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eggsovereasy posted:handle it gently, double sided means there's twice the emulsion to scratch = twice the character
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Apr 1, 2023 18:34
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You guys think the Chamonix reflex viewer is worth the $330? Never used a reflex before so I'm a little unsure about that.
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Apr 22, 2023 00:23
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i don't, its a lot of money and probably weight. I guess if you hate using the dark cloth and aren't walking far to take photo it could be worth it.
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Apr 22, 2023 00:52
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I have a couple of Charmonix wet plate holders and their travel silver tank, they are really nice and by all accounts their other stuff is equally well-made and functional. Personally a reflex hood wouldn't be worth that much to me, but I could see other people being happy with it. Something I do if I'm having trouble with a composition on the ground glass is just take a picture of it with my phone and look at that. Here's one from a couple days ago with my 8x10, I actually wound up not taking the photo because the contrast made it a pretty marginal proposition on collodion (8x10 plates are about $20 a throw in chemistry alone at  prices) But really, with time you get better able to visualise a composition upside down, so my advice would be to stick with it and spend that $330 on film/processing, or a spot meter if you don't have one already. For content:  I spent this morning fooling around with Sludge Tank's 12x20. I don't have any film or even paper in that size, so I just taped some two sheets of 8x10 paper + some test strips into the holder to test it out. Inverted it in Paint, the moonscape it's sitting on is a much-abused table I use for mixing wet plate chemistry. It may have been the light, but do have some questions about that upper left corner. There's also a second, butchered film holder that was meant to be a wet plate holder, my moonshot is to get that working before I move in a couple months.  Here it is set up in my backyard. I have a co-worker who can sew and is very keen to have some collodion portraits taken, so as an exchange I got her to make me a darkcloth with some hi-viz + blackout fabric and reflective tape. I'm often shooting by the side of the road so wanted something to help the camera stand out more to oncoming traffic, (plus I find that the aura of "official, this guy belongs here" that hi-viz imparts is handy). Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 22, 2023 |
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Apr 22, 2023 04:38
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Hi-vis dark cloth fucken rules
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Apr 22, 2023 04:59
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Google Butt posted:You guys think the Chamonix reflex viewer is worth the $330? Never used a reflex before so I'm a little unsure about that. No. If you decide otherwise, good luck with critical focus.
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Apr 23, 2023 20:57
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MrBlandAverage posted:No. If you decide otherwise, good luck with critical focus. Yeah, I'm gonna give it a skip. Thanks.
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Apr 24, 2023 00:08
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Apr 26, 2023 15:01
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 Found while trawling Yahoo Auctions large format section and had a chuckle. Love this!
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Apr 30, 2023 05:21
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A local-ish camera shop had a Graflex Century Graphic with the Kodak Ektar 101mm f/4.5, some 2x3 holders, a 6x6 roll back, and a case. Decided to pick it up. Not sure if I've made a huge mistake but I'm excited about it as a cheap, small large format style camera. e: i guess i should say "view camera" but big black turnout fucked around with this message at 02:44 on May 2, 2023 |
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May 1, 2023 17:45
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Can someone point me to a resource/explain to me how view camera/shutter/lens compatibility works? Here's what I think I have: camera/shutter compatibility is based on basically whether or not a lens board exists/can be made that fits the camera and a certain type of shutter Lens/camera compatibility is basically just image circle and bellows length Lens/shutter compatibility is??? Sometimes it seems like these things come together but sometimes it seems like they're totally separate?
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May 3, 2023 16:09
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big black turnout posted:Can someone point me to a resource/explain to me how view camera/shutter/lens compatibility works? Sounds like you've mostly got it. Lenses are (were) made with a specific size shutter in mind, and the aperture scale printed on a shutter that came with a lens in it would be made for that lens. You can switch shutters between the same type (i.e. you could switch a lens in Copal #1 only to another Copal #1) but you would want to switch the aperture scale over to accurately reflect the lens that's now in the shutter, which is something a company like SK Grimes can do - or you can make a paper copy and tape it to the new shutter.
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May 4, 2023 00:48
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I really want to take the century graphic out but i want to test it out with a roll of 120 before I bother ordering sheet film and the back it came with famously sucks, so i have to wait several more days for the good 6x9 back i ordered to get here 
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May 5, 2023 21:26
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Good luck. I got a baby crown that came with a kinda crappy old 6x9 holder so I splurged on a horseman 6x9 back that was supposed to be compatible, and it comes so close to being so that I actually thought it was until I realized that there’s a incongruity between the ridges on the camera and where the locking tabs on the back seat into it. It’s a matter of millimeters but keeps the back from locking on securely. It’s more like it just hangs there, although it is light tight. Have been considering filing down some of the plastic on the back to make it fit, but it seems like a fraught endeavor and will likely gently caress up my poo poo.
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May 7, 2023 20:57
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I got my big camera out and used it today. Good times. Tree-20230510-1 by Tom Rintjema, on Flickr
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May 10, 2023 17:46
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Some Portra 400 4x5 from a year ago.
