stuart_todd

YAY!!!...

<reads website>

...sigh, nothing happening in little old New Zealand again... :(

Stu :(

-stuck on a bunch of rocks, where the closet neighbours are a desert and the other is a whole lot of ice-

I have a similar problem here in New Zealand during the summer. The average tap temperature is around 22-24C. There are two ways I combat this. Firstly I have bag of 'party ice�; these are basically large bags of frozen ultra filtered water cubes, for use in bars, restaurants and surprising enough, parties. When I fill up my water jug for film processing I drop a few pieces of ice into the jug at a time, let them melt and repeat until the temperature drops down to 20C. I then mix up a batch of developer (I mainly use ID-11 or Rodinal) at 20C. Then I take a temperature reading of the tap water; lets say it's 25C for this exercise. Because film doesn't like sudden temperature changes during development I mix up the stop bath and fixer at different temperatures, building upto 25C. So my stop bath will be around 22C and my fix will be 24c. This way, dare I say, I climatize the film for washing via the tap.

Another option for cool water is the fridge. If you plan ahead you can stick 1 litre of water in the fridge the day before and mix tap water and cool water until you get 20C. Also it would pay to cover the water jug going into the fridge with a lid or a plastic bag to avoid contamination of the water.

Changing the development works as well, but watch out when your developer time starts to drop below 5 minutes.

Stu :)

I thought he said he wanted a liquid developer?

Anyhow, what do you mean by "good" film developer? Fast? Fine Grain? Cost per litre? Versatility?...

From what I've seen of Agfa's Rodinal, it seems a good 'middle of the road' choice. Fair grain, good value per litre (my first bottle went off before I used it all!), can be used on both slow films (like Agfa's APX 25 or Ilford's Pan F), fast films (like Ilford's Delta 3200, Kodak T-Max 3200, Fuji Neopan 1600) and obscure films (like Kodak Infrared, Ortho and TechPan), because as a beginner you'll want to try every film on the shelf. Above all, I've found the developer to be very forgiving with 1st year photography students. A minute either side of the development doesn't seem to matter much and although it's not the best for pushing and pulling, Rodinal has rescued the occasional "Oh no, I set the ISO to the wrong speed and I need these shots...".

Stu :)

The HOD threw at me a Colorvir toning kit (teaches me for

asking "what's that in the cupboard")

So any tips before I leap once again into the deep end?

Also do the chemicals keep once mixed up? I.e. using the chemicals

for one or two prints and pouring the left over chemicals into a

clean bottles and keep them for another rainy day?

Stu :)

Righto, I bulk roll my own Ilford FP4+ because it's a very cheap

alternative to buying the 'cans' individually. Anyhow the last two

rolls of film I've developed strange things have started to happen.

Firstly, when the 500's winder advances to the next frame, it makes a

hell of a noise and it feels like something 'catching' behind the

door. You actually feel a slight jolt.

Second, Post-exposure and development- I've had pairs of frames

overlap each other and the spaces between the frames on my proof

sheets are not evenly spaced, were as on the bought film they are.

What�s going on? Am I winding on TOO much film (I tend to make rolls

of either 24 or 36 exposures), is my method of attaching the film to

the canister's spindle wrong? (I use a piece of gaffer or Scotch tape

cut to shape).

Stu :)

ISO 320???!!! I tried that and it didn't work... Last weekend I drove up north to shoot some old ruins and thought I'd give Kodak HIE a run. Using my other Canon EOS camera with the 50mm 1.8 MkII and a Jessop's R2 red filter, I taped up the film window and I put the IR film into it, in total darkness. I also set the camera to automatically bracket the exposures +/- 1.5 stops.

Then I set off shooting. Everytime I made an exposure on IR film, I took an identical shot using the camera with Ilford FP4+ in it, just for curiosity. Anyhow I processed the film Tuesday morning in Ilford ID-11 at 1:1 for 12 minutes. I now have the wooden spoon award for the densest negatives ever. If you place the negatives on the light box at the highest setting, you can just make out two trees against the sky. At first glance the film looks like it was never exposed or processed. If you have any idea what happened, please share... please... PLEASE!!! :(

As of today, I bought some more HIE and the sales manager said to use ISO 80 (again...) or he'll never sell the film to me again.

Stu :)

PS. Sorry about the negative post about my negatives, but it's putting my bank account into the negatives... :)

I concur with Jason Hudson. I did some landscape and macro work last year and used Fuji Type II, C-41 cross processed.

But also colours that are tonally the same (i.e. if you shot the same image in B+W and all the greys are the same), I found that the colours start to 'melt' together. If I�m ever bothered to buy a scanner all show my tap photo.

Stu :)

Just add even more confusion... on the back of the bulk roll box it says 6 minutes at 20C.

