michael_schiller

I was under the impression that this film was one that they've actually been making for a

while, but only for the military, and were just now going to release it as a commercial

product. Is this wrong?

-Mike

Ok, maybe I'm reading this question wrong, or maybe I'm asking a different question all

together. I have a Linhof 4x5 with a 6x7 roll film back. I also have a Linhof zoom finder. I

don't have a mask for it to automatically crop the image in the finder, but as it's a zoom

finder, I should be able to say put my 90mm lens on the camera, and then set my finder to

a different focal length to have a correct (or almost so) viewfinder. So my question is: I

have 90mm, 135mm, 150mm, 210mm and 360mm lenses, what setting (or multiplier)

would I need to set the viewfinder at to use the roll film back? (I'm pretty sure with the 90 I

would use the 150 setting, but I'm not sure for the others, and if I'm even right)

-Mike

Jay:

I have a 4x5 Super D, and I love it! The only problem for me is that with my 45 year old

eyes, I need to wear clip on magnifiers on my glasses to make sure the image is in focus!

The Super D isn't the best for flash, the options are either using an electronic flash (or

really any flashbulb) with it's auto open flash mode, or using special focal plane flashbulbs

(GE #31 or Sylvania #2A) at 1/1000th. Where the problem comes in (again, for me at least)

is that in lighting that requires flash I find it very hard to focus, and there's no focusing

scale like the Speed & Crown Graphics have for preset focus.

Many folks want to modify them to add grafloc backs to them, I didn't bother, I have

several grafmatics made for the Graflex back, as well as a few film magazines (bag mags)

that once you get used to them, they work almost as fast as a grafmatic, and hold 12

shots, rather than 6.

-Mike

What you need is Kodak stain remover S-10:

Water.............................96oz

Kodak Thiourea.............10oz

Kodak Citric Acid...........10oz

Water to make............... 1 gallon

Wet the stain with this solution and wait for the stain to disappear. Old stains may require

more than one application and a longer time (several minutes)to disappear. The garment

should be thoroughly washed after the stains have been removed.

The above formula & description is from an old version of the Compact Photo Lab Index.

-Mike

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still curious, if I want to take my C41 fixer that's at a pH of

6.5 and raise it up to 7.5 or so, what would be the best chemical to do that with?

-Mike

Hi All.

I've decided to look into alkaline fixers, and I'm kind of confused. I've been using Kodak

Flexicolor fixer (I have a few gallons of it), and when I first started using it with Arista's

EDU films, they were scratching really easily, and the fixer was turning purple (the exact

same shade as HCA turns). I got a bottle of Rapid Fix Part B (the hardener) that I've been

adding to the fixer, and that's taken care of both problems, the film isn't as soft as it was

before, and the color stays more like it should (turns yellow as it gets used, not purple).

I reciently bought some sodium thiosulfate so I thought I would try making an alkaline

fixer with it, so I used the formula for TF-2, and it seems to work great, despite what

some folks think about needing ammonium thiosulfate for 'modern' films.

I looked up the pH of the Kodak flexicolor fixer, and find that it's 6.5 which is closer to

neutral than most other commercial fixers, so I was wondering why it made my film so soft

when used without the hardener? Would it be possible to make it more alkaline by adding

either sodium sulfite, or borax to it? If so, would there be an advantage?

As a side note, the batch of MC-TEA I mixed up seems to work pretty good!

Any comments about the fixer would be appreciated.

-Mike

Another thing to mention is that there appears to be 2 different size tanks these reels

come with. Some of them have about an extra 3/4" between the top of the reel & top of

the tank, while in others the reel is just 1/8" below the top of the tank. In the shorter ones

you'd be hard pressed to get much more than 1060ml of solution in.

-Mike

Leo:

Here's a .jpg of the instructions. I have one of these tanks, and I love it! One thing to look

out for, the 'reel' has to be very clean to load/unload properly. One of the reels I had

needed to be chemically cleaned (with nitric acid) and it was really hard to unload it. The

one I have now is nice and clean, and the film slides right out of it.

