J12+J8: Tmax in "Tired soup"

[mike goldberg]

This could go in Darkroom, however my intention was to compare two FSU lenses.
Ah, intentions ;-) ... Anyhow, the lenses are a modern black J12, 35/2.8, circa late 1970's... and a J8, 50/2, circa mid-1950's.

Fresh Tmax was developed in HC-110, 1:19. Forgive me for being a bit gross, but the HC-110 syrup was from the bottom of a bottle and it looked like what goes down the toilet, and didn't smell much better 🙄 Still and all, this "super soup" yielded acceptable negs, tho' they lack "punch."

The J12 images are below, and the J8 images are in the following Post. There was
NO cropping and NO digital sharpening in Resizing. And, yes... all of the pix got a modest boost in brightness-contrast.

F5.6: At the mall; sign on right advertises home cooking on kerosene burners.

F4: Thirty year old Volvo station wagon.

F8: Community center building entrance.

 

[mike goldberg]

J12+J8 in "Tired soup" continued

J12+J8 in "Tired soup" continued

Here are the J8 images; BTW the camera used was a Fed-2c.

F4 Kids' shoes in the Souk.

F5.6 Backlit leaves in late afternoon light; please click again (+) here.

F5.6 Black Mercedes.

With this J8, f5.6 is a superb aperture. Feedback is welcome.
Cheers, Mike

 

[fidget]

I love tests like this, as preliminary shots they work well. At least you've got confidence that they must be basically good. Going to push the J12 in a brighter scene to tempt it to flare? I'm not to sure how to test for this, but mine is a regular surprise here.

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi fidget,
Yes, I want to see how the J12 does in the Israeli sunshine.

When I saw the rear element, I went Googling and learned that the Russian engineers wanted to create a "non-retro-focus wide angle," thus the rear element that protrudes 21mm into the camera body😱 It worked very well with the Fed-2, but it's not for a Bessa R.

Cheers, Mike

 

[jbf]

Looks good but you need to lower the darks. Overall they are extremely flat right now.

If you lowered the blacks they'd gain much of the contrast needed. 😀


You can see what happens with just a tweak of the levels command in PS. (Bring it so that the black point meets where the information starts.


Surprisingly your souping looks great I think once you adjsut the black point. 🙂 Nice!

 

[SCOTFORTHLAD]

Mike,
Nice results,in every respect.The FSU lense always seem to perform well.and your processing seems fine.I hope to try that myself soon,my first efforts way back in the nineties,left me with dust on the negs.,so I will have to try harder there.
Scanning a neg on my pretty basic Microtek software will be the next hurdle,but the gloomy UK winter evenings is the best time to experiment.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,
Brian.

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi there guys...

jbf, yes... I see what you mean; there's still shadow detail in the dark tones of the Volvo grille.

Brian, I've done quite a few exposure-development tests. I usually process my negs when my wife has gone to sleep 🙄 When they are washed and "FotoFlowed," I hang them to dry in the loo with the electric heater set on low. The CD's are done at a nearby 1-hour lab, and they do a decent job.

Good like with your processing.
Mike