mike_king3

<p>HC-110 at certain dilutions is similar to D-19. For this application I used to use TXP 120 and HC-110 until the Great Yellow Father shot itself in the foot (again) and discontinued yet another of my stable of workhorse films and paper. Tri-X 35mm and HC-110 will get you close if you shot in contrasty light. </p>

<p>Today your options are Hewes or Kindermann for good reels. The Kindermann's have a little "crank" on the reel for use with their loader (can you say Dremel?). Both are easy to load, my preferred setup is Hewes reels and Kindermann tanks. The Kindermann tanks are much thicker Stainless Steel than most others and are the only ss tanks that stand up to C-41 bleach (used to run a mini-sinkline at work with Unicolor C-41 in 1 liter tanks, the Omega and other Brand-X junk OK for everything but the bleach). And the Kindermann PVC tops fit tight and don't leak. Hewes has been imported over the years by different wholesalers: the Omega King Concept reels, the earlier Tundra reels, Calumet(?), etc. You can recognize them by the double hooks on the core. I have an LPL reel with both a double hook and a single hook that was my favorite reel until I found the real reel deal. The LPL was Japanese, well made, lighter gauge wire but the sides were parallel. Any Nikor reels you find will be 25-30 years old and probably have made many trips to the darkroom floor by now.</p>

<p>My normal practice is to rate Tri-X at EI200. TMAX100 @ EI100. Test test test. Developers? HC110 good, TMAX Developer better for TMAX, don't bother with TMAX RS unless you shoot a lot of film or want to process sheet film.</p>

I have seen this on old HP-4 120 as well. Have even seen the ink on the paper backing transfer to the emulsion. Have not seen this on other film but it may not be specific to Ilford film but only the storage conditions of that bunch of rolls.

So true, but I could never get the type 55 to fit in my Nikon. Should have bought the Forscher back.

Depending on the developer you are using it could be a deposit of colloidal silver (BW) or chemical tars from color mixes. Try the fizzing denture cleaning tablets for black and white or Lysol toilet bowl cleaner for color tars.

 

I would avoid bleach, it can react with certain plastics, or if your must try household bleach test on one reel first. Do not try any DIY homebrews, especially do not mix toilet bowl cleaner (acid) with bleach. Chlorine gas will kill you.

 

The old tray cleaners work, too (sort of), pulled from the market, MSDS says dichromate is a carcinogen. The formulas are in formula books. I have found that most bleach treatments (chlorine or dichromate) only turn the stains white, as soon as you put developer back on the tray or reel the developer redevelops the stain.

Hewes reels, Kindermann tanks. Great reels and the Kindermann tanks are exceptionally heavy duty, and the Kindermann PVC lid DOES...NOT...LEAK...EVER! [Note: I originally used three exclamation points, at the end of this sentence, for emphasis but the idiot posting wizard told me I could only use one exclamation point. I can't program so why do programmers assume they can write? I'm the one with the Journalism degree.] The cheap knock off plastic lids will sometimes even blow off from gas pressure generated by acid stop baths reacting with more alkaline developers. One face-full of stop bath was enough to last a lifetime, I brought my own tanks and reels to work at the shop where I was at that time, shortly after, a couple of the other techs also bought some Hewes/Kindermann kit to use since the boss was a little tight. ...PARAGRAPH...

 

To the poster that thinks Hewes may be a knock off of Nikor reels I'm not sure. I suspect that Hewes has been around a long time but not USA imported under it's own name until maybe the 70's. My first contact with Hewes reels came via the King Concept Imagemaker; at that time the King Concept was sold by Omega/Arkay (not the same as the later Sauder Omega). There was also a line of Omega branded lightweight reels which our King Concept tech rep specifically recommended AGAINST. It's more likely that the Nikor you love and the Hewes products both evolved from earlier stainless steel reels. Hewes also produced a metal reel with a Jobo plastic core, which worked in the Photo-therm processors. And someone mentioned Bower which, like Vivitar, is not so much a manufacturer as an importer. ...PARAGRAPH...