-Mike

I have a couple of PLI's, and they're a great source of info. One of them came complete

with a LARGE box of the quarterly updates, it had been updated thru 1960, and the box

had updates thru 1986 minus a few of them. Unfortunately due to hurricane Ivan many of

the updates were ruined :( but I still have a few I might continue and update the book with

the good ones. I also have another one that's never been updated, and is I believe the 9th

edition, from back in the 30's or maybe early 40's.

A friend of mine has one from 1974 and it's a totally different book from the earlier ones

(well, not totally, but majorly different).

-Mike

I was looking for TEA, so I went to the usual places, artcraft, photographers formulary, etc.

I also did a search thru google, and found a company called The Chemistry Store

(www.chemistrystore.com) that had TEA at much cheaper prices than the photo chemical

specialty places! I noticed that they're in FL, and I was going down there for Thanksgiving,

so I thought I would stop in and pick it up while there. These are really nice people, and

while they don't stock lots of chemicals that would be of interest to 'us' they have quite a

few. While there I picked up a gallon of TEA, a gallon of propylene glycol, 4lbs of sodium

sulfite, 2lbs of hypo, and 1lb of Vitamin C.

I've no relationship with them other than being a happy customer, and wanted to pass

along their name.

On a side note, While waiting for my phenidone & a scale to come in I decided to try

something as an experiment. Patrick Gainer mentions that Metol won't disolve in TEA, but

as I have an old bottle of Kodak Elon (Metol) I thought I would give it a try. It dissolved

without a problem, and I'm waiting for it to cool down so I can pour it into a bottle.

Am I missing something here? Or did I kill the metol by heating it (via the TEA)?

The formula I used was 18 grams of Vitamin C disolved into 100ml of TEA, then 2

teaspoons of metol disolved seperately into 100ml of TEA, and when both were fully

disolved I mixed the 2 together to make 200ml of MC-TEA.

Once it cools I will try it out and see if it was a waste of time or not.

-Mike

I'll throw in my 2 cents. It certainly appears that the large players in the film market are

moving away from good old fashioned film, and toward digital. This includes Kodak, Ilford,

Fuji, etc.

It would seem to me that rather than switching from say Kodak film to Ilford film in hopes

of getting a film you know you'll be able to depend upon being there, I would go with the

small film houses like Forte, Forma, etc. The reason? Well the big guys are trying to be all

things to all people, and they're doing a terrible job of it. Film as we know it is going to

become a niche market, and if people start sending their business toward the smaller

houses, they'll be able to afford to stay in business, and grow, so we can be assured of a

good source of film for years to come, as these companies are small enough and

(hopefully) have a low enough overhead that they'll be able to turn a profit from a reduced

amount of film sales (as opposed to film sales from years ago) and so won't go looking to

get into everything under the sun, but will be happy making film for us.

I could be totally wrong in this idea, but I don't think I am.

I don't have any experience in the chemical business, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if

the biggest difference between the grades was what label they slapped on the container.

As somebody else already mentioned, chemicals are purer today than they were years ago,

so I could see the company having orders for technical grade, food grade, and photo

grade just grabbing 3 different containers off the shelf (or from the warehouse, etc) and

putting the proper labels (as per the order) on each.

-Mike

Hi All.

I have a strange problem. I bought a 3.5 gallon bottle of HC-110 (that's how much it will

make, not how much syrup was in the bottle!) less than 2 months ago off ebay. The bottle

was brand new, still sealed, in it's original box, etc. but it was the older square style bottle.

Well, I mixed it up into the stock solution, then after noting that supposedly the dilution A

has the same keeping qualities as the stock I further mixed up 5 litres of dil A, and had

just about 2 litres of stock solution left. I filled a 2 litre soda bottle with the stock, and put

it away in a dark closet, and put the mixed A into a 5 litre bottle with all my other

chemicals, using it to mix dilution B for use.

