kc_dougherty

The communal darkroom where I go to school only has students indvidually mix their own

film processing chemicals from the concentrates. On our materials list is a bottle of fix

check. The only mixed chemicals that are shared are the ones used for printing. If we

change a chemical, there is a list posted that has to be filled out when a chemical is

changed. Has anyone else had that same problem?

I bring my own film developer to school and have a bottle of it in my locker at all times. I

love my "tweaked" Vitamin C (a la Patrick Gainer) developer.

There are photo techs who oversee the darkrooms but they can't be there all the time.

Photo II and Advanced Photo students are asked to help the Photo I students when they

are having trouble.

Sarah, maybe you can find a "buddy" to process with from your class or ask a Photo II

student for advice. I see a lot of Photo students working in the darkroom together and it

works very well. My "processing buddy" is a Photo I student and it works out well for both

of us. We even go shooting together and share a tripod.

KC

I don't see it on their website but I'm told that Unique Photo in Florham park, N.J. has been selling it.

KC

I have been using regular stainless steel tanks on a roller base with no problems. I put the

tank in a length of PVC that is capped. The caps generally keep it from "walking" off.

KC

I agree with Allen. The #87 is used for Kodak Infrared which has a sensitivity of 900nm. The Konica 750 is sensitive up to 750nm. I have had excellent luck shooting it at 1/60th at f5.6 in bright sun with making some exposure adjustments with less light. My usual filter is a #25 red. My developer of choice was D-76 until I switched to one of Patrick Gainer's Vitamin C developers.

This film has been easier (and cheaper) to get than the Kodak. The fact that it comes in 120 is a plus for me. Since it's not as senstitive as the Kodak HIE it's easier to handle. It's a fantastic film.

KC

Thank you for the information. I have found two of the books suggested in local libraries. I have a friend who does repairs for a living and has been giving me advice and thinks it's a repair I can handle myself if I'm careful and do it slowly.

I'll keep you posted on the progress. If I can fix it, I think it would make a good tote-along lens.

KC

I've done several searches on the web and on Photo.net but haven't

found any repair information beyond a shematic of the lens element

groupings for a Zoom-Nikkor 80-200 f4.5 lens (114k serial number).

The lens barrel focuses and zooms with no problem but the image in

the viewfinder doesn't come into focus. I've had the nameplate ring

off and removed the first group of elements. At first I thought that

someone had disassembled it and reversed something when they put it

back together (or even didn't get the interior parts of the zoom

lined up correctly) but there are no marks that I have found that

indicate it had ever been taken apart.

Has anyone ever done any repairs on lenses of this type or had the

same problem? I plan to take it apart further when I have the time to

really sit down and work on it. I purchased the lens at a used

equipment/swap meet event for $10.

The outside and the lens mount show a lot of wear but the glass seems

to be in excellent condition and it mounts onto a camera body with no

problem. I bought it more as a rainy day learning project than

anything else (so if it's beyond reasonable help, it doesn't matter)

but if I can actually get it working again, I would certainly use it.

Thank you for any information you can provide.

KC

Right now, going completely digital is not an option for me but I do enjoy shooting regular film and then scanning it. I primarily do black and white and find that the 120 negatives from my 1950s Rollei make excellent scans.

My film of choice is T-Max 100 although I still shoot T-Max 400, 3200 and Tri-X from time to time. I have a new developer recipe that I love the results with.

My camera club just instituted a digital division to allow the people who shoot digital to really fully participate in the slide/projected images part of the competitions (they had been competing in prints up until this point). Some people are against it and while I wish I had the bucks to go out and get myself all the neat digital stuff they have (or even half of the digital stuff that they have) it is the wave of the future. I might as well embrace it rather than fight it.

When it gets right down to it, the image quality is there and with some tweaking here and there, I can make more out of my film images on a computer than I could in a darkroom. Whether it's digital or film, the physics of light and the principles of photography haven't changed.

KC

What settings need to be made on the camera to use the #87? I am hoping to get a D70s in a few months and I have an 87 from when I shot Kodak HIE. If you can do infrared photos with the D70, I would be in heaven. I love doing infrared.

KC

My boss used to say that the only thing Vivitar made was advertising.

KC

I have an old (circa 1967) 35/3.5 PC-Nikkor and I have found it to be an excellent lens.

KC

The Baby Rollei is a great camera. I finally got one with the original case last Fall (it's a long story but I waited about 10 years for this one to become available) and I love it!

I have only been shooting 127 Verichrome in it so far. I had a couple of outdated rolls (ca. 1981) and recently came into a stash of 127 Verichrome that expired in 1967. So far so good. At leat I'll have a supply of the original 127 film spools. I've read on the web that some of the 127 film available now has spools that aren't compatible with the Baby Rollei. Has anyone had experience with this?

