jim_shanesy

Age: 53

Male/Female Yes

Why do you develop your own photos? So that I won't have a lot of exposed film lying around the house.

What do you use for timing development and fixing and so on? A Fossil Arkitect Chronograph wristwatch.

Which film do you usually use? Either Efke PL100 or Kodak 400TMax

Is this 35mm, roll or sheet film? Yes

What developer do you usually use? ABC Pyro

What fixer do you usually use? Ilford Rapid Fixer

4 x 5 - 90mm 10% of the time, 210mm 90% of the time

8 x 10 - 12" (approx. 305mm) 5% of the time, 19" (approx. 480mm) 95% of the time.

 

The images present themselves to me more easily with the 210 and the 19" lenses. It's just the focal length where I tend to see well.

I get full rated speed of 50 with Pan F+ in PMK. This is, however, the only film with which I get it no matter which pyrogallol-based developer I use.

BTW, this is the large format forum. Your question belongs in the Leica forum and not here.

Henri Cartier-Bresson once had Leitz custom fabricate a prism for his Leica which turned everything upside down and backwards when looking through the viewfinder. Maybe you could snag one of those on Ebay.

No, unless you're developing Super XX Pan, the only film left in existence with which water bath development will work, and there is no agitation of the film while it's in the water. See Adams, The Negative, p. 229.

About 2 weeks ago I was out photographing with my Hassy 503Cxi and had just attached the 250mm Sonnar with the Bay 50 lens shade (boy was THAT hard to find). I placed the camera on my Zone VI tripod and slung the whole thing over my shoulder. Either I hadn't latched it properly or the strap caught the release because the entire assembly went tumbling to the concrete I was standing on and landed face down on the lens shade.

 

The lens shade is banged all to hell and the bayonet is so bent that I can't get it off of the lens, but the lens works perfectly and there's not a scratch on the camera. I finished up the roll I was shooting and went home. These things are built like the proverbial brick shithouse. I can't imagine that "corrosion" is your problem with the body. It'll probably be working well long after you're gone. It's why they were so expensive when new.

 

However, I do keep mine as far away from sand as I possibly can as often as I can. I have taken my Hasselblad photographing on sand dunes at the Outer Banks in NC, but I always take it apart and clean it very carefully and thoroughly after each such use. Even a few grains of sand anywhere inside that lens mechanism would cause a lot of problems.

 

I think you've made a good purchase and you shouldn't regret the repair money. Personally, I won't buy anything like that I can't see and hold in my hands unless I know the seller well.

I've gotten my best results with CAWPOP by exposing my negatives as I would for enlarging paper (shadows on Zone III), but developing them

for a +1 time. In other words, you want the brightest highlights on Zone IX. Pyro developers help a lot in achieving this extra contrast. When you print, watch the edges and check the highlights when you see the Zone 0 edges change color from purple to black. Your highlights should be just about right then. Remember also that you will see more contrast after you tone the print.

The two books which have affected my photography the most profoundly are:

 

_Zen in the Art of Archery_ by Eugen Herrigel

and

_River of Colour: The India of Raghubir Singh_

Well said, Dan.

 

Michael will have a show up at the Paul Paletti Gallery in Louisville, Ky. from Oct. 1 through the end of the year. If anyone within earshot will be anywhere close (like say, Cincinnati, Indianapolis or Nashville - all within 100 miles), it will be well worth your time to make the detour. There are also original prints on the walls there of such legends as Brett Weston, Aaron Siskind and Albert Renger-Patzch as well as such popular contemporary successes as Michael Kenna, Rolfe Horn and Dick Arentz. Michael's prints are superior to any of them (excepting possibly, Brett Weston's).

I find that a normal negative runs around 11 minutes with the 2:1:1:15 ABC dilution. I'd start inspecting, therefore, at around 6 or 7 minutes.

The 2:1:1:15 ABC dilution will also handle this with ease (and with virtually no base fog for PL100). You might also try highly dilute HC110 if staining developers aren't your thing.

 

I would, however, add 1/2 stop of exposure for each zone of minus developemnt you plan on giving the PL100.

"Amidol is very messy stuff, anything it touches will leave a permanent stain, so you have to use gloves when you're handling the print in the the developer, then you have to remove the gloves so that you can handle the dry paper for the next print, then put the gloves back on, then remove them, etc. etc. for the duration of the printing session. So you're more or less constantly removing and putting on gloves."

