J. Lane Glass Dry Plates

aizan said:
What's it like shooting at ISO 2?
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In low light will use a tripod. I can shoot in bright sunlight, with the old Plaubel Makinas handheld, at 1/50 @ F2.9, with ASA 2. So very portable and very do-able. And I love the "look" of the 100mm Plaubel Makina Anticomar at F2.9 wide open. Seems like a good match.

With the Makiflex I can shoot at 1/125 at F2 in bright sun, using my 135mm Super Cinephor 70mm movie projection lens. That will make for some unique images I am hoping.

I have a few more ducks to line up before starting this project. Need a way to dry the glass negatives, they are very delicate when wet. I want a drying stand that will do 9x12cm and 6.5x9cm on the same drying rack. I am inquiring with Jason to see if I can buy a couple of extra wood strips for his drying rack, that seems like the best option to me. Or I could build this myself in my workshop, it might be a fun woodworking project. This is how they used to do it back in the 1890's. Worked back then 🙂

Jason Lane Drying Rack for dry plates by Nokton48, on Flickr

301_orig by Nokton48, on Flickr

^^^ Jason's glass cutting process.


I will start posting images as soon as I get everything lined up and running right. Should be a blast.
 
Interestingly he even offers these for use in 24x36mm cameras. I tried to do this when I was 15 years old, it didn't work for me. Too many issues. Some day I might try it again, using his precoated plates for 35mm cameras.
 
OK so how how do you do this? Load the plate holders under a red safelight (I have the old Pattersons in my darkroom). Very straightforward. I'm going to use 5x7 Patterson trays for developing, and a great hint I picked up while mining for info, is to use a cheap plastic kitchen spatchula to move the developing plates from tray to tray. Minimal chance of getting edge damage that way. The emulsion is quite delicate. Chemical and wash temperatures must all be the same, or you will have problems.

HC110 "B" for six minutes, develop by inspection as needed. Dry plates on Lane drying rack. Waiting to hear from Jason on getting one custom made for my needs. Then I'll be ready to go.
 
I've just ordered one of Jason's drying racks. I will move the wooden strips down so that this unit will work with my 6.5x9cm plates. I've not seen anybody else out there shooting medium format dry plates. This will be a hoot. If I like it, I will buy some more plates in 9x12cm and 4x5".

You can also make these yourself, cut the glass yourself, and use Liquid Light, or make your own emulsion. I think I will stick to using Jason's plates for now. Here is his setup, it looks rather complicated.

J Lane Plate Coating Process by Nokton48, on Flickr
 
Cool stuff, Nokton! I'm thinking of getting an Ica Polyscop because of this thread.

If you're at the edge of hand holdability in bright sunlight, what's the reciprocity failure correction?
 
Aizan,

These plates have a VERY long toe, Jason says has tweaked the emulsion to be so. I've read NO reciprocity effect to speak of, but have no experience with them yet. And I've read comments about the copious shadow detail in these plates. Scanning these reveals shadow detail you would not expect from modern film emulsions, or from eyeballing the plate. Of course Jason wants our input to improve his products.

I prefer to use a tripod when I can, so that aspect of this is no big deal to me. But great that I can handhold in bright sunlight (or use a flashbulb!)

Also, you can shoot these plates with a #47B deep blue, and you will get a rendition more like you would get with a collodion wet plate (think early wet plate photos). Might try that! And none of the risks and dangers of shooting wet plate.
 
peterm1 said:
I do love the tonality and overall rendering available from MF and LF lenses on old technology. It is most impossible to emulate any other way.
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Absolutely Peter! That is why I want to follow this strategy and see what becomes of it. I suspect I will be delighted. I love the tonality as well. And it is fairly easy to achieve (I understand) with these materials. The results are out on the internet for all to see.

Jason started dry plate images thread over here: http://www.largeformatphotography.i...ages-made-with-dry-plates&highlight=dry+plate

Unfortunately the moderators think medium format is inky-dinky so maybe they will not allow my Makina dry plate images. We will see, I want to contribute over there, and on this thread as well. And there is always 4x5/9x12 down the road.

Stay tuned.
 
