richard_trochlil

"...The choice between 200 and 250 might be based on results you get in the field...you'll just have to see what kind of shadow detail you're getting. If you shooting at 250 and need some more shadow detail, drop to 200 and see what happens..."

 

Precisely, how do you do that? I don't have a clue.

Please advise.

Is there any significant difference, other than price, for TRI-X made for overseas consumption as compared to us home folk?

I solved the problem by switching to Paterson tanks.

 

I never could get even development consistantly in steel tanks. Finally gave up and have lived happily after after.

"...The president stopped talking and a secret service person walked out on the floor and picked up the lens..."

 

 

Good Grief! Today, somebody would yell "Bomb!" and well, you can imagine the rest....

Not to bore folks with the nitty-gritty of corporate finance but there's a BIG bugbear that every CFO addresses called EVA (Earnings Value Add). Essentially, any thing you spend shareholder (or creditor) money on has to fetch a better return than some 'standard' investment return they could get elsewhere. Analysts monitor EVA like a fly monitors poopy - you simply can't shy away from it

 

This is more critical than anything. One of my sons is in a desperate fight to keep their paper mill open. They are making a profit, but not enough to justify the capital that is tied up making it. The stockholders are all over them. Capital is becoming harder and harder to come by, so it had better be earning. If you were a film/paper CEO and saw the digital avalanche coming your way, what would you do? Invest heavily producing a product few under the age of 40 will use this year, next year few under the age of 41 etc etc etc.? Why do I doubt that?

Thanks. They have ordinary light bulb fixtures. Bought them for $4.50 a bulb back in the dark ages. Finally burned one out and when I went to check, gee...they were considered antiques at $50-60 a pop. Gulp! So...I will look elsewhere.

 

So thanks again.

Not knowing where else to ask.

 

One of my 500 watt reflector floods burned out. I don't use them

that often but when I do...anyway, they seem no longer available.

Is there a replacement, or has everybody gone to flash?

"... use ditilled water for all washes..."

 

Distilled water makes a very inefficient wash unless 'tempered' with KODALK or some such stuff. At least, that is what was thought in the olde days.

Well, I have no magic potions or incantations, but some comments.

1. Kodak used to advise against using distilled water for wash unless it was treated first with Kodalk. Water with no minerals is a very inefficient wash. If you think about it, you will understand why.

 

2. I use one (1) drop of Photo-flo in a pint of water from the dehumdifier. Run the film through this once and hang vertically.

 

No spots.

I confess. I was one of them, I think. The good news is that B&W forums are the only ones I watch. The bad news is that B&W are the only forums I watch, so when I have a color question....

 

I shall now return to my fetal position, and plot my next move.

You might try your friendly neighborhood pharmacy. They have all kinds of good bottles that they throw away.

Back in the dark ages, like 30+ yrs ago, ID11+ appeared, claiming that it had certain sequestering agents not in ID11. I was using the replenishment system in those days and sure enough, a lot less sludge in the bottle even after many replenishments.

 

Then it all disappeared, including the replenisher. Too bad. I kind of liked it.

Re: effects of agitation velocity

 

If you think about it, twirling has the outer frames traveling through the chemical at a considerably higher velocity than the inside frames. Yet we have testimony that there is no visible difference in development, so....

Well, we been down the high-priced silver road before. I think it got to $80/oz at one time, and them was 'real' dollars compared to what we got now. Anyway, silver is a very small part of the cost. I would think a 10 cent increase per roll would pretty well cover any perceived future cost.

I have been fighting this for years with my home-made washer, with little result. There was considerable exchange over this about a year ago on this forum. I had wondered how factory made washers handled it.

Some observations;

The problem is the hot water. In my case, cold water comes in with a full load of air. When it is warmed, the warm water cannot carry all the air, so it has to be released. That is the air bubbles you see.

I have found that a 2.5 gal pail releases most of the air in five minutes. So you could use the 'soak' method of washing.

 

I tried flowing the water stream over a piece of plate glass (24x36) That took out maybe 30-50% of the air before it got to the tank.

 

I tried flowing it down a five foot long plastic trough, not much better than the plate glass.

 

And that is far as I have gotten in scientific experiments.

 

Back to the Kodak syphon and flipping prints during the winter months.

re: autos

I asked for a med size with auto trans. Turned out they had only one and it was out. So I was upgraded, no charge, to the most monstrous Mercedes that they had. And Scots roads are narrow. And the snow filled the ditches so you could not tell where the road edge ended and the ditch began. The fact there were several cars in the ditch along the way did not make for a tranquil mind. It was real fun.

 

The advice of picking one spot is good. I mentioned Seil, Skye and Avemore. Any would do.

I was there in late March about five years ago. The good news is that there is very little traffic so driving on the left is not a continous panic. In Ireland, it will be.

 

We stayed at B&B's, found just enough open to be not a bother to find, although most were closed. We drove (!) from Edinbugh to the Isle of Seil where we had friends (the old stone bridge connecting the mainland to Seil and the estuary it crosses over is as scenic as it comes, genuine fishing boats etc) and then to the Isle of Skye. There we drove from Portree down to Dunvegan and back through Roskill. If the weather was right, you could burn up gobs of film just along that road. We then came back around Loch Ness and scuttled back to Edinburgh in front of a blizzard that shut down No. Scotland for several days.

