The Film Thread: "for sale: packfilm back. never used."

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > The Film Thread: "for sale: packfilm back. never used."

«‹›5 »

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

I got most of my darkroom stuff for cheap to free. So, as little as $0 if you keep an eye out. At least where I am getting enlargers up to 6x6 is easy, bigger than that starts to become hard. There is a darkroom thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3938540

But, fundamentally, for chemicals the only thing you'll need extra is paper developer. Paper you'll end up spending between $1 - $2 a sheet for 8x10 and for the enlarger, trays, timer and other gear you'll need if you keep an eye out and buy someones entire darkroom I'd expect to pay somewhere between $0 - $200 with patience. Up to $400 if you want right now.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2023 02:29

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 04:50

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

wedgie deliverer posted:

I feel like the biggest hurdle to home darkroom is space. I live in a 1BR/1 Bath, nowhere for me to set one up. If i lived out in the burbs with a more standard home I would convert a spare bathroom or something.

There's plenty of designs where you can have a darkroom cart that you can wheel in and out of your bathroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1_d45BFC3Y&t=17s

That Beseler that Ted has is huge, if you're just printing 35mm or up to 6x6 there are some really compact enlargers out there perfect for doing up to 12 x 16. My middle enlarger here is a Lucky and you can see just how small it is, it'll do up to 6x6.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2023 02:16

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Apparently the only known difference with the SE is the focus aid is split diagonal instead of horizontal, and nice!

# ¿ Oct 6, 2023 00:07

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Beve Stuscemi posted:

How do you make up for the lack of exif data in film? Is it even a problem once you get your camera figured out?

What I mean is I’m keeping a log in my phones notes app of each shot, what the settings are that I used, what the cameras meter said about the exposure and any other details.

I figure once I get the film back I can troubleshoot any issues I see.

For instance, since I’m still learning this camera, I thought I had it in aperture priority mode, but I had it in manual mode, didn’t adjust the shutter speed, and took a shot that the camera said was underexposed and most likely will be. No clue if it will be salvageable or not, but when I get a black frame back at least I’ll know why

I used to keep notes on the first roll through any camera but now don't bother at all. Trust your light meter to begin with, try out different methods of metering (point it at a dark spot, point it at a light spot) and play around. You'll soon get a feel for what works for you.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 00:02

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

All of my homies hate cinestill. There's been drama of late about Cinestill copyrighting 800T and going after small producers, sending out cease and desists on what is literally a film descriptor: original reddit post

There's a really concerning comment in there now as well, that is super shady and hosed if true. I'm going to post a link here and also quote it in full underneath in case Cinestill get lawyer happy.

A poster posted:

QWD owner here. Cinestill did everything they could to ruin me.

Edit: I hope this doesn�t get buried because it�s a ton of good info and I�ve been internalizing this for years haha. It�s a long read but I promise worth it.

They have a Non-compete in place with Kodak in regards master rolls of motion picture film. I�m not even certain it�s legal. Cinestill is the only company in world that can purchase master rolls. Most of Kodak doesn�t even know it�s in place and it�s though a faction within Kodak that has a vested interest in selling Cinestill. This is in place so no other company has access to large quantities of film so they can control the market.

They created their ECN-2 kit to intentionally make the process seem dangerous (unless you use their kit of course) and made it to be inferior and confusing so people would just use C-41.

I want to be very clear on this. They designed their kit to be inferior and confusing. So people would just use c41. They are currently selling kits that they made to not work properly.

Then they release articles on this. They basically were saying ECN-2 burns babies and caused 9/11. Kodak motion picture was pissed. Pissed. As it was not true but made them look bad. They dragged in Kodak Motion Picture without realizing it. This was directly targeted at us. I am 100% certain of that and was made aware though our distributor 6 months prior while they crudely developed an ECN-2 kit then said they have been working on it for years. It�s all a lie. They created it to �change the conversation about ECN-2�. Their words.

Then went on a campaign to kneecap ECN-2.

I took a zoom meeting with them to see what the their problem was and they laughed about it the whole time. It was the most unprofessional meeting I�ve even been a part of. Needless to say this is when other companies such as Kodak and distributors started to take notice.

Their film ages quick because its pressure fogged mechanically because their crude remjet remover machine. They blame the customer or the retailer. They have been doing this since day one.

They lie all of the time. I say lie but realistically this is called consumer fraud. 400D isn�t a custom run of film. The reason they released it was because they had a meeting with Orwo and took everything from the meeting down to the launguage used in the upcoming Orwo product and 100% ripped it off. 400D is just 250D they mess with themselves. This was confirmed and I can�t say anything specific other than it�s confirmed.

One of the biggest reasons I have stepped away was I started to resent this Industry. Sadly they are some of the leaders of this generation. It really took a heavy toll to keep waking up everyday and having to keep battling this company that went so far out of their way to destroy not me but ECN-2 as a whole.

