billorg

I purchased a mint used Mamaia 645AF II recently, and have found that there are problems with flatness of the film plane. I saw some posts on this forum from 2001 when the camera was new-ish and it was very obvious that people were having this problem when the camera was new. Mamiya eventually admitted to there being a problem and they supplied people with a supposed fix which was a modified back for the camera but most people did not have their problems fixed by this. So of course this many years later there’s a lot of these floating around that have the problem just as mine does, and I was wondering if anyone knows of serial numbers that are faulty, serial numbers that are not faulty, or if the PhaseOne continuation of this camera provided a fix for the problem? I really love the camera and would like to find one that doesn’t have the problem. You basically see the center out of focus and the top and bottom of the frame in- focus, and some variations on this. You have to film test it to know. Thanks, Bill

Does anyone know how to fake out an Epson Perfection scanner (mine is a V550) so that you can lay a negative down with non reflective glass over it and scan without a error demanding that you use the negative carrier?

Hi, I know there are a lot of procedures floating around out there and they vary. I’m wondering if you could point me to the most tried and true (and recent) procedure for developing Kodachrome in BW. I see there are could of labs doing it but I don’t know if they are doing it by machine or by hand. Any experience sending it out? Thanks

Thank you all so much. I will post results as I develop them. Hopefully I will do one tonight. Bill

Rolleiflex TLR.

But that's not light

Me too. I just bought 2 old style tanks in original boxes that looked to have never been used just like what I used in the 70's. Mainly for the different lid. It takes so long to put the lid on the new ones at a time when I should have started to agitate right away but instead I am left fiddling with the large top. The old top was so much better - just press it on. Also, these old reels came with a clip to hold the single reel down so when you agitate the reel doesn't end up high and out of position where the chemicals can't touch the film. I have experienced this riding-up in the new tank because there is no clip to hold it down. Anyway, I am thrilled with the old ones (I have one here in my house somewhere from the old days but could not find it) and the quality of the plastic on the reels is way better than the new and they are much easier to twist open than the new which are almost impossible. Bill

Thank you so much. Bill

Today I shot a roll of Tri-X that expired in Dec 1984 and a roll of Plus-X that expired in Jan 1999. I don't know their storage history so I am assuming room temp all these years. I have heard the rule of thumb that you overexpose by 1 stop per decade of age. Problem is the film had already been shot before I learned this. So I was wondering if anyone has tried push processing by the same number of stops? So maybe on the order of pushing 3-4 stops for the 1984 roll and 2 stops for the 1999 roll? I know it's not the equivalent of overexposing in the camera, but it's all I could think of. I can cut the rolls in 1/2 in the darkroom and use two different variables to hedge my bets if it would help ensure success. Let me know what you think, Thanks!