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The tradeoff is sharpness. I keep 2 developers on hand, Rodinal and HC110. Rodinal is for slow films, 100 or less, as it doesn't attack grain structure when developing (it's high acutance, non-solvent). This leads to higher apparent sharpness in slow films, due to higher edge contrast. HC110 on the other hand is a solvent based developer. This attacks the grain structure and softens it leading to less visible grain, but less perceived sharpness due to lower edge contrast.
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Jul 15, 2023 00:46
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Megabound posted:The tradeoff is sharpness. ... I forgot to ask what the tradeoff was, so thank you for mentioning this. Where does DD-X fall? Is it closer to Rodinal or HC110?
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Jul 15, 2023 01:28
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DDX is a solvent developer so most comparable to HC110, and you're not changing grain size, rather reducing apparent grain.
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Jul 15, 2023 01:56
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Sweet, thanks!
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Jul 15, 2023 02:49
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Alright, Rodinal arrived and I shot what I call a "dose array" to plot exposure vs density so I can determine the film speed for my process. I assumed box speed, found a suitable dilution and dev time, and then measured film density for each frame. Developing recipe: Rodinal:water = 12:900 mL, 20 C, 15 min, continuous agitation in a Simma roller Stop:water = 50:900 mL, 30 sec Fix:water = 190:760 mL, 5 min Rinse: 5 times in tap water, 2 times with water that was filtered then distilled The resulting curve is shown below.  I read an article that claimed that Z1, 5, and 8 should have densities of 0.1, 0.7, and 1.3. While I get those desired densities for Z1 and 5, Z8 is much denser. I will shoot another roll with actual subject, including a bright sky, just to see what this looks like in real life. But suppose I wanted to adjust the Z8 density without messing too much with Z1-5, how would I do that?
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Jul 27, 2023 03:23
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Looking for some insight into what’s causing this issue. Started developing B&W at home recently and noticed this splotchy water stain looking pattern on 120 negatives. Chalked it up to some old film at first but now it’s on two film stocks (old delta 400, fresher hp5), one much newer so I figure it’s an issue with my development. Didn’t seem to occur on some Foma 100 35mm rolls at all. Just the Ilford 120. I didn’t notice any water stains. Final rinse done in distilled water with LFN.  HP5 in Adox Rodinal 1+50, 70F at 10:30. Agitation first 30 sec, ~7 seconds each minute. No Presoak. Acid stop bath and fixed for 5 minutes.
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Jul 31, 2023 15:43
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I just gotta Kramer into this thread and share this. Been dreading digitizing my negs and have made a couple of half assed attempts at scanning them but it takes so loving long. But found a solution that at least covers 35mm which is the vast majority of the poo poo I have (though there's plenty of 120/220 and some 4x5 but that's for later). Was at an old school analog photo store a couple of weeks ago and chatted with the owner for a while and he mentioned digitizing with his DSLR and said it was quick and easy. Was looking at maybe getting a light table and copy stand but came across a thing from JJC that's basically a LED light source with diffuser, a negative/slide holder and some adapter rings to fit various macro lenses: https://www.jjc.cc/index/goods/detail.html?id=1024 Next challenge was to easily convert the photographed negatives to something useful. Read up on it a bit and decided to go with Negative Lab Pro, though it's a bit costly at $99 for a license. But man, that poo poo works like _magic_ and seems to nail the colors in 95% of the cases. Fast and quick, integrated as a plugin into Lightroom Classic. Spent a couple of hours and have done nearly 200 images so far from negative to a useful state. Got a couple thousand more but I imagine I can knock that poo poo out in a week. Not sure what to do with the larger stuff though. I have an Epson V750 so maybe that's the easiest route for MF and LF? Or setup something so I can shoot them with a macro lens, but I would need something to keep everything perpendicular so presumably a copy stand or similar. Any ideas?