At first everything was fine, I used some of it at dilution B to process various 4x5 sheet

films, and I really liked that it reduced the amount of base fog on some of the older

expired film I have here. In one test I did, I compared HC-110, Rodinal, and DK-60a with

30 year old Plus-X, and it had the least amount of base fog of the bunch (Rodinal came in

second, and DK-60a had all the base fog you could want!) Now the problem...

All of a sudden the HC-110 seems to have lost it's strength. Negatives were coming out

real thin, regardless of if I was using old film, or fresh film. I first noticed this when I

developed some 4x5 Ektapan for a friend who just got his first Crown Graphic, and had

taken some shots using some large flashbulbs he has. Naturally I assumed that his

figuring of the flash guide numbers was off, as I've developed lots of film, and did his the

same way I've been doing it, so it couldn't be the developing! Well, soon after I noticed

that my own stuff was coming out too thin using HC-110, but was fine when using either

Rodinal, or DK-60a. I then tried using dilution A but at the same times as I had been using

for B, and the negatives come out pretty good. I figured that my diluted A had for some

reason or other gone bad, so I dumped it, and mixed up a small amount of B from the

stock solution I still had put away, again, it was no good. Just today I mixed up some A

from the stock solution, developed some Arista .EDU 400 film in it for 7:30, and the

negatives came out fine, but by all rights, they should have been way overdeveloped.

Has anyone else ever seen HC-110 suddenly get weak? I mixed the stock solution (and all

the further dilutions using distilled water, so my horrible city water didn't enter into the

picture. Any advice would be appreciated, and sorry for the long post!

-Mike

Somebody mentioned an old trick of pouring some oil into wine, would the same work for

photo chemicals? I have 1.25 liter bottles that I store my chemicals in that sit very nicely

on a shelf (picture below), and have a spigot on the bottom, and I had thought of using

either oil, or perhaps an oil/wax mixture to float on top of the chemicals.

The next thing would be refilling the bottles when they're almost empty. Would the oil

need to be drained first, or would the developer go right thru it with no problem?<div></div>

Hi All.

I have a simple question. I develop mostly 4x5 sheet film using either a Nikor tank/reel or

an HP Combitank. Both of these are daylight tanks that have fairly small openings for the

filling of chemicals, so the normal recommendation is to use a water bath before adding

developer. I was wondering, if it would work to use say Rodinal, and actually use the in

tank prewet water to mix the working solution? As an example, using the Nikor tank which

holds 40oz of chemical, to use a 1:25 dilution would mean adding 1.5oz of Rodinal to a

presoak of 38.5oz. Is there any reason that the initial agitation wouldn't mix the solution

fully?

-Mike

I'm not sure if caffeine really is the active ingredient that does the developing. My very first

attempt was done with individual packets of coffee that you brew per cup (looks like a

teabag), and it came out way to darkly stained (the attached photo is my very first attempt,

before the one I posted earlier). After I got the coffee working right I decided to try tea, as

it's also high in caffeine, but when I tried it, use Lipton Iced Tea bags (I'm assuming that

they're the same as 'normal' teabags, just with more tea per bag) all I got was a darkly

stained sheet of blank film! I might just go and buy a small bottle of instant decaf just to

be able to confirm or deny caffeine as the developing agent!

-Mike<div></div>

Well, I just had to try this! My first attempt was with some of the brew per cup coffee bags

(similiar to tea bags), using some old Plus-X, and it came out way too stained (I think this

is due to the type of coffee), with quite a bit of fog (old film). My next attempt was

somewhat better, I used Folgers instant coffee this time, and used some current film

(Ilford Ortho+). Not too bad, the negative has a slight overall stain, but nothing that

should matter for anything.<div></div>

Hi All.

I might have the capability to make new reproductions of the Nikor 4x5 reel, and was

wondering if there would be a market for new reels? I don't yet have one, but from what

I've read about them, and looking at various tank designs, I see no reason why the reels

couldn't be made to insert the film in the opposite orientation to the Nikor (5" side on the

outside edge, 4" dimension curling in to the center, then being able to use the reel in a

normal (and still currently available double 120 tank) rather than the 1" wider tank the

original Nikors had. Any comments would be appreciated!

