dasblute

<p><em><strong>favorite source of 120 B&W and color film?</strong></em><br>

- local photostore [keeble and schucat, palo alto], freestyle, b&h, adorama</p>

<p><em><strong>Who processes your film?</strong></em><br>

- I do, using a tank. 120 processing is becoming scarce, and I can do it as good or better than any service for cheaper.</p>

<p><em><strong>Do you know of any processors who include good-quality high-res scans?</strong></em><br>

not really, and depending on how you define quality, it could get expensive. You can get pretty good scans with say, an Epson flatbed [V700 or 4990] - not as good as a drum scanner - but not as expensive or technical either.<br>

A Rollei is a great camera: shoot lots of film [get some kodak t-max before it goes away], process and scan it yourself, don't look at the want ads or else you might find yourself trolling for enlargers, a medium format silver print can be amazing :)</p>

<p>Looking at Lenswork is humbling indeed. Their aesthetic and high standards are compelling. Having an idea of where you want to go with an image helps, and they provide a lot of examples, so it's nice to be schooled :) Keep at it, you'll get there if you want it bad enough [and you're not far off already from what I can see].</p>

<p>- Medium format might be easier. With LF, there's a bit of learning involved, mostly on what *not* to do... :) and unless you're printing 11x14 or more, not a huge win in detail and tonality over MF.<br>

- Also, the way things are going you'll probably have to develop the sheets yourself, meaning a daylight tank or darkroom and trays... but if you're in for it... get one soon and practice, preferrably on her parents...<br>

- As stated above, monorails are cheap, easy to come by, pretty easy to work with. 210mm lenses are numerous and a pretty good value for the quality, they're roughly equivalent to a 70mm on a 35mm.</p>

<p>WT: Large format is always going to be a niche. I don't come here too often because there's a little better give-n-take over at <a href="http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/">http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/</a> as well as apug. A lot of discussions end up being a digital-vs-traditional, or what lens/film/dev is the 'best', etc... pretty much a waste of time. Large format doesn't make for 'better' pictures, it's always about who is standing behind the camera. I use if because I like the process, and I shoot as much film as I can, develop and [finally] print at home.<br>

As far as LF+digital, film + scanner seems to be the way for the foreseeable future, obviously from my point of view.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Good on ya lad, that's a lot of ground to cover you could spend a lot of time and never run out of work, but you'll need to walk a bit, explore, be open to the possibilities. Pick a few places and work em hard, try not to 'do the whole thing'<br>

There's so much there, it's tempting to just drive up to the edge of a canyon and point the camera... the places I liked: hole-in-the-rock road, calf creek [not just the falls], kiva koffeehouse [absolute must stop], hwy 12 from boulder to torrey, capital reef and the trail to cassidy arch,... by the time I got to island-in-the-sky, I was exhausted from the walks and overloaded from the mass of options and felt like the guy in 'horse with no name', you start mumbling and pointing cameras but it's all just too much... good luck!</p>

<p>I love 5x7, and as long as freestyle sells it, I'll buy it.I love the aspect ratio, and<br>

contact prints are 'big enough'. I've been getting by with 4x5 lenses but need<br>

a 'wide with coverage' at some point. All in all, a joy to work in...<br>

some of my 5x7 work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stormiticus/tags/5x7/</p>

<p>head over to f295, great bunch of friendly, helpful folks and some are doing ULF,<br>

most build their own... http://www.f295.org</p>

<p>I find that if I try to go into the field with too many options, I'm off my game. One camera, one film that I know *really* well, a couple lenses, a good spot meter. Also, many times you cannot base the exposure on only one metering [i.e. just looking at the shadows] the best exposure might well be a compromise between less-than-optimal choices. There are no shortcuts or rhymes to get you through the tough work of understanding the capabilities of your film/camera. Sooner or later, if you're serious about b&w, you'll want to learn about zone system work, Chris Johnson's "The Practical Zone System" is not a bad place to start. What you'll get is control, no more 'guessing' about what to do in a scene, you'll know what the options are, and know to a pretty fine degree what your choices in the field will end up looking like in the print or scan.<br>

Otherwise, Songsten's advice is a simple start. :)</p>

<p>I usually just use a spare lensboard, cut the center out of a CD case<br>

[the black backing that holds the CD], then use gaffers tape to hold it all together.<br>

Crude but effective, just like a pinhole :)</p>

<p> </p>

I have the rodenstock 135 sironar/s and it's my 'best' lens, the one I pull

out most of the time, the one that I rely on...

unsurpassed? I'm a hack and Bob is very enthusiastic... but...

"...the worst camera is better than the best photographer..."

with guitars, once you get even a low-end Martin, it's good enough...

it's up to you to make it sing, but you can't blame the instrument...

these lenses are plenty 'good enough' [i.e. better than my skills]

some examples with this lens:

http://www.photo.net/photo/7571152

http://www.photo.net/photo/7585794

http://www.photo.net/photo/5968623

<hint> f295</hint>

eh, each to his own, I love my rollei and the 4x5, shoot mostly landscapes/interiors

and pinhole provides a welcome escape from the rigours of focus precision and the inevitable

crunch of time. The images frankly, can look like nothing else if they take advantage of the

unique qualities of the format.

I've used many type of pinholes, foil pierced with a pushpin, more refined with a needle

and laser cut. Like most things photographic, to first approximation, the eye behind the

camera makes the difference, not the equipment.

You could get a uniroller motor base, I got mine and 3 unicolor tanks for $75

on the auction site. It works very well. I've got the jobo roller base but I didn't

have the attention span to keep it consistent for 7-9 minutes. I use D76, 1-1, 68F

4x5 [cropped] TMY-2:

5x7 HP5+: http://www.photo.net/photo/7243950

Also, with some films, such as velvia, there is also a colorshift

associated with longer exposures 10+sec that you'll need to correct for :)

btw - tom mentioned the possibility of the sheets slipping and

overlapping. I cut a piece of a flip flop up, 1/4" thick,

and about 1"x2" curved to fit the tank and with a 'V' in

it to fit the spines on the inside of the tank, it fits

tight against the tank and the sheets are held apart.

Learned about that in another thread on the unidrum tanks.

I've used the combiplan, and the spigot is so small

it takes almost 30 sec to fill the tank. It also leaks

like a sieve when agitating.

For me, tray developing was a little tricky at first

but then fine, except the temp would rise almost 4deg

over 11 minutes [68-72!] [FP4+D76] because of my fingers

in the bath [high metabolism] :)

My current setup is an old besseler motor and unidrum tank,

(4) 4x5's at a time, no temp rise to speak of, a bit shorter

development because of the constant agitation, but absolutely

perfect negs every time. Unless, of course, I blew the exposure :)

I paid $60 for the motor and 2 tanks.

almost certainly a machinist's project; a cool one too,

kind of a chimera.

I would also recommend, as others have elsewhere, that you use

your thumb in the middle of the film [it won't hurt], to gently

make sure that the film comes out with the packet an doesn't

get hung up on the clip. I hate to pull the packet and see all

that nice film in the daylight :)

I've done tray for short time [maybe 100 sheets, ok I'm a newbie],

but had some issues with temp changing [+6 degrees, 68->74!]

over the 11 min [hp5+] because of fingers in the soup pulling

the bottom neg to the top ala Ansel. Once I got the Beseler,

and uniroller drum, I'm outta the dark, got better temp control,

and loving it. Got the motor and drums for $65.