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Jul 31, 2023 20:46
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Marman1209 posted:Looking for some insight into what’s causing this issue. Started developing B&W at home recently and noticed this splotchy water stain looking pattern on 120 negatives. Chalked it up to some old film at first but now it’s on two film stocks (old delta 400, fresher hp5), one much newer so I figure it’s an issue with my development. Looks like the Ilford backing paper issue they had a while ago, that or the film was frozen and was opened while still cold and condensation got to it.
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Jul 31, 2023 21:05
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Clayton Bigsby posted:I just gotta Kramer into this thread and share this. Been dreading digitizing my negs and have made a couple of half assed attempts at scanning them but it takes so loving long. But found a solution that at least covers 35mm which is the vast majority of the poo poo I have (though there's plenty of 120/220 and some 4x5 but that's for later). Was at an old school analog photo store a couple of weeks ago and chatted with the owner for a while and he mentioned digitizing with his DSLR and said it was quick and easy. Was looking at maybe getting a light table and copy stand but came across a thing from JJC that's basically a LED light source with diffuser, a negative/slide holder and some adapter rings to fit various macro lenses: That's quite cool, I'd probably buy it mostly for the LED light that clamps on the end, but I already have the Nikon ES-2 which looks to be exactly the same thing just without the LED (and specifically designed to mount to a few different Nikon lenses). FYI I DSLR scan all of my negatives from 35mm up to 4x5. For 35mm I use the Nikon ES-2 and a big LED light. For 120 and 4x5 I use an LED tracing pad with Epson V700 flatbed scanner film holders and I have my camera mounted on a copy stand. I use some old film holder dark slides to cover up areas of the light pad around the film to prevent flaring and I do my 'scanning' in a dark room to avoid other external light sources giving me reflection issues or otherwise reducing contrast. Generally two photos for 4x5 stitched together in lightroom, using a Nikon 60mm macro adapted to a Sony A7RII. Edit: And yes I use negative lab pro for all my neg inverting, works like a charm. Blackhawk fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jul 31, 2023 |
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Jul 31, 2023 21:10
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Megabound posted:Looks like the Ilford backing paper issue they had a while ago, that or the film was frozen and was opened while still cold and condensation got to it. Looking up examples online… definitely looks like what’s going on. Thanks!
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Jul 31, 2023 21:20
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Blackhawk posted:That's quite cool, I'd probably buy it mostly for the LED light that clamps on the end, but I already have the Nikon ES-2 which looks to be exactly the same thing just without the LED (and specifically designed to mount to a few different Nikon lenses). Sounds like I should shop around for a copy stand then. Seen them nearly-free occasionally but they don't show up for sale often here. I have the Nikon AF-S 60mm macro and Z7/Z8/Z9 bodies (using the Z7 for this project since I think the sensor is just a tiny bit better than the 8/9). You think an iPad would suffice as a light source, or would I need a diffuser on top of it?
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Jul 31, 2023 21:39
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Clayton Bigsby posted:Sounds like I should shop around for a copy stand then. Seen them nearly-free occasionally but they don't show up for sale often here. I have the Nikon AF-S 60mm macro and Z7/Z8/Z9 bodies (using the Z7 for this project since I think the sensor is just a tiny bit better than the 8/9). Never tried with an ipad but I remember reading about people using them, I think they work ok if you have a bit of an air-gap between the negative and the screen to allow the light to diffuse a bit. One of the big advantages of using a tracing pad to me is that it's large enough to sit the Epson film holders on it, not sure if an ipad would be big enough for that and you want to make sure that the film holder is sitting flat and parallel to the camera sensor. Edit: Oh and the Epson film holders naturally give you a bit of an air gap between the light source and negative as they're up on little feet.
