michael_radika

Yes he takes fabulous pictures the lenses are very very sharp there's a lot of good things about the bronica gs-1 to me to one of its biggest downfalls are dark focusing screens there are notoriously darker than most other manufacturers. Yeah I'm in it for about $1,000 which is not bad I've got free lenses the camera body the S 18 extension tube the speed grip. Yes trying to find Split Image focusing screen for this camera and diopters are needle in the haystack they just don't come up once in a blue moon. You throw the waist level finder on it with a diopter you're going to get a couple stops more of light without the AE prism finder on it but you're screwed when you go to flip the camera in the portrait mode. I can get a screen from Bill Maxwell of Maxwell Optics with Split Image role of third lines gridlines in it about two stops three stops brighter than the AE prism finder which would probably solve my focusing problems it's $385 then I still have to find an L bracket to build a flip my camera on its side into portrait mode where the RZ you just turn the back so there's pluses and minuses for both cameras the RZ just seems more convenient easier to use. To me $385 for a Maxwell focusing screen is a little steep I would love to try it because I spoke with him personally on the phone he's a very nice guy and he claims I'm going to get three four times the brightness of the stock bronica screen andand he can make it the way I want it with a split image in the center whatever I want so that's an option but that's a $400 option. I am struggling with getting rid of it I mean I love looking through that Mamiya RZ Pro II it was fantastic soon as I looked at waist level finder it was just like wow the answer to all of my problems but do love my bronica gs-1 even with its shortcomings that the lenses are in my opinion really really sharp the photos I've taken and looked at our excellent very good contrast very good sharpness what do you do. Lenses are readily available for the gs-1 AE prism finders readily available bodies for the gs-1 readily available everything you can get for this camera the only thing that's extremely hard to find are diopters for the camera and focusing screens they made about 4 or 5 focusing screens finding one other than the stock one that came with them is really hard to find other than that everything else is readily available on eBay.

Yeah unfortunately I bought all of my bronica stuff and now I got to try to get rid of it which is probably not going to be easy I didn't even really consider this Mamiya RZ Pro 2 in the beginning. I think after looking at that camera and holding it and looking through the screen the back rotate it just does so many more things it's just a no-brainer I wish I would have been on it from the beginning.

Okay I basically got the glasses made the prescription it definitely helps but it's not enough it's just not enough the bronica screen is very dark compared to other screens. Was that my local camera store the other day looking around purchasing some film and they have a Mamiya RZ Pro II in the glass case for sale if I could take a look at it. Wow wow wow what a camera so I flip up the waist level finder and I look through it through the little magnifying diopter and start looking around at people in the store through it and I was like a stone honest it's got to be three stops brighter than my screen and with the little magnifying diopter I could pinpoint nail focus on anything with that thing it have a Split Image in the center with the rule of third lines running vertical and horizontal unbelievable. The back rotate to portrait mode or landscape mode which my camera does not do it's a hassle to have to flip the camera on its side my camera you cannot put a waist level finder on it you can they sell one but the problem is when you go to flip it into portrait mode how do you look through a waist level finder when its flipped off to the side you can't do. After looking at this and doing some studying and reading you're all going to think I'm crazy my bronica system is for sale I I love the Mamiya RZ Pro 2 fabulous I love that you don't have to flip the camera you can just turn the back and that waist level finder with the magnifier and screen unbelievable solves all my problems. My bronica with the three lenses the extension tube everything is for sale on eBay if anybody's interested I want to get rid of it not that I don't like it I love the images it produces it produces beautiful images and it a lot of things I love about it but the focusing issue and have to flip the camera on the side it's a deal-breaker for me.

Well I took my negatives to somebody else and they looked at it and they didn't know what it was but it's not showing up on a scanner so I guess I don't need to worry about it. Last night I developed another roll I kept all my chemicals very very close and temperature turned out fine and I don't see any of the same cracks or nothing. I guess when you load with the plastic reels they have little ball bearings on each edge of the real those do scratch the very outside edge of the film where there's basically no image does that little strip those ball bearings do leave scratches on that but it doesn't affect the image so I guess everything's good.

Just an update I'm having my prescription glasses made for everything to be sharp at one meter. Went to my local camera store today they had a used Mamiya RZ Pro 2 with a waist level finder on it I took a look through that and it was incredible I could focus on everything no problem pin-sharp much brighter than my screen it was very interesting.

So I took the negatives into my local camera shop and spoke with the guy that does the scanning he actually scaned them all into the computer for free and we examined the negatives and the cracks that I'm seeing under the Loupe are not showing up in a scan. There are lots of water spots he said and he does see the small cracks under the Loupe he's not sure what it is but it's definitely not from a wide range of temperature difference between chemicals and none of it shows up on a scan so I have nothing to actually show you from the scan negatives because there's nothing to see so I don't know I'm just going to be more careful about my chemical temperatures and washing them and quickly putting them inside of sleeves after they've dried and go from there. My personal opinion is that it's something from adding the alcohol to the final rinse I will no longer be doing that. The cracks are kind of left it as a mystery I don't know what they are but I thank everybody for their input and their help.

