martial_baribault1

<p>You want a well known shop because you don't want to ask yourself if something went wrong in the processing. There are enough variables and you want to eliminate as many as possible. Small shops oftenly have variable quality depending on the highs or low of the season.Pro shop on the other hand generally track their results as they know there is no economy in streching out an out of control process.</p>

<p>As most others suggested, try one roll, But Most importantly if you have put them back in the fridge after shooting , they should hold up quite well. Speed shall be accurate too.</p>

<p>Presoak was really to prepare old emulsion to developpment as many of them could not even take water you could litterally roll a drop of water on it without really wetting it.It was set to prevent air bubbles from forming on film wich would end with an undevelopped spot. Following manufacturer recommendations is always the best policy for optimum results.Films have evolved and so is processing them and if manufacturer has new processing recommendations, you should follow them as, in the end, they want optimum results to be attained with their products and as easy as possible. I don't think anybody would use ASA3200 at ASA64 just because 50 years ago it was almost the only film speed available.<br>

I won't pass under silence that repeatability is achieved by standardized procedures wich includes time/temperature/agitation. differences between a film developped in winter darkroom and summer ones can be quite high resulting in dramatic shifts in speed & contrast.A good agitation comes regularly at least every 30 seconds (15 is better)and shall include reversing the tank if possible. if you use a rod and lift ,rotate the rod while lifting. It should be smooth yet happily disturb chemistry and prevent flow pattern wich is the reason why reverse agitation is so good . violent constant agitation never helped much except in the heydey of rushing in the press room to get that photo on the deadline, it wasn't pretty but it was there, It never won yearly contest but it won the day.I personally never really liked those but all the Paper peoples were happy.I still remember printing wet negatives half fixed(just cleared ) to meet that deadline.Longer fixing & washing were for ...after the latter had been achieved.</p>

<p>Speedo Black is My stuff between the 3 because of high reliability(it can fall one story high and still works) and ease of getting stuff everywere .Accessories are not as wide and fancy as profoto.not nearly as expensive either. I had Balcar heads converted to Speedotron Blackline to complement the extra fancy accessories wich Balcar has an even wider line than profoto and again not as expensive as the latter.I originally did that with a Profoto head too but as mentioned earlier, their accessories have sometimes demential prices. </p>

<p>I worked with Hensel integra monos and they're great lights very reliable. I did replace them eventually as an assistant accidentally broke a flashtube and I had a problem in getting one at the time ( store screw-up and so on) When it finally came in (over a year later), the lights were on the shelf and we just never came to use them again.</p>

<p>Like oftenly happens to everything else you get what you pay for and most of the time on the low end it is just too much trade-off .One of the most common problems with these are the fact that they can pop without being fully recycled(some models as low as 60%) giving problems with color shift underexposure and so on. Personally I like less equipment but better one (US made preferrably) good used rig is better than cheap China stuff and if it needs service, you likely won't hear it doesn't worth it or we don't touch that or buy new one it will be cheaper.<br>

Martial</p>

<p>Hello,<br>

I did work with these but on full power (3000WS) and fast shooting they become unreliable (do not always pop) so the solution(if you can) is to close modeling light during shoot once setup is done.<br>

Martial</p>

<p>As mentioned by gentleman in first response, these are 2 different different systems 450 volts versus 900 volts and conversion for these are just plain hazardous as the LH500 heads have wiring for the 450 volts trigger transformers and capacitor too making everything unrealistic. Lh2400 is the right head and direct equivalent (for those who like plastic heads) but my favorite is the LH2000 (Aluminium) . There can't be an adaptor as these are 2 different systems and LH500 head is low voltage wich make it unsafe to use it in high voltage system.<br>

Martial</p>

Like the others B&H has great Service & Price & STOCK. Calumet is Great too but bigger numbers on sticker. Adorama has none of the qualities aforementioned and sometimes includes omission

There shouldn't be difference in processing Color film in a tank as opposed to rotary processor. because colors are much more dependant on time & temperature than agitation... as long as there is enough of the latter. The process is strict and derogations only influence color crossovers speed and contrast ,in short perfect for those who likes surprises,special effects and unpredictable results

Prolab keep a better tracking of their chemicals trough process control monitoring & CORRECTION if needed because they fully understand the problems it bring in actual production (printing) . It is almost impossible to spot a negative developped in out of control process unless it is REALLY BAD but color rendition fidelity and contrast can be effected in a moderatly out of control process resulting in harder to print negative not able to easily achieve optimum results. I oftenly met street technicians in shows and stories I heard were not really shining, coupling that with owners who want to spend as little as possible , skimping on more expensive cure such as dumping for a irrecuperably out of control process.Chemistry get old even when not processed ( infact more insiduously) and slow season bring problems to every lab.The way they deal with it makes them better or worse and it is generally impossible to know .