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Jul 31, 2023 22:13
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I was doing some tests with negatives against a screen and it definitely needed diffusion
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Jul 31, 2023 22:47
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Blackhawk posted:Never tried with an ipad but I remember reading about people using them, I think they work ok if you have a bit of an air-gap between the negative and the screen to allow the light to diffuse a bit. One of the big advantages of using a tracing pad to me is that it's large enough to sit the Epson film holders on it, not sure if an ipad would be big enough for that and you want to make sure that the film holder is sitting flat and parallel to the camera sensor. I have a 12.9" Pro so maybe the holders would fit? Will have to try. BTW, does it seem like prices are coming down a bit on analog gear lately? Here in Sweden I'm seeing Leica and Hasselblad stuff at what I'd consider fairly reasonable prices sit unsold. Picked up a 500C kit with the Planar 80, completely serviced by a pro (lens, body and back), for $1300 just now. Seeing M3s with lenses for $1400-1700 in good condition and they aren't moving. Yeah, it's a lot more expensive than in the good old days (seems like you could get an M3 for $400 here 6-7 years back) but not Covid prices anymore. Clayton Bigsby fucked around with this message at 13:21 on Aug 1, 2023 |
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Aug 1, 2023 13:17
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The bottom is falling out of the market as film prices rise and the fad dies off. It'll take a bit to get back down to where it used to be, and maybe it won't, but it'll come down more as the dedicated shooters stick on and the fly by night trend chasers get out of it and sell all the gear YouTube togs promised them would give them the tones and vibes they so desired.
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Aug 2, 2023 09:21
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I'm just hoping that film and used gear prices finally go back down to normal.
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Aug 2, 2023 18:52
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I've been scanning with Plustek Optifilm 8100 and Silverfast saving as raw tiffs and "developing" with Film Lab app but either I don't know how to use it or it just sucks for black and white. Of the below images first is Film Lab with auto settings and my cropping and second is invert + auto levels in Gimp. If I wanna get any detail on the coat in Film Lab it blows the sky completely while with Gimp the starting point is pretty balanced. Film lab also has very little adjustments for the image - I guess that's kinda the point since it's simulating a real dark room and exposing on paper but eeh. Maybe it also works better with camera scanning.  I started scanning in raw with Silverfast since I realised that otherwise I have to prescan every frame that makes the already lengthy process even longer. I guess I'm headed for Lightroom and Negativelab Pro but I kinda wanted save money just using Silverfast + Film Lab. With color negatives it's worked a lot better. Also really thinking hard about getting into camera scanning with the new Valoi easy35 looking very promising. I just hate how long it takes scanning with the Plustek. I do 3200 dpi for every frame since I want to scan just once and then sort out the photos once I'm done. Edit: not to be too harsh it sometimes produces great results from b&w but it doesn't handle a big range very well eg. if you have a black raincoat and sunny sky in the same picture as above. Havana Affair fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Aug 3, 2023 |
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Aug 3, 2023 13:57
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I've never used film lab or even knew it existed, but is there no way you can either adjust contrast or change the levels of highlights and shadows independently of each other? Because it seems like you just want to lift the shadows without blowing out highlights, which should be trivially easy with any editing software.
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Aug 3, 2023 21:31
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Is there a go-to system for 6x9 these days that has lenses from ~65 mm to ~250 mm? I tried the GL690 and got burnt. I know LF cameras have adapters for roll film, but I worry about the loss in resolution when using an LF lens on 120 film (much like medium format lenses do not resolve as much on FF as FF lenses do). I also worry about the size of LF cameras. For 6x9, I know there is the Mamiya press and the Linhof Super Technika IV 6x9. Are there any options I should be considering? I don't care about lens movements, and I have zero interest in sheet film. Easy maintenance is far more important to me.
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Aug 4, 2023 01:39
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Horseman VH is another to look at
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Aug 4, 2023 04:45
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Blackhawk posted:I've never used film lab or even knew it existed, but is there no way you can either adjust contrast or change the levels of highlights and shadows independently of each other? Because it seems like you just want to lift the shadows without blowing out highlights, which should be trivially easy with any editing software. It only has three sliders for adjustments in b&w: exposure, contrast and brightness. I don't think you can adjust shadows and highlights independently or at least the logic isn't clear to me. I sometimes like the simple design but as you point out something like that is trivial in any other software.
