Darkroom Renovation Phase II Started

Loading 13 6.5x9 Makina Holders HRU by Nokton48, on Flickr

I have a lot of old sheets of 6.5cmx9cm sheet film in a variety of flavors. I used a sheet of this vintage stuff to set up a "fence" for cutting the Fuji HRU XRAY with my Rototrim cutter. After I cut down a scrap sheet of HRU and test fit it, it is easy to load these dinky Makina holders. I'm doing thirteen to start and that's a good amount to carry around with my Makina II, my favorite Makina. Cool thing is I can shoot handheld, about 1/100 at f6.0 in full sun with yellow Makina filter. Plaubel used to call the Makina "The World's smallest Large Format Camera". I will agree with that :)

Wild Apple Tree Maki II HRU Handheld 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
159mm F2 B&L Super Cinephor Test by Nokton48, on Flickr

Plaubel Makiflex Standard, Bausch & Lomb 159mm F2 Theatrical Cinema Projection Lens, Ilford Commercial Ortho 4x5, Graphmatic 4x5 sheet back. Mic-X developer. 8x10 Arista #2 RC paper, Multigrade dev Omega Dii 180mm black Rodenstock Rodagon, Omegalite circuline head

I focused on the front of the petal in the bottom center; depth of field is as thin as a sheet of paper. Interestingly I can see the whole circle easily with my 8x10 Sinar Norma when focused at infinity..

B&L 159.1mm F2 Super Cinephor 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Removed from a movie theatre projector (in it's former life) the Bausch & Lomb 159.2mm F2.0 Super Cinephor. Carrying this around will give you a cardio workout. Will focus out to twenty feet (but not further) due to the SLR mirror in the Makiflex Standard.

The rear cell of this beast completely fills the Makiflex Standard Mirror Box when full in. Anything out to twenty feet or so is fine. This is a tricky one to focus.

I shot this digiphoto on my new Sinar Norma Copy Stand, which works great with the Makis as well. The Makis are well proven for photocopy work, the Maki shutter has the patented Plaubel mirror braking system. As smooth no vibs at all as smooth as smooth can be. Big advantage is a lot of instances. Background is a digital file printed at Costco, it's one that Tim Layton digitally shot and included in his large format flower course. I have about a dozen or so backgrounds and they work great on the stand, basically an overhead shooting stage. Lighting from a single Broncolor C171 Pulso Monolight with a Broncolor Beauty Light Head. Silver fill panel on the other side.
 
Handheld HRU 200th F6 Med Yello MicX by Nokton48, on Flickr

Made another couple tests yesterday, decreasing exposure by one and two stops.

Handheld Fuji HRU Plaubel Makina II 1/200 f6.0 Plaubel Yellow filter Mic-X 12 minutes 5x7 Aristo #2 RC print Omega DII Omegalite Diffusion head Multigrade dev. Plaubel Makina sheet film holder was utilized.

Key Day Full Sun. Great I can shoot handheld with XRay film. The Makina II is getting to be my favorite Makina. Plaubel used to market it as "The World's Smallest View Camera". I will agree with those sentiments after using it for a while.
 
Two 13x18cm HRU in 11x14 Tray by Nokton48, on Flickr

Presently the largest size HRU i have attempted has been 4x5 which I enlarge to 8x10. Now I am getting started with 13x18cm for several reasons. I have a number of original 13x18cm Sinar Norma film holders, and cutting down an 8x10 sheet, I can get one 13x18cm, and three 6.5x9 sheets with just a small amount of scrap left. So I get all that for 32 cents a sheet which to me is a great deal. Presently I have loaded six 13x18cm holders and it is pretty easy to do for me. Never any scratches yet while the film is dry. When it is wet that is another story.

So now I have ordered four 11x14 Cesco trays from B&H cause I am moving up in film size. Extra XRay dental clips are required as you can see. The purpose is twofold; A) Keep the sheet completely off the bottom of the tray where is will smudge or abrade during agitation. B) Keep the sheets from moving around when agitating, bumping into each other which causes major scratching. Touch this stuff when it is wet, and it's game over. With a bit of due diligence and extra care you can produce perfect sheets without any scratching whatsoever. Yes I scratch sheets but that's my fault not the film.

