ryan w. radtke

<p>Thanks everyone for the advise. Im going to refix these and try to rub off the gelatin layer after the holidays. Ill post back and let everyone know how it went.</p>

<p>Im sure I dont have enough fix left, used 300g of a 700g package. I have tons of ilford rapid fix, which I know is a non hypo fix while the kodak Im using is a hypo + hardening fix. Should I go ahead and refix it with the ilford, or should I get another bag of kodak?</p>

<p>ah. good point. I didnt even think about that the mix. Ive always used ilford rapid fix but heard that rapid fix dosnt work well with Efke. Ill mix up a new bag and try again.</p>

<p>Ive run into a problem with processing Efke 50 film. Never processed Efke before, but Ive been processing film for about 15 years and have never run into this problem before. Im developing Rodinal 1:50, 9 min., 70 degrees, agitation 10 sec every minute. Water wash as a stop bath. Kodak Fixer (mixing 100g powder/550 ml distilled water) for 9 min with agitation 15 sec every 2 minutes. Water wash 5 time fill up the tank and empty it. Hypo clear bath for 2 minutes. Dip in Photoflo/Distilled Water bath, 1:200. Ive processed 5 rolls last night. The fist 2 came out with good contrast, pictures look fine through a loop, EXCEPT, it looks as though the emulsion has melted somewhat and looks like its tacky and has a milky white cloud to it. The 3rd roll came out perfect--crystal clear great looking negatives. The 4th is quite clear and nice looking but there appears to be some pot marking in the emulsion (viewable to the naked eye). The 5th is cloudy and looks like the emulsion kinda melted again and looks as though it were still tacky. Cant for the life of me figure out whats up. Chemicals were all new yesterday.. Used the same fix, hypo clear bath and photoflo dip throughout. Rodinal used once and dumped.</p>

<p>Oh.. I also tried to refix the first roll. mixed all new fix (100g:550ml). put it through all new hypo bath and photoflo dip. Didnt clear the milkyness/cloudyness/tacky look.</p>

<p>Anyone have any ideas?</p>

<p>I just picked up this enlarger today for a good price locally. I used to own a 67, but sold it a couple years ago and then recently decided that I wanted to get back into wet darkroom work. Ive never used one of these before and its got me a little confused. Im having trouble figuring out why theres a condenser stage below the color head and above the lens stage, kinda a tube setup that is cradled under the door that says beseler and the bellows that attaches to the lens stage fits around the tube.. I figured this should be where the diffuser chamber goes, however when I got it home and opened it up some more I was surprised to find glass. Is this right?</p>

If your only interested in developing film you might like to look at the phototherm models. I sold one not to long ago for about $600 + shipping. I have seen them since for about that price too. it includes a chemical heater, so it is completely self sufficient. it will do slide, color and black and white negative, anywhere up to 4x5 film. They do dry the film too, but its not convenient to dry it in the machine. I got great results from my machine, very consistent. I also owned a jobo long long ago, didnt like it, wouldnt buy one again.

I just looked at your profile. Nice pictures. It looks like you shot mostly large format landscape. Youll probably like the pentax alot better, unless your a techy kind of guy who appreciates buttons instead of mechanical dials. My preference is the dial. its faster and easy. you can look at the dial and see overexposure and underexposure without having to press anything, just by looking at the numbers before and after the center marking. easy. quick. the sekonic requires the push of a button for the same function. thats more time looking down at the meter and not paying attention to the details of your shot. Zone 5 even makes a strip which you can place near the dial and it will give you gray scale and zoning information. Very useful.

I have owned both. the Pentax digital spot meter was extremely simple to use, very light and small yet rugged (more rugged than the sekonic in my opinion), and very accurate. That said, the sekonic has many more functions and might prove more useful depending on your style of shooting. do you already own a good incident meter? I like to keep separate meters for separate purposes. However, if you dont have an incident meter and think you might use one in the future, you might like the sekonic.

 

I would chose the Pentax. but thats me. What kinda camera are you shooting anyway.. normally, unless you have large format and are really getting into zoning, your not really going to need a spot meter. Spot meters are very helpful when you are able to custom develop individual shots for contrast and density. If your using roll film, I have found the benefit of the spot negligible at best. Bracketing often is more effective and cheaper. If your camera has average metering, buy a nice telephoto instead, and that will serve 2 purposes, a nice new lens and a way to spot meter for shorter focal length lenses.

Yeah, I think I will use the 900 and create a new standard instead, it seems like the easier way to do it. Also,

I have figured out a way to cut off less of the body, if I cut at the end of the cutter chamber I can use the old

screw holes and just wrap the sheet metal back Im making around the body. Doing this, Ill produce less metal

shavings and not have to worry about the rangefinder, and I can probably do it with a hack saw instead of a band

saw. The only thing I am worried about is the film back itself, and being able to get the holder in and out. Im

going to give it a try and see what

happens. Afterall, the 900 was only 30 bucks. BTW, Has anyone had any trouble with placing the film plane too

far back and not being able to adjust the infinity point accordingly? Thanks.

