4x5Goodness

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wlewisiii

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Well, it looks like I'm finally going to become a LF rangefinding photographer. Awhile back I was loaned a Speed Graphic and I've got it to the point where I think it works well enough to try film in it. But 4x5 sheet film is not especially cheap... :bang:

But I managed to win a partial box out of date of Tmax 400 on ebay (68 sheets for under $20) so, presuming his comments about being in the freezer and appropriate dark room technique are correct, I'll actually get to see how well my repairs have worked.

Whee! :D :D :D

(we won't go into what I'll have to hock to get this :rolleyes: Nor mention the idea of developing sheet film in a patterson style tank out of a changing bag... :bang: )

William
 
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Joe, to use a tray I'd actually need to have a dark room. That's not going to happen any time soon alas. So a rubber band against the back side and slipped into my tank is going to have to do.

Dominic, one of my better trades lately was a Fed 5 for a flatbed scanner with at transparency adaptor that handles up to 4x5... :D I hope that I'll get _something_ from 68 sheets worth sharing. It's not the best scanner by any means, but it can deal with this well enough I expect.

I've a decent 127mm lens and a bit of ISO400 film. Sounds like street shooting time to me... :D

William
 
Not in this house, alas. Anyone done Tmax 400 sheet in Diafine? What's the appropriate EI?

William
 
backalley photo said:
no big closets or a second bathroom?
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I bought an old bakelite 4x5 daylight tank for about $10. Works well. You load it in the changing bag and then its like a big square peterson tank. Holds five sheets apart in their own slots.
 
You mean they don't sell "Canned Darkness" anymore! Back in the camera shop days, one of the salesman was asked how to keep a darkroom dark. His reply, picking up a can of compressed air, "Canned Darkness". Use in a closed room with the lights off.

Good luck with the "old WWII Vet".
 
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There are Jobo tanks with special reels that will hold sheet film, IIRC.

Roman
 
I use a Patterson Daylight tank for my 4x5 and it works great - no darkroom in my house so I either load in the dark bathroom or a changing bag then process in the kitchen sink after it's loaded - There is nothing like all that detail in a neg that big.

Also - you will find that computing power is a bigger limitation when scanning 4x5 than your scanner resolution - the files are gigantic - lots and lots of RAM is a good thing!
 
I've considered building a "dark box" a few times, something like one of those sandblasting tanks but dark. It's basically a changing bag with a frame. I've even seen them sold commercially but they're rather expensive (those are usually a tent type arrangement). I've always been worried about snipping my changing bag, but if you had one large enough you could probably develop in trays.
 
XAos said:
I've considered building a "dark box" a few times, something like one of those sandblasting tanks but dark. It's basically a changing bag with a frame. I've even seen them sold commercially but they're rather expensive (those are usually a tent type arrangement). I've always been worried about snipping my changing bag, but if you had one large enough you could probably develop in trays.
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I have seen one of these made out of an old beverage cooler - wouldn't be that expensive and some of them even have drain spigots...
 
wlewisiii said:
(we won't go into what I'll have to hock to get this :rolleyes: Nor mention the idea of developing sheet film in a patterson style tank out of a changing bag... :bang: )

William
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Not too much I hope if it was a fixer to start with. You can get 4x5 developing tanks off eb*y (buyer beware) or from a camera store without too much of an expenditure. I have used one. I have heard some complain of edge development problems but I didn't have any. And there jobo tanks that will develop 4x5 but I have never used one. Anyway, good luck with this. I think you will love the 4x5 negatives.
 
I am considering one of the HP daylight tanks that Freestyle Photo has for sale, but I've got to get $65 ahead first. (Ironically the one on my watch list went for _more_ than list price. I didn't bid :D )

The camera is a loaner and a definite fixer-upper. I've done what I can at this point sans the Graphlex service manual, but it's light tight, got a good ground glass, a decent 127mm Optar and a shutter that does 1/400th accurately - or at least close enough for print film ;)

I'm really looking forward to giving this a try. As I said before - WHEE!!!!

William
 
J and C (or Retrophotographic in the UK) have some reasonably priced 5x4 film. I'm just warming my MPP Micro Press up with some ISO 400 Classic Pan. No problems so far, after having patched the bellows - I will get new ones once I've got the other bits adjusted.

I stick my sheets in my 120 film developing tank, with or without a rubber band. This works fine, at least for me with dilute Rodinal and limited agitation.

Now I've got to adjust the rangfinder cam and get the lens board bored for the 90 and 180mm lenses I somehow acquired. For now I just guess focus or GG focus and shoot handheld.
 
Even when I had a darkroom, I developed 4x5's in a daylight tank. Yankee, I believe. I think they work quite well. I think the only advantage of using trays is when you do ortho film with a safe light.
 
Gotta love learning...

I got my film in today's mail so I took out my changing bag and practiced loading some wasted film that had come with my two holders and once I felt comfortable I loaded 4 sheets into them. I went outside and just did a couple of quick test shots in front of the house and of the back yard. 400 speed film so 1/200th @ f22 in bright sunlight.

Had to wait till the little guy was in bed to develope them. I learned that I wasn't pouring enough developer in the tank to cover the film leaving about a 1/2" band across the top of the negatives undeveloped. And I also learned how easy it is to forget to flip the holder resulting in a double exposure on one side and a nice blank negative on the other...:eek:

Still, I think this is going to be enormous fun. The part that did get developed on the 2 looks good so tomorrow I'm going to take it with me and my son over to see an old Soo Line steam locomotive (1003) when it visits town. I'll get 4 tries on it and see how it goes then. If any of those turn out, I'll fire up the scanner at that point.

William
 
First results developed and scanned. One keeper out of six tries. Which really isn't that bad a ratio for something really quite different than I've done before. I'll attach 4 that are representative of what I've done so far to get suggestions.

The first is the first shot I took of the house to make sure the camera was physically working properly. With it I learned that the tank needs much more chemicals than it does for a roll of 120... :eek:

The second was the first shot I took at of the steam train yesterday. Need to work on focus, just a bit... :rolleyes:

Third one is the best of the bunch. Looks reasonable and the exposure is correct. :cool:

Fourth one is an attempt to get a shot of a B-17 flying overhead, but the distance was too long for my moderatly wide-angle 127mm lens to get well. Ah, well, it was fun trying to grab it :)

William
 
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