Jason responded back that his wood Guy really didn't want to customize the wooden rack he sells. So here is his response:

"that still leaves you without a drying rack for your smaller plates. I have my own antique plate drying rack which holds anything from 16x20 down to 35mm plates. What I'm thinking is this: I can replicate my own plate drying rack but it'd take about a week and would cost $50 in materials."

This is a great solution and I'm grateful to Jason. He cancelled my drying rack order from his regular stock, and I've now paid him for my custom made drying rack.

This one he says will work from 35mm to 8x10. I have cameras in all of those sizes.
Can't beat that! 🙂
 
I just saw this over on www.apug.org, so I will pass it along here:


Hello to my dry plate shooting friends in Europe! Dust off your dry plate cameras and find those dry plate holders!

I am very pleased to announce that J. Lane Dry Plates will soon be available from Schwarzweiss Fotolabor in Dusseldorf, Germany! The first shipment of plates was sent out today and will arrive at their store sometime over the next few weeks. They are very excited to be stocking these plates, and have told me they are happy to ship to anyone in Europe including the UK!

Schwarzweiss Fotolabor and Pictoriographica share a mutual goal of providing the wonderfully unique dry plates to European photographers at a lower cost than if ordering them directly from me in the United States.
They will initially be stocking plates in the following sizes:

4" x 5"
5" x 7"
8" x 10"
Whole Plate
9x12 cm

However, as always I can make plates in any size, so please contact them with your specific requests. Our plan is to ship plates -- both stock for their inventory and custom requests -- on a monthly (or faster as needed) basis.
See their website at http://www.schwarzweiss-fotolabor.de/ for contact information.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to offer my sincere thanks for all the support and encouragement you as a community and as individuals have shown in my endeavor to supply dry plates to the world. It's very much appreciated and it started right here on Photrio!

Best Regards,
Jason Lane of Pictoriographica
Thomas Ochs of Schwarzweiss Fotolabor
Newly made photograhic dry plates available in any size!
More info at http://www.pictoriographica.com
.. because my wife is happy when I can cover my photography expenses.
 
Nokton48 said:
If you are talking about loading dry plates into a Linhof, they did made these holders in all sizes, and they will work with glass plates, or regular modern photo film. I have some of these in 6.5x9cm, 2.25x3.25, 9x12cm, and 4x5".

This is a good way to shoot dry plates in a Linhof. 😎

2016-01-16 13.07.45 by Nokton48, on Flickr
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If I remember it correctly, they were called "Auswerfer", from auswerfen, "throw out", since they have a release mechanism. I had a few, but they were impossible to use with sheet film - perhaps there was a secret trick that I never found out about. 🙂

For some reason, I got a bunch of 6,5x9 cm normal film holders since I wanted to get into that format for some odd reason, but I couldn't get any film in that size so they are hiding in a cupboard ...

Anyways, looking forward to try some J. Lane plates in a few months time.
 
Jerevan,

This Guy has been a good source for outdated ORWO 6.5x9cm film. I have bought a lot of boxes from him, he will adjust his prices.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ORWO-NP22-...e:g:zq4AAOSwn-tZKEKY:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true

2016-02-03 18.05.03 by Nokton48, on Flickr

6.5x9cm film is imposible to find in the USA. But also, many dealers in the UK have fresh 6.5x9cm Ilford FP4+. I also have a lot of that.

2016-02-16 15.26.52 by Nokton48, on Flickr

There is also a lot of short-dated FOMA 6.5x9cm around if you dig a bit.
 
Jason Lane Custom Drying Rack by Nokton48, on Flickr

On the left, Jason's Antique Plate Drying Rack. This unit works with plates from 35mm to 16x20". In the Center, his custom made (by him) prototype of the modern version of same. He says it functions perfectly with his dry plates. On the right, my drying rack, ready to be assembled. YAY!

He says he will assemble my unit today, varnish it, and then out it goes to me 🙂 Not bad for $50. Looks like a lot of work.

I've been waiting for this thing, so I can get started.
 
The plate rack looks great, Nokton48 - always nice being able to get newly made stuff.

Thanks for the pointers on the 6.5x9 film. Now I am going to have to find a camera that fits with the filmholders, hah. 😀
 
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