Things to do with a 6x9cm neg or chrome

Hi all,

 

The recent discussion on sub-$100 classics had a few mentions of

Moskva rangefinders. I'm sure there are several of us around this

forum who use Moskvas or other 6x9-format classics. The size has

always seemed a little awkward to me -- can't be printed full-frame on

a 6x6 enlarger, but not quite "large-format" either.

 

I'd like to hear what others do with their 6x9 negs and chromes, aside

from scanning or printing them. Is anyone out there contact-printing

these negs for display purposes? What type of frame/matting works

best? How about chromes -- any light-box type displays people have

built?

 

My motivation for this question is that I have a Moskva that I like

very much, but no access to a 6x9cm enlarger or a quality MF scanner,

so I'm looking for low-tech options for my 6x9 results.

 

Thanks in advance.

For things to do with 6x9.....just get a 4x5 enlarger, the right lens to cover this format, then be surprised at the quality which is closer to 4x5 then to 2 1/4 square. For digital, it's plenty big for good scans off a Epson 2450,3200,4870 etc.

If you've got room for it, a 4x5" enlarger would be the thing to have. Darkroom equipment is cheap these days.

 

Contact prints are also an option. If you've looked at old snapshots from before 1960, you've probably seen plenty of ferrotyped 6x9 cm glossy contact prints on papers like Velox or Azo.

 

Since it's easiest for me to scan 6x9, I tend to keep my 6x9 camera loaded with color transparency film, and with most everything else except for 35mm, I shoot B&W.

I got back into using film cameras about a year and a half ago. I'm having a little trouble now remembering exactly why I thought it was such a good idea to pay $10 for a Jem Jr. box camera and take pictures with it. I also don't recall considering the fact that I had no obvious way of dealing with 6x9 negatives. As it turned out, the local PDQ photo finisher did pretty good scans onto CD at a reasonable price. However, it was kind of an awkward process and it didn't take me long to realize I wanted some other solution. That turned out to be an Epson 2450 flatbed scanner which does a pretty nice job on medium format. Given technology's relentless progress, I'm guessing you could pick up one of those now for a ridiculously low price. Not terribly innovative, I know, but it is fun to have an image you can play with in PhotoShop, even if you just want to post to the web.

6x9 and larger enlargers are relatively common and not that expensive. 6x9 enlarges into some really nice prints. You could contact print them but all you're saving is the cost of the enlarger. I'd also think you would have to find the right image to make the contact print work at that size. Say a full length portrait.

I scan the negatives from my Wirgin Auta and my Moskva-5 (at 1200 ppi on a used Agfa Arcus 1200, which I like better every time I use it), now that I'm developing my own film instead of having it processed at a local lab. That done, if I find anything really fantastic, I take it to the same lab, or another local black and white custom printer, and have it enlarged. An 8x12 from that 6x9 negative is only getting started, and costs under $10 from the place where I used to take my film -- or I can get a custom 8x10, cropped as I specify, for about the same from the custom printer.

 

After doing that a couple times, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go back to 35 mm...

I think that was maybe part of my flip response originally, so I will fill in a few details.

 

I had a Moskva which I liked so much I gave it to my sister-in-law who is a much better photographer than I am. I thought she would be able to really do something great with it. She makes daguerrotypes (sp?) and so uses the 6x9 to play around when she wants to work "fast" - speed is relative (sorry about the pun.) Her contact prints are indeed full length portraits, but often of figurines (really quirky and great) contacted printed on salt paper in sunlight then toned. Nice images.

 

The 6x9 lightbox was a project of a friend of mine in grad school who shot these really super-saturated chromes of buildings walls garbage cans trash bottle caps soda cans grocery stores everything and then some. Then he took the chromes down to a place called Fast Signs (I think they are a national chain in the US) and had little 6x9 light boxes made that ran on a battery. Or at least (now that I am thinking about it) he had the boxes made there, but then he may have gone to Radio Shack for the light assembly + battery. What would grad art school be without Radio Shack? Then he hung them around the room di-o-rama style, making the ordinariness of daily everything look a bit like a strange natural history exhibit. Didn't use a Moskva but he used some other sort of cranky old 6x9.