 

I just had a folding Ikonta roll film camera with me, but there surely were plenty of opportunities if you were into scenics and small waterfalls. The snow covered mountains were spectacular. And the wildflowers were out too in the valleys. And their red deer stood around like our range cattle.

 

Somewhere between Inverness and Edinburgh on Hiway #9, there is a village called "Avemore". Just outside a few miles is "Loch en Eilein." There is a crumbling castle in the lake, snow covered mts in the background when we were there, the contract ducks came out when they saw my camera and paddled around the castle ruins etc. I burned up a roll on the varous vistas available.

 

Your big problem will be erratic weather. Their snowstorms can be vicious and I don't remember getting much warning for the one we were fleeing from.

 

I am green with envy. I have gone past the age where they will rent me a car in a 'left hand' country, so I guess my "cruising for snaps" days are gone on those places.

"....With practice you can hand hold these beasts down to about 1/15th sec. The lack of complicated mechanicals needed for a swinging mirror and the very quiet leaf shutters make this possible. The bit of exta weight makes things even easier in this regard since it adds a bit of stablility to the rig...."

 

That is significant if your work eliminates the possibility of a tripod. I cannot hold my Rollei steady, just can't do it. So you had better check it out before you buy. But my C3 Mamiya is another story. No problem there.

Well, if you go down to your friendly druggist, he just may have a zillion brown glass bottles with perfectly good caps that he will be happy to give you.

 

I get half/liter ones from mine. Work perfectly for developer as I use it a half/liter at a time. And they are rectangular instead of round which saves space.

Ha! I was going through the airport in ST Petersburg (as in Russia) and damned near had the 'hand' checker unroll each roll. Got that stopped before disaster hit!

 

BTW, lead bags in the checked luggage. Would that not attract attention? Or does it allow enough x-ray to see what is inside yet filters much of the radiation out? Does anybody know?

This, my response from an earlier thread;

 

Refer: DARKROOM PHOTOGRAPHY Mar/Apr/86 p 20

 

A dissertation on agitation which also evolved into comparison of film tanks, Stainless Steel vs Paterson

 

100 rolls of 35 mm were developed, certain frames printed and others read by a densitometer.

 

The goal was even development.

 

The ONLY method for 'excellent' results in SS tanks was two reels, the top with no film, filled half full and then 'snap' inverted five times in five seconds every 30 seconds.

 

Paterson had several 'excellent' results kind of indicating that agitation was not as critical.

 

Through the years I had had occasional failure in my SS tanks. I preferred them because of their easily being cleaned.

 

I do not have a two reel 120 tank, so I switched to Paterson for 120. No failures since.

 

*****You will note that the only method that seemed to work in SS tanks is one mentioned in another response. Use a tank with more than one reel, and only fill the bottom reel with film, and then cover only that reel with developer.

 

I THINK that using a one reel tank, you might try just barely covering the reel with developer, leaving a little air space for the developer to move in during agitation.

 

I know people who use SS tanks and never have had a problem. I am not one of those people.

I can tell you one thing for sure, if you suddenly realize you don't know where you are, and worse, don't know where to go to get to some place so you know where you are, the first thing that shuts down is your brain. Best you be MENTALLY prepared too.

"... He than begain to tell me the water we have over he on the Eastern Shore is very hard water along with the Kodak fixer being hard which makes the neg. almost impossible to wash clean...."

 

Hmmm! The principle of using pre-washing clearing agents came from WWII experience when it was discovered that sea water washed film faster than 'clean'water. So I can't imagine water so 'hard' that it would not wash film. It also means you don't want to use distilled water for your wash unless it has been 'treated' with KODALK or some such. Use distilled water for the final rinse if you are using water like I used to drink on a cattle ranch in SO. Dak. in the Olden Times. That stuff could be used for paint! I am sure it would leave very interesting deposits on your film unless it was rinsed off.

Refer: DARKROOM PHOTOGRAPHY Mar/Apr/86 p 20

 

A dissertation on agitation which also evolved into comparison of film tanks, Stainless Steel vs Paterson

 

100 rolls of 35 mm were developed, certain frames printed and others read by a densitometer.

 

The goal was even development.

 

The ONLY method for 'excellent' results in SS tanks was two reels, the top with no film, filled half full and then 'snap' inverted five times in five seconds every 30 seconds.

 

Paterson had several 'excellent' results kind of indicating that agitation was not as critical.

 

Through the years I had had occasional failure in my SS tanks. I preferred them because of their easily being cleaned.

 

I do not have a two reel 120 tank, so I switched to Paterson for 120. No failures since.

 

BTW, I do not dip my reels in photoflo. Instead, I take the film off and see-saw it through photo-flo ( one drop/half liter distilled water in a bowl) just like we used to do verichrome before it became verichrome pan. (Shows how old I am!)

I used to get this periodically with 120 Nikon type reels. Naturally, always with the most critical negatives.

 

Finally finally an article in Photo-Techniques (?) indicated Nikon reels were the cause, threw out the Nikon, went to Patterson and the problem disappeared.

 

Perchance, were you using Nikon-type reels?