nealcurrie

Thanks for everyone's input. No local club. The school is 100% digital and removed their darkroom. There was a young neighbour shooting film (since moved) and he declined it. I'm about 12 hours from Vancouver, so a bit too far. :)

Processing in DF96 will be a total waste of this film IMO. Because you can't control the contrast adequately with a monobath. It needs special development to get anywhere near normal contrast out of it. Otherwise you'll just get a 'soot & whitewash' effect (which is what this copying film was designed to deliver).

 

FWIW. Back in the day, I worked my way through about half-a-dozen rolls of this stuff, trying different recommended developers, developing times and EI ratings. I never did get any results that I found tonally satisfactory, nor the reputed super resolution that was supposed to make all that processing kerfuffle worth while.

 

I also went through a short phase in which I was shooting lots of TechPan - developing in Technidol as per Kodak's instructions. I was occasionally able to make use of the super resolution with very careful technique and superb lenses, but when using anything but top-notch lenses the film was clearly more capable than the lens.

About 15 years ago I shot, developed, printed, scanned (prints), and posted a detailed comparison of A) 35mm TMX vs B) 35mm Tech Pan vs. b) 6x4.5 TMX vs D) 6x7 TMX. You can see full details at Technicalities, though the tl;dr version is that with prints at 16x20, TechPan did pretty darn well compared to the much bigger negatives.

I loved the tones and overall appearance of the images I got with Plus-X, and was sad when it was discontinued. I learned to live with TMX for a while but mostly switched to TMY-2 after it came out.

Canada.

I forgot to mention that I live in a small community that is a prohibitive distance from any major population centre for anyone to drive here.

I have duplicates of everything and since my darkroom became much smaller several years ago it's time to try to move my stuff on to someone else who may use it. Any general advice? I'd been planning to sell on Ebay since I've been doing that for years, but semi-recently they made changes and now require more information about me than I'm comfortable giving them.

 

Some items are: Saunders LPL 670DXL, various negative carriers, NIkkor 50mm & 80mm, LPL 14x17 adjustable 4-blade easel, smaller LPL speed easels, IC timer, various patterson trays. I actually managed to dismantle and securely Tetris together the enlarger parts into a box for which the shipping wasn't ridiculous.

<p>I had success with Technidol (retail long since available); didn't have success with TD-3. Sold off my bulk rolls of TP many years ago - do you have a bulk roll or a single roll?<br /><br />The film often outperformed my lenses, and I had some pretty damn sharp Pentax K-mount primes. Have fun.</p>

 

<p>Old thread, but...</p>

<p>Is the mirror stuck up, or stuck down?</p>

<p>If the mirror is stuck up, your batteries are dead.<br>

If your mirror is stuck down, you've a got sticky mirror which can be released by manually locking the mirror (push button on side and push lever forward). LXs with sticky mirrors can usually still be used if first lock up the mirror, release it, then fire several shots without film. As you fire the shots, the mirror-stick delay tends to decrease until it's behaving pretty much like normal. If you already have film in the camera, locking and unlocking the mirror several times in succession will sometimes let you take a picture without too much delay.</p>

<p>TMX/TMY scan very well for me most of the time.</p>

<p>If you want to improve your accuracy in a big hurry, make logs of your meter readings and exposures. It could be something like: "EV 0 in this spot, 3 in this spot, 5 in this spot; exposures at EV 1.5, 3, 4.5." Then when you go look back on your negs and logs, it will start becoming clear what is working.</p>

 

<p>TMX, TMY in 120 format.</p>

<p>Don't you have mainboard audio? I think every board out there has built-in audio, so you might be able to use the 1394 (firewire) card included with your 9000 scanner. </p>

<p>What Brooks said regarding cards. The hacked .inf by Steel Chn does work with Nikonscan 4.03 and Windows 7 x64.</p>

<p>If you build a desktop a good store, you will get more computer for your money.<br>

You should be able to build a Z77 chipset, Intel i7-3770 (or K version), 16GB, and one SSD + 2x1TB drives for a RAID 1 array with what appears to be your budget. <br /><br /></p>

<p>Almost certainly agitation issues. I've had these.</p>

<p>I am very happy with my Pentax 67, Pentax 645N, and Mamiyaflex TLR. I tend to use my 67 the most. It is fully manual and I carry around a light meter with me.</p>

<p>It had grain. You can see it under a microscope :). I found it hard to work with as filtration gave unexpected (to me) results , and didn't like TD-3. I preferred to use TMX and TMY.</p>

<p>I have done tests with enlargements vs. Nikon 9000 scans. I will post them when I get to my computer later.</p>

<p>They look a bit thin to me.</p>

<p>I'd be happy to scan it for you on my Nikon 9000, but something tells me you wouldn't trust the postal service with an old negative. Maybe someone else in your area has one.</p>

<p>I have used an OptiUPS 1250 for about 6 years. It powers my desktop, LCD, and Nikon9000 scanner. I used to live in Haida Gwaii (formerly Queen Charlotte) where the power source was entirely from generators, and they were always having problems with surges, flickers, brown-outs, .... The guy who ran the local PC repair shop said he was always having people come in with blown motherboards (and other things) from power issues.</p>

<p>I enjoy it and I much prefer the look I get from it. I use my K7 for technical coaching (video playback frame by frame) and pictures of my family/holiday type. For my 'serious' photography, I use my 645 and 6x7 and Nikon 9000. I could probably sell my scanner & film gear and get a digital that would give me similar results, but I don't have enough money for both, and I already have something that works for me...</p>

<p>The enlargers are colour, and I've used them exclusively to print B&W.</p>

<p>I have a two Saunders LPL 670DXL enlargers. You (or anyone else) can have one for the cost of shipping from BC, Canada.</p>

<p>If I get one keeper per 120 roll, I'm happy.</p>