pemongillo

I'm zeroing in on my second 4x5. One that interests me greatly is the new Phillips. I'm having a little difficulty deciding which back to get if I decide on the Phillips. If I get the sring back it is a half pound lighter, but it can't be fit with a fresnel. It can be fit with a boscreen. Dick Phillips did a little testing for me and basically the fresnel was equal to the boscreen at the center, but one to two f stops brighter at the edges. The boscreen was about one half f stop brighter then the plain ground glass. Based on this I'm leaning towards the extra half pound and getting the international back. However, I have zero experience with the spring back. It looks like it would be way easier to install and remove film holders than the international. Any comments on advantages of a spring back over the other or anything else I rambled on about here? Thanks.

Hi Bruce,

 

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I think you will have a difficult time finding too many comments on

the Phillips 4x5. It is just too new. I am also interested in this

camera. I have had two very informative talks with Dick Phillips

about the camera and its options. He has even done a little testing

for me concerning ground glass options. The bottom line is that you

can buy the camera and, if you don't like it and return it within

either ten of fifteen days, you can get your money back. You will have

to pay shipping and insurance.

 

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I have ruled out several cameras including the Canham (I think) and am

down to the Phillips 4x5 and the Arca-Swiss F line Field camera. I

have only been into large format for about a year now and this will be

my second camera. I have learned that you need to have them in your

had to see if they are right for you.

 

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Good luck.

I live in relatively humid western Washington, but I love to take black and white photographs in the dry country of eastern Washington and Oregon. Both of the trips I took east for photography this year ended with lots of dust spots on my negatives. I have read the posts on how to prevent this and am very careful to keep my film holders, changing bag, etc dust free. I don't have any problem here in western Wahington. My question doesn't concern how to prevent the dust. I would like to know if anyone has come up with anything better than lightly scraping your prints to eliminate the black spots caused by dust spots on your negative. Scraping is pretty tricky. I would appreciated any insight anyone may have in dealing with this problem. I am especially interested in any methods that would involve touching up the negative. Thanks

Thanks Matt. Actually I did use a constant shutter speed for testing. What I meant was that I changed the shutter speed for the second set of normal film developing tests I did. I varied the aperture for achieving the desired zones in each case. I wanted to see if a different shutter speed would act differently. Also the densities I presented are minus film base plus fog. I was more succesful for my normal develpment test for T-max last night. Maybe my film speed for tri-x is wrong. I'll try again. Thanks.

I recently established a film speed of 320 for Tri-x. I have been attempting normal development tests. According to Ansel you should expose several sheets of film at zone V and zone VIII. Continue upping your develpment from manufactures recommendations until zone V has a net density of .60 to .75 and zone VIII has a net density of 1.15 to 1.35. I realize I have incorporated the density recommendations for both diffusion and condenser enlargers. Unfortunately things seem to have gone a little haywire for me. At five miutes in T-max RS at 68 F in got net densities of .7 and 1.08 and at 6 minutes .75 and 1.13. The Zone V part seemed ok, but I seem to be in zone VII rather than VIII at the upper end. I assumed upping the develpment time was not an option because zone V would then be too high.I thought perhaps I had exposed things wrong so I did a couple over and zone VIII was even lower. I used a dark slide cut in half so I could get both zones on one sheet. I used different shutter speeds for the different exposure sessions. Any ideas before I start again ?

I recently purchased a Cokin filter system for B+W 4X5 photography. I got the 001 yellow, 002 orange, 003 red, 004 green and 160 polarizing filters. Simple enough. However, things seem to always be more complicated. No literature came with them. Therefore no info was provided on how to contact Cokin with questions. I don't even know what country they are located in. I tried and e-mail search and the 1-800 operator, but to no avail. Does anyone know how to get ahold of Cokin or would any of you like to try to address my questions ?

 

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1. Cokin provided no filter factor for the polarizer. I put it on my spot meter and found a 2 f stop decrease. This matches some literature, but others say a bit more. OK on this one I guess other than Cokin gave no indication of what it should be.

 

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2. The yellow filter factor provided on its plastic container is 1\3 f stop. I cannot find any standard yellow filter that matches this. I put it on my spot meter and found it reduced exposure by 2/3 f stop which is standard for a number 6 yellow filter . Anybody know whats going on here ?

 

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3. Cokin indicates on the orange filter container that the f stop adjustment is 1. This does not match any in the literature I have. I put it on my spot meter and found nearly a 2 1/3 f stop difference which matches a number 21 orange. Any ideas ?

 

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4. OK on the green and red. Cokins f stop recommendations match my meter and the literature.

 

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5. While trying to figure all of this out, I noticed that the recommended filter factor adjustments are different for some filters for Tri-x and T- max. I'm totally confused now.

I'm not sure what a Jobo Expert Drum is, but I believe I have the same tank you are thinking about buying. I do 4x5 film in it. You don't have to use inversion. Jobo sells a hand roller that you can rest your tank on. You then rotate it manually. I have develpoed about 50 sheets so far. I got a little steaking at first, but soon figured out I needed to rotate more smoothly and the streaks went away. I believe I paid $26.00 for the hand roller. Check out Jobo's webpage for more info.

Thank you all for taking the time to help me out. I began testing last weekend and have sent my first batch of negatives out for density readings. Wish me luck.

After receiving several mostly polite tongue lashings last month regarding my lack of interest in doing my own film and develper testing, my left brain has kicked back in and I have decided to bite the bullet. I am planning on testing tri-x and t-max 100 with t-max rs developer. I may also do HC-110. HC-110 is regularly diluted, but I have yet to stumble across anyone who has diluted t-max rs developer. I can figure this out on my own, but don't really want to put the time in if some of you have found that diluting t-max rs doesn't work. Have any of you done this exercise and if so, any advise on starting dilutions and times? For a first shot I thought I would just go one to one on the stock solution and double develping time.

 

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PS Does this thing have a spell checker somewhere ?

I first read about the Zone System about 30 years ago, but never fully got into it because of marriage, children, etc., etc.. Well I'm back with the same enthuziasm I had 30 years ago. I've got a new 4x5 camera and a couple of lenses and I am ready to go. I picked up a used copy of The Negative and read it from cover to cover. I UNDERSTAND the Zone System. What I don't understand is the negative developement times associated with N-1, N+1, N+2 etc. Ansel's left brain really kicks in sometimes and I felt like I was back in my college physics and chemistry classes. Thats OK, but way more information than I need. Ansel wants you to do all the testing on this matter yourself. I don't want to. I find the specs. from film mnaufacturers a bit confusing and also an unwillingness to commit to any of this by Kodak when I e-mailed them. They suggested I read The Negative. What part of the film specs should I be looking at, the contrast adjusting part, or the push processing part ? The push processing part would seem appropriate for N+1 and N+2, but wouldn't be much help for N-1 or 2. My best guess for most films is 1.5 times nomal dev for N+1 and 2 times for N+2. I'm not sure on N-1. Can anyone get me going in the right direction on this ? Thanks

I am new to large format and have been struggling a bit with what brand of lens to buy. My first purchase was a 150 mm f5.6 Fuji W with a seiko shutter. It seems fine. Any comments ? My main question has to do with the portion of this large format website titled Test Results for CLassic and Modern Lenses. I am shopping for a 90 mm and do not have a clue what the numbers in the middle column of that table mean. Can anyone explain them to me ? Thanks