justin_fullmer

Hi again I am not sure where to ask this, but I got such a favorable response with my Pentax question, I thought I would try here again.

In my quest to purchase a cheap mechanical 35mm camera; that would allow my 8 year old to try his hand at photography, without placing my Nikons in peril, I have come across an interesting line of Mamiya cameras. The Mamiya/Sekkor DTL with dual spot metering and average metering capabilities. I purchased one on E-Bay, the 500 DT. It hasn't come yet but we are both excited for it to get here. Does anyone have any experience with these cameras that would care to comment. I understand that they have a rubberized silk shutter. How do they hold up? And last but not least the dual metering system. Any comments good or bad.

Thanks!

Thanks Mike,

There seems to be several k-1000's on e-bay, compared to what I pay

for Nikon equiptment, these seem like a steal. How does the Pentax's

equivelant compare to a Nikon Fe-2 or F3?

I wasn't sure where to ask this so here goes. I have just started researching pentax 35mm format cameras and wondered what was the top of the line camera that pentax made during the late 70's and 80's. I am a die-hard Nikon guy, but I have a couple Pentax medium format cameras that are wonderful, and can't help but think that maybe some of thier 35mm stuff couldn't be too bad. I am looking at getting a cheap used one for my 8 year old. Just to get him started.

Don,

For normal contrast I rate Hp5+ at 360 develop in Xtol 50/50 with H20

at 20 degrees celsius 12.5 minutes. Excellent results for my

diffusion enlarger. If this is an important negative you may want to

shoot a couple more rolls of HP5+ and experiment with different

times, and your preferred developer.

Hi James,

I use my old line mens gloves. They are large and the rubber is very

thick (used to handle 72,000 volt lines). You might be able to get

an old pair from your local power company. They are required to test

and discard any gloves in question every three months.

I think you mean Selenium. This will work but it is permanent. You

might try using a higher contrast filter or split printing with two

different filters; each with a different exposure.

Hi, I am flying to Maui at the end of this month for two weeks of well deserved bliss. Of course I plan on taking tons of pictures but I am concerned with the secutity measures etc. on whether there are any restrictions on carry on bags with camera equiptment in them and then how to protect my film from x-rays etc. So far Delta has been little help and I was hoping that someone out there has traveled recently and could clear things up for me.

Thanks!

Ed,

I just developed a roll of the new delta 400 in Xtol. I exposed it

at ISo 360 and gave it 7.25 minutes in straight Xtol at 68 degrees.

The results were great. I generally like to dilute Xtol but this

last bit was the end of my batch and I wanted to experiment a

little. I have never had any of the trouble related to the dreaded

Xtol failure some others have experienced. I really love the stuff,

especially with tri-x and t-max 400. Could you let us know any times

and temperatures that you come up with for Xtol dilutions and the new

Deltal 400.

Hi,

This isn't really a technical question but I was wondering if anyone out there has discovered a good use for the plastic film cannisters that seem to accumulate so quickly. Also the nice aluminum cans that bulk film comes in. Any good ideas?

Thankyou!

Does anyone know of a simple formula to record the minimum ammount of light required to show density on Tri-x and T-max films? I am looking for something along the lines of 1/500 at f/3.5 ten feet from 60watt bulb or other similar, simple way of pre-exposing these films.

thanks!!

When you push a film you are increasing it's speed from the

manufacturer's rating and deliberately underexposing the film.

For example: 400 rated film pushed to 800 would underexpose the film

by one stop. You would use this method if you were shooting in low

light conditions and needed a shutter speed fast enough to allow you

to hand hold the camera. Pushing a film also increases its grain and

this can be used to create interesting visual effects as well. You

do have to make up for the gain in film speed by increasing the

development according to how much you push it. Pulling a films speed

is just the opposite of pushing. 400 rated film pulled to 200 is

overexposed by one stop and hence needs less development.

Hi everyone,

I read of an individual who bulk loads his 35mm film but only loads 6 frames a roll so that he can give the film N+ or N- development accordingly. This sounds like a great solution for the 35mm enthusiast who wants to use the zone system but not possibly ruin the rest of the roll because you are developing for one shot. The only thing is that you would have to carry around a lot of rolls of film. Anyone out there who is using this method with comments?

