bgussin

Cartography<div></div>

Erika<div></div>

I shot all of the rest with an orange filter.<div></div>

After five years and one misstep last week, I have more or less successfully shot and developed a roll of Ilford Delta 400 in my Vivitar SL/220, using Kodak Acufine developer. (http://www.photo.net/classic-cameras-forum/00cxR4). It was even more fun with actual images. I had to hook my Epson Perfection 2400 scanner up to our Windows 7 computer and download drivers. And I have been using GIMP since I couldn't get Photoshop Elements 2 to work on the Win7 machine. I touched up some spots and scratches and here are some of the result:<div></div>

If you work at it, you can achieve just as many "quality variations" with 35mm.

Cool!

Look familiar?<div></div>

Inspired by Gene M. After a 5 year break I mixed up a fresh pot of developer and fixer, loaded my Vivitar/220 SLR with Delta 400, and went shootin'. I took my wife's car to the tire shop to get the Blizzaks mounted on a bright, clear, cold (5F), Colorado Springs morning. I slapped an orange filter, polarizer and ND filter to the Mamiya 55mm F/1.4 prime and stepped carefully through the snow. Fresh tire tracks in the snow...ka-CHUNK! Brass fountain with a snow cap...ka-CHUNK! A pile of old tires frosted with snow like a big black bowl of Cheerios...ka-CHUNK! Off with the gloves to screw on the telephoto adapter and swing over to frame Pikes Peak between the fire station and the "Space Family Robinson" saucer-building. Twist the polarizer and the sky goes dark...ka-CHUNK! Later, some beautiful candid portraits of my wife, looking soooo fine! After dinner I unrolled the changing bag, and had to fix the zipper. I set up my chemicals and developing tank, double-checked the Massive Developing Chart, set the timer and....GO! It was like catching up with an old friend. I found my mind replaying all the morning's shots and trying to translate them to B/W...each step firing off synaptic recognition...like navigating through the old neighborhood. And the smells eliciting memories like a childhood bake shop. The final rinse and then take the film off the reel and...... No images, just a dark leader to let me know the chemicals all worked and that the film just sat there, just short of the take-up spool. You know it didn't feel quite right when I rewound the film. Why didn't I advance to the end to check the tension. Why didn't I remember to check the tension at the beginning of the roll. Well, I DON'T CARE! I am especially fond of this camera. A thrift-store rescue, brassed, bashed, but with a shutter like butter...alright, a butter churn. I missed the simplicity of a manual film camera with an uncoupled meter. No batteries? No problem! Nothing to charge. It was ready to shoot the moment I picked it up after it sat for who knows how long and after suffering who knows what abuse; as evidenced by a dented, dimpled penta prism tower that wears its hot-shoe at a jaunty angle. And even though I didn't manage to preserve the images I saw trough the viewfinder, I spent the morning seeing my neighborhood through a 55mm F/1.4 lens bringing the highlights in and out of focus by my own hand at my own speed, FEELING the DOF, not watching some red rectangles confirm the camera had done the job for me. So you can tell by my rambling on that I LOVED every moment of it. I've already reloaded the camera and triple-checked the film this time. I'm already looking forward to rolling some backing paper together with film onto a couple of empty 828 spools and running them through my Kodak Bantam. If I can find my film slitter, I've got some 110 cameras to get reacquainted with and then there are the 120/620 folders....<div></div>

While I don't know him personally, I get the sense he's a modest guy. But Gene's recent return to the forum has inspired me to mix up some fresh chemicals and run some film through my classic manual cameras. More to come...<div></div>

<p>Kodak Bantam. If you don't mind rewinding film onto 828 spools with backing paper and dealing with the sprocket issue. It folds as small and flat as a couple of stacked i-phones.</p>