I stand corrected it's actually a 10x loupe we'll find out because I'm on my way to get my negatives scan right now will find out what's going on.

My point of going forward was to have the negatives scanned next so I will get them scanned and then I will post what they look like but from the what I've read Googled and the photo that somebody is putting this thread my negatives do not look like the photo that has been posted they don't look anything like that. All the research I've done on this temperature difference between the chemicals what it does to the film does not look like what's happening on my negatives.

I'm not seeing film grain of a 12 x Loop it would pretty hard to take a picture of the cracks with a cell phone. I just shot another roll of pan F and I'm going to develop it tomorrow night I'm going to make sure all of my chemicals are the exact same temperature I'm going to carefully put it on the real and see the results. I'm going to Google the the word for the cracked negatives and see if there's any photos that I can look at to see and compare to mine it would be difficult for me to take pictures and for you to be able to see it with just a phone.

I do use distilled water for the final wash and I added alcohol because I read somewhere about somebody else putting like a cap or two of alcohol in their distilled water and having no spots on their negative so that's. I'm wondering if I cracked it putting it on the real in the first place maybe I can't get up too much when I tried to bend it to get it to stay between the two sides of the real maybe that's what cracked it. I can assure you there was not a lot of difference between the temperature in my chemicals it's not like one was in the refrigerator one was in the microwave I mean a degree or two difference is not going to crack your film. I'm beginning to think it's when I put it on the real cuz I've been having trouble putting loading my film on the real maybe I cracked it on there I'm not sure.

I don't know what to believe. We'll experiment with different times and keep all my chemicals the same temperature see what happens.

I rinse mine with 16 oz of distilled water with two caps of alcohol mixed in not a water spot on them.

Well it's a lot simpler when you're not trying to have the optician make a diopter it's 3/4 of an inch by 3/4 of an inch it's much easier just have a pair of glasses made.

Yeah I'm going to try some normal development times and control my temperatures better and and see the results. Other than the cracks the negatives actually looked very very nice.

Anybody else with any ideas I don't believe temperature difference cracked my negatives the temperatures were too close together if there's a big difference maybe they were just too close together the crack there's got to be another reason?

Well I developed in Rodinal doing a stand development I think my temperatures were fairly close but I didn't really measure the temperature of the developer all the videos I've watched is it really doesn't matter that much when you're doing a stand development. I did make sure that my fixer was at about 69 degrees but I didn't check my final wash temperature.

So I just started doing my own developing I've developed three roles of ilford pan F in Rodinal doing a 60-minute stand-alone development. I thought the negatives came out fantastic but when I take my Loupe and look at my negatives closely they look like they're cracked like there's little hairline cracks all over the place anybody have any idea what's causing this??

Okay I found an optometrist that will do it you you guys have given me a lot of good ideas. The idea of having some glasses made eyeglasses that I can wear that are good for a little bit beyond one meter sounds good but it sounds like it's going to be expensive I'm going to have to buy frames lenses the whole thing. I'm thinking why don't they take the diopter out of my camera go to the optometrist have her put lenses in front of where the diopter goes until I can focus perfectly then I'll just have her make me that diopter what do you guys think?

Here's something that I found that I don't like about the plastic reels in the plastic tank. The plastic wheels are much larger than the stainless steel reels it takes 590 ccs to develop one roll of 120 in the plastic tank with the plastic real it only takes 300 cc's in the stainless steel single tank with a stainless real that's a lot of difference in chemicals alone. I'm returning the plastic tank and I'm going to learn how to load the stainless and just not use the clip.

I bought myself a accurate digital thermometer that works very well. I also have a 500ml beaker and a 50 ml beaker so I think it will should work fine. My First Development last night was a stand development and the negatives came out pretty good.

Well guys I developed my first roll I did a stand development actually actually came out pretty good. I did have trouble loading the plastic real in the dark in the light it seems so simple to do it but in the dark I struggled with it but I got it within 5 minutes but it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be I I thi II think the stainless steel reell without using the clip might be easier next development I'm trying that.

One last question if I turn one of my reels to 120 film the other one will only go to 35 why do I need to put both reels in there can I just put the 120 film reel on the bottom and there's like a long thing that goes down into the tank so the real if I put one real it cannot move up and down in the tank it always sits on the bottom.

Thank you very much for the instructions yes I'm going to do a stand development with 30 seconds of vegetation in the beginning and 30 seconds of agitation at the 30-minute mark I'm going to go 60 minutes total. But I will put both reels in and I will fill it up with water to see how much I need thank you

That was a very good explanation you're you're right bronica does make a Split Image Focus screen it's like winning the lottery to find it you can't find it I've searched high and low and cannot find one. I can have one made from Maxwell optics for $350 which would probably solve my problem but that's surely pricey. I like the idea of getting a pair of glasses made that focus on 1 to 1.5 M and use those for my photography that's a very good idea I'm going to look into that.

I'm sure somebody mention this in the thread but I read something on audoRama when I was looking for some diopters that you should go to your optometrist with your prescription and he can give you your diopter strength at 1 meter. I guess he could just give you a test or something at one meter to reading stuff and give you the correct diopter that you would need to stick in your camera I'm going tomorrow to some optometrist to try this.