 

I just saw some of those white diode lights in a shop the other day that might work nicely. Would allow for a thinner box and smaller battery. Just thinking out loud.

 

You do have to pick subject matter that won't disappear due to scale if you use just the 1:1 of contact or chrome. Unless you give everyone a magnifying glass which might also be fun in that secret world sort of way. If the negative is not quite big enough for you, use a tripod and guesstimation to create a segmented image that you contact print together maybe. Like the way some people work with pos/neg Polaroid negatives. POP paper might be fun for that, though I have not tried it myself.

 

Seems like there is a lot you can do with a 6x9 negative or chrome if you just keep moving and thinking and doing.

6x9 is a nice format for many, many things. While 4x5 enlargers are usually very large and heavy, there are 6x9 enlargers out there if you look around (many people dont know they are 6x9, if another carrier is in it, or if the 6x9 or 690 is not in the name of the unit). I have a generic "Lentar 690II", though I dont know who made it. Breaks down, and fits in a small suitcase (probably as portable as you can get, for 6x9); I paid $40 for it when in Canada, and a friend bought one made in Poland (Krokun? 6x9), and I believe it was only $55 from a camera store in Chicago. 6x9 is big, and nice to work with in a darkroom, if you decide one day to do that. There are several other enlargers for 690 made in: Poland, Czech, Russia, etc., as the old 6x9 folding cameras (like the one you mentioned) were more popular there than in the North America. If I can find the packaging, I will post the name/model of my 6x9 loupe and 6x9 light box; both are made in China, and were rediculously cheap, though both perform satisfactorily. If you dont want a traditional darkroom, you can scan the negs/chromes, and since they are so big, it is easy to get decent results - or have your lab do this after development. If you dont want this at all, locate a local or mailorder lab for 6x9 contact sheets. 6x9 yields impressive contact sheets, which are easily viewed without visual aids (some labs here in South America, make what are contact prints, with white borders, for next to nothing, perhaps $0.10-15 each, U.S.). And, depending on how you frame when shooting, most labs make 6x7 prints from a 6x9 neg, which is nice when pressed for time, or if you want to quickly give copies of something to someone. For the same reasons, size, chromes are easily displayed. A friend used many discarded x-ray light boxes from a hospital, and converted them to display 4x5 & 6x9 slides. Making a box from scratch could not be all that difficult, if you have access to proper lights, and white plexiglass. If you go looking for a 6x9, I would not necessarily get too focused on the Moskva. There are quite a few other, better, 6x9's which cost about the same or a little more. The better ones are mentioned here on photo.net and elsewhere, as are people known for cleaning and replacing bellows on there older cameras.

And the Meopta englarger (Magnifax) is good too - made in Czech Republic. Available here for as little as $50.

 

And this showed up in the paper this morning. You could make one for 6x9 and have some sort of ongoing narrative in your living room. With your cat.<div></div>

Hello all, and thanks for your replies.

 

I perhaps should have phrased my initial question better. I'm not a newbie when it comes to scanning or to darkroom work, and I'm well aware of my scanning and conventional printing options, including contact sheets. For various reasons I'm not able to do conventional printing these days. I scan and print (Frontier, etc.) my 35mm work on a dedicated 35mm scanner. I also have a cheapo Umax Astra 2200 flat-bed scanner, which has a built-in transparency adapter. This scanner works well in reflective mode (for scanning prints), but it just doesn't have good enough resolution or dynamic range to make good-quality scans from my 6x9 transparencies and negs. I've tried, and I don't come out ahead of my 35mm gear.

 

A scanner upgrade may be in my future, but not right now. The suggestions Jorn makes are what I was looking for. Unfortunately though, Jorn, the website address you give has no content.

 

And about the Moskva -- They can be touchy, but when they work, they work well. I have made some great 6x9 chromes with mine.