nathancraver

When I was in the Navy, I had to perform a few emergency reclaimations (EREC) where aircraft avionics components had been soaked in sea water, which is obviously much worse than river water. The first thing you do is immerse the component in deionized water and flush several times to get contaminants out. After the flushing with water, the next step is to soak the unit in 90% pure isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will help get any remaining water out. After about a few days of drying, we would reinstall the component and op check it. The alcohol shouldn't affect the seals or any glue in the camera, but you may want to ask a camera repair person or the manufacturer first.

I have only owned one of the higher end epson printers, and I sold it due to the fact that it didn't get used very much since I often needed prints larger than the printer was capable of, so the head did clog a few times. Since then, I have had all of my printing done locally. Just a thought though, wouldn't it help to keep the heads clean if you just made a small print, maybe a 4x5" that uses each of the inks once every few days? I would think that would keep fresh ink in the nozzles and not use very much ink at all, I would presume much less than a head cleaning session. I know that storage is a different story, but for periodic use, this might help.

That's a good idea using a laser. What would be really nice is to make a laser that mounts to the flash shoe and has a remote (wired) button that is pressed to turn the laser on and off. The button could be stuck to the front of the camera, or the top using a double sided adhesive. Maybe something like a tactical laser used on rifles, but with a hot shoe mount instead of a picatinny rail mount. Many of those come with a remote switch. I'm going to have to research this further. One thing that I do is to not directly focus with the image in the patch, but to use the top or bottom edge of the patch and align the image in the patch with what's above or below the patch. My new Zeiss Ikon's patch is so bright that sometimes it's hard to see the normal image, so this method helps a lot. It's pretty much the same method as using a split image screen on an SLR. Obviously this only really works with a camera that has a well defined patch, it won't work on a Canonet or Olympus.

My favorite combination is T-Max 400 shot at 200 and developed with HC-110 dilution H (1 part developer to 63 parts water). I get great tonality and its also great for handheld photography, especially if you shoot a camera that has a top shutter speed of 1/1000 (Leicas, Pentax medium format, Mamiya 645 etc.). I also like Tri-X 400 in HC-110 and in Rodinal. HC-110 is probably the most versatile developer out there and it lasts forever as a concentrate, which is great if you don't develop very often. D76 is great, but it will go bad over time unless you use it all up, though I have had bottles of stock solution last for about 6 months in a glass bottle with any air space filled with the gas from a duster can. Rodinal also lasts a very long time as a concentrate. The only thing about Rodinal is it isn't exactly suited for all films and can accentuate grain, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I do like Rodinal with FP4 and Tri-X, but have never been able to get good results with HP5.

I like Rodinal a lot with Tri-X 400 shot at 200, but when I shoot it at 400 or higher, I use HC-110, mainly because I haven't bothered to try Rodinal at higher ISOs yet. I also use Rodinal with FP4 for 4x5 sheet film (shot at 100). The last batch of sheets I developed, I mistakenly had some TMax 100 mixed in with the FP4 and they turned out great, though the TMax could have used another 30 to 45 seconds to boost contrast, but they print just fine. I tried semi-stand development (1 hour with two inversions at the half hour mark) with the FP4 once in Rodinal diluted to 1+100, but they ended up way overdeveloped. Good thing they were just BS test shots. Next time, I'll try stand development with HC-110.

I have a Hasselblad 2000FC/M and a few CF lenses which I took out today. I realized after about 8 shots on the first roll that I had the body set to Bulb instead of C while the lens was set to leaf shutter speeds. I tripped the mirror up-lock for most of the shots, then held the release down long enough to complete the exposures, all of which were 1/60 or faster. I have a few days before I can get back home and develop the film. I am wondering if the shots would have been wasted or not, since I will have the opportunity to go back and re-shoot for the next few days. Thank you, Nathan

I haven't shot TMAX 400 in 4x5, but I shoot quite a bit of it in 35mm and 120, as well as TMAX 100 in 4x5. I started off with D-76, then TMAX, and now use HC-110 for pretty much everything except Tri-X, which I use Rodinal. HC-110 has become my favorite developer for several reasons, one of which is the incredible shelf life. I always use dilution H (1+63) and have always loved the results. I also like the way TMAX 400 looks when shot at ASA 200, better shadow detail, slightly less grain.

This is definitely a light leak since the areas beyond the frame are exposed. If it's a light leak in the camera, it will likely either be at the very top or very bottom of the film door, probably from either bad seals or the door not being closed all the way. The only way I can think of checking for a light leak inside the camera would be to place a small battery powered light inside the camera, close it up, and take into a dark room and look all over the camera for light leaking out. The only thing is, since 120 film has a paper backing, it would be hard for there to be even streaks across the film. I don't have a Rollei, but my Yashica Mat is similar, and after looking at it, I'm not sure now. I could see this possibly happening with 220 where there is no paper backing, but with 120, this is odd. Is it possible the tank has a light leak?

I have a small, somewhat insignificant issue with my otherwise great F5 and I was wondering if this is common to the F5 or not. The issue is, sometimes when I rotate the command dials, for any adjustment they can be used for, both dials seem to quit working for a few clicks, then continue working. This happens when rotating in both directions. The dials feel fine, the clicks don't get quiet or feel different when this occurs. As an example, when I rotate through shutter speeds, it will change one step for each click, then get to one step, then I have to rotate the dial 2,3, sometimes 4 clicks to get to the next step. If I go backwards from there, it will usually go right through the steps and do the same thing at a totally different shutter speed. This happens with aperture, and when holding a button to make adjustments such as ISO. It happens when I rotate the dials fast or slowly. The issue does not seem to be isolated to a particular portion of the dials, so it may not be a dead zone on the dials. It also does not seem to be limited to certain settings such as always freezing at 1/500 shutter speed or anything like that. Anyone familiar with this issue and has anyone had the camera repaired for this?