Thanks!

Sorry!! I meant Decktol and not D-76!

I had a test roll of Tri-x left over from doing film speed tests and I decided to run a little experiment on it. I have read in the past somewhere that someone had developed film in D-76 and had got some interesting results. What I did was mix 4 fluid ounces of X-tol with 4 ounces of d-76 and 8 ounces of H2O all at 70 degrees. I then developed the roll for 14.5 minutes. I used a small 1 reel Nikkor tank so obviousely I had about half of the developer mixture leftover to try out again later. Results where pretty cool. Plenty of contrast and nice grain, not fine grain by any means, almost like a blend of medium grain and coarse grain. Overall there is a little bit of an otherworldly, ghostlike feel to the prints; especially when blown up quite a bit. It will be fun trying to find some good subjects to try this technique on. Any ideas? I thought some natural still lifes, or portraits would be a good place to start.

Hi,

My wife, with good intention, bought me some of that kodak B&W film that you are supposed to have a color lab process with the rest of their one hour stuff. Does anyone know if you can develop this film in X-tol or D-76 yourself instead of having to take it to the lab?

Thanks!

I had a very difficult to print negative made on Ilford's new Delta 400. The negative was just too flat. I soaked the negative for 15 minutes in distilled water, then 15 minutes in rapid selenium 1:3 at 100 degrees, 5 minutes in fixer and 30 minute wash. The negative now has quite a bit of life compared to before. I know that proper development from the begining would have rendered a better negative all the way around but this seems like a good solution to save worthwhile negs that have been screwed up. I wonder if a second bath in the selenium would intensify things even more? Also is the fixer treatment neccessary? I have read conflicting opinions.

Thanks!!

Hi,

I have been having trouble with water spots drying on my negatives. Where I live we have very hard water and I always give my negatives a soak with agitation in photo flo before drying. My procedure is wash for 30 minutes, photo flo bath with agitation for 2 minutes, a quick rinse, then hang to dry. I don't sponge off my negatives as I am afraid I will scratch the emulsion while it is wet. Is there something better than photo flo or maybe something I could add to it to decrease water spots?

Thanks!!

Hi everyone,

I just bought a packet of Kodak x-tol developer and went to Digitaltruth to get proccessing times. My question is what is the benifit of dilluting it to such long developing times? Is there an increase in grain and contrast or does this control that somehow?

Thanks!!

Any good experiences or recomendations on using Hc-110 developer with either tri-max or t-max? I am looking for a little more development in my higher zones. Thanks!!

I just shot some great pics of my son in a school play. I used t-max 400 at ISO 1600, and a roll at 3200. I plan on developing in t-max. Does anyone have any experience or suggestion on a processing time fro these two different speeds?

I was using a vivitar 28-90 with a light yellow filter. The lens was

at the 28 setting and I was taking a shot of an interesting barn door

that was just painted white. There was lots of direct sunlight from

behind probably f16 at 500th of a sec.

In response to the above; the corners were white on the negative. So

when I printed I would get a little black triangle in each corner.

Last week I was developing a test roll of tri-x and was surprised to find that on several frames, 4 consecutive, there appeared a vignetting effect. Each of the four corners of the frame had a white area of overexposure/overdevelopment. The rest of the roll was fine except for the last two frames which showed the same effect. I am at a loss as to why this has happened, and in an apparently inconsistent manner. I was shooting with a Nikon Fe, never any trouble, Tri-x 400 at EI of 320 and developed in a single tank of T-max with a 20% more development time of 7min 15 seconds.

Whats a good basic way to increase contrast with Tri-x and T-max 400 fillms? I have been Pulling one stop, exposing at 200ASA and then developing for the normal 400ASA time at 68degrees. Up to now I have only used T-max developer. I would like a little more contrast as I use a diffusion enlarger to print. Thanks!!!

Ive read that both tri-x and t-max give better results if you shoot them at ISO 200 or 320 instead of thier rated 400, then develope them for the normal 400 time. Is this true? Couldn't you also just shoot them at thier rated speed and just increase development to get the same results? What changes could I expect to see in my negatives by going this route?

Thanks!!!