scott_walton2

The best and easiest (best is a relative term because it will show ALL the defects in the jewelry!!!) is to suspend a large piece of foamcore (white and a little more than being horizontal to the table) over your tabletop setup... about 2-3 ft above. Bounce your flash off of the foamcore to light your product. By placing your flash in different positions (i.e. at the rear of the setup-just out of camera view, or 45 degrees from camera or even just under your camera pointed at the foamcore...) you will be able to get different looks through lighting.

As a background, get some "river rocks" or rocks from the ocean, spray paint them black and put them ontop of black seamless paper. Drape your jewelry artfully over the rocks.

You can easily make a light box out of foam core, you might consider Gatorfoam as it is more rigid. Cover the end with Translum and you have a softbox.

Has anyone had experience with either of these units? I'm familiar

with the Quantum but I have just learned of the MicroSynch.

Please email directly at: walton@ll.mit.edu

Absolutely! I still do developing by inspection sometimes but lately it is with Split baths that I have been staying with... it keeps a fresh supply of chemicals surging through my veins... LOL.

They are good lens and the shutters are very easy to clean and lube yourself! The 150mm is a good starting lens and you should be able to use it for long time.

Hello Willie,

I have the 360f5.5 and do like it very much! That said, it is a non coated lens (only problem is shooting towards the sun) and a large, manual shutter but it does fit on my Linhof Tec III. It is a heavy piece of glass but you are looking for a tele for large format (LOL)! For the price you can get these at, buy one but do try to get the one with tube if you can find one. The tube (collar or what have you...) acts like an inverted recessed lens board effectively shortening your bellows draw.

You might try cutting your stop bath dilution down a bit more as far as the "black spots" go (if they are sharp edged). These could be pin holes made by your stop bath being to acidic. As far as the dust and scratches go, it really needs to be addressed from the start. i.e. from loading all the way to drying. You might be getting the scratches from dust in your loading area that just compound problems all the way down the line. As David stated, I too prefer LFN (Edwal) and mixed up fresh every time. Washing tank with water at the same temp as your line and about 3-5 drops of LFN... perfectly spotless negatives everytime.

I love my wife, as most of us do there wife's, but I think that is about "Reason #45" for leaving them at home!

Home made cameras can be alot of fun. There is a whole web site on homebuilts. One in particular that is a fine piece of craftsmanship... Julian has a great site, is very personable (almost met him when he came over to Boston) and has some good ideas... go here:http://job.webstar.nl/newcampg.html

No, not at all... while your at the photo shop, pick up a bottle of Edwal's "Liquid Orthrazite". What this stuff is is a buffing agent that has Benzotriazole in it. This will cut down any fog that you might otherwise get but with a date of 2004... if you cannot find it, the film should be fine.

First off I have to say that I have a Tec III so with that in mind... my limitations are more than yours... or so one would think. I too needed (read wanted) something wider than my 90mm. I purchased a 65mm after using one that I have for work on the V that I have at work. I had a machine shop make a recessed lens board for my III and it worked great although I do have to drop the bed out of the way. Not much movements but enough to keep things straight with the back. If I were you, get at least the 75mm so you won't be longing because the 80mm is just to close to the 90mm, at least for my taste.

I have excellent results (shooting with a 25A) with D76 1:1 for 6 minutes @ 68 F degrees. It keeps the highlights down just a bit (so they aren't totally blown rendering base white) keeping any "hard work" down to a dull roar. With Infrared, the highlights won't really have alot of detail due to the nature of the wavelength anyway but you will have seperation in tones/paper base white.

As stated, the "technical" cameras are indeed "field" cameras (which close up in a clam shell sort of fashion protecting the ground glass yet still being able to keep a short lens mounted), but as for being hard to work with... I can set my Tec III up in about 3 seconds and use my 65mm also by dropping the bed out of the way... it is a fact that I don't have to much movements when using the 65mm but I did have a recessed lens board made out of a piece of alum. stock on a CNC machine, and it works flawlessly. Years ago I was debating about getting a wooden one and could have gotten a used Zone... the beauty of a wooden camera is incredible to me but in the same sentence, a trusted salesman mentioned that wooden cameras swell when wet and I do do alot of "fowl" weather shooting... needless to say, I take my Tech III out whenever I venture out of the protection of the studio and don't worry about a thing!

