david_stoerman

The blue cast you see when looking at the negative is simple. It is caused by the fact that you are/were using daylight balanced film, and the light source for those frames was a much warmer light source (incandescent, tungsten, mercury vapor, etc.) Since the light source illuminating the subject was VERY yellow compared to daylight, and since you are viewing a NEGATIVE, the yellow cast shows as blue on the film.

A more normal balance light will show as a more brown color in the developed negatives, due primarily to the film base, and the actual colors in the scene as shot - like the adjacent frames.

There is nothing at all wrong with your film, and when printed, the original yellow cast from the artificial light can be preserved, or if you desire, a good lab operator can take most of the color cast out.

-Dave

Karl,

Unique sells a ton of film to dealers around the country. If you want fresh dated, USA film, tell them. IF you want short dated, or import film to save money, tell them.

Call Sheila (my sales rep) at their 1-800 number, and press extension 270. Tell her Dave told you to call her, and tell her what you want - she will get it, and at good prices! Be as specific as you can: Fresh dated, USA only, 5-packs, boxed rolls, or whatever it is exactly that you want.

-Dave

Ilford has indeed officially informed us today, by letter, that certain items are gone, and have also quoted us the price increases in question. Can I or ethically should I scan and post this letter?

Here is a scary line from the letter:

Perceptol Developer and selected other items...Products Discontinued"

(What are 'selected other items'?)

ID11 and Microphen Powder Developers...price increase 20-75%

Mulitgrade filters and sets...price increase 40-200%

Antistatic cloths...price increase 50%

Sorry guys, but I am not pulling your chain.

-Dave

These powders are still in the line, no talk of dropping them at all.

However, Ilford has quoted me a "20-75%" increase in powder prices. Almost all films up by about 10%, papers up between 3% and 15%. My terms and shipping free/minimums also changed for the worse.

So guys, if you come by my store and see jacked up prices after January, please don't be pissed at me.

The good news is that maybe Ilford can some out of this mess at some point. I really have enjoyed selling and using thier products.

-Dave

Sorry if you have already heard or read this, BUT

Ilford told us at our lab that Perceptol and SFX are gone forever.

If you like either, buy them now.

-Dave

I have 2 suggestions, both of which can take advantage of the TTL capabilities in your FA:

Nikon SB16 - Large full featured flash (A,M and TTL modes), high guide number, tilt and zoom flash head.

Nikon SB23 - Small, compact, TTL or M only, medium-low guide number.

The SB23 is great as a fill-in walk-around flash, while the SB16 is a lot more powerful, but also a lot larger. Both of them can be found at a reasonable price. For what its worth, all of the newer flashes (SB26,SB28 etc) can be used on your camera as well.

I love my FA and I use both flashes (SB23 and SB16) on the camera for different shooting purposes.

-Dave

This is a cheap Photoshop filter. wow. Nice image otherwise, though.

-Dave

Our Fuji rep was at Photokina and said he would get some for me... Apparently Fuji does not really aknowledge this film to Fuji USA people.. BUT it can be had through, according to him, 'other means'. Also, the new Pro-X films are already being coated for us here in the US. If and when we get some Fortia for sale or 'personal use' I will let you all know.

By the way (some more Photokina news)- Fuji now has a 12 inch Fontier.. This means 11x14s, 11x17s and 12x18s from the Frontier print engine.

-Dave

A 'bargain' F5 must certainly have been used VERY heavliy or abused to be a bargain-rated camera. The F5 is built like a tank.

If you use a D100, the F100 will simply astound you in build-quality, 'solidness', and ease of use.

The F5 simply blows my mind. More speed, accuracy, features, METAL than I will ever need, although I do indeed shoot with one.

The F100 is the perfect little brother to the F5. It is lighter, smaller and easier to use. I take my F100 along on trips, outings, etc. and I adore it. My subjective opnion is that the F100 is also quieter than the F5 in standard advace modes.

My F5 gets called into action when I absolutely, positively have to get the shot...or I don't get paid. It never misses, ever. This camera will amaze you, and then give you sore arms and a sore neck.

