wayne3

last fall I opened a box with 30-some sheets of exposed velvia right

in front of a brightly lit window. As soon as I overcame my horror at

what I had done (about .4 milliseconds) I slammed the box shut and

screamed WHY WHY WHY AM I SO STUPID at the top of my lungs. The top

few sheets were ruined and a number had fogging at the edges, but a

good number alo turned out printable. You should be OK, but just for

safety's sake yell WHY WHY WHY......

Get a map. Look for places with lots of Parks, areas of interest,

tourist destinations, etc. Go the opposite direction.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the recommended

amount of room air changes/hour is at least 10, and up to 20 for a

smaller room. Figure out your cubic footage & Make sure your fan has

the capacity you need-with an adequate fan and intake you simply

shouldnt have odor problems, assuming that the chemicals are BETWEEN

you and the exhaust, which it sounds like they are. I dont know that a

purifier wouldnt work, but I think a good exhaust fan is a better

idea. If the purifier is recycling room air rather than venting it

OUT, then you might not have enough fresh air coming in the intake

vents

I cant see how you could make an 8x10 out of one. 5x7 maybe. I just

dont think a D5 will hold a 8x10 head of any kind with any measure of

stability/rigidity. I'd love to be proved wrong though! I've never

heard of a conversion kit for 4x5 Omegas, only Beseler. I just bought

a D6, but I'm holding on to my Beseler for that very reason.

NO. And the (new and wonderful) search engine is at the main entry

http://http.cs.berkeley.edu/~qtluong/photography/lf/index.html

You can convert a Beseler to 8x10, I've seen the kits go for about

1400 and a solid Beseler can be picked up for a few hundred if you

shop around. Color (at least if you want a color head as opposed to cp

filters) will stretch your budget a bit, I think. You will have to

project horizontally to get the enlargement size you want.

Its late and my contacts are glued to my corneas, so if I dont make

any sense please excuse me. I think Calumet sells retaining rings if

thats all you need. I bought one for my 150 Rodagon from them (which

is a 49 mm I believe). If not, Harry at Classic Enlargers or midwest

photo exhange should have whatever you need.

<p>

http://www.classic-enlargers.com/omega_enlargers.htm

http://www.mpex.com

<p>

Phew, that made sense, even if I'm wrong.

<p>

Ouch ouch gotta go now

<p>

Wayne

Just print them yourself in a home darkroom. It doesnt take much- a

decent but cheap enlarger with a good lens, a drum, some chemicals,

and print viewing filters. And, unless you are doing very high volume

printing, its cheaper than having a lab do them. You dont need

digithis or digithat, just a plain old darkroom works fine

Now I've really got to try it. Yes, I dont usually (or ever) expect

Velvia to record more than about 4.5 or so at best, although i've

never analyzed them to the quarter stop.

<p>

I've had a bunch of Astia loaded for weeks, and just havent gotten out

to use it yet.

Re: my first previous post. University Products (1800-628-1912)

carries non-buffered mat board in BOTH 2 and 4 ply! Their prices

appear to be slightly less than Light Impressions in 4 ply----but I'm

looking at a 3 year old catalog. 2 ply is of course considerably

cheaper. They only carry non-buffered in what they call "soft-white"

though. I do like the "bright white" that LI has, I dont know about

soft white.

Jon, you shouldnt load film holders in the kitchen. Theres a lot of

loose radiation, light waves, Betty Crocker dust etc that bounce

around even in a perfectly dark kitchen. I only load holders at

night in my car in the garage with a tarp pulled over it. I've had

perfectly white negatives ever since I started using this method.

Theres another place in Seattle too, that also does LF but again I

dont know about 5x7. I also dont know how to spell their name, but

I've heard it pronounced: I-vee-see-right

<p>

They cost slightly less than Prolab, too, but I've never used them

You might try Prolab in Seattle. I dont know if they do 5x7 but

they've done my 4x5's for years and I've rarely had a problem, and

their prices are better than most.

<p>

As for why more people dont do it at home....I used to do it about

10-12 years ago and I found it nearly impossible to maintain the

strict temp control that is necessary. Plus, after an hour or more of

setup, processing and cleanup, all I had to show for it was 6

trannies! Not worth it, IMO, as long as there are labs that do a good

job for a good price. Not that it cant be done at home with good

equip, but I think those are the reasons more people dont do it, plus

some of the chemicals are nasty.

The issue is apparently the buffering agent interacting with the

acidic print. Non-buffered board pH is neutralish at manufacture and

will drop over time. I dont know the chemistry of it, I just know

buffered and color dont mix. If you can prevent the board from

touching the emulsion, you might be OK.

Hmmm, Now we've got a vote for Astia holding both highlight and shadow

detail better. I've gotta get out and shoot some of this stuff, and

see what it does on Ilfochrome.

I'd shoot the damn thing if it was making popcorn noises. I'm getting

ready to shoot the drain in my darkroom sink, which goes

shhhhhhlllllllllggggggguuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggglllllllluuu

uurrrrgggglllll whenever the water runs.

AFAIK, non-buffered board is recommended for all color prints,

regardless of process. I've never seen non-buffered mat in anything

but 4-ply. In fact, I've never seen it advertised by anyone but Light

Impressions. I was told Graphik Dimensions carries it, but its not in

their catalog. I would also be interested to know if there are other

sources, as I use it with Ilfochromes, LI isnt exactly cheap, and they

never seem to have it when I need it.

I believe he published a book called The Cats of Wildcat Hill, but

I've never seen it and dont know if any were named in it. He does name

a few in some of his later writings, after Brett hauled them all out

and shot them for trashing the house. This was when he was in pretty

bad shape with Parkinson's.

I've got a Newfoundland with more fur than 30 cats. Never had a dog

hair problem yet, and he's been along on every photo trip I've taken

for 12 years.

Glenn wrote:

<p>

To reply to Bruce above, there is no question in my mind that

Astia is better for portraits. Joseph Holmes, among others, has

suggested that Astia is the better film if printing will

be done via scanning/lightjet. Apparently Astia has a much better

dynamic range for holding highlight details

<p>

-----

<p>

This sounds like Astia is superior in all respects, unless you like

unrealistic gaudy colors. I just bought my first box of it but havent

exposed any yet.

No problem if its in an airtight container. Thats where those ammo

boxes I mentioned come in. I do it all the time.

I've been using the low contrast paper for a couple months now, and

I've been pretty pleased with it. the saturation is more than adequate

for my tastes, and its contrast is more bearable.

Since nobody answered my question for a few days I did try flashing it

a few nights ago. It took a while to get the amount of flashing right

without fog, but I finally did. It didnt make much difference in

contrast though, maybe very slight, which I suppose might be expected

with the low contrast paper. I've only tried it on one slide so far

though.

<p>

My only complaint with the low contrast paper is that along with the

overall lower contrast comes lower contrast in the highlights, and

theres seemingly nothing I can do about that (other than perhaps

masking, which doesnt appeal to me).

I dont know the answer but I'm reviving your old question because I

have one too. I'm guessing they are in the 20-30 yr old range, but

thats a wild guess only. Maybe the can be dated by serial #