jim_shanesy

It's ok to break up a 4 gallon kit and use it in 1 gallon batches, but as a previous poster pointed out, exposure to air will ruin 777 quickly. Even though I keep mine tightly capped in full bottles, I change my working gallon of 777 once every six months. I mix up a fresh gallon, replace half of my working gallon and use the rest as replenisher.

 

777 was designed to be heavily used in 4 gallon deep tanks. You need a lot of solution to use it well. I never develop more than two 8x10 sheets (or rollfilm equivalent) per gallon of solution.

 

Hope this helps.

510 is very clean working. Don't ruin it by adding fog with a post fix developer bath.

The abseence of an announcement means absolutely nothing when it comes to this company. When Kodak film is finally discontinued it will probably be announced after the final production run.

The don't have any TMY 8x10 sheet film either. This could be VERY bad.

JandC is out of TMY 120 as well. This could be bad.

Bluegrass Packaging Industries, Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky 502-425-6442. You must call. They have no e-commerce capability.

You really don't need to desensitize if you're using a pyrogallol based developer. The tanning action of the developer does that for you. Just don't look before the negative is about 2/3 developed.

For a normal 400TMax negative to be contact printed on Azo, try 9 minutes at 70 degrees F using the 1:100 dilution. This is essentially the same time I would give this film in ABC pyro. I don't use the other two films you mention, so can't help you there.

 

Jay DeFehr can probably tell you a lot more. I haven't enlarged any of the negatives I've developed in this excellent concoction.

One of the things Steve Sherman advises with semi-stand development is to never exceed dilutions of 1:200. I did, once, and the results were disastrous. You may get tremendous contrast, but you will lose the all important local contrast in the midtones, and this is to me the real advantage to semi-stand development in the first place.

 

Attached is an unmanipulated scan of a print I made on grade 2 Azo (the last run done in Canada - the mushy stuff) of a 400TMax negative developed in 510 pyro using the semi-stand technique. 1:200. I put the darkest part of the picture on Zone IV and there was a whopping 1 zone of tonal range. The brightest part of the picture fell on Zone V. The negative has so much contrast that I had to make custom burn cards from proofs to burn in certain sections which were too hot. (On Canadian Azo!)

 

510 Pyro is remarkable developer.

Although I don't use pyro developers often, I do use 510 pyro for the occasional semi-stand or minimal agitation negative. It is the best of the pyrogallol and pyrocatechin based developers that I have used. It gives me a nice green image stain on 400TMax, which I don't get with ABC. It yields much less fog stain than I get with either Pyrocat HD or PMK.

 

I'm not sure that agree with Jay about the full speed. I still rate all my TMax at 200. However, when I need a pyro developer to expand a really flat scene, 510 just can't be beaten. I showed one of my 510 semi-stand negs to Steve Sherman and he said that it was as perfectly exposed and developed as any he'd ever seen. After receiving such high praise, how could I use anything else?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=search&Q=&b=49&a=89_628&a=83_611&a=75_578&mnp=0.0&mxp=0.0&shs=&ci=335&ac=&Submit.x=11&Submit.y=6&Submit=Go

Do you know any photographers whose prints you admire? Look at their negatives. The negative is a step along the way to producing a print. It must contain the information which will enable you to produce the print you want. The negatives I make to be used to make contact prints are, in general, far too dense to be used in an enlarger.

 

Once you learn what a good negative should look like for your particular photography, you then need to learn how at a glance to tell if a negative is underexposed, overexposed, underdeveloped or overdeveloped or any combination of improper exposure or development.

 

The only way to tell if your negatives are any good is to determine what kind of prints they produce.

"If you have to ask if its art, then its not."

 

I agree. I also believe that if you care whether or not it's art, you're not a photographer.

I don't know about 2006, but I know of one in 2005.

 

http://www.viewcamera.com/pdf/2005/workshops2005.pdf

Jay:

 

I think the single most telling attribute would have to be reciprocity failure. Try racking your lens down to f/90 or so and making a 1 minute exposure. Give it a tabular grain reciprocity correction of 1.5 stops and then see if the negative is either close to correct or still 4 or 5 stops underexposed when developed. That should tell you for sure.

 

Jim

The 50 speed Efke is also a beautiful portrait film. Rate it at 25.

For uniquely beautiful skin tones, I find the Efke orthopanchromatic films unsurpassed. The 25 and the 50 speed. I rate them at half the recommended speeds. Since you're shooting with a 35mm camera, you'll want the remarkable sharpness and fine grain these films deliver. Try them. I can't imagine that you'd be disappointed. Behind a Leitz lens they should produce absolutely magnificent pictures.

Whatever it means, I just love it. It renders especially beautiful skin tones.

The really easy way is to just send them to .dr5 and the quality will probably be superior to your own beginning efforts.

 

http://www.dr5.com/main.html

I have neither Flash nor admin rights to my computer here at the office. I therefore could not install Flash even were I so disposed, which I'm not. That "'toon town" stuff has cost a lot of photographers a lot of prospective clients.

I don't think it's sold over the counter. JandC is the exclusive US distributor, I believe. Just buy it from them. Great company.

I prefer 400TMax to any other film. It stains beautifully with minimal fog stain in all pyrogallol and pyrocatechin based developers.

The reason that people are so bummed about its demise is the fact that there is no substitute for it. It's a truly unique product. Neither Pan F nor T-Max 100 comes very close.

 

Depending upon the format you need, the Gigabit films from Eastern Europe might be your best bet.

Use Kodak 64T no matter what the lighting. It's the best color film made which is why the National Gallery of Art uses it.

Your lighting ratio is too high. Open up on those shadows already, especially in the eyes! They really are the "windows to the soul".