clint_harshaw

The advertising is not a problem for me -- it's how the ads are interfering with the usability of the site. The peel-down ad is annoying, and slows things down. I hope a more usable implementation of advertising gets considered.

I got back two rolls of Kodak 400NC film that appear excessively grainy, and I'd

like some help troubleshooting. My film has been in a freezer, but is actually

out of date. The light outside was very bright, but this photo was on a covered

porch. Other photos indoors with a flash were similarly grainy. I took another

roll in a different camera body, and had similar results. The processor was a

local pharmacy, that I've had good luck with in the past.

 

Should I have set the ISO to something lower than the rated 400 speed?

 

Should I have just thrown out all that film since it is beyond its "best used

by" date?

 

Below is a crop of the image that shows what I'm talking about.

 

Thanks in advance,

Clint<div></div>

I had a bad experience with the local Fuji processor and printer that

I'd like some advice as to the cause. I sent two rolls in for

processing, printing, and scanning to CD. There are obvious horizontal

bands particularly in the lighter areas of each print. I can rule out

both a film problem and a camera problem: I used two different cameras

over the day and Fuji and Kodak films.

<p>

I've examined the negatives as closely as I can under bright light and

I don't see any banding on them. The accompanying CD's however,

clearly show the banding.

<p>

Here are two web-sized "preview" scans, along with crops of the full

resolution jpg images:

<p>

preview: <a

href="http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scan1.jpg">http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scan1.jpg</a>

<p>

crop: <a

href="http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scancrop1.jpg">http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scancrop1.jpg</a>

<p>

preview: <a

href="http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scan2.jpg">http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scan2.jpg</a>

<p>

crop: <a

href="http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scancrop2.jpg">http://penguinsolutions.org/images/scancrop2.jpg</a>

<p>

Can anyone tell me what the cause of the banding is?

I ran into a problem with my Elan 7, 28mm EOS lens, and 420EX flash,

whereby the shutter would snap, but the film would not advance, and

the low battery symbol would flash, even with fresh batteries. I tried

different batteries, and the symptoms persisted, but when I tried a

different lens, the problem disappeared.

 

As it turns out I did not have the 420EX flash unit firmly and

squarely in place. Once I removed and re-inserted the flash, the

problem went away.

 

It's still odd that the symptoms only showed up with the 28mm EOS

lens, but at any rate, I wanted to share that solution with other

users: Make sure your flash is firmly in the shoe and locked tightly

in place!

 

Clint

Thanks to everyone for the help with the winding procedure. It's quite easy, it turns out! My first shots of our new baby taken with the Yashica are at:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=140191

 

I still have some difficulty orienting the horizon properly with the viewfinder, but I hope that will eventually become instinctual. All in all, it's a fun camera!

 

Clint

I have just purchased a nice Yashica Mat 124g. I've got the film

loaded properly, winding until the arrows line up, closed the door,

and wound until I see the "1."

 

The instruction manual is a little unclear about what to do next. Do

I wind one turn counter-clockwise to cock the shutter now?

 

Next let's say I take the picture. Do I understand the manual

correctly that I should wind one turn clockwise to advance the film,

followed by one counter-clockwise turn to cock the shutter?

 

Clint