I just started this project on Thursday and have run into a couple of problems. The current state of my project:

I have removed the back off the 900, all the leatherette as I plan on replacing that, the top off the

rangefinder, and the lens/shutter box. My question is, how in the world do you unbolt/unscrew the front door

from the 900 and 110a. the screws dont have any heads for any type of screwdriver bit. I tried pliers on the

900 but that didnt work. Also, allong the same line of question, it seems as though the actual rangefinder

components are bolted to the top the same way. I realy wanted all the sensitive rangefinder components off the

top before I started hacking away at the body. Any help you could offer would be Greatly appreciated. Thanks so

much.

 

Ryan

Solved. Im an idiot for being so technical with it. I just selected the two individuals, and created a new layer by copy, then I went back to the original layer and selected a portion of the background and free transformed it to cover the entire background. wha-la.

I have been working on this pic all night and I cant seem to clone the

background all the way to the top. it looks terrible. I have 20 more shots

that need to have this done too and Im loosing my mind. I thought it would be

so much easier to do. Half the pics were sitting position and needed no

background work what so ever. I thought about removing the background

alltogether but would rather try to keep it in for consistancy with the other

pictures. Can anyone help?

 

Thanks so much.

 

Ryan.

I just got mine in the mail today, Anyone else have a problem with the selector

wheel beeing really stiff and almost impossible to movie. When it does move the

little "S" button in the middle moves slightly with it. Design flaw or Defect

in my product?

haha.. thanks van, for your humor and your insight. I think I will try that. I dont know why I

didnt think of that, Ive made smaller versions for my camera mounted flashes before.

I have two speedotron 102 lights and a 2401 pack and am thinking about a couple of softboxes for an

upcoming yoga shoot. I dont want to spend too much, i.e. Im not going to spend more on my softboxes

than I spent on my lights. The poses will be couples, in a fairly large yoga studio, about 20' by 15'. If

anyone has suggestions on setup and softboxing I would appreciate it. I am pretty new to studio lighting

and have only had umbrellas up till now. Thanks

 

Ryan.

Im staying near the university of Sevilla for 5 weeks and need to have E6 film developed. Fuji provia. If

anyone knows a good place with fresh chemicals and reasonable turn around, Please shoot me a message.

 

Thanks.

Yup.. thanks, I missed that note on cameraquest. Thanks much.

I just purchased a 21mm voigtlander lens. The lens dosnt couple below .8 meters (or 2.5 feet). I was

wondering if this is standard or if something is wrong with my lens. At first I was using a non-brand

name L39 to M converter, then I bought a new voigtlander one cause I thought the converter was the

problem (i.e. it lined up at 1 oclock instead of dead center--which is silly considering the way a leica

camera focuses). With the new voigtlander converter it does line up properly, but it still dosnt couple

below .8 meters. Both converters are 1 mm thick. I do notice that the focusing helicoid goes below the

the lip of the screw mount assembly when it is focused below .8 meters. I think this may be the problem,

but this is the only sample of the lens Ive ever used so I dont know if this is standard. Any help would be

greatly appriciated. Thanks.

1 vote for Mamiya 6. Best camera I have ever owned. I put prolly 600 rolls through my 6

and never had a problem with it.. It got dropped, bumped, everything.. the lenses are

amazing, yet somewhat slow. The meter is accurate and fast. Its very compact, really not

hard to carry around when traveling, though I have a leica now and it packs really small

which is a must for me. I also rented 7ii and a fried has a 7. I liked the 6 better than either

of them.

 

Furthermore, I sent it back to mamiya one time during my ownership. They fixed the

baseplate which cracked when I droped it, recalibrated the rangefinder gave it a CLA and

checked out everything else. It was returned within 2 weeks and everything cost about

$200.

 

The bronica.. dont even bother. Ive played around with one and to me it seemed a little

option heavy. Furthermore, it shoots vertical 6x4.5 which is a big pain in the butt. the

lenses are slower and the lens range sucks. Just get the 6... :)

I just purchased a Phototherm sk-8. I know its an older model, I got a pretty good price on it though. I

wass wondering if any one has any info on this model.. I am only able to find info on the newer super

sidekicks and the last revision of the standard sidekick line--sk-8rg. Thanks for any help

****UPDATE****

 

Thank you all for your responses.

 

I would like to ask you a few more questions and explain my style of photography a little

more. I LOVED my Mamiya 6. It represents my workflow. I like working with 12 frames

instead of 24, so I can switch film when I need to and not waste too many frames. I dont

care about the slow lenses, as I can use higher speed films to compensate. I dont care

about the size of the camera, I find the Mamiya to be the perfect size. I would not buy a

Mamiya 7 because it is too big. I like a fast camera, that I can hand hold, that will

produce negitives that will print up to 12x12/11x14 with good tonality and good

contrast/sharpness.

 

If the M8 had not just been released, I would NEVER have thought about buying a leica at

all. My only gripe with the Mamiya 6, or any film camera for that matter, is my style of

travel. I usually travel for a month, I carry 2 small bags, I utilize motorcycles and cars and

small boats as often as possible. I hardly ever fly once I reach the country Im going to, nor

do I take trains or tourist busses. Its very difficult to drag along 200 rolls of MF film. I

have done it no problem, my last trip was a month and a half in Vietnam, most of which I

spent on the back of a motorcycle, and I also hired a boat for a couple of days to go down

the mekong river.

