david_johnson64

<p>Update--I finally got everything together and developed my first roll of 400TX in HC110. Used a scale to measure the water since I didn't have a big enough graduated cylinder handy, used syringes to measure the full strength chemicals into the water, stored in mason jars with plastic lids. The jars went into a temperature controlled water bath circulator left over from a previous hobby while I wound the film onto a stainless reel in a changing bag. <br> Film is drying now, Negatives look reasonable as best I can tell without handling them wet. One of the cameras apparently has some exposure issues (or operator error) the other one was good. The water bath makes it much easier than I remember to deal with temperature—at least now when it isn't all that warm. It appears that the charts all want temperatures cooler than about 75 degrees F, I don't usually go that low on the AC in the summer. <br> Thanks again to all, I appreciate the advice and assistance.</p>

<p>Mendel--Yes, I've used a changing bag before, and I've practiced a bit recently with some salvaged film. Even when I had a darkroom, I preferred the changing bag.<br> I'm not stocking up on film yet--I'll likely look into Kentmere again once I've successfully processed a bit of Tri X, and I may go bulk. The difference for 5 rolls isn't enough to make up for the uncertainty of an off brand while re-learning. </p>

<p>Thanks all, this is exactly the sort of information I was looking for. There is a big price difference between Tri X and Kentmere in bulk, not so much for individual rolls, I'll stick with Tri X for now. </p>

<p>I shoot mostly with a DSLR, but I collect film cameras. I want to start shooting and developing my own black and white film again. I've developed and printed my own film back in the 70'--mostly bulk Tri X, with D76 (if I'm remembering right), that's what the local camera store had. I've got a changing bag and stainless tank and reels, I'm still able to wind on a stainless reel and always preferred them to plastic for 35mm. I don't think I need help on equipment or the process unless it's changed significantly, what I'm looking for is current chemicals and film to best suit my budget and purposes.<br> One of my goals is to do a final function check of cameras for the least reasonable cost, the other is to do some enlargements big enough to deliberately show grain—my plan is to use these as backgrounds for my camera display rather than as standalone prints. I don't need perfection, “student quality” is probably good enough. I have no intention of setting up a full darkroom again, I'll scan and print or have them done elsewhere.<br> What is a good budget combination of film and chemicals that's easily available online? A quick Google shows Kentmere is inexpensive and people claim reasonably good results, but I don't know if there are other films that are better values for what I want, or something is not much more expensive with a significant increase in quality. I doubt I want to bother loading from bulk film, but that's not a final decision. Suggestions, and is there something I'm forgetting?</p>

<p>I've got a Tower 18b (Mamiya Ruby variant, i think) with multiple problems. I'm trying to resurrect it as much for practice as anything else. Right now I have it disassembled about as far as I can without help while still having some hope of getting it back together, and I've either fixed or figured out how to fix several problems. Where I'm stuck is at the shutter assembly. This camera has a Copal-SVK shutter, with a coupled shutter speed/aperture control...or rather it should. If I understand operation right, the front ring should set exposure by matching needles on the top of the camera, then moving the next ring will change aperture and shutter together to maintain that exposure. <br> The problems I'm having are that the exposure won't line up at reasonable values, I can feel gears slipping and the rings to control exposure seem to have too much in and out play. When I removed one of the lens elements a tiny screw fell out. I can't see any further disassembly that isn't disassembling the shutter itself, and that is likely to go beyond what I can fix. It's hard to believe that the shutter assembly can't be removed as a unit-Is there something I'm missing? Suggestions on where to go from here?<br /><br> (pictures of the shutter and the loose screw)</p> <p> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/Mic0FY9b.jpg" alt="" width="160" height="160" /> <img src="http://i.imgur.com/4BEWavkm.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="265" /></p> <p> </p>