danac

Park Avenue, Arches National Park, Utah from May, 1985. Taken with my AE-1, 50mm 1.8 and circular polarizer on Plus- X. I still use this camera regularly now that Ken Oikawa refurbished it.

Here's an image of the high lonesome taken in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado last week. Snow and clouds sure make the job easier but I'm kicking myself for using a #8 yellow filter instead of a #15. The contrast between sky and wispy clouds would have been much better. I used my trusty A1 on 100TMAX.

Reasonable is relative. My target was to find a new timer for less than $200. The vintage but new-in-box Gralab 300 was less than half of that. It works. I'm happy. Nothing wrong with nostalgia. I like old things. My steel barn for instance holds a fifty-two year old MGB roadster, a forty-nine year old Fiat 124 spider and a forty-six year old Alfa Romeo GTV all in pristine condition. I've never personally flown an airplane that was made after 1978. My beautiful wife is sixty-one and she's priceless. :)

Another vote for Plus-X

My brand new old Gralab 300 arrived yesterday and it works perfectly. It's larger and better built than the new plastic ones. I won't say what I paid for it. When I first learned darkroom procedures from my brother back in 1976 he had one just like it. So this timer is really a time machine to the past.

I use an electronic metronome when developing prints. That's what Ansel Adams used. I'm pretty excited about finding the new old 300. My current one built in January of this year already has a faulty on/off switch and shuts off early. I wonder what young people today would think if you told them that in the old days, things worked perfectly right out of the box and lasted for many reliable years simply because they were made in the USA by workers who cared about quality.

I just found and purchased a new-in-box vintage (with the toggle switches not rockers) Gralab 300 on Ebay. The cord has never even been untied. I did a lot of research today and discovered that the old models were extremely reliable and have been used by photographers for many years without problems.

I bought an analog dial timer last April and it's not working correctly. It shuts off too soon. I really like the old style timers but they've got to work. Is there an analog or digital timer that is reliable and won't break the bank? I'd like to purchase a new one not used.

Glen: When I enlarge to 5x7 I find that f/8 is too fast but it works for 8x10. This is with Ilford multigrade. Alan: I will certainly try what you said. Today I also found that the FF works more easily with the enlarger head further from the paper (i.e. 8x10 rather than 5x7). All: I will probably stick with the new (to me) Tri-X for it's grain rather than T-Max 400. I like both but the former has a bit more contrast which I prefer. I've been using T-Max 100 for landscapes with no complaints but am almost finished shooting my first roll of FP4+. It will be interesting to see if the grain is more visible with the FF. BTW, all this fun is with 35mm film. I just started doing the entire process again starting in May after a thirty-seven year layoff. Starting over has been a trip what with so many products that I have never used before. Like the man said: "It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Using sunglasses I was able to consistently see what you all are talking about. I then made a red filter for the filter tray and voila, "Bob's your uncle!" With the filter I can even close the aperture down a couple of clicks and still see the graiin and I don't need the sunglasses. It's very subtle but effective. I sure hope others see this thread and benefit from it. Too bad the instructions weren't more comprehensive.Thanks much.

I think I had it for an instant using an old vintage Tri-X negative with a very dense area (the back of a white judo-gi) in the center but I couldn't repeat the experiment. The light is so bright even with a small aperture however. I have decided that any marginal benefits that may be had from the FF is not worth the risk of retinal damage. Anyone want a barely used Paterson FF? Stuart: There are not multiple lights, only one very bright, dense cluster of dots that does not change when adjusting the fine focus on my Beseler Cadet II. I guess my description was not focused properly ;)

Alan: I went back and tried again varying the distance to the eyepiece. You can see the sharply focused crosshair but about 30% of the center of the view is still dominated by the above mentioned extremely bright light. It's like looking at a super bright globular cluster as seen through my 10" Dobsonian telescope.

Yes I know there are several threads on the internet regarding this subject but they are almost invariably poorly written or do not address my problem. I focused the crosswire. That was easy. When viewing the eyepiece under an illuminated black and white negative all I see is a group of very bright dots from the enlarger lamp. I had to use less than full aperture for fear of damaging my eye. I pre-focused the image with a magnifying glass. Then the focus knob was slowly moved ever so slightly in either direction while looking into the eye piece with both eyes open and relaxed. All I saw was the bright light from the enlarger and the crosswire. There was nothing else - nothing like grain or any kind of image - only blackness. I followed the directions and some of the hints from other threads but nothing worked. Either I am remiss in some way or the instrument is defective.

I bought a glass slide from Scan Tech but haven't used it yet. The best way I've found to eliminate the problem is by placing the negatives under some heavy books for a couple of days. They flatten right out.

:)

Here's my wife Deborah and Lilacs a few days ago. The focus is a bit soft but her wonderful smile is really, really hard to catch on film (TMX100) so the image was hurried. I don't know how she stays so beautiful even beyond sixty. I think I must be just about the luckiest guy in the world.

I'm using a fairly new Epson V600 instead of making contact prints. Photos that I really like will be developed in my darkroom. It would still be great to have nice clean .jpgs of my b/w negatives. Are you saying that there are better custom film holders that are not like those that come standard with the scanner?

What is the cause of the annoying concentric ellipses in the center of this image? It happened sometime while I was developing the film. It occurs on some other images of that roll. Can they be removed? If so how? I have just started developing my own negatives for the first time in forty years. It's like starting all over again. Whew! The film is Tri-X Developer is D-76 I used an eco-friendly stop bath Kodak fixer A good wash Fixer remover Another good wash Photoflo All working solutions were absolutely correct and timing was meticulously followed. I used well water with some mineral content for washing only but the final wash was followed by a rinse with distilled water.

I spoke with Oikawa-san today. It's on the way to his shop. The problem is just too bewildering for me to contemplate. After thirty-seven years the camera needs a complete servicing anyway.

My thirty-seven year old AE-1 worked fine until this afternoon. While advancing the film lever the mirror flips up and down but the shutter does not open. This happens even though the shutter release button is not depressed. What's that all about?

Here's an image from the first set of negatives I have processed myself in thirty-seven years. I did this today and am encouraged and greatly relieved that my normal processing is satisfying at least to my eye. There is detail in all the shadows and the whites are not washed out. I used a #8 yellow filter to darken the sky. This Kodak TMAX 100 image was taken last week at Sprague Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado with a Canon A-1.

Thanks much. After considerable research I ordered the nicest looking 2x-B listed on eBay this morning. I like the practicality of carrying one extra small piece of equipment rather than two more lenses. Since I only shoot landscapes a tripod is always present. The A-1 gets loaded with 400 ASA so it will get used with the extender. The AE-1 always shoots with 100 ASA. I did look into 200mm lenses but couldn't find one that I felt satisfied with. I'm basically obsessive compulsive about the appearance of my equipment.:rolleyes:

This looks like it could be a way to double my 50mm and 135mm lenses albeit with the loss of two f stops.

I have a brilliant idea :D Instead of wading through legions of moldy, dusty, scratched, scuffed, dirty, fungus covered 200mm lenses on eBay.et al, I'll mount my absolutely pristine135mm FD lens and walk or drive a bit closer to my subject. There. Problem solved.