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Aug 4, 2023 04:46
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Havana Affair posted:It only has three sliders for adjustments in b&w: exposure, contrast and brightness. I don't think you can adjust shadows and highlights independently or at least the logic isn't clear to me. I sometimes like the simple design but as you point out something like that is trivial in any other software. i haven't used silverfast in a long time, but i'm pretty sure it has a cuves tool
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Aug 5, 2023 15:08
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I was talking about Film Lab not Silverfast. I might actually end up going back to just using Silverfast since I generally like the scans it turns out. Negative Lab pro is very impressive after a quick trial but I don't know if I feel like learning to use it and lightroom since I don't shoot all that much.
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Aug 5, 2023 16:10
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theHUNGERian posted:Is there a go-to system for 6x9 these days that has lenses from ~65 mm to ~250 mm? I tried the GL690 and got burnt. I know LF cameras have adapters for roll film, but I worry about the loss in resolution when using an LF lens on 120 film (much like medium format lenses do not resolve as much on FF as FF lenses do). I also worry about the size of LF cameras. For 6x9, I know there is the Mamiya press and the Linhof Super Technika IV 6x9. Are there any options I should be considering? I don't care about lens movements, and I have zero interest in sheet film. Easy maintenance is far more important to me. There's also the Graflex XL, it's slightly smaller than the Mamiya, but some of the lenses (mostly faster ones) are expensive/hard to find. If you want to go wide, the Graflex XLSW with the 47mm is far easier to find, and cheaper than the equivalent lens set up in a Super Tech. The Mamiya Press is the easiest and cheapest to find lenses and accessories for.
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Aug 11, 2023 19:41
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Thanks all. I am currently eyeing a Horseman VH-R. I need to get rid of some other gear first before buying yet another camera. I'll use that time to read up on this topic.
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Aug 11, 2023 20:41
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theHUNGERian posted:... I will shoot another roll with actual subject, including a bright sky, just to see what this looks like in real life ... Never mind, it looks fine.     Edit: If I develop a roll of film in such a way that the text in the rebate is not readable, is that an issue? The film in question is Ilford Ortho Plus, which had legible text in the rebate when developed in DD-X, but the text is barely visible when I develop in Rodinal. theHUNGERian fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Aug 13, 2023 |
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Aug 12, 2023 19:45
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Got some 5+ year old film from a music festival that was stored in a hot attic developed. 
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Aug 14, 2023 09:48
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theHUNGERian posted:Never mind, it looks fine. Hi I'm new to the thread and I'm glad to find people to bother with my film photos. Here's a video of the cameras I've been using. It might be interesting to see the kind of gear you can get your hands on over here in Germany. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_xAJySn1k
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Aug 15, 2023 10:26
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Here are some recent shots of mine: (Expired Kodak 200)  (Ilford Delta 400) I develop both C-41 (Cinestill Kit) and BW (Adox Rodinal + Ilford RapidFixer) at home. I scan them with a Nikon D3200 and the bottom shelf zoom lense that came with it. I 3D-Printed a macro adapter for the lense. I sometimes wish I could get a better resolution (especially for medium format) but I'm pretty happy with the results I can get with the gear I already have.
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Aug 15, 2023 10:52
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Welcome! I've shot and developed my first roll of the new Foam Ortho 400 and it's pretty alright. No anti-halation layer and very contrasty out of the gate, actually too contrasty for my taste. I'll be pulling the next roll to 200 and developing in POTA to tame the contrast and see how I feel about the other 5 rolls in the fridge. This was developed in HC-110 1:63 for 10 minutes.    
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Aug 15, 2023 12:04
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PSA: Not sure who here remembers, but a long time ago I had complained about a roll of Ilford Orth Plus that had some defects. See the faint dark spots in shaded areas below. The roll was developed by a lab, another lab showed similar issues on the same film stock. It convinced me to develop my own film, and I never saw this type of defect ... ... until I switched from DD-X to Rodinal. It is a lot more obvious in this latest roll. 