 

Not true. Use a nitrile glove on one hand only. Keep a large bowl of water with dishwashing detergent in it nearby. After the print has been taken out of the fixer, dip your gloved hand in the soapy water and dry with a paper towel. Nitrile gloves dry just like skin.

 

In my humble opinion, there is no substitute for amidol. God knows I've looked for one. BTW, if you do happen to get some on your sink or counter top, Tilex soap scum remover will completely and instantly obliterate any stain. This is also true for pyro.

"But I guess I'm maybe just gunshy about starting right off with AZO - is it suitable for a beginner? Most people using it (here and at the AZO forum) seem to have quite a lot of experience. "

 

I wish didn't have a lot of the experience that I have. That is to say, experience making photographs with cameras too small to contact print or experience printing large format negatives on enlarging paper or printing out paper. Or experience using print developers other than amidol.

 

The real reason many gelatin silver printers come late to the Azo party is the fact that they're not dealing with large format cameras until after many years of practice. If you're starting with an 8 x 10, go for the best prints you can make as quickly as you can.

 

Cautionary note: if you prefer the look of platinum/palladium or carbon prints, don't waste your time with Azo. I've always preferred silver prints and always will, but you may not like the look of them. There are a lot of accomplished platinum printers on the Alternative Processes forum who can help you with Pt/Pd and their variants.

 

One other advantage to Azo: it's one of the few products promoted by a world class artist who can not only help you learn how to use it, but is willing to do so. In fact, it's the only such product I know of.

I recently had the opportunity to compare some of the actual photographs reproduced in "Natural Connections" to their reproductions in the book. The book was not even close, and that's the best printed photography book I own.

 

If you admire their work, you should make every effort to see the real thing.

I purchased my beloved 19" Red Dot Artar from Andrew after winning an Ebay auction. Easy, fast. Merchandise was as pristine as described. My best lens.

Extreme Western Maryland (Western Allegheny and all of Garrett County) is also pretty impressive. Take a drive East out of Morgantown on I-68 and you'll see what I mean. Between there and Cumberland is some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

EPY is what the National Gallery of Art uses. FWIW.

Hasselblads are superbly engineered and manufactured. The mirror mechanism is so well damped that by the time the shutter opens and closes, even if it's for an exposure of 1/30th or 1/15th of a second, there's so little vibration left from the mirror that it's not going to affect your pictures. That's probably why they never put an instant return mirror in the 500 series. I believe the "mirror vibration" problem to be a myth. I've handheld my 503cxi with 150mm Sonnar attached, at f5.6 and 1/30th of a second and gotten tack sharp results. People probably use the mirror lockup just because Ansel Adams always used it, not because it's necessary. To me it's little more than a security blanket.

The pyrocat formula calls for 100 grams of potassium carbonate to be dissolved in 100 ml of water. That's what Richard's calling a "100% solution".

While they don't publish exposure adjustment data for long exposures with 160vc, they do publish it out to 120 seconds for Portra 100T in all types of lighting. It's better film than either 160nc or 160vc anyway.

 

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e2468/e2468.jhtml?&

>I won on Ebay a 1994 503 cx/80 mm with PME3 finder and A12 back, all >for a bit over $900.

 

You did very well. I bought a new 503cxi body in 1995 for $1,679 from Calumet. The back was another $700. I got an 80mm lens used for $900. You've paid about 1/3 of what I paid for the same camera. And mine has only the standard finder.

Kodak EPY 6018, aka Ektachrome 64T. In my opinion the finest color transparency film ever made. It's not quite as grainless or as sharp as the Fuji equivalent, but the color balance is perfect. And I mean perfect. The shadows are more open as well. The Fuji lacks detail in the lower zones. Once I tried it I've never used anything else. BTW, it's what the National Gallery of Art uses.

Gaithersburg, MD about 9 miles out from the Capital Beltway.

The developer doesn't give off any vapors, but if you make your stock solutions by hand, you should always wear a respirator while doing so. The greatest danger is in breathing powdered pyrogallol.

 

Latex gloves offer good protection when workng with the solutions, but I prefer nitrile gloves for other reasons.