joe_hodge

All by himself above the river:

Shot with my iPhone - sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you!

I am a fan of stand or semi stand development for ISO 50-200 films using Adox branded Rodinal at a 1-100 ratio. The stand is for 1 hour with some agitation at the start. For semi stand I have adopted a 30 minute routine with agitation up front and 10 inversions every ten minutes.

I haven't tried stand development. Is it still important to maintain a constant 20C? If so, how do you manage that for an hour? For the 7-10 minute development times I normally use, a water bath at the correct temp is enough to stay within 1/2 a degree or less, but over an hour I think it would drift quite a bit.

In my experience a finer toning may be achieved by higher dilution and fewer agitations. Also what ISO did you use for Tri-X?

I shot the Tri-X at EI 320 (which is what I normally do). I'll probably try a 1:50 dilution next.

FWIW. You can make your own Rodinal from cheap Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) caplets, caustic soda and sodium sulphite or sodium metabisulphite. Sodium metabisulphite is commonly used as a food or wine additive. So all the ingredients should be readily available, and cheap.

 

Paracetamol is Para-aminophenol - the developing agent in Rodinal - with the addition of an acetate radicle. Caustic soda detaches the radicle to form sodium acetate + para aminophenol.

 

The amounts used are:

7 gms Paracetamol / Acetaminophen - that's 14 x 500mg tablets

10 gms Sodium Hydroxide

13.4 gms Sodium Metabisulphite

All dissolved in as little water as possible ~ 150ml.

 

In this formula the caustic soda does double duty by also converting the metabisulphite to sulphite.

 

I gave the full method of preparation in this thread. 2nd page and about 3 posts down.

 

The resulting solution is slightly weaker than commercial Rodinal, by about 20%. So add a fifth more time or reduce the dilution ratio from 25:1 to 20:1 (50:1 to 40:1, etc.)

 

Most pharmacists and general stores have generic 500mg Paracetamol caplets in packs of 16 at a very low price and sodium hydroxide is commonly sold in packs of 500g pellets as a drain cleaner. So this Rodinal substitute is dirt cheap to make.

Interesting, and something I may try at some point. Not that Adox Rodinal is expensive - US$11:50 for the 500ml bottle from Freestyle, but it might be fun. The Paracetamol is readily available as 500mg caplets in quantities from 50 - 1000(!) from the local drugstore. The rest I'd need to source, but it couldn't be that hard.

Doggy seems to be longing for some human kindness.

Have no fear - that’s my neighbor’s dog, and they’re good people. She just likes to hang out in the back yard and gather pets from passers-by.

Just for a change of pace, I decided to give (Adox) Rodinal a try instead of the HC-110 I normally use. Here's a shot from the first roll. It's a bit grainy, but not in a terrible way at all, IMHO:

100% crop:

This is Tri-X developed for 7 min in Rodinal 1:25@20C, agitation by inversion 5 times/minute. Scanned at 4000DPI, with no adjustments other than a very basic contrast curve. I probably wouldn't go this way for portraits of people, but I like it here.

Copperhead; Theodore Roosevelt Island 11/2021

Mushrooms in Rock Creek Park

Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Sigma 50/1.4 Art, 1/250@f1.4

TMAX-100 LUT applied in Exposure X6

Indeed. A quick look at his website shows he definitely likes his colour saturation turned up to 11.

I’ve read Ken Rockwell as Guy Fieri is to cuisine. He clearly knows what he’s doing, he’s just not doing what I’m interested in. FWIW, I did use his suggested picture style settings when sending my niece her first “real” camera (EOS D40) so that she could have some fun right out of the box on P, and then learn better in her class.

The kit for my niece end up as: 40D body - $50, EF 50/1.4 - 0$. It will probably cost almost that much to ship it to her, but it should be a good camera to learn on and enough camera to take her a good way in the hobby if she takes to it.

The lens is only $0 since it's mine from the early 2000's, and I already had a Sigma 50/1.4 Art on my shopping list, so I guess that's sort of cheating.

