ardea

insurance, insurance insurance.

Richard

I read with interest John's post regarding Vuescan and Silverfast profiling of the scanner. I have a Epson 3200 that I puchased last week for scanning 4x5 chromes but have not used it for that purpose yet. I did use it with Monoco EZ Color to profile my printer for some new paper though. I also scan 35mm stuff with a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED. Nikons software will not let me embed a IT-8 profile. Sort of what I believe John is saying about the Epson 3200.

Assuming that one is taking the scanned data and running it into a photo manipulation program like Photo Shop I wonder how important it is to have a profiled scanner. One can have a most difficult time if your monitor and printer are not profiled but I see the scanner as a digital camera. When we take a photo with a digital camera or my Shen Hao the availible light varies in intensity and temperature which is like saying, that the light source of the scanner changes with age. I think this can be compensated for in PS.

At least this is the way I see it, but if I'm way off base maybe John could explain further. I'm a long way from being a whizz at this stuff. I hope others will jump in and clarify this.

This is a good thread and I would like to see more on scanning with the 3200. I do have one foot in a wet (real)darkroom and the other in a digital darkroom......We live in interesting times, which at times is not a curse.

Regards, Richard

There was some question about Gnass products and Gnasses web sight

being down.

This morning I received my order of film and lens holders when

promised. I must say that these items are very well thought out and

engineered. The workmanship and materials are of the highest caliber.

I'll look foreward to using them.

I have no association with Gnass Gear or with Justin Gnass other than

he was very nice to talk with over the phone.

Regards, Richard

I have a dark cloth that I purchased when I got my Shen-Hoa 4x5. It's

so big and heavy it could double as a storm jib on a 50 foot cutter.

Any suggestion on a lightweight functional DC ? What about the BTZS

cloth?

Thanks for the help.

Regards, Richard

I would NOT get a GPS unit without "trackback" capability. That said. I would not venture far afield or upon the ocean without a good chart of the area and a descent compass and the knowledge to use them for a back when your GPS goes south....Happy Navigating!

Regards,Richard

In Ansel Adams new edition of "the Print" on page 177, there are illustrations of John Sexton while he was an assistant to AA showing their method of preparing roll film for enlargement. The easel is in vertical format but it could be set up just as well for a horizontal projection. I inquired quite a bit about vacuun easels and concluded that they are not neccessary for most work. See the thread "Vacuum Easels....Necessary???"

Regards, Richard

I dealt with him personally from the Florida Keys. Both he and his staff are courteous and knowledgable. I ordered a high ticket item, shipment was quick and easy.

Regards, Richard

I'm also planning on making a 7x17 camera and would think that the advice given by Sandy is the way to proceed.Pehaps we could share thoughts...Right now I'm finishing up my darkroom. I just ordered a 7x17GG from Dagor77 out in CA. He may have more. Good luck.

Regards, Richard

Thanks for all the response...Barry Thornton auther of the "Edge of Darkness" emailed that paper flatness is not an issue unless your making very large enlargements. Also a downside to vacuum easels is the vibration from the vac. pump degrading the image.

Regards, Richard

There seems to be a consensus of opinion that glass negative carriers

contribute to sharper projected images on the paper by keeping the

film in plane. I have noticed quite a few vacuum easels for sale of

late. Now in theory they sound good and would help in the overall

alignment of the enlarger system by keeping the paper in plane. I

have noticed while using conventional easels that the paper was not

flat across its entire surface, and although the prints appeared to

be sharp I felt they could be better( 4x5 up to 11x14). Barry

Thornton in his interesting book "Edge of Darkness" on pages 139

&140, raises and lowers the easel 16mm above and below the focus

point on the paper and the prints are still sharp at these distances.

Now 16mm, which as im sure you know is over 1/2 inch..Do any of you

think this may be a typo? Has anyone noticed any benifit from using

one compared to a conventional easel,other than a vertical

arrangement.

Thanks

Regards, Richard

I'm familiar with the work of Beken of Cowes especially the "J" boats taken between the two wars I enjoy their work.

In 1911 A.W.Dimock wrote "The Book of Tarpon". Illustrated by "his cameraman" who used a view camera in skiff's and canoe's to take photo's of Dimock playing Tarpon in south Florida and the Florida Keys. The aerial anticks of Tarpon are lengendary as is their strength. Many an angler has had to give up before the Tarpon..and quite a few anglers through the years have met their fate while hooked to a Tarpon...sorry for being long winded but I'm a flyfishing guide in the Keys and love to get my anglers hooked up to the "Silver King"

The photo's are amazing considering the equipment and conditions the photographer had to work under. All the jumping Tarpon shots are well focused and there are some very well lit and artistic shots. It's also a good read and the "camera man" is mentioned quite often.

