastic one on ebay

The way I've found my fixing times is using cut ends from the 35mm versions of the same film. Ilford Rapid fixer is the way to go. I haven't used Kodak fixer since I bought the Ilford stuff. It's cheaper in the long run too.

The possible downside to overfixing is that you can bleach out the negative a bit.

I hadn't noticed in reading the bottle that for paper work, you can mix Ilford fixer more diluted, like 1+9. Oh well, I guess my prints are more 'fixed' I've been using it 1+4.

The 35mm Fomapan film is awesome. It's made of a polyester base that feels thinner and smoother than normal Kodak/Ilford films. It's also dirt cheap from Freestyle.

That being said, I just ordered 100' of 35mm tri-x along with 10 rolls of tri-x and 10 rolls each of Tmax 100 and Tmax 400. I have finally gotten the hang of my cameras to the point where I never misexpose the frames. Compositions may be questionable though!

Tri-X is my favorite stuff, hands down. The fact you can shoot it from 200-3200iso is a big factor as well.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

The only decently exposed slide in the whole roll. Damn I suck.

[Lothar]

I've always liked the fact that really good photography is a blend or science and art. A good photgrapher has an eye for detail but also has that lingering calclator in the back of his or her head that knows what combinations of film, camera and setting will be best. I love reading your disscussions.

Also... as I've posted elsewhere, I'm about to buy art for a new house and I like local work. Do any of you have any experience making big prints of your photos? I mean up to wall-sized, huge, prints. If so let me know about it and also let me know where I might look at your photos online or displayed locally.

[WrenchHead]

I'm only set up to develop 11x14 sized paper. I could do bigger if I had bigger trays and paper of course. For now I'm just developing 8x10 paper since it's convenient. I imagine Walden or Pyle can blow up anything I have on film for the right amount of money.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

Ok I think I'm going to try developing my own B&W soon. Only 35mm so I can scan with my Nikon. Buying everything new, it came up to about $120 w/o chemicals on B&H. What developer/stop/fixer would you recommend to start out?

Eventually I'd like to do E6 development, but the chems are wicked expensive.

[WrenchHead]

I started up with Diafine since it's really foolproof to use compared to the other developers. You can be sloppy with your times and temperatures and get the same result.

However, now that I have other developers, it's pretty rare that I use the Diafine for anything.

I'm using Xtol right now, which I like, but you have to also buy a 5L container to put it in. Freestylephoto.biz sells both items.

D76, HC110, and Rodinal are the three most economical developers and I use them all. Rodinal gives the old skool look since the stuff has been around well over 100 years. D76 is a good middle of the road compromise between Rodinal and Xtol as far as grainy and grainless go. It's a good all purpose developer. HC110 was supposedly developed as a D76 substitute in a more convenient *that's debatable* syrup concentrate. You mix it up in little one shot batches like Rodinal.

Rodinal takes up the least space in your house since you mix it up as one shot baths. It pours as well as water, unlike HC110 which is thick.

They all work though and the differences are subtle. Xtol is a good developer to push film with. You can shoot Tri-X up to 6400iso and it does a good job developing it.

You can't really go wrong, but they all have a slightly different look. Check out flickr and search for rodinal, d76, xtol, hc110. You'll start to notice subtle differences.

As for stop bath, I like this Sprint vanilla scented stop bath. I have only seen it for sale on bhphotovideo.com. I'm still using my first bottle of it almost two years later. For fixer, Ilford Rapid Fixer is economical and works at high speed. It rinses out quicker than other fixers as well. I don't think you'll find anything else that beats it. I started out using plain old Kodak Fixer and it was more burdensome.. Cheaper slightly, but not worth it.

[Halt! Hammerzeit.]

This is what I ended up getting. See anything that I missed? I went over my budget, but this will be good in the long run and last quite a while.

• Agfa Rodinal 17 oz.
• Arista 5 Liter Storage Bottle (Approximately 1.32 US gallons)
• Arista Changing Bag 27 in. x 30 in.
• Arista Film Cartridge Opener
• Arista Graduated Cylinder 650ml
• Arista 35mm Metal Reloadable Cartridge - 25 pack
• Arista EDU Ultra B&W 100 iso 35mm x 100 ft.
• Fotospeed SB50 Odorless Indicator Stop Bath 1 liter
• Ilford Rapid Fixer 1 liter
• Jobo Film Reel (Adjustable 35mm/120/220)
• Jobo Cascade Film Washer
• Jobo Uni-Tank Two - 35mm/One -120 Reel Tank (Adjustable 35mm/120/220 included)
• Kodak XTOL Powder Film Developer to Make 5 Liter
• Watson 100 35mm Bulk Film Loader

[WrenchHead]

The only things that I need that aren't on your list are:

A thermometer to measure your temperature of the developer mixture. I got a cheap cooking thermometer that reads from 0F - 220F at Hy Vee. I also bought a 3 dollar stopwatch at WalMart that I use when doing everything. Much easier than watching a clock. You'll need a funnel to dump your stop and fixer back into their bottles. I mix up my stop and fixer in 1 litre drinking water bottles with the wide necks (Aquafina!) Developer is typically light sensitive (xtol is not) so that's why it's stored in brown or black bottles. Stop and Fixer are not light sensitive.

My thoughts are that some of the stuff you won't use much. I'm using a cheaper Paterson tank, and I've never tried the Jobo ones. The 35mm cassette opener I made my own with a bottle opener. I don't know what the cascade film washer will help, but it looks like a cool idea. I run water into my Paterson tank with the top off of it at the end of the process and dump it out about once every two minutes. I rinse my film about 5-10 minutes in running water that is about 70F. You'll have to let me know how you like the JObo tank. I never tried them because they looked like they took longer to get the liquids in/out of. It shouldn't be an issue though. I started with metal 35mm cassettes and moved over to plastic ones and prefer them. You'll probably feel the same way after a while since the metal ones get looser and can scratch film when they get worn out. The plastic ones always stay together tightly.

It looks like you have everything you need to develop film though. The thermometer can be bought at a grocery store.