Also has anybody noticed that when Ilford and Kodak quote each other�s version of ID-11/D-76 they given different developing times for their films (Even though ID-11/D-76 in essence is the same), but other film makers give the same time?

Stu :)

Here's my $0.02...

Ilford FP4 Plus film mated with ID-11 film developer is a lovely combination. I still struggle to find the grain in the focus finder at 8x10.

Also I tend to print my final university assignments in Ilford Mulitgrade IV fibre papers. The whites may not be quite white; the blacks are lovely and creamy.

Stu :)

Ok here are some tips I've learnt (painfully)...

1. Take a friend and/or an assistant with you. Some one to hold the torch when you've got both hands on the camera, another soul to talk to and keep you sane, and help ward off any potential camera thieves.

2. A good torch- good for "painting" dark areas you want lighter, beating your assistant with when they don't listen and for finding that mysterious 'metal hitting ground noise' when you open your camera bag in the dark.

3. The HEAVYIST tripod you can get your hands on. Last thing you need is the perfect picture ruined by tripod shake.

4. A shutter release cable. Again, it avoids camera/tripod shake. If you don't own one, you can cheat. Compose and focus your picture, set your exposure and set your camera's self timer, hit the shutter button and let the camera do the rest.

5. A Stopwatch with an audible alarm. The audible alarm is good non-visual way of reminding you, your picture is about to be over exposed. I set my time to go off earlier than the time chosen, as it gives me enough time to get to the camera and close the shutter.

6. Pack 'lite' and I don't mean beer. Take as little equipment as possible, even if you can impress a marine with way you can strip your camera blind folded... it's more of a case of losing/damaging equipment. For some reason camera makers love to make their products black, which makes them even more easier to lose in the dark. So far for the record on various group night shoots I've seen one 75-300mm meet a nasty end with steel capped boot and the words "ohh... there it is" and spent around 6-9 hours total looking around for others misplaced lenses, lens caps, flash guns, rolls of film...

7. If you can leave the battery driven camera at home, do so and take a manual camera. Long shutter exposure times tend to gobble up batteries (and CR123's are not cheap). And if don't have a manual camera take extra batteries.

8. Decent coffee and other comfort things for those long exposures. Even something simple to sit on (like a foam cushion). I also put my Game Boy in the camera bag, helps whiling away those 52 minute exposures. But again, pack lite. Last thing you want to be doing is, dragging a pair of director�s chairs, thermal bin, portable TV and the kitchen sink though some doggy graveyard at 2am!

9. Dress well- A good warm coat/jacket and decent footwear will make life so much more enjoyable. Mother did know best after all. Also dress the camera well. I tend to wrap mine in a plastic bag with a hole cut out for the lens. First night shoot I did, after half an hour I came back to find my camera covered in dew.

10. If you want to shoot people in these night shoots as well, take a flashgun with you as well.

With regards to film speed and night shoots, it depends on what you want. If you want lovely fine-grained photographs, choose a slow film. But be prepared for exposure times anything upto one hour if you want a grand depth-of-field. If you don't mind grain or have no patience, go fast. I seriously believe if you use an ISO 3200 film at night, you'll struggle to find a shutter value more than one minute long.

I�ve also attached an exposure chart I�ve used recently. I forget where it came from, but I seems to work. It already includes the time adjustment for reciprocity.

Stu :)<div></div>

Hiya,

I was reading the new version of the instruction booklet for my

bottle of FD30 tonight and it now includes a time for push processing

Ilford FP4+ @ 1000 ASA. Being a regular FP4+ user (I'm on to my

second bulk roll) I already know that I can push to 200 or 250 ASA if

developed in Microphen and get great results. But this is only a 1.66-

2 stop of pushing, 1000 ASA is 4 stops!

Has anyone tried this yet? Good results, bad results, don't go there,

etc... or am I going to be first to find out in a couple of day�s

time when my curiosity gets the better of me?

Stu :)

Another quick tip. I buy the big five litre Ilford ID-11 developer pack and mix it all up in one go in a bucket, I bought just for mixing up film developer. Once all mixed up I then split it into five one litre bottles, but as you will discover there is always still some air between the cap and the top of the liquid. So on the four I plan to store away, I take a bag of washed marbles (yes, those round glass things that kids use to play with before playstation) and drop them in bringing the liquid level upto the brim. Once you put the cap on, if the bottle is clearish, invert it and in theory you shouldn't see any air bubbles rise in the bottle. Or use wine bladders... but there is still a major problem with using wine bladders.

Stu :)

You think camera kit on your side of the ditch is costly? Wait until to have to buy camera kit here in little old New Zealand. Ouch.

My new light meter cost me $450NZ from the US, but to buy it retail here in NZ, it would have cost me $2900NZ (YES REALLY!!!).