I did this for years. Every step I took forward. They went out of their way to destroy it. Meetings with Harman. Film manufacturers. Chemical producers. Publications. They tried to burn it down every step of the way.

Cinestill is literally 2 brothers that put out incredible amounts of misinformation to cover their inherently flawed products. They have no background in film or chemistry or even motion picture.

FYI. The only thing trademarked is the word 800T. Literally. You can call it 799T. They say their remjet removal process is patented. It�s not.

I could write a book on Cinestill. This isn�t even the bad stuff.

More than anything I really wish people knew who Cinestill really is. How much damage they doing are both willfully and with intent, to this industry for their personal gain.

I will gladly contribute to a kickstarter so no one ever has to go through the above. I will happily create a separate post detailing the above.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2023 02:33

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Cassius Belli posted:

Aww, and I've really liked their 120 spooling of Kodak XX. I was going to order some today (they have a minor sale going on), but that gives me a bit of a pause.

Boycott their poo poo and help ratio their instagram. Their exclusivity contract with Kodak is why they're the only people who can sell 120 XX. I want them to lose that contract so other companies can get Kodak master rolls and do the same.

Buy some Foma 100 or FP4 if you want that more classic black and white look. They're both non-tabular grain. Or Potsdam from Lomo, that's ORWO UN54

# ¿ Oct 11, 2023 02:52

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

I'd guess unshot but you wont know until you get one developed. I'd shoot one roll and see what happens. If unused great, if used you've just collaborated with the past on a bunch of double exposures

# ¿ Oct 13, 2023 23:08

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Beve Stuscemi posted:

Does home development save money, or is it a time saver, or both?

There are two labs in the Milwaukee area that do in-house development, and it’s about a 20 minute drive depending on traffic in the city for me, so it’s not horrible, but not super convenient either.

For colour I send it to a lab, at least in Australia the cost offset isn't the best and it's a pain to do at home. I also shoot maybe 5 rolls of colour a year, all slide, so if rather have it done by professionals.

For black and white the cost savings are immense. My local lab is $18 develop only. It costs me 4c in chemicals. They charge so much because it's a time intensive process, with most films requiring different times in the same developer. So as a lab you need to match the films together that require the same time, then process those, usually by hand, and so on and so forth.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2023 22:45

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

dupersaurus posted:

Why would you want that?

For me it's because I reload the cannisters with fresh film. I start my leader on the spool outside of the dark bag for convenience then when I get to the end of the roll I cut it with a couple centimetres hanging out so I can tape the start of my bulk roll onto it.

# ¿ Oct 14, 2023 22:47

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

a dingus posted:

Has anyone played with super old stuff and/or repaired a camera with bellows? Worth it? Fun? I was given these old cameras by my grandfather years ago. I'm interested in trying out the one on the right. It's a Kodak vest pocket camera which apparently was a really popular model with soldiers in WWI. The same grandfather mentioned we had a relative fight in the war... It wasn't until getting into shooting it that I figured out that the serial number on this dates to the early 1920, but it looks like there are a couple small holes in the bellows.

Yes in fact I did an entire blog post on it and it's fun but time consuming

https://cohost.org/CalmBrain/post/830004-making-a-bellows-for

But you could also just make a paper bellows and that would work just as well for your purposes.

https://youtu.be/FhVlJGSK92s?si=RCWugMGizbPv1Zrj

# ¿ Oct 15, 2023 06:13

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Between a flatbed and DSLR, for 35mm the DSLR is better. But otherwise the Plustek is the best choice for 35mm

# ¿ Oct 28, 2023 23:38

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

dupersaurus posted:

I mean I assume any editing you can do in a darkroom would be “ethical”, but does that include things like level and curve adjustments?

# ¿ Oct 29, 2023 23:17

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

dupersaurus posted:

I mean I assume any editing you can do in a darkroom would be “ethical”, but does that include things like level and curve adjustments?

There's so much you can do in the darkroom. In no particular order and not a complete list

dodging
burning
adjusting contrast (locally and overall)
toning (sepia for example)
perspective correction
sharpening (look up unsharp mask)
multiple exposures (exposing 2 negatives to the same paper)
masking (using parts of 1 photo in a second photo)
solarization
selective development
negative manipulation (drawing on or scratching your negative)

If you can do it Lightroom it can probably be done in the darkroom

# ¿ Oct 29, 2023 23:23

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

Yeah, it's all subjective. The green cast may exist in the negative but it's something that would be corrected out in the darkroom using something like this

This would tell you how much to adjust your enlarger by to fix any given cast. There's no purity in film photography. Your film was scanned at whatever the lab tech thought was right and they put your whole roll through with those settings. They're not sitting there and adjusting individual photos for you.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2023 01:42

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 04:50

Megabound: Oct 20, 2012

We have a new film thread as the OP of this one is very out of date, come join me over here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4046967

# ¿ Nov 10, 2023 01:43

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > The Film Thread: "for sale: packfilm back. never used."

«‹›5 »