michael erlich

Digital: Canon S60 (I know it's made by The Dark Side, but it has full manual controls, can make RAW files, uses the same CF cards I use in my Nikon DSLRs and produces good images.)

 

Film: Olympus Stylus Epic (pocketable, great lens, cheap.)

I use a medium size ballhead on my monopod, and I have no problem handling it. The single-axis tilt head I started with was very limiting.

Exposure to air during agitation is not a problem. I process my film in Jobo tanks using continuous rotary agitation--the film is constantly turned through a pool of developer and exposed to the air in the tank with every turn.

 

With one reel's worth of liquid in a two-reel tank, vigorous agitation could cause foaming which may be a problem. Gentle inversions are OK. Your reel is not likely to slip on the Jobo core, but to be safe put an empty reel on top of the loaded reel before you close the tank.

Mike,

 

Checking for CF card prices to identify scam artists is an excellent idea. Thanks for the tip.

I have the Adorama version of the Linhof, and I think it's flimsy and the leg extension is hard to adjust when a camera is mounted. My vote is for the Manfrotto.

Roger,

 

114 C ???

 

I'm surprised you survived, much less your film. <G>

The method I use is to put the film in a thermo-electric cooler (widely available at discount stores like Wal-Mart) that plugs into a 12V cigarette lighter outlet in my car. It takes a couple of hours to cool the contents down to 40 degrees F below ambient, but the cold air is dry and there is no danger of wetting the film from melting ice.

 

When I park the car at night I either take the cooler into the motel room with me and use an AC adapter to power it, or simply unplug it and leave it in the car. The cooler is well-insulated and the contents stay cold for a long time. Leaving it running in the car at night will result in a dead car battery in the morning.

 

You can get a pretty big one for well under $100, and you can also use it to keep food and drinks cold while you are on the road.

I have also always stored cameras with shutters fired or uncocked. But with my newer Nikon SLRs such as the F100 or DSLRs, leaving the shutter uncocked is impossible.

Bridge is especially clumsy in handling keywords, and it stores metadata in a central database or outboard .xmp files which can get separated from the image files if you are not careful in how you move files around.

 

I use iView MediaPro for all annotations. It's much better than Bridge at handling database functions.

 

http://www.iview-multimedia.com

I leave my D2x and D100 switched on unless I'm changing lenses, CF cards, or putting them into a bag where the shutter buttons may be unintentionally pressed. Once the meter shuts off, the drain on the battery is only from the top LCD display panel and is negligible. I'm more concerned that cycling the on-off switch so frequently will eventually cause it to fail.

Don't discard your NEFs. If you don't want them cluttering up your hard drive burn them to CD or DVD and put them away. I convert NEFs to DNGs and only work on the DNGs, keeping the NEFs pristine and untouched.

The '70s, when I finally finished my education and went out on my own.

 

1979, the year I got my first computer, an Apple II+.

 

F, and the body I use most now, a D2x.

Just wait until you see your first enlarged image gradually appear in the developer. Absolutely magical! Happened to me more than 40 years ago and I'm still hooked.

I've found there is about 1-1/2 inches from the taped end of the film to the start of the first frame and less on the other end...about an inch. I suppose it varies from camera to camera. This is with 120. I've never used 220.

As far as Paterson reels becoming impossible to load after a few years, I think the culprit is wetting agent. No matter how you rinse the reel, wetting agent like Photo-Flo will build up a residue that is impossible to remove. I take the film off the reel after the wash and dunk it into a separate tank of dilute Photo-Flo.

The last three miles on the road to Bodie are dirt and not maintained very well, and snow is not cleared. I'd wait until June to be sure it's clear enough for auto travel. It can get cold and windy there, even in summer. A 4-wheel-drive vehicle, or at least a car with decent ground clearance, is recommended. Bodie is open all year for those brave souls willing to take the risk to get stuck. The road is not frequently patrolled, and cell phones don't work there.

 

Las Vegas is at least a full day's drive from Bodie and would not be a good place to base a trip there. The closest town with accomodations is Bridgeport CA, about 30 minutes away. The closest good-size city is Carson City, NV.

 

Other places nearby worth visiting are the Twin Lakes near Bridgeport, the East and West Walker Rivers, and the roads up into the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe.

 

I've been to Bodie four times, usually in late September or early October. Water and restrooms are available, but not food. You're going to be doing a lot of walking up and down moderate grades and with the altitude of 8500 feet or so it's easy to get winded, especially if you are carrying a lot of equipment.

 

Have a great trip.<div></div>

This kind of muted color redition is typical of Polacolor prints. You are never going to get Velvia-like colors from Polaroid. They also always look softer than images made with traditional films, probably because of the way the image transfers to the paper during development.

 

The missing image area at the bottom of the picture looks like the processing goo didn't quite spread across the whole frame. Did you pull the tab with slow, steady pressure? If you yank the tab out too quickly this can happen. I've also seen this problem with old, outdated film but you said the film was fresh. Maybe it was stored in too hot a location before you bought it.

The 645E is an entry-level camera. The 1000s is a professional quality, well built, solid camera with interchangable prisms and focussing screens. If they are in similar condition, go with the 1000s. Mine is still going strong after nearly 30 years.

Distilled water for the final rinse with a very small amount of wetting agent have eliminated water marks for me. An inline 5 micron filter (Delta) for the wash water and drying in a dust-free area goes a long way in minimizing crud on the film.

 

Once dust or other particles have dried on the film it is practically impossible to get rid of it. You may just have to spend a lot of time spotting the prints (I use Spotpens when I need to, which isn't very often) or scan the negs and clone out the dust in Photoshop.

Slow films like Panatomic-X will last for many, many years if kept at freezer temperatures in their original, sealed packaging. Let them come up to room temperature before opening the package to avoid moisture condensation.

 

High speed films (TMY, Delta 3200 etc.) will not last much past their expiration dates even kept in a freezer, because cosmic rays, which easily penetrate walls, freezers, or even people, will eventually fog the film beyond usability.

 

Have fun with your Panatomic-X. It's a wonderful, fine-grain film.

The brush may loosen the dust, but the way I do it is to blow it off just before putting it in the enlarger. I have a small oil-free air compressor in the cabinet below the enlarger for this purpose. A good-size bulb blower (like the Giottos Rocket) will also work.

Could it be a light leak from the red window in the Holga back?

The advice given in the previous replies is good, but I would add that you should stick to negative films. Slide film is intolerant of overexposure; highlight detail in snow that is even slightly overexposed is lost forever.

If the J is like my 1000s, the meter prism uses a separate battery and does not draw power from the body.

I have the Sigma, which I bought instead of the Nikon 60/2.8 for reason of price. I use it only to copy flat artwork on a copystand, and it is very sharp, contrasty and flat field. For my purposes it is perfect.

 

For other macro work I use a Tamron 90/2.8 AFD. Superb lens.