 

My style of shooting at home is quite different, and I dont think I will ever depart from MF.

I enjoy my c220, have owned a hassie but didnt like it as much, and I hardly ever use a

rangefinder camera when Im not traveling. If I were to choose between a 35mm

rangefinder or a Mamiya 6, I would go with the Mamiya 6 any day of the week.

 

However, the M8 opens up a whole new door for me. I do not like shooting with SLRs, so I

never even considered going digital until the M8 was announced. Eventually, I would like

to switch over to the M8, but I dont have $4700 right now. But I also miss having a

rangefinder for travel, my c220 is a POOR travel companion, and my large format setup is

not even an option. My question is, being used to a medium format, will I be disappointed

if I purchase an M6 until I can afford the M8. My reasoning is, at least I will be able to

transfer the lenses on to my next camera. I dont believe that Mamiya will ever release a

digital version of their 6 or 7ii cameras. So if I bought another Mamiy 6, I would have to

sell it all again when I have saved up enough for the M8.

 

Here is one of my favorite pictures I took with the Mamiya 6, I have it printed at 12x12

and it looks GREAT!

 

<img src="http://www.photo.net/photo/3459340">

 

How much of a difference would I notice if this had been taken on a M6? What about the

M8. Someone mentioned that the 12Mp cameras that are coming out compair to MF, I

have only had experience with a 6mp point and shoot, so I am in the dark when it comes

to what kind of results I would actually be able to get with the M8. Should I abandon the

idea of going digitial at all? Perhaps Im asking to much of a smaller format or of the

currrent digital technology?

I had to sell my mamiya 6 set with all three lenses about a year ago and I miss it. Im thinking about

picking one up again, however, Im also thinking I might like to try a leica on for size. I will most likely

purchase an M6 TTL if I chose the leica route. With the release of the M8, I am leaning towards the leica,

as it would allow me to upgrade to digital in the future without having to purchase a whole new set of

lenses. I think I might like to switch over to digital eventually, however, I do not like shooting with SLR's

of any format. Furthermore, with the quality of prints I have seen from the r2400, I finally see an

alternitive to a wet darkroom. I have been shooting in medium format for about 5 years now, and am a

little apprehensive about picking up a 35mm camera. This camera will be used mostly for traveling, as

that was the only time my mamiya left its case--2 or 3 times a year--but I might use a leica more often

because of the size and cheap film. For my other work (mostly portraits) I use a mamiya c220. I enjoy the

square format, and I like the tonal range and sharpness of medium format. I like to print 8x8s and

12x12s, and hardly ever print any other sizes. I would print 8x10's from the leica, but would want the

ability to print up to 11x14 with good tonal quality and with reasonable sharpness (grain dosnt bother me

so much as tonal quality). Will I be dissapointed with an 11x14 print from a leica M6 (most likely with

voigtlander lenses, 35 ultron and 75mm). Thanks for your help...

I always use my sunpak 383 for fill with 3200 speed film. I set the 383 for 1/16th power on manual flash (Ive found that it screws it up on auto settings.). I set my mamiya at f8 and meter for fill to set speed. I use the omni bounce for bare bulb effect and bounce at 80 to 90 degrees and hold the flash at arms length as high and as far off to the side as I can reach.. When I stated shooting bar room portraits, I used a mag-lite with a difuser taped over it, still with 3200 speed film.. I put the mag in my mouth and pointed it at the subjects face for a little extra deffinition. Good luck and have fun.

The topcoflex was my first medium format camera. I LOVE it. Now I use a mamiya 6 and a mamiya c220, for more variation in lenses. If you look at my porfolio, http://www.photo.net/photos/Ryan%20W.%20Radtke all the pictures in my families restaurant and the 2 fight pictures were taken with the Topcoflex. When I first got this, I didnt have any idea what it was, and there wasnt any information on the internet or on photo.net about it. Enjoy the camera.

I work mainly with medium format film and have receintly sold my

medium format fiber base darkroom setup due to lack of space at my new

home. A shame to see it go. I am now looking into something digital,

give it a try. What I really want to do is scan my film at a high

enough quality to print up to 12 x 12 prints on the R1800 with the

piezo inks. I shoot only black and white, and after all the reading I

have done the piezo is the way to go. As for scanners, I dont have a

boat load to spend, and I also want to be able to scan my large format

work, so I am looking into flatbeds, i.e. epson. I had an epson 3600

something 2 or 3 years ago, and HATED it. every one of the scans came

out blury, to blury even to put on the web. I promptly sold it and

bought a fiber dryer! :) damn I miss it. Anyway. What I was really

wondering is, has any one been able to get hang on my wall kind of

quality prints up to 12x12 using any of the epson flat beds?

 

I would especially like to hear about the new v700. Ive heard so much

about it being exactly the same as the 4990.

 

Thanks for any help....