However oddly enough, camera bags seem really cheap here... my new Lowpro backback costed me $160NZ, where as the same bag in the US costs $140US. go figure.

Stu :)

Question: Should I protect films and papers with some kind of box or waterproof bag in the freezer or I can store them in their original packages?

Answer: Depends if you're the only person who access to the freezer or not. I keep my film in a large plastic lunch box and paper in a plastic shopping bag, because the last thing I want is one of my "ever-so-tidy" fellow borders spilling ice cream or their latest biology project on my small fortune of emulsions.

Stu :)

Squirrel Cage Fan??? Huh?!?

Is that something similar to tropical fish tank heater?

Sorry I live in New Zealand, all our wildlife likes the cold.

Is there a radio shack equivalent?, cause I want to try this out and replace my coat hanger and garbage bag system.

Stu :)

I've keep Tura (film and paper) in the freezer for long periods of time without any problems. As long as you keep mind that film doesn't like sudden temperature changes. A good idea is to take film out of the freezer about 2-3 days before you plan to use it and put it in the fridge. Then the night before you go to use it, take it out of the fridge and put it in your camera bag. This should climatize the film just nicely.

It's also a good way to stock on things like paper and film when they are on special and keep them save until use.

One quick tip, bulk loaders in the freezer = MAJOR DISASER

Stu :)

Hey Doug, thanks for that link to the Mamiya 645 website.

It answered two nagging questions I've had for a while-

1). Whats the differance between all these sub models 1000S/Super/J/etc

2). And which M645 models have interchangable backs.

Thanks again,

Stu :)

Thanks to all for the information so far.

From previous usage of a friends 28-80mm zoom, I've found that the 28mm focal length isn't wide enough and the price jump from 28mm to 24mm is scary for a

student. A 20-35mm was what I was originally looking at, but the cost is still too great. But the 'Catch 22' here is I need to start using a wide angle lens sooner than

latter.

However this 22-55mm Canon looks interesting, and it looks like it actually has a resale value when I decide to upgrade to a 20-35mm or maybe a 16-20mm. And

it does seem to fit into the focal length I require (24mm+/-) and overlaps another lens of mine (silly as it sounds, I like my zooms to over lap each other in focal

lengths)

So any thoughts on the 22-55mm Canon then?

Stu :)

Quick background info-

Of recent I've found my 50mm prime and 35-80mm zoom are not getting

wide enough for me. Getting closer is no problem, but getting further

away is proving difficult.

My tutor at university as told since begining of this semester to get

a 100mm macro and a wide angle, either prime or zoom. I've got my

100mm macro and love it to pieces, also most as much as my 50mm.

And after a recent field trip, I almost talked off a tall building

while trying to get everything in the frame.

So I went online to do some window browsing. Mainly to look for

either a Canon 20-35mm or 16-35mm zoom, or maybe a 24mm prime. And I

came across the Phoenix 19-35mm F3.5-4.5 Lens. At around $150 new it

seemed bargin, especially for a poor student. However this cheap

price equally raises alarm bells. Why is it so cheap? Or should I

stick to Canon, considering so far I've been a good Canon

user/consumer/sucker and the only items in my 35mm SLR kit that don't

have the Canon mark on them are the batteries and the bag.

Stu :)

100mm 2.8 Macro USM and beleive it or not the 50mm 1.8 II.

I heard some people say that the 50mm/1.8 is junk, but I'm yet to find out why. Good, cheap, fast lens for the EOS system (bet you won't hear that line again any time soon...).

Stu :)

I agree, they look a little 'well-done' in the exposure department, check your light meter, make sure that's working.

I'm in the same boat with Lex Jenkins on the leader fog/light leaks. I get the same problem when using any of my 120 roll film cameras, the film just doesn't sit tight

enough.

A recent example was a portrait I took at the observatory, because I was exposing for the indoors, the light coming in from the barn doors (the slit on top of the

dome) was really overexposed and carried across on to the leader. Doesn't bother me so much, I don't use black boarders when printing. But if you DO want black

boarders by using the film edge, time to dodge and burn.

Stu :)

Wow, thanks for the response... I didn't expect this many :)

Right, perhaps I missed a whole lot of back ground to my photographic history and style. So here's a quick run down.

Keen "happy-snapper" since I was 8.

Started studying meteorology and physics back in 1996 at Auckland University. The Hamilex 35mm wasn't doing the job on the field trips, so my grandfather (keen amateur in his time) gave me his Canon AE-1 with a 50 mm and 24 mm lenses, plus a 2x teleconverter. Ended getting badgered into doing photographic work the university newspaper.