I can fit 16x20 trays in my Delta Sink but there is no room for washing and big is very cumbersome. Large Deep tanks are in my future but not quite yet. Cesco trays are great for small film runs.

I'm using Paterson trays to mock up and to see how the sink fills up. I think I have enough room for this including washing.
 
charjohncarter said:
Wow, lots going on in the darkroom. I like the full sun shot of the tree with the Makina II.
Click to expand...


Thanks John!

Kingswood Gardens Hassy 30mm Distagon Fisheye 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Frog Pond, Kingswood Gardens, Mansfield Ohio. Kodak 70mm Surveillance Film, ADOX Borax MQ dev, Hasselblad 500C/M 30mm T* Distagon, Handheld exposure. Arista #2 8x10 Matte RC paper, Multigrade dev. Processed in 70mm Kindermann Dev Tank

Kodak Surveillance reminds me a lot of the older Tri-X emulsion.
The sun was just out of the frame upper left corner. The circular garden works well with the Hassy Fishy lens.

This was a fun shoot! :) More from this trip forthcoming.
 
Sinar Norma 18x24 Lisco Holders by Nokton48, on Flickr

Three additional original Sinar Norma era 18x24cm Lisco holders. They came from Germany good deal but no dark slides. Catlabs has replacements at what I thought was a fair price so now cleaning these up to use.

These will hold 18x24 Kodak single sided Mammography film. I have about 500 sheets in stock so set for a while. The 8x10 Norma grounglass is very accurately marked for use with these holders.

Sinar Norma 18x24 Lisco Holders XRAY by Nokton48, on Flickr

As you can see the 18x24cm Mammo XRAY stock fits perfectly in the Norma holder. This will make nice size contact prints. I envision split printing these negs. I got the idea for a contact printing light source that works with the big Multigrade filters. the idea came from Tim Layton and I followed his lead. These negs could benefit from being split-filtered to really nail the tonality.
 
9x12cm J Lane Dry Plate Makiflex 210 Auto Heliar by Nokton48, on Flickr

The view off my front porch in subzero weather

Plaubel Automatic Makiflex 9x9cm SLR, 9x12cm J Lane Dry Plate developed 18 mins 20c in straight replenished gallon Acufine. Plaubel Makiflex Auto Iris 21cm Heliar. RADA Normalfaltz plate holder in Plaubel Makiflex Adapter. 8x10 Aristo RC #2 Omega DII black 180 Rodagon laser aligned. Iflord Multigrade dev
 
Nokton48 said:
9x12cm J Lane Dry Plate Makiflex 210 Auto Heliar by Nokton48, on Flickr

The view off my front porch in subzero weather

Plaubel Automatic Makiflex 9x9cm SLR, 9x12cm J Lane Dry Plate developed 18 mins 20c in straight replenished gallon Acufine. Plaubel Makiflex Auto Iris 21cm Heliar. RADA Normalfaltz plate holder in Plaubel Makiflex Adapter. 8x10 Aristo RC #2 Omega DII black 180 Rodagon laser aligned. Iflord Multigrade dev
Click to expand...

Remarkably similar to the view from Perseverance yesterday on Mars.
 
Makina II HRU Handheld by Nokton48, on Flickr

Plaubel Makina II Handheld Fuji HRU cut from 8x10. RADA plate holder with film insert, Plaubel Yellow filter. 1/200 at f6. 5x7 Aristo #2 Omega DII 4x5 glass carrier Multigrade developer. I produced four perfect negatives from this shoot. Successful test with no scratches. This film scratches very easilty
 
Broncolor Balloon and FOBA Sweep Table by Nokton48, on Flickr

I have just upgraded my vertical shooting table in my studio. Three layers of heavy expensive plywood makes a rock stable base. Norma camera upgraded to 5x7, the Norma Reflex Viewer works with this, but dosen't cover the entire field and needs to be moved around. But still it works. Broncolor Balloon Head fits their proline Pulso heads, I have diassembled it and converted it to fit my smaller Broncolor Imapact units. With only 50W modeling heat buildup is not too extreme. This head can handle up to 6400 watt second heads but heats up quick! To the left I have re-assembled my FOBA Sweep Table, I've clamped cherry table tops to it for now and it's great. I'm going to have thick heavy glass custom cut so I can light from below and behind. This is listed in the very old FOBA catalog.