I'm going to make film slitter so I can cut down 120. I feel a little sorry for my "big" Rollei, it hasn't gotten as much attention since I got the "baby."

Al, do you do your own slide processing or does a lab do it? I'm trying a new lab soon and one of the first questions I'll ask is if they will do my 127-size film.

KC

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with an affinity for old meters. I have a Sekonic

like the one pictured--found it for $5 at a camera show a few years ago. I just had it

CLA'd. It has been a great meter. I have an old Weston and a Norwood Director too.

KC

I went through Newark airport in July of 2003 on my way to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and they handchecked my film. They did the same in the Chicago and Calgary airports. I had no problems. I had the film (color and black and white) in a separate bag along with the packaging (the Pro-Pack boxes, flattened) and the receipt from when I bought it. They took the film aside and checked each roll individually and that was it. I wasn't in a hurry and I was as polite as I could be. I had no problems.

Last summer, when driving up into Canada and back, the only place they made us open the trunk of the car was coming back into the US at one of the Montana crossings. They wouldn't let us get out of the car so I don't know if they opened the cooler I had the film in but they saw the tripod and my Domke bag. They just asked a few questions and we were on our way.

I've heard a lot of good stories and bad stories but I plan for the worst and hope for the best. I've tried to cover all my bases and I've had good luck. The place where I thought I would have the most trouble was in Israel in 2000 but they were more interested in questioning me about a camera I had borrowed for the trip (who had had access to it, that kind of thing) than any of the other things I had with me.

KC

I've had very good luck with TMX. My old 1950s Rollei (Zeiss lens) and TMX make negatives that scan superbly. Sometimes the settings need to be tweaked but otherwise my Epson 3170 does great scans.

KC

Yes, a hardener in the fixer should make a huge difference. I shoot a lot of T-Max 100 in both the 135 and 120 formats (the 4x5 not so much) and I have only had scratches if I did something really careless. Archival pages are definitely the way to go for storage.

Because of the "pink problem" that T-Max 100 seems to have if it's not fixed long enough, I tend to fix it longer than I do Tri-X or Plus-X, so the longer time in the fixing bath may help too. I use the standard powdered Kodak Fixer for my film.

My negatives are air dried in the bathtub because they can drip as much as they want, are out of the way, and that is the least dusty place in the house. I made a small "clothesline" out of two plastic hangers with holes drilled in them. I can have three "lines" of negatives hanging in a small space pinned up with clothes pins. I hang one or two clothespins on the bottoms as weights. It works very well and I hang my prints in there too.

Kodak stopped making Verichrome two or three years ago, the demand must have been dwindling. It is a nice film (I still have some cached rolls and a friend of mine stocked up when EKC announced its demise). I'm really going to miss Technical Pan though. I had the "no, really, Verichrome is a black and white film, not a slide film" conversation a few times too. I recently acquired a Rollei 4x4 and have been shooting outdated VP with pretty good luck.

I'm a diehard Kodak shooter and haven't shot too much Fuji, Agfa or Ilford.

After more than 10 years behind the counter (and mini-lab machine) at a camera store, nothing surprises me too much anymore, except for maybe the girl who bought the Nikon N65 and some Tri-X film. She shot the film and took it to the one-hour at the local Eckerd. They ran it through their C-41 machine which ruined the film. They told her that her camera was defective and to take it back to where she bought it. She came in with the camera and the still wet negatives to complain. Luckily, after I had finished explaining that what went wrong were the geniuses at Eckerd, she understood.

KC

I've never used Pan-F but may have to try some. T-Max 100 is a great film but I will miss TP. It's a little hard to use but I love it. I've gotten great results with D-76.

KC

I finally dug out my Jobo reel to see what number it was. It's a Duo Set 2004 self-loading reel for Jobo Tanks System 2000 and it fits in my Multitank2 #2521. It will take 126, 127 and 120.

KC

Before shooting anything important with a new film, you should do testing. If there was a feline intruder, the 3200 would show more effects than the 400 because it is so more light sensitive. It sounds like you had a light leak somewhere if the edge where the numbers are is also black. Don't give up on the 3200, it is a great film. A lot of people don't like the grain but I like it for some applications.

What was it that you were shooting?

KC

A year ago, I switched to one of Patrick Gainer's Vitamin C formulas for film processing instead of using D-76. Not only is it cheaper and cleaner, I get fantastic results on all the film types I like to work with. I even switched to using glycerine from CVS (pharmacy) to dissolve the phenidone instead of rubbing alcohol because I hated the smell of the alcohol. I haven't switched to a Vitamin C paper developer yet but will after my stock of Dektol is gone.