-Mike

Can anyone tell me when Kodak stopped packaging D76 in metal cans? A local photo

shop that's closing has a couple of old cans of D76, as well as several cans of DK60a

(he gave me one of the DK60a cans and it mixed up clear, and worked fine) Also, what

would be a good price to offer him for the remaining cans of DK60a?

-Mike

I hate answering my own questions, but here goes...

I mixed up some of the ancient FG7 (the shop owner wasn't kidding, the address on

the bottle has Edwal's address with a zone code, not a zip code (Chicago 43 Ill.)) and

tried it with some Arista APHS I had shot earlier in the day as a test. At the

recommended dilution it took way to long for anything to happen, so I changed it to

2oz. FG7 to 14oz water and it worked ok. I took 5 shots going from f8 at 1 second to

f8 at 1/15 second (the indicated setting for ASA20) and only the 1 second & 1/2

second shots came out half way ok. The others had to develop much longer, and were

way too high in contrast. Monday I should be getting in some Ilford Ortho+ as well as

some ID11 so I'll have some more stuff to test & play with! :)<div></div>

Hi All.

I just got a 4oz bottle of Edwal FG7 from a local camera shop, and the owner said it

was OLD. Does anyone know the shelf life of the concentrated FG7? Also, would this

be a good developer to develop Arista ortho film? Or Ilford Ortho+ film? Thanks!

-Mike

Ok, I've got a question now. I have 2 Symmar lenses, a 150/265 and a 210/365. On

my Graphic View using the 210/365 lens there's not enough bellows draw to focus at

infinite when it's 'properly' converted. I can use it when I remove the rear element just

fine, although that does make for a very 'soft' focus. Since I just got the 150/265 and

I can properly convert it, it got me thinking, why can't I mount a filter (like a skylight

1A) in front of the shutter to protect it. So I tried to see if I could find a Series VI

holder with a 40mm thread (to screw into the front of the shutter), but apparently

they're not made/available.

I have a series VI slip on adapter that almost fits in the shutter, so I wraped some tape

around it to snug it up, and it works nicely. Then just for the heck of it, I tried putting

a +1 diopter portrait lens in the filter holder, and trying that with the 210/365, and

found with that combo I could in fact focus it on my camera, and the focal length

while no longer 365 was much closer to it than using the front element was (dispite

what folks say, the 2 elements (or groups, or whatever they're called) are NOT the

same, in effect the Symmar lenses are triple convertables)

So I guess my question is this: Is there any reason not to use the setup I described?

(using a +1 portrait lens in front of the shutter with the rear group)

Sorry for the long post :(

-Mike

Hi All.

Reciently I got some fairly old Alkon '49' film holders. They were pretty dirty, and

didn't have any tape on the loading doors (or whatever they're called), so at first I

figured they were junk. After doing a little looking around supposedly they don't

require the tape, so I cleaned them up as best I could, and then tested them by first

labeling each holder, then I had some Fuji film, so I loaded all the holders with film,

then setup my camera (a Graphic View II) in front of a computer, and using using an

editor I typed in 'Holder A1 Side 1' measured the exposure for just the screen (in a

darkened room) then I shot the film in all the holders, matching the holder # & side #

with the holder in the camera. I sepcifically wanted to leave the borders dark, as I

figured if they were going to leak, it would be around the sides. After taking the pics I

left them laid out on a couch with all the lights in the room on for like an hour or so,

then flipped them over for another hour or so. When I got them back from the

processor, they all came thru with flying colors!

-Mike<div></div>

Hi All.

I just got an Acer Scanpremio ST on ebay for $57.00 and bought the Silverfast LE (for

MacOSX) for an additional $49.00. How does this scanner compare to the Epson 2450

or 3200 models?

-Mike