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Aug 20, 2023 19:35
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Your film's got the pox
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Aug 21, 2023 01:16
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I replied in the other thread too but this looks like the Ilford backing paper issue they had a couple years back https://www.5x4.co.uk/threads/ilford-fp4-mottled-negatives.1270/
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Aug 21, 2023 01:19
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Poop! Many thanks.
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Aug 21, 2023 01:29
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With Kodak having handballed their chemistry production to a Chinese company I think it's time I finally hop on the Pyro train (miss u, HC-110). I went out shooting in the mountains* on Sunday with a guy I met on LFF through a gear sale, he was super knowledgeable and said that's pretty much all he uses. Also he tray develops his sheet film by inspection with an IR monocular  *Need to order a new dev tank, chemistry, Printfile sleeves, etc so I can develop my two rolls of B&W! Borrowed the 120mm f/5.6 macro from him for my Hasselblad, very interested to see what those come out looking like. Scanner is still probably at least a month away though.
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Aug 22, 2023 13:38
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The Voigtlander 40mm f2 pancake is an incredible lens
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Aug 24, 2023 07:41
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Well I tried DF96 and it was a big fat blah so I am going back to Diafine now. Just reliably produces really good negs for me, not sure why I had to go try other poo poo. I think I was hoping to skip using fixer. On a happier note, I found a Hassy 500ELX is nice condition for 300 bucks here and it had the grid + split image acute matte focusing screen. loving things go for 400-450 bucks used here. Swapped it into my 500C/M and hooooly poo poo what a difference. But now I have a 500 EL/M and a 500 ELX that I bought just for the poo poo that came with them so gotta sell those. Clayton Bigsby fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Aug 25, 2023 |
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Aug 25, 2023 19:49
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What do you people use to keep the viewfinder optics dry when shooting in thick fog? I have a pouch-like thing for my digital camera, but it assumes that I am looking at the subject in a straight line, not through a waist level finder. I guess I could just get an umbrella (or a giant straw hat) that sits on my head.
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Aug 26, 2023 01:48
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I haven't had time for a lot of photography related activities over the last few years due to small kids and a lot of work. However, at least the kids are now all getting showed off to pre-school/school now so I've started looking at working through the backlog of scanning negatives that I have accrued. Can't remember though what the recommended settings for vuescan (using version 9 if it matters) was? And what was the recommended post-treatment? I remember scanning as a positive and inverting in photoshop but not much more. I don't have access to photoshop and Lightroom anymore, think I'll be using Affinity photo and or Darktable now instead, would those fulfil about the same roles as photoshop and Lightroom did? Clayton Bigsby posted:BTW, does it seem like prices are coming down a bit on analog gear lately? Here in Sweden I'm seeing Leica and Hasselblad stuff at what I'd consider fairly reasonable prices sit unsold. Picked up a 500C kit with the Planar 80, completely serviced by a pro (lens, body and back), for $1300 just now. Seeing M3s with lenses for $1400-1700 in good condition and they aren't moving. Yeah, it's a lot more expensive than in the good old days (seems like you could get an M3 for $400 here 6-7 years back) but not Covid prices anymore. Absolutely, it seems like the market for analog gear have gone down quite a lot lately, especially 35mm stuff, I've been seeing stuff that used to be priced at 350-400 SEK now being priced at 100-150 in second hand stores. VVVVVVV Well, I was hoping that I could avoid paying up for Lightroom for now and instead use stuff that is free (such as Darktable) or paid for by my work (the Affinity suite). VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV MadlabsRobot fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Aug 26, 2023 |
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Aug 26, 2023 16:21
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I, and a fair amount of people use NLP (negative lab pro). Absolutely worth the money. It's a Lightroom plugin. NLP can work with vuescan and on their website they tell you the settings to use for it in order to get it to work as it should with NLP
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Aug 26, 2023 16:34
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