Over the summer break (Dec 96 to February 97) got keen on photography. Spent half of my summer pay on a brand new Canon EOS 500 and 35-80mm zoom lenses. Started doing more and more work for the newspaper. A star student became a B grade student. 1998 Became 2nd photographer for university newspaper (only because number 1 had a cheap and nasty digital). Grades keep dropping. Left university the middle of 1998 to full time work. From then until November last

year I work for a local computer/IT company and went from junior tech to Consultant. Picked my SLR up again for the first since 1998. Started basic night school course on photography at the local polytechnic. Over the summer holidays I rediscovered my lost love. Quit my job after becoming dissatisfied with local IT market

and spend the most of my un-claimed holiday pay on a 50 mm 1.8, 75-300mm 4-5.6 zoom and a 100mm 2.8 macro lenses. Went back into higher education studying photography full time.

Most of my photography is more conceptual then practical. I really like still life and artistic work. I really like the work that Boyd Webb was done, I seem to emulate his style (if you know who Boyd Webb is...).

Example, on a resent class field trip to marina to do some twilight photography, while everyone else was taking pretty postcard pictures of the boats, the harbor, city-scapes with the boats in the fore-ground etc. I was more interested in the patterns in the wood on the pier or the under side the harbor bridge.

Also I don't think I told the whole story in the original post correctly. I've been doing a large amount of fashion and portfolio work for the special FX and movie make up department upstairs from the photography department. Again, both the Canon and the Lubitel where present. Using identical film stock for both (either

Agfa APX B&W or Fuji Velvia), both upstairs and my HoD loved the medium format work. They didn't know which camera I'd used. And when I submitted my work prints for my various portraiture assignments, the photo's taken on the Lubitel, are the ones that my tutor and HoD reckon are the winners. So it seems I have the 'gift' to take people shots on the medium format instead of the 35mm.

Also I don't feel very comfortable taking 'sitted' portraiture shots on the 35mm either. The frame feels too tight to squeeze the person, or persons into. In the larger format I can feel at ease, I seem to have more room to work with. Now if you can find something wrong with my technique, great tell me! But for now the Lubitel is winning the race in the portraiture assignments.

With regards to lighting and where I take the photos.

When given the choice, I like to take my portraits outside or in a building with significant interiors (i.e. the museum, winter gardens, the old train station, etc.), using the natural or available light.

When I do studio portraits, I use studio lighting, combining both fill and flash lighting. I don't think I've ever used the hot shoe on any of my cameras. Apart from plugging in the hot shoe to PC cord adapter (the EOS 500 doesn't come with a PC port). The flash gets moved around a lot. Depends on who's sitting in the chair in

front of the camera. With regards to aperture, I tend to use f4.5 or f5.6 in the studio, or f8 outdoors. When doing environmental portraiture work, I take an educated guess at the f stop. Depends if I want the interiors in or out of focus, and if the passer-by's should they be a burr, sharp or not there.

When it comes to processing film, B&W stuff I do myself. I use Agfa and Ilford films and naturally use the process they recommend for their own films (Rodinal for Agfa and LC-29 for Ilford). No problems there. Prints are made in the school dark room.

Color negative and slide is processed and printed at one of top developing labs in Auckland. I don't use 1 hour labs for film processing (but are good for quick, cheap n' nasty machine print enlargements) and the only crackhead distant acquaintance who keen on photography as I, is my cousin, and she uses the same lab as I

do, and can't believe I still prefer to develop my own B&W then use the modern C41 process B&W film.

So there you have it. I think the reason why I want a MF is because I've got another 2-3 years of compulsory portraiture assignments and I can see in the near future that my portrait and studio fashion work paying the bills and letting me continue my interest in artistic work.

When it comes to a budget, I'm looking at sinking at least $500-$750US into this medium format camera set up.

The next two planned purchases are an EOS-5/A-2 and a decent handheld meter (my current one only works actuarially at unusual f stops and doesn't have a PC cord sync) . Then it's onto the considering a MF purchase.

If you think my logic is flawed, tell me now and save me $1000-2000 NZ.

Kind regards and thanks for the responses so far,

Stu :)

Righto, this may have been asked already, but I can't seem to find it.

I'm a proud and happy user of the Canon EOS system of 35mm SLR

cameras, they work fine for me. But of recent, especially with

portrait shots, they didn't seem

to come out right. According to my tutor if Canon made EOS MF's I'd

be sorted. But they don't.

So the head of the photography department lend me her Lubitel 2 about

6 months ago. So for the past 6 months I've been lugging around both

my EOS set up and

the Lubitel 2. When the Canon took a snap, so did the Lubitel. So

I've been comparing all the snaps and been thinking perhaps I should

invest in a MF of my own. I

was wondering what would some of you recommend has the next upgrade

step from the Lubitel to...???

Kind regards,

Stuart.

PS. Hasselblads are out of the question, I'm a poor self-supporting

student. If you think the price of Hasselblads is high in the US,

wait until you see how much they

cost down here in New Zealand.