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May 20, 2023 07:10
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 002116180002 by caranatar none, on FlickrLab scan, but I took out the new Century Graphic this past weekend with a 6x9 back and got one photo I liked. One I left the lens on T when I put in the film back and took out the dark slide, one I left the dark slide in, and the rest were just meh
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May 21, 2023 05:44
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Well, after a series of bad decisions and really enjoying the medium format view camera, I now have a Chamonix 45N-2 on its way to me. My wife is going to kill me lol
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Jun 2, 2023 10:58
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big black turnout posted:Well, after a series of bad decisions and really enjoying the medium format view camera, I now have a Chamonix 45N-2 on its way to me. My wife is going to kill me lol Welcome to the 45N-2 family, they're so well made and a pleasure to use, you're not going to be disappointed. Now whether you like shooting LF or not is a different matter...
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Jun 2, 2023 11:15
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Did anyone use Kodak Readyload film back in the day? I got a 4x5, and have the itch to experiment with expired film just because the price of new stuff hurts. There seems to be a lot of 4x5 Readyload stuff on Ebay for actually reasonable prices that didn't expire all that long ago - way cheaper than just 4x5 sheets. I already have a Polaroid 545i holder that I know is light tight, and it's supposed to be able to also take the Readyload sheets too. Doing some googling and I see people having successful results with it, but I also found some comments from back when it was still made about the sleeve sticking to the film and not cleaning separating and ruining images or stuff like that. I have no idea how common that was, but if it happened when the film was still new I can't imagine it's any better fifteen-twenty years on.
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Jun 5, 2023 16:18
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Jun 6, 2023 00:24
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Jun 6, 2023 23:41
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Jun 7, 2023 01:20
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Yeah, same.
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Jun 7, 2023 07:56
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Jun 10, 2023 23:44
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Had a busy old week for LF: Sold my Hiace/mobile darkroom on Sunday, which motivated me to finish the workstation for my Ilford Pop-Up Darkroom even if I was only going to use it once (selling it to a new wet-plater). The sink now has a drain plumbed in so it dumps the waste directly into the jerrycan (instead of manually having to lift it out every 1-2 plates and dump it into a funnel), and integrated the old van safelight into it.   Did my last collodion shoot in Australia (for now) yesterday amongst the bonsai with two Japanese LF cameras. Sludge_Tank introduced me to the guy last year and we had a great day shooting there; I'd meant to get back earlier but wound up getting way busier with work than I'd thought. Had the same thought when I got there yesterday that I'd had last year; that I could spend weeks there shooting trees and not get bored (he does it full-time as his profession, it's a big nursery). The hothouse he has set up is a great photo studio - the plastic sheeting does a great job diffusing the light.  Something I didn't know about bonsai beforehand but that makes perfect sense when you think about it is that each one is meant to have a single "aspect" you view it from. They can be very tricky to shoot in LF owing to the 3 dimensional nature and relatively short working distance/limited DoF. Has been quite a while since I did an 8x10 glass plate and forgot you need to ramp the temperature slowly on bigger plates, cracked this one. If it hadn't lopped that tiny bit off the top I'd be tempted to varnish it as is, but if it survives the move thought it might be cool to try a kintsugi repair (idea I've had kicking around for a while, but didn't have any actual broken plates to do it with).  Today I had an extremely slow day with my "leaving the country" yard sale, so was able to get Sludge's banquet camera more thoroughly tested with some 16x20 paper I got for free from a local contact, and cut down to 12x20. Last time I had it on my tripod it snapped the puny Chinese thread adapter I had on it and was bowing the legs out on my beefy carbon fibre tripod, so erred on the side of caution and just used a camping table (actually the workstation from the first pic, just folded down) as support. ULF is no joke!  Only have two big trays so my "stop bath" was jiggling it around it under the bathtub spigot going full blast. Also it turns out my bathtub isn't quite big enough for a 16x20 tray to rest on the bottom, whatever.  It's fine! ishikabibble posted:Did anyone use Kodak Readyload film back in the day? From a while back, but I imagine it'll depend on storage temp/humidity more than anything else. If you're into ultralight LF, you could look into the Mido system. I used to have a Mido II back and like 20 of the sleeves (it's basically a reloadable Readyload system) but I sold it years ago when I got out of LF. Total fluke, but I actually was able to re-buy my old 4x5 Gowland Pocket View recently for exactly what I sold it for 8 years ago, and now kinda wish I'd hung onto the Midos. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Jul 22, 2023 |
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Jul 22, 2023 10:25
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So I've started noticing some mild center sharpness issues on my Fuji GF670 (folding 6x7 camera), check out this picture I took two weekends ago on Ektar 100: Didn't really do much other than just set a quick crop and auto adjust lighting. If you look close at the logjam in the lake, near the center of the negative:  There's this weird center fuzziness right there, you can see the left and right sections of the logjam look pretty sharp but the center is just a blur. It's consistently there on rescan and on the negatives as well, though this logjam thing is the most clear example I've got of it. I've been noticing it for a couple of rolls now, typically on slower film stocks. I've been trying to decouple it from other factors by only advancing film while the bellows are extended after taking the shot, and by shooting as fast as possible (1/500) when handheld to minimize my own blur. As far as I can tell if I stick it on a tripod things look better (I have shots on this roll taken using a tripod that don't have center sharpness issues) and if I shoot fast film at 1/500, like Portra 400, then it doesn't seem to be there. I'm curious if anybody else using MF folders knows what's up. Last time I complained about this on the dorkroom discord, someone mentioned it might be a vacuum effect sucking up the center of the film from the back when I extend the bellows. I'm not really sure how that's still an issue if I'm advancing the film only while the bellows are extended... maybe it's sensitive enough that I need to do the advancing right before taking a shot instead of after, so that it's pulled taut right as I take the shot?