My Portrait Lighting Downscaled 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

My Portrait Lighting Downscaled 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

I enjoy restoring and building all of this. This is a big move forward

25 years ago I studied Tim Kelly's lighting techniques. This is my 2021 retro version, scaled down quite a bit, no giant softboxes. But the same lighting principles apply just the same. Here's the scheme. A Broncolor Impact 21 strobe on full power, set at extreme camera left 90 degrees, providing an overall fill to the set and lighting the backround completely. The fill light modifier is a Broncolor Impaflex 60x60 softbox. Exposure measured incident F16 on full power. FILL F16. A Broncolor Impact 41 strobe on full power, set at 45 degrees camera left. Provides main light on the subject. The light modifier is a Broncolor Impaflex 60x60 softbox. Exposure measured incident F32 on full power. MAIN F32. A Broncolor Impact 21 strobe on full power camera camera light and up high. Impact reflector with Impact Grid. A tight circular pattern tightly aimed above the subject (no light on the subject) and creating a lighter background area to the upper right of the frame. Exposure on background measured incident F22 on full power. GRID SPOT F32. Finally a 36" round silver reflector just off camera right 45 degrees and "feathered". Since we read left to right, this makes a "dark, light, dark, light" across the frame that I find attractive. What I'd like is something interesting to look at in every part of the frame.

Not there yet but it's a start. Exposed F32 4x5 TMAX100 Makiflex Automatic #2 210mm f6.8 Kern Apo Repro lens. Also shot some Ilford FP4+ 6x6cm Linhof Black Rollex film magazine. Man these early wind knob Rollex's are a good match for the Makis grinning face with smiling eyes Sheet film developed in an 8x10 Unicolor Unidrum using one-shot D23 diluted 1:1 ten minutes at 72F on a Unicolor Uniroller.
 
4x5 100TMX Kelly Lighting Impaflex 60 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Plaubel Auto Makiflex #2 210mm f6.8 Kern Arau Process lens Kodak TMX100 Readyload Polaroid 545 holder D23 10 mins at 72C 8x10 Arista RC #2 Multigrade dev 1:10 F32 at 1/15 Broncolor Impact 21/41 strobes Impaflex 60 softboxes grid spot on background

Special THANKS to Charjohncarter for sending me this film to use :)
 
Kelly LF lighting Broncolor Balloon Fill Only F16 EI 100 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Another digital test shot, building up Tim Kelly lighting in my smaller portrait space. Here I have exchanged the 60x60 Broncolor Pulsoflex Softbox, with the biggie globular Broncolor Balloon head, on a 300 ws Broncolor Impact Monolight. Light measured with Broncolor FM2 digital strobe metered measures F16 at Ei 100. The idea with this light is an overall soft directional fill, lighting as much background as possible. In these close quarters the Balloon head is definately the way to go, I can't imagine a softer light source with this one. Of course it falls off from side to side, just like windowlight but artifical. A good upgrade from using a small soft box, it didn't light enough of the set for my uses. This is my other cool James Bright canvas painted 9x12 foot background. I'll be changing up my background setup soon but it's going to be a bit of carpentry involved but well worth it. I'll be adding more lights to build this set up further
 
Extra Long Sinar Norma Bellows 5x7 and 8x10 1 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Extra Long Sinar Norma Bellows 5x7 and 8x10 2 by Nokton48, on Flickr

Keith at Custom Bellows in the UK comes through again big time.
Their usual immaculate job, involving original 5x7 and 8x10 Sinar Norma Bellows Frames. Mighty tatty/shot/ugly so threw the old nasty bellows material away, and shipped just the frames to save weight. Told Keith I want original Norma Bellows pattern, but 50% long extension, which I am not aware in any Norma catalogs I own. So indeed, "Custom Bellows" and I am happy-happy.

Cheers Keith :)
 
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