Tight Lines...

Capt. Richard Martel ;)

Thanks to all of you who responded to my query. I think the way I will procede ,is to work with D-76 1:1 and find out it's range using just a couple of films. With that I can establish a base line to evaluate PMK or other film developers.

Regards, Richard

Thanks guys for your informative views on PMK. From what I understand and from Brians reply is that PMK is really not much different than D-76 1:1 untill you get into broad contrast range. Thats where it shines (I hope)

Thanks, Richard

Someone a short while back posted a question about what to do after

he purchased a 4x5 camera...I felt like replying "build a darkroom"!

Well after my 4x5 Shen-Hao purchase I'm building a darkroom with

thanks to you folks that gave me valuable info. I'll post a few

photo's of the DR in the not to distant future.

In the distant past I developed 35mm negs in D-76 1:1 and lately 4x5

in trays I got what I thought were fairly good prints ,BUT I have no

way to judge objectivly since I have not seen any fine art prints

from the more well known artists in the field, so I don't know whats

possible. After studying Hutchings "The Book of Pyro" it seems that

one using PMK can capture the subtle variation in highlights or to

put it another way expand the higher tonal ranges, that one can't

using the more traditional developers. As we get spectacular cloud

formations here in the Florida Keys and Everglades i'm thinking this

method may be the way to go. I will not be contact printing (but I

think it would be neat to do with 8x10 and larger)but enlarging to

11x14 and 16x20. So...to all you folks that went up the PMK learning

curve, was it worth the effort?

Thanks so much,

Regards, Richard

...On page 88 is an brief article on the phychology of "seeing". One

may find it to be of interest and applicable to to the image that one

see's in the GG.

Regards, Richard

Hi

I would first try a "pin vice". It's a small chuck with a handle attached, that may work if there is about a 1/16" of the screw protruding. If that fails try to find a piece of thin wall tubing, stainless or brass with an ID just an hair (don't ask) over the major diameter of screw threads. File some teeth on the end of the tube that should be 2-3 inches long and place the tube over the screw and drill down in small steps untill the screw comes out. Plug hole with plug made with a matching color hardwood and epoxy in place. Trim the plug flush re-drill to fit new screw....take photos.

Good luck

Richard Martel

I'm in the process of building and equiping a darkroom for 4x5 B&W

and noticed this enlarger thats up for bid on E.... Anyone out there

that can pass on some info on this model Durst?

Thanks, Richard

Dear GreyWolf

Thanks...I dropped Dee an Email thanking him for his good advice. I believe both of you may be shipwrights or ships carpenters. As I told Dee I built a 43' cutter over 25 years ago, and lived aboard her for 18, thats when I started using the West System I'm sure there are other epoxy systems that are as good. I just happen to have about a gallon of West on hand. Interesting that you mention strip canoes. I built the "Redbird" out of Ted Moores book, "Canoe Craft", It's a nice tripping canoe. FYI my Fiance and I took our solo canoe's (Bell Magic and We-no-nah Prism) and canoed the upper Missouri in Northern Montana last year. Great trip! I guess I should mention that I took photo's.

Regards, Richard

After making a number of scale mockups, (3/4"=1') I have decided on a L shaped sink. The longest run being 6'x 32" x7" turning the corner and joined to that sink will be another sink 30" x 32"x 7" and the wash sink 30"x32"x13" deep. This arangement will allow print trays for 20x24 prints with a couple of inches to spare around the trays. The sink bottoms will be sloped slightly for easy draining and no pooling.

Constructed of 3/4 marine fir plywood,epoxy fillets in the corner, pigmented 2 part West epoxy coated and the top edges of the plywood capped. 316 series stainless steel would make nice sinks but I think the above will serve me well. I can get all of the above out of two sheets of 4x8 plywood. I may lay up a piece of lightweight fiberglass cloth in the wash sink for insurance. GreyWolf, thanks for your kind offer...send a block down my way. I like the idea of modular construction with plumbing...Thanks again for all of your suggestions. Will keep you posted on construction and I'm sure I will be asking some more basic questions

Happy new year,

Richard Martel

Thanks a lot for the good tips...With the tray dimensions provided and some other sluething in order to print up to 20x24. I can determine my sink size.

I'm somewhat limited for space, 6'x 14' being all that is available but I'm glad to have that. Being from south Florida (Florida Keys)getting or making cold water will be somewhat of a bother.

Thanks again for all the help.

Regards, Richard