Wouldn't you know I just faced this question? My niece has developed an interest in photography, and after a conversation to establish that she actually wants to take a class and learn the basics, I agreed to supply the camera. Since my experience is mostly Canon, and I'll be the source of advice/tech support, I hunted up a good-condition 40D on Craigslist. Same reasoning as above - good controls for manual use, decent viewfinder & rear screen, etc.

I'm working out the lens question now. I'm thinking of putting a brand-new 50/1.8 STM on there for her. It's cheap & capable, and won't complicate the learning experience. Yes, she'll need to 'zoom with her feet', but I don't think that's a negative.

Alternatively, I might give her my 50/1.4 and treat myself to a more modern 50 (Sigma Art/Tokina Opera). Depends on how much I want to give myself an excuse to indulge in GAS.

Wood Stork

Canon EOS M5, Tokina SZX 400/8

I'm looking to digitize 14 medium format negatives. I have been using VueScan myself with a Coolscan IV to digitize every 35mm, 110, Instamatic negative and slide I can get my hands on. Unfortunately the Coolscan IV is too small for medium-format and the results with my flatbed scanner are absolutely inadequate.

 

I could certainly go to a local lab and have them digitized, but I really want to receive back VueScan raw files.

 

Is anyone familiar with a processor that digitizes negatives commercially using VueScan? Alternately, where a guy could rent a suitable scanner to be used in Minnesota?

I'm back home with my scanner sooner than expected. If you'd like to send the MF frames to me for scanning, get in touch here.

Forgive me for seeming critical

 

Some people consider filling their house with pictures taken by themselves by them as ostentatious and pretentious. I tend to agree. Rather akin to Trump having fake Time covers at Mar-el-Lago (I exaggerate...). A few is OK, but there are many other great things by other people that you can use to decorate your house which should probably stimulate you and your guests more.

Thankfully, I don't generally care what other people think of how I choose to decorate my space.

A primer on SSDs

 

LINK How Do SSDs Work? - ExtremeTech

Really well, until the moment they don't. In particular, don't count on the SSD failing gracefully in to a 'read-only' mode when they exhaust their write cycles. I've had SSDs long enough to experience two failures, and they were both total losses. Make your backups!

You do not have to update or upgrade. If the camera you have delivers, no need to get a newer one. Just because a newer camera can focus 5 ms faster and has a burst rate of 2 fps more? No valid reason, unless you found that this was the exact reason why the images you created weren't quite up to your standards. That applies to both film and digital cameras.

My next upgrade will be an IBIS body, since that will help me improve my images in marginal light and upgrade all my lenses at the same time. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t buy a new camera in the foreseeable future.

I'll probably move to an IBIS body later this year, assuming I have the money. Meanwhile, here's one from my outing this past weekend, same lens/body combo:

1/800, ISO 1600

Dyke Marsh, Alexandria VA

Canon EOS M5, Toking SZX 400/F8

If I am not mistaken, then the Canon EOS M5 does not have IBIS (in-body-image-stabilization); the lens/camera combo is also quite light - which means it is hard to hold steady. I suggest you use shutter speeds in excess of 1/1000s and better even 1/2000s when hand-holding. I would expect much better sharpness in the heron image and can't really comment on the one of the chickadee. As usual, the oof-rendering of a catadioptric lens takes some getting used to. I would definitely remove that big oof twig in the second image.

It's a challenging combination:

- no stabilization, lens or body

- 1.6 crop sensor

- fixed f/8 aperture

- manual focus

- sensor is only good to ISO 1600ish

But, I'm having fun, and I'll get better :) Definitely faster shutter speeds when I can, but I've only got the light I've got.

Second outing with the new lens. Hand held at 1/800:

Trying out my new Tokina SZX 400/8, 1/500th @ISO800, Canon EOS M5:

100% crop:

A lens that is definitely going to push me to work on my technique and drag a tripod along more often, but lot's of fun so far!

@tomspielman @glen_h

Staging and recovery were both successful, although recovery DID involve a slightly hairy tree climb while wearing jeans/long sleeves/gloves for protection from poison ivy. :)