My D100 belongs to someone else now because it was a complete and total waste of my time...total junk. By the way, the F100's screen is about 30% brighter, and a full 16% larger than the toy viewfinder on the D100...no comparison here.

Forget the F4s- the F100 is in my opinion the camera for you. take it for what it is worth.

-Dave

When the SB28 is in the "A" mode, the flash unit will judge correct exposure by using its OWN built-in sensor.

In the other TTL mode the camera will judge correct exposure and control flash output by reading light from the film plane. This is the basis of TTL OTF flash modes.

Your SB28 will still achieve correct flash exposure on non-TTL cameras by using this "A" mode.

Hop this helps.

-Dave

I run a Frontier every day. 3 comments:

The Frontier can make a 100% full frame print, no cropping, even can show the sprocket edges.

The Frontier can make ANY size print from 3.4x5 to 10x15. ANY size in between. With ANY border size, even or uneven.

However, a person must first know how to do it.

-Dave

The Ultra Color 400 is the exact same film as 400UC. No changes in film at all. The same film stock that was being used to splice/spool 400UC cannisters is going into your '400 Ultra Color' cans. From the same coating facility, same emulsion formulation, same base, same guys making it (new edge ID info though). The packaging has been updated and rebranded to follow the new line of films released at PMA 2004, to keep the current management stucture in place at Kodak after thier announcement earlier in the year. Investor groups didn't like hearing that Kodak was giving up on new films.

The Ultra color 400 was released when the packaging/cans for 400UC were exhausted. The Ultra Color 400 cat. no. was only available for order until just recently, at the same prices. Don't be fooled.

Thought this might be helpful.

-Dave

We run a Frontier at work, and I have noticed a few things regarding scan quality. The 'base' scan is 1200x1800 (300dpi - 4x6). The machine can make scans all the way up to 3000x4500 (300dpi - 10x15), but as the file size made goes up,the scan speed goes WAY down. It may take as long as 15 minutes to scan a roll at full 3000x4500 resolution.

With that being said, I have also noticed that if we make scans with all the default Frontier 'goodies' turned on, the scans really look bad... unsharp, blocky, grainy, and really noisy. These features include Hyper-Tone, Hyper-sharpness, boosted contrast, etc. However, we have set up a special scanning profile, or condition, for pure scanning. This condition turns off all the on-board enhancements on the Frontier. The scans from this condition are excellent and smooth at all sizes.

This condition can only be set up by someone with a high enough password to do it, and from what I have seen most lab managers just don't understand the process. For some reason the software that allows the Frontier to make great prints from film also hurts the pure scanning ability of the machine.

Maybe you can find a lab that will scan your film without any manipulation by the Frontier, then make an evaluation. Our Frontier, when setup in the pure scanning condition, makes much better scans than our Nikon scanner.

Hope this helps!

-Dave

The trouble we have found at our lab is that many people buy Delta 3200 and shoot it, expecting thier prints to be like Delta 100, only with faster speed. When we take in a roll of Delta 3200 we like to have a conversation that goes something like this:

What did you rate (shoot) the film at? 800, 1000, 1600, 3200 6400?

What are you looking for in the film? shadow detail, highlights, midtones, grain?

May we suggest {XTOL, DD-X, Microphen, Perceptol) ?

May we suggest (1:1, 1:2, 1:4) dilltion to get what you want?

If your lab handles Delta 3200 correctly, than yes $20 is fair. But, even though I own a lab, maybe you should get the gear and do it yourself. You will learn ALOT and finally have exact control over what you get. I can process my own stuff in our lab every day...but I still occasionally soup film at home with my son because I LOVE IT. If you don't want to do it yourself, then you really need to find a good lab to get good Delta 3200 processing.

-Dave

The cip test is a good idea, as is checking the deafult ISO in your camera with the 3200 cannister.

Also, in my experience Delta 3200 can be shot from 400 on up. I have found the real film speed to be about 1000 or even 800 in reality. What developer(s) do you have at your disposal? I would try Xtol 1:1 at 68 degress for about 6 minutes, or DD-X 1:4 for 6 mintes to get down to 400 ISO. Then you are only roughly 2 stops over. I have found that Delta 3200 likes to be shot in my cameras at 1000, and I process accordingly. Shooting it at 100 is not a killer after all, just be careful with the processing.