 

Cheap stainless steel reels are made of thinner gauge metal, often also a "softer" more malleable grade of steel with inferior welds. Drop a cheap metal reel--it bends or breaks, drop a good reel and it bounces and does not distort. Plastic is OK, I use it on my Uniroller (different system of plastic reels but intent is similar to the Patterson type). Also ideal for the student, I have taught my darkroom methods to my son and a few other novices and have always started with a Patterson tank. The downsides to the Patterson system is it uses 20 per cent more volume per roll, reels cannot be loaded when wet (or reloaded if you intend to develop more than one batch of film) and the tank "glugs" when you invert to agitate, my biggest woe with Patterson is airbells on every roll and inconsistent density. If you do not invert to agitate your development is uneven, and if you really pump those tanks to eliminate airbells you get a different pattern of unevenness. (The Unicolor system is constant agitation and horizontal so it's both consistent and thrifty.) ...PARAGRAPH...

[And I apologize for the run on nature of this post, the posting wizard does not recognize paragraphs either.]

<p>Someone should add, if the disposable camera has an electronic flash you should use more care in taking the thing apart, they bite! The cameras are not made for mere mortals to disassemble and the capacitor for the flash can give you a jolt. </p>

Bleach down the drain after acid stop and fixer is a BAD idea, liberates chlorine gas. My darkroom door and wall have vents to prevent build up of anything toxic in the air, I do my sulfide toning in a drum on a motor base in my laundry room, selenium toning in a tray in the darkroom (liberates small amounts of ammonia, a lung irritant at these dilutions but not toxic) with the darkroom door open and the fan on.

There is a outfit on eBay that sells foam kits to replace light seal and mirror damper foam and a link to a website with how to tutorials that are camera specific on how to fix this so don't throw out your camera.

My film stop bath is either very dilute acetic acid or white vinegar, one shot since I use only half as much acid as Kodak recommends in SB-1, but then I don't worry about developer carryover since I one shot it. My standard film fixer is Kodafix, I use a rotary processor so I do not need a lot of fixer and again use it one shot but with one exception, if I am going to make contact sheets during the same session I save my film dilution Kodafix and add the same volume of water to make a paper strength paper developer for that session. NOT for final prints and NOT for fiber base but OK for RC contact sheets.

Not sure the ratio plugs are economical to repair best to contact Photogenic first, may be cheaper to replace.

http://www.craigcamera.com/ has many manuals for sale. Also found a link to the Durst online shop http://durst.holzweg.com/index.php?id=49&portal=1&language=2&portal=1#

 

they have the manual for the colorneg II for 50 Euros.

I've seen basically three answers:

1. Use Flash

2. Use tungsten film

3. Digitally post process with Photoshop or Elements

 

My answer? Use all three!

 

Shoot tungsten film, use electronic flash (with a light blancing gel--I use the samples in the Rosco books) for fill and then color correct in Photoshop (or the darkroom) to get the balance right on.

Right, extending bleach and fix times doesn't hurt anything, the only two time and temperature critical processes in E-6 processing are the First and Color Developers, in C-41 the Developer is again the only time and temp critical step.

Afraid you have to take responsibilty for this one. The only time I'll put a roll back in a camera is if it's a roll I'll be processing myself. I think it's nice they gave you a roll of film. Film is cheap, cameras are cheap, (I have spare bodies, so that I don't have to change film types mid-roll) the only expensive commodity in photography is time.

120 and 620 spools are slightly different, but the film is the same width, you could have a camera made for the American market that uses 620, Kodak introduced 620 film and cameras to keep people buying their film rather than "brand X". If a 120 film spool is way short then your camera uses another size like 116/616 (same concept by Kodak). The distance between flanges on 120/620 is about 2.25 inches/60mm, 616/116 is 3.5 inches/90mm and 127 is 1 5/8 inches /40mm ( dimensions approximate and done from memory!).

The last time I bought plugs like this I got them at my local electronics parts store (a real electronics parts store--the kind that caters to pros, repair men and Ham radio operators, not a Radio Shack). The Studiomaster uses a standard octal plug like a radio tube and the Flashmaster uses a plug like that used on a relay. (Do I have to suggest you take the plug with you? Some of the counter guys are under 60!)

 

When the octal plug was discontinued I cleaned out my local source and later learned that places that sell on the internet to the guys that restore old radios still carry them. I have even bought the old "electric eye", glass tube slaves for the ancient Studiomaster I's. (In the past I've built adapters to use standard H-type plugs and even H-type slaves to fit these units. The job is semi-trivial as long as you observe polarity when making up the units.)

 

Photogenic is still in business and might have a cord, too

 

You might also check with Paramount--they make cords for everything--and tell them what you need. If it's not in stock they can make it for you and their stuff is darn good.