The best I can say about choosing a street lab is to go to the busiest one you can find , chemistry are easy to keep in a good volume processing lab ,also a clean place is great too , it would be an indicator about maintenance habits.

They're right on reforming, 1/2 - 1 hour plugged into AC w/o popping them than a fews pops and you're in businees .Also as mentioned,Capacitors in Honeywell very rarely fails.I would'n be worried about safety either except if power cords/plug are in bad condition. These were very well made with quality components.Even the plastic body is very tough after all those years still hard to break, unlike China C stuff wich grow old before you know it (If it still works) and become very brittle.I don't remember much about accessories except for lenses diffusers and color filters who were snapping in front of them. AS for showing on Ebay, you do see them once in a while but oftenly shipping prices from sellers are high making them unattractively priced if you do the total.

Replenishment has been designed for volume operations (commercial labs)developping every day (or so) .A good replenishment requires tracking(densitotometry) to measure your solution activity. Used solution go bad much quicker not to mention contamination. Solutions that are not up to par will lead to hard to print negatives (if apparently they seem to look good).We had a commercial lab and when B&W production lowered to 10 films a week, we opt out of replenishment ,it didn't worth time/money to keep doing it.That actually could have been done earlier.

Yes,

putting your flash further from the lens will litterally eliminate it

Shutter Speed of camera is too fast to Synchronize with your flash.If you don't have camera specs/manual, make exposure at 1/60. 1/125, 1/250 Very old camera were synching at 1/30, then 1/60 then some at 1/125 .results will show you The HIGHEST Speed your particular camera does .When you'll see the black bar , you'll know the highest is the one with full frame before that one.

Yes to lighting the backdrop,it will solve the problem. Since it is in the background, light is less intense hence colour cast.

Well I would say that one head is the problem, sure to have unveven lighting.

PC cord is cable to link your camera to flash packs/or monolight(s). You would likely need to know if the latter are low voltage synch (so it won't burn your camera contacts/electronics, 1/4 phone or H type plug. I don't really know a 30D so not sure if you can plug a synch cable on it .You would likely need a Slave (optical/cheapest) to have it synch by your on camera flash.

You have to look for Bowens type .

Then you pop a flash and it will give you a reading

When you search look for PC synch Cord, I tried a while ago to find the connectors only and never could. It is all vinyl injected/molded stuff for the likely reason it would be too bulky if done with solder connector.You can have them custom Made By Paramount cable in New York, best Synch cord there is.I do have many synch cords and might have what you need

Well this is pretty wide, 2400WS seems to be the strict minimum to work by . 4X5 is inherently light consuming (generally have a Minimum of F16 to start with (That is without using ANY Movements )) F 32 and f 45 is more like it .If you're lucky there might be 10 WS remaining from your 400Ws This is logarithmic hence for each stop difference = 400-200-100-50-25-12.Welcome to 4 X 5 Photography when big is not very big.

I was thinking much what Steve was thinking,pretty wide question and was wondering about lenses too, I was thinking about Cheap zoom who barely improve when you are closing them , also maybe flare coming from lightning

I don't remember precisely and I don't have one close by but you should refer on the chart silkcreened in red on the pack showing you the different combination that can be achived and wich channel goes the lowest.As for the 400 WS setting Outlet not firing it is probably slight oxydation of the socket pins that could likely be cleared with contact cleaner bought from Radio Shack style stores, spraying them on the front and plugging unplugging the heads several times.Most using these 2400WS packs hardly ever used these outlets

There is rarely a subtantial problem even with non-corrected flashtube,as mentioned earlier problems can crop up from accessories such as softboxes and/or shoot trough umbrellas that have somewhat yellowed