lynnb
Veteran
Well, that was fun… nothing to lose, so to speak...
overnight soaking in Windex: no result
Methylated spirits applied with cotton bud (Q-tips): no effect
soaking/rubbing with Acetone: no effect
Ponds hand cream/cold cream, prolonged very firm polishing action using cotton buds: no effect
Colgate Advanced Whitening toothpaste with Micro-Cleaning Crystals, using a vigorous circular polishing action with a cotton bud: now we're talking.. this didn't eliminate the haze, but it did noticeably diminish. Un-hazed areas of glass appeared unaffected.
Conclusion: My hands have never been softer from the Ponds, and the lens smiles a bit more brightly from the toothpaste (probably those micro-cleaning crystals). I was wondering if the Advanced Whitening might give me another stop of brightness just like it does for my teeth, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I think it will remain an f4.5 lens 🙁. But maybe it will now have some glow, like a Summitar 🙂
So I re-assembled the Bessa, thoroughly scratching the mounting/locking ring in the process by using two jewellers screwdrivers as a two-handed lens spanner. Not wanting to risk wasting a fresh roll of expensive film, I loaded a roll of ancient, poorly stored Tri-X gifted to me by another photographer along with some darkroom stuff. The film packaging looked faded and ancient.
I exposed normally and, in keeping with the antiquity theme, developed it in XTOL that's about a year old. Why can you only buy that stuff in 5L amounts?
The developed negs were more transparent than a porn star's negligee. Or at least what I imagine a porn star's negligee to look like. With my glasses on.
Scanned in the V700, and here is the result. I think it warrants a roll of real, fresh, HP5+ as the focus seemed OK and I couldn't tell the difference between haze-induced softness and my crap processing:
overnight soaking in Windex: no result
Methylated spirits applied with cotton bud (Q-tips): no effect
soaking/rubbing with Acetone: no effect
Ponds hand cream/cold cream, prolonged very firm polishing action using cotton buds: no effect
Colgate Advanced Whitening toothpaste with Micro-Cleaning Crystals, using a vigorous circular polishing action with a cotton bud: now we're talking.. this didn't eliminate the haze, but it did noticeably diminish. Un-hazed areas of glass appeared unaffected.
Conclusion: My hands have never been softer from the Ponds, and the lens smiles a bit more brightly from the toothpaste (probably those micro-cleaning crystals). I was wondering if the Advanced Whitening might give me another stop of brightness just like it does for my teeth, but I'm not getting my hopes up. I think it will remain an f4.5 lens 🙁. But maybe it will now have some glow, like a Summitar 🙂
So I re-assembled the Bessa, thoroughly scratching the mounting/locking ring in the process by using two jewellers screwdrivers as a two-handed lens spanner. Not wanting to risk wasting a fresh roll of expensive film, I loaded a roll of ancient, poorly stored Tri-X gifted to me by another photographer along with some darkroom stuff. The film packaging looked faded and ancient.
I exposed normally and, in keeping with the antiquity theme, developed it in XTOL that's about a year old. Why can you only buy that stuff in 5L amounts?
The developed negs were more transparent than a porn star's negligee. Or at least what I imagine a porn star's negligee to look like. With my glasses on.
Scanned in the V700, and here is the result. I think it warrants a roll of real, fresh, HP5+ as the focus seemed OK and I couldn't tell the difference between haze-induced softness and my crap processing:
