Back to basics D76 & TriX

vegemite, if im not mistaken, is something you spread on toast and eat. its popular in australia i think.. not 100% sure. i got all this info from an episode of "Rocket Power" for all the 90s kids that may be lurking here.
 
Vegemite is a byproduct of beer making! (Australia after all). It contains a lot of vitamin B12 - as well as a lot of salt! Aquired taste, but I like it. You put some on a slice of bread and top it with cheese - stick in the toaster oven until the cheese has melted and eat - of course it helps if you sing "Waltzing Mathilda" too.
It actually makes sense in a hot climate - you replenish salt lost through sweating (and in 40+C - you do sweat, and B12 is considered good for you).
Kind of tricky to find in Vancouver, particularly in the industrial sized 1kg jars that you can find in Oz.
The brits have Marmite - but that is not even close to Vegemite!
 
It's a bit like Marmite that we have in England. I prefer Marmite but both are good. Great on buttered toast. Must buy some more but it is not for sale everywhere in Finland where I live now. I usually get some for Christmas.
 
Tom: I guess you know i am working on my retrospective. Therefore I am scanning my old Leica M2/Tri-X negatives from 1968... The tri-X looks really different. Much smoother, less grain. I guess this is the result of the D-76 and how it was prepared then:
As an assistant, i had to mix a couple gallons of D-76 powder in a huge tank (dip and dunk, with metal kindermann reels) Then the mix had to be burned in, with ends from loaded bulk film, clipped ends, bad stock etc. After a few days it was OK to use for serious reportage work. It was replinshed with fresh STOCK D-76 not with the specified kodak replinsher. It kept the nice soft gradiation for months, then after several hundred developed rolls replaced with new one, but only when the new developer was "run in". The guys said they learned this practice in Stockholm, where the press guys with leicas
were much more "advanced" than us Finns. Do you recall anything of this?
 
An inspirational thread. I began shooting and developing my own b&w film again this past summer and it got me back in touch with why I became interested in photography in the first place. Tri-X and D76 was what I shot then and this past summer I was reminded why. So, I bought a small fridge and 500 rolls of Arista Premium before Freestyle finally ran out. I guess if D76 is ever discontinued I can roll my own.
 
OT: folklore has it that Aussie Diggers in Vietnam used to tell curious GIs to spread Vegemite thickly... and then watch their faces as they took a bite... 🙂

(it's a very strong flavour - almost indigestible in large amounts)
 
How good TriX and D76 actually were, in 1973 ...

Nikkormat FTn, Nikkor H Auto 50mm f/2, TriX/Adox MCC 110.

Erik.

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