I sometimes have a container of something to drink handy but far away from the trays. I keep my beverage covered so a spider doesn't drop in for a swim.

KC

A couple of my stainless steel reels are Nikors and I don't know what the others are. When I first started out doing my own B&W I used plastic reels for about five years then switched to stainless steel because I though they would be easier to keep clean. I like stainless steel because I can tell right away if the film is crimping and fix it. For me, they work better than plastic. I have two tanks that hold a quart of solution, one that holds a pint and one that holds 8 ounces. One plastic top works on three tanks and one of the quart tanks has a fitted steel top. I also have used them on a roller base with great results (the tank gets put in a short length of PVC since the tanks themselves don't have a big enough diameter).

I don't know if you will find a 127 reel. Your best bet is to find a Jobo adjustable reel that will acommodate 127. I have one but don't remember the model number. I can look when I get home and post it tomorrow. You will need a tank that will fit the reel since I found that it didn't fit in my stainless steel tanks. I found it at a camera show and it works well in a Jobo tank I use for processing 4x5. I tried adjusting one of my Paterson reels for the 127 but it just didn't work.

KC

Oh. I have been over the safe amount of stress line this week and just re-read your first answer to my post. Yes, the replenisher pumps have to be calibrated. That's not difficult. Calibrating new heaters can be time consuming too but not too difficult. It's when you get into small spaces with wires and fluids that I get really careful. Replacing connectors on wires isn't one of my favorite things to do either (since the new parts often have different clips on the ends and the old ones need to be salvaged).

KC

That's the ballpark figure for a Fuji tech too. The travel charges are a killer sometimes too. Yes, the machines are old but they still work, most of the time.

We are getting a Kodak machine that will do 4R, 5R & 8Rs from digital media. That will keep a lot of the people that we have been losing in the store. Those machines were here before me and I've been here about 13 years. I left the newspaper business full time in 1994 and have been doing free-lance stuff since then.

The nice thing about running a lab and shooting on the side is I can expose the film for how I know I will print it. I did a gig in Atlantic City a few years ago for a comedy festival. I over-exposed the color print film a little here and there and then pumped up the colors when I printed it. The client was thrilled beyond words at the quality and the colors, even though I was working the backstage angle. My partner was shooting out front.

KC

I spoke to a technician from Fuji (their telephone support) about replacing a geared roller within the rack [the short answer was that I had to take it apart and that was opening a can of worms] and asked him about the pump.

He said that it is relatively easy to swap the pumps but he didn't mention anything about calibration. After some silicone in some strategic places, it appears that any leaks we have are not coming from the pump itself but from one of the feed lines, so we have begun to address that problem.

The pump worried me more than the rack (I haven't gotten a rack apart yet that I couldn't get back together) and the work on the rack, with some bracing of drinking straws and rubber bands to keep it from popping apart when I took the side off, went quite well. The harder part was getting all the gears that I replaced to mesh. I'm thinking of calling Fuji to tell the guy how I did it. It was a simple thing but very effective.

When I worked for a paper in the late eighties and early nineties, all we shot was black and white. Later, they went to color on the front page. The color film volume was so low they had a minilab do those rolls. Now, they shoot digital or scan photos in.

Thanks for the info.

KC

I manage a small camera store with a one-hour lab in northern NJ with

older Fuji machines (FP550B and a PP1040), about 20 miles from NYC.

Does anyone know of, or how I can find, an independent repair

technician? Rather than having to place a service call with Fuji, I'm

hoping to get more bang for my boss's buck by checking out other

avenues.

Some work I can do myself but there are things (like circulation

pumps) that I know are beyond my abilities. I found some listed on

www.rkequipment.com and www.minilabworld.net and made some phone

calls (all to answering machines although one number had no machine).

BEF Corporation has a man who possibly has that information but I

have to call him back tomorrow.

PMA (the Photo Marketing Association) doesn't maintain such a list

but the woman I spoke to took my name and number just in case she

finds some information I could use.

There is Independent Photo Tech Service in the mid-west

(www.phototechservice.com) but they are only in the mid-west. I left

a message on their machine asking if they knew of a similar service

in the NY metro area. One of their technicians called me back and he

wasn't too familiar with the Fuji machines but he tried to give me

some information. If he finds someone near us, he said he would call

me back. He was very nice.

In the past, I have made attempts to find at least one independent

technician but not had any luck. Phone calls have gone nowhere when I

did get a possible contact's name and telephone number.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I looked through the

different forums to see where the best place to post this would be.

I'm not a big fan about cross posting unless necessary because it

gets people understandably upset and one well-chosen forum usually

suffices.

KC

Thank you.

KC