Go here:http://www.micro-tools.com/Merchant2/restore.htm and you will find leatherette to fully replace yours if you want. Pliobond also for gluing it down... call it a winter project.

They are very easy to open and work on and as mentioned, alot of the time it is just a piece that is jamming. Open it up and while you have it open, clean up the rollers with a paper towel and iso alcohol. They might just be gummed up with chemicals and that just might be the only problem. After awhile, you'll notice that the prints are either getting spots or not getting the developer all the way across... this is time to clean the rollers again. Just another tip.

Fuji are fine optics all around as stated! The only complaint you might develop is that they are "to sharp" for portraits!

Any old monorail outfitted with a bag bellows. Old Cambo C's are great and can be picked up for short money. Do yourself a favor though... get one with a graflock back so you can put on roll film backs and other things that will come up...

I haven't used Emofin but have used Diafine for up to 1.5 years with ALOT of film and only mixed new because of my own nerves. Occasional filtering (a white coffee filter works great) and then let it settle overnight, I find works great. The ONLY thing I have had to do is to mix up some additional A Bath due to carry over (I mix up the Gallon kit) and have tested densities before the addition of A Bath and there were no changes from using fresh chemicals to the point of 9 months when I decided to add A Bath for carry over.

Divided D23 is the only split bath developer I use as it is the only one that gives me all the controls... and especially the tones I like with 4x5 Readyloads. Admittedly it is a soft working soup (heavy in the Sodium Sulfite department) but with 4x5 there is no worry... 35mm is a whole different animal!

With the negatives looking "flat", pull a print or two and you might be surprised... although on a cloudy day of shooting, you'll need some work done (you could try a proportional enhancement and these you would find in "The Darkroom Cookbook") on the negatives.

There have been a number of people who state that they use Diafine as well as a few other split soups, and love the results but I didn't care for the lack of tones and density with everything other than DD23, with my system. My times for DD23 are 9 minutes Bath A and 3 minutes Bath B so you might want to try boosting your A Bath time for additional contrast but don't expect grandious changes!

Split developers, as they are, aren't know for a contrasty negative. The whole purpose is getting even gradations across the whole spectrum. Sunny situations, this is fine but on a cloudy day, you would be better off using a single bath developer where you could give a N+1 (or whatever your needs were for your system) development.

I have to agree with the above posts in that you will probably want to still shoot film. Chromes are still the way to go and if your not in a post production mode of developing yourself (with at least an auto Jobo... ATL ect.) you'll want to explore your pro labs that are still around and top notch in quality! Things have changed a bit but good labs are still around. B/W emulsions, are being taken out of the picture by Kodak but with a good scan, your images will be convertable for print if needed.

Diafine works great with some very sharp grain and the great benefits of 2 bath developers, the only other one I love, that fits your needs is Divided D76. EXTREMELY fine grain and perfect shadow and highlight control!

I have had the very great pleasure of working with Brad about 8 yrs ago. His stuff IS stunning, your right, but the first time I met him... he came into the lab and said he had some negatives to look at. A couple of started setting up the light tables and donning photo gloves and he said "..screw that!..." and he proceeded to roll the 8x10 roll out onto the floor! Talk about a near fatal heart attack on my part! After that, and getting to know him (as he would come to the lab for Friday's lunch)... he was a very funny and casual guy who would go for a hike (Mt Washington in NH) and come back to Boston the same day... and he was well into his 80's!!!

It also could be that your rollers in your holder need a good cleaning. This happens alot and all you need to do is open the compartment, unclip the rollers and swab them down with alcohol. Very easy and very effective and I have been doing this for years. If this doesn't help... the pod, as described above may be dried out.

Divided D23 works great! As a 2 bath, Bath A is 9 minutes and Bath B 3 minutes and directly into fix. Never blown highlights with perfect shadows and very fine grain!

Fuji lens a superb! This one is advertised as a 5x7 lens because at the minimum f stop, it will cover 5x7 (focused at infinity). Using it on 4x5 you will get very sharp, snappy film and is a joy to use! Using a 150mm for wide scope interiors isn't your best choice anyway but I wouldn't not buy it! I have a number of Fuji lens and I love them!

Your acid may be to concentrated in it's original formula... Download this PDF:http://www.ilford.com/html/us_english/pdf/reversal_web.pdf and do look at the percentage of your Sulfuric acid.