Good Luck!

-Dave

Kate,

If you cannot find a manual, shoot your questions up here. I used a 4004 for a LONG time.

-Dave

I just re-read my previous post (above) and I feel that it may have been a little harsh or troll-like. What I want to say is that what I have heard from some sources is this: There appears to be a problem with the 'electronic shutter' employed by the D70 at higher speeds, and that you may want to wait and see how this all unfolds.

I certainly did not mean to diminish your enthusiasm for this camera or to bash the D70 in general. You may buy the camera and love it, but if I were buying this camera (which I toyed with in Vegas) I might wait until this whole 'electronic shutter'-CCD filter issue is sorted out.

-dave

check the reports of ccd problems with the D70 with. The camera has reportedly been pulled from many store shelves in Japan.

Check it out here: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=8080951.

After the problems Nikon has had with users of the D100 I would remember this: Caveat Emptor....Buyer Beware.

-Dave

Minilab film processing machines made by Noristu or Fuji do not read the dx code from the film cassette. If you are indeed looking to take your re-loaded film to a one-hour type minilab for processing, the best thing you can do is re-load the film into 'like' cannisters (example: put XP2 into used XP-2 cannisters, etc.)

If you can't do this, then find a lab that has reasonably adept staff and just explain to them what you have. You may not find such people at a drugstore, as the trained people there are pharmacists, not photo processors.

-Dave

Get the F3. Keep the F2a. And then go get an FM3a. Then an FE2.

You can NEVER have too many, and they really don't take up much space.

-Dave

Nikon knows that they blew it on the software algorithms and out-of-the box tone curves on the D100. The D70 may share the same sensor, but Nikon claims the algorithms and programmed tone curves on the D70 are much improved. The Nikon tech guys at PMA were a little reserved, but did talk alot about improved firmware and curves for the D70, along with a different saturation and white balance model. The D100 was not doomed by the sensor, but by the in-camera software.

They were also very afraid to make comparisons to anything from Canon. They liked to pretend like they had never seen a Canon DSLR. Both companies, by their own admissions, are hard pressed to make a DSLR that can hit 50% usable images without post-processing.

-Dave

Hans once again has a simple response. He once again is correct. You said you have never shot Reala before, so start with an accurate, predictable baseline: Shoot the film at 100.

Then, based on experience, start playing with the film rating. I would mention that I do not see a need to intentionally underexpose the film when you have never shot it before. Reala is a good film, have fun and shoot alot.

-Dave

I think you have it right. Experiment a little with the film to find the right contrast range for your base fog. You will probably never get technically perfect negatives, but what you want is printable negs that you can manipulate to get decent or even good prints.

Good luck. As I said, I really feel for you. Please tell everyone you know who may be travelling with film to beware of the XRAY MONSTER!

-Dave

I am very upset by your post. I am not angry or mad or even dissapointed by your failure to protect your film.

I am very disturbed by the fact that you have lost 40 rolls of film shot overseas. I see this every day in our lab. The thing that really makes me so mad is that as a professional film processor I can honestly tell you that no one can ever fix your troubled film. I have grown used to telling people that 'I can help you with that' or 'I can fix that, don't worry...let me take care of it'.

I love being able to give people what they want and expect fom thier film, I truly do. But, I think that the best I can tell you, after having tried all sorts of things to fix x-ray damage (even doing a little dance on the lab floor) is this:

Reduce the effects of the base level fog caused by the x-ray by experimenting with very rapid, harsh, high temp, over-active development. Using this method you will have blocked-up highlights, no shadow detail and poor speed control. What you will have is images that exhibit reduced levels of fog that you can print with filtration and dodging/burning to get prints. Experiment a little to find what times/temps work

In my opinion you do not want to lengthen the development times with diluted developer as you normally would...this just gives the fog a chance to fully develop..bad.

Try one or two rolls with full strength Xtol or even TMAX at 75 degrees to see how it affects the fog level. What you essentially are looking for is the exact opposite of developing for speed in shadows. You do not want to get developer compensation.

Hope this helps, I really feel for you.

-Dave