Dustin McAmera

Looks rather like what you'd get if there wasn't enough developer to cover the film in the tank, or if the reel migrated up the centre column.

I don't see what difference it makes whether a picture is posted to a themed thread started this week, or one with the same theme started a year or more ago, unless there is a rule that we must only post newly-taken pictures. I have started marking the photos that I have posted in a NW thread, so as not to reuse them in another. I haven't been taking any new stuff for a while, so I'll run of good stuff (or even mediocre stuff) before very long. At the Large-Format Photography Forum (Large Format Photography Forum) they have threads which have been running for years for some image-sharing categories. So for example under Image Sharing (LF), the thread 'Post your trees!' is currently at page 552 of posts, and 'Flowers, anyone?' is up to page 302. Before I registered there, I spent quite a while browsing a few of the long threads. As far as I can tell, they don't do a 'no words' rule anywhere; someone is always saying 'Great, Jerry! How did you meter that?'

I used Dylon brand black fabric paint to fix pinholes in the shutter of my Zenit 1. In normal use, Dylon advises to iron the workpiece to cure the paint, but my repair has lasted several years so far. I painted the front of each shutter blind, because that's the only side you can reach without disassembly, on a bottom-loading Zenit. As it hapens that's the side with the rubbery coating, and I hoped the paint would help to stabilise the rest of the rubber too, and prevent more holes turning up. So I painted the whole of the area I could reach, not just where I thought the holes were; and gave each blind two coats, giving it overnight to dry each time. So I did the job in four stints of about ten minutes, over four days.

+1 for quarter plate, though I have several cameras for 127. This is my Ensign Special Reflex. Here, it has n 11-inch Ross Telecentric fitted - a short tele. The standard lens is a 6-inch Aldis-Butcher Anastigmat.

My avatar, taken while peering into my Balda Jubilette to watch the shutter going wrong.

Kochmann Korelle 3x4cm strut-folder, with f/4.5 Coronar double-anastigmat. Efke R100 127 film in Rodinal.

Ensign Special Reflex with 11-inch Ross Telecentric, on old Adox CHS100 in a 2¼x3¼ inch roll back, and dev. in HC110.

One of my very few LF pictures. Calumet CC401 with 127/4.7 Ysarex. 4x5 inch Fomapan 100, in HC110.

Have you asked on the Large Format Photography Forum?

Black negatives could be caused by light getting into the tank. You're fitting the reel on the centre column, right? Do the black frames have clear edges? If so, it doesn't seem likely it's light leaking into the tank. Are you doing inversion, or using the 'twiddle-stick' for agitation? I gave up on Paterson reels because I stopped being able to load them reliably. I think the ball-bearing parts of my reels got grubby and stopped moving easily. I use steel reels and tanks now. Anyhow, I think you'd feel if the film wasn't loading right, although 120 film is more likely to flex, being thinner.

Yamato Pax 35, old Adox CHS100 in Rodinal.

My experience was the other way round. I once bought a lens through their old website, or at least I thought I had: it took my card details and finished the transaction, but nothing came through the post. After several days I enquired and found this was a 'feature' of the site; the item had already been sold, and the stock listed was out-of-date by at least that one item, when I went through the motions of buying. In fact, no money had been charged either. I was disappointed about the lens, but mostly annoyed at having given out my card details for nothing. The guy I spoke to on the 'phone seemed to care very little about either issue. I vowed I wouldn't buy from them again, and deleted the bookmark; but I found their site again from a web search about a particular item, and have since bought from them once, without a problem this time. My Grandpa drove a Caveat Emptor for a while, I think.

Mamiya 645 Pro, Ektar.

FED Mikron, unknown cheap or freebie ISO 400 film.

Old Adox CHS100 in my FED 3.

Duo-Ensign 2¼B box camera with HP5, and developed in Aculux. Take Your Box Camera to Work Day 2012.

I thought the squeak was from the mirror brake. If it's slow to start, it could be foam pads perishing and getting sticky. However, it may not be the mirror. I have a slight problem with my A-1, where after even an hour of not being used, the shutter will wait a little after I press the button before firing. It has been a delay of up to about a second, and whatever scene I was trying to get had moved on; but it's not always that bad, and the next shot will be fine. Interestingly, the exposure is correct; just the first shutter curtain is slow to get going. I understand from one of Tomosy's books that the electromagnetic catches that release the shutter curtains can get dirty. Cleaning them requires opening the bottom of the camera.

Rio della Madonna dell'Orto, Cannaregio. Old 127 Macocolor UCN200 in my Zeca Goldi 3x4cm. Cannaregio was quiet even when other areas were crowded.

Canon A-1 and Kiron 28/2. Fuji Superia 200.

I think this might be where the film isn't quite flat because of the rollers, or maybe the edge of the pressure plate. I get something similar in several cameras. Unless you can adjust the pressure plate somehow, I think the only real solution may be to crop.

I don't have any pictures here; I only come for the discussions, and link my pictures from Flickr, so it is a minor annoyance to be sent to my portfolio very time I log in. Only a minor one though. I have the bookmark for the forum on a toolbar, so I can click that as soon as the portfolio page finishes loading.

Canon A-1 with the 85/1.8 on a 1.5x teleconverter. Old Adox CHS100 in Aculux.

Certo Super Sport Dolly, Fuji Pro800Z.

Zenit (Zenit 1, if you like) with Industar-22, Agfa APX-400, Rodinal.

Yamato Pax 35, FP4 in Rodinal.