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Jul 26, 2023 01:01
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The GF670 has an issue with film flatness as they didn't design and channels to move air around the film as you extend the bellows. The correct order of operations to shoot it is to open the bellows, advance the film then take the shot. If you advance after you shoot then close the bellows then the suction can pull the film up from flat and cause that.
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Jul 26, 2023 10:11
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Alright I'll give that a shot with the half-roll I've got left in the camera. I guess it'll be annoying that I can't meter without having the film advanced, but it's not really a big deal.
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Jul 26, 2023 15:32
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Is the Hasselblad Makro-Planar 120/f4 CF lens any good for portraits?
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Aug 6, 2023 10:57
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Pondex posted:Is the Hasselblad Makro-Planar 120/f4 CF lens any good for portraits? While I do not have one, everyone online swears by it. First actual roll with Rodinal:        I need to pay more attention to the sky as I passionately dislike how flat it looks in some of these frames.
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Aug 6, 2023 20:07
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Pondex posted:Is the Hasselblad Makro-Planar 120/f4 CF lens any good for portraits? It works pretty well for portraits, though as a macro lens, it's pretty clinical and sharp.
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Aug 7, 2023 08:04
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Aug 12, 2023 19:47
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Revisiting old subjects with a new developer. Apparently Ilford Ortho Plus and Rodinal do not get along (see dot-like defect in shaded areas in second pic).   
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Aug 20, 2023 19:42
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theHUNGERian posted:Revisiting old subjects with a new developer. Apparently Ilford Ortho Plus and Rodinal do not get along (see dot-like defect in shaded areas in second pic). That's not a developer issue, it's a backing paper issue. https://www.5x4.co.uk/threads/ilford-fp4-mottled-negatives.1270/
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Aug 21, 2023 01:18
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Megabound posted:That's not a developer issue, it's a backing paper issue. drat it Ilford!
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Aug 21, 2023 01:32
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I see a lot of photos of LF lenses with handwritten labels indicating the f-stop. Why would the actual f-stop be different from the one indicated on the shutter/lens? How do people measure the actual f-stop?
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Sep 11, 2023 01:21
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theHUNGERian posted:I see a lot of photos of LF lenses with handwritten labels indicating the f-stop. Why would the actual f-stop be different from the one indicated on the shutter/lens? How do people measure the actual f-stop? The F-stop is a ratio between aperture and focal length, so If a lens is moved to a donor shutter that used to hold a different-length lens, the old markings have nothing to do with the new lens, and handwriting a label is cheaper/easier/faster than getting a new one etched. Calculating the new ones is a relatively simple matter of measuring the aperture, either directly by taking the diameter, or by proxy with relative light transmission.
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Sep 11, 2023 02:19
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Cassius Belli posted:... If a lens is moved to a donor shutter that used to hold a different-length lens, the old markings have nothing to do with the new lens, and handwriting a label is cheaper/easier/faster than getting a new one etched ... Got it, thanks!
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Sep 11, 2023 02:23
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Megabound posted:The GF670 has an issue with film flatness as they didn't design and channels to move air around the film as you extend the bellows. The correct order of operations to shoot it is to open the bellows, advance the film then take the shot. If you advance after you shoot then close the bellows then the suction can pull the film up from flat and cause that. So I shot a test roll doing exactly this out on a trip last weekend, wasn't actually that bad to get used to (turns out I can meter while the film isn't advanced too). I would extend the bellows, then meter, then advance the film, and then take the shot before closing the camera. I do see an improvement but strangely enough there's a few shots on the roll still that definitely have some center sharpness loss still. The affected area does seem to be smaller at least. At this point I'm still confused why I still have film flatness issues from the center point. I do have a few pictures on the roll that are perfectly sharp corner to corner so I know there's a "right" way of doing it. I'm not sure what made those pictures any different though, but the next thing I'm thinking of trying is to open/close the bellows slower and more gently than before. And to immediately take the picture after winding the film, rather than just a few seconds after I decide I'm going to take it with the bellows extended.
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Sep 12, 2023 00:33
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