diegobuono

My main concern is not cost of developing but thd quality, not that the cost is not an issue at all (in fact me too is more selective lately on what I shot) but if I can be sure of the quality at least I could enjoy it with no fear. Too much screwed up film lately to enjoy the process.

Imshot slidemfor about 90% of my pictures but recently the option regarding labs are narrowed because som closedmor stopped doing e6 and the remains are getting worst each time (see my post of yesterday). Slides are my favourite but the problems related to processing started to re-think about it and in the future I will shot less and less. Unfortunatly recently I stocked up a good amount of velvia50, provia 100F and all the provia 400X I found around Italy (all in 120 format). I will use it very slowly or sell it if I find someone interested (above all the rare provia 400 X). Sad days because as already stated nothing equal a well exposed slide viewed on a light table or (better) projected

The lab B is one of those who collect films froj different places so I don't who and where is, the lab A showed a strip but how can we be shure of the day (or hour) ofmprocessing? There is no way because there is no reference number on the film. I will search another lab and then, sadly, when I finished my stock of slide I think I will stop to shot slides, I'm more and more into B&W for these reason too. Sad but this is how the things goes here in Italy.

As happened in the past (see the following link http://www.photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00XEXs ) a lab gave me what I think are bad processed film. The colors seems a bit off, too much toward yellow, an the sky present dark vertical stripes, othernthan many frames show spots of dust. So i shot the same pictures on two different rolls (same emulsion number, swapping film back on my hasselblad) and developed in this lab (call it lab A) and in another lab (lab B). The film developed by lab A is way overexposed, instead the film developed in the lab B is ok. Now i recall that all the roll i recently developed in the lab A seem overexposed but Before this check I thought it was my mistake. Anyway I showed the problem to the tecnician an the owner of the lab and they stated that the film thy developed is ok (they checked the density of the black) and the film developed by the lab B is underdeveloped because the black is too black and the marcs on the edge of the film is orange instead of yellow. I always seen the mark orange in the past ,may be not so dark (this could explay why the dark is too much dark), but orange or dark yellow, not yellow, in all labs I used. So which is the correct color? Dark yellow, orange, or yellow? Thank you in advance. Diego

Few days ago I started using my "new" (bought used) flextight 646, after 10 scan the scanner started doing weird noise while charging the film holder , gave me message like "white balance underexposed" or (alternatively) "no film holder" (Intraslated the messages from italian, so could be a little differnt from the original english message); at that poiht I have been able to scan just another frame but it came out not center3d on the area selected, like if the film holder slipped during the feeding. The seller told me to bring it to the hasselblad repair center (where it has been serviced before it was put on sale), the repairman checked it, they scaaned some films and it seems that all works properly). Now I will try it again but I'm wondering what happened, (the seller when I called on the phone an let him hear that weird noise, talked about a "friction" and "springs"). Any clue? Thank you in advance, Diego

I all, I would like to receive your input on this matter: I would like to experiment with MF film astrophotograpy, untill today I have only shot star trail and would like to shoot something like this: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/techniques/landscape_astrophotography.shtml Unfortunatly the faster color slide film available is provia 400x (now discontinued but I have some) that can be pushed 2 stop (if I'm not wrong); I tried to push it only 1stop in the past with good result (very little grain) and would like to receive your opinion, if you tried to push it 2 or 3 stop. I can not try it by myself because the lack, at this moment, of dark area (no light pollution) where to experiment for astrophotograpy (I intend to use in death valley in april - may) and because I don' want to use the few rolls I have just to experiment. I could use kodak portra 800 pushed 2 stop but I don't like that grain (I used it at 800 and 3200) so I hope provia 400 x pushed 2 or 3 stop will be a better performer. Please, don't recommend to use a digital camera, I don't like it, don't use it, don't own it and don't want to by nor borrow it. I would like to do my best with film. Any tips? Thank you in advance for your input. Diego