New York May NYC Meet-Up

Had some free morning time and decided to develop my nice sunday roll. I did the best "Monday" f*up ever. Poured the fixer first. Thank god it was just a single 120, as I don't tend to do volumes.

Noticed that 40s after pouring, went emergency mode and emptied the fixer, rinsing and throwing developer in. Film looks clear with a pinkish cast and very very faint images. Well now I know something.:bang:


Liquid developer is just great. HC110 is very cheap and convenient.

I'm running low on film and will do another order soon, fancied trying other slower films such as the Deltas, for summer. llford film is very well priced in Europe so I tend towards it, and HP5 is just a great staple. I printed some older negs from Acros and that film, wow, grain so fine I had troubles in the grain focuser.

Acros/TMY have this spectral response that is supposed to act like a mild yellow filter built in. Might throw a couple rolls of TMY in.

Probably I won't really order much Delta 100 as in 6x9 ISO 400 works just great and I tend to use a #12 Yellow during sunny days with HP5, shooting at 160 (320 w/o filter) to get that slight margin. Haven't tried pushing yet, as now days are very long here.

Jorde,

I am pleased with DDX. $18.00 for a liter. Not inexpensive, a luxury for me, but the results I'm getting are outstanding.

5222 is rated for 250 ISO but 500 ISO gives me fast shutter speeds. I think a pull to 200 ISO and basically for 135 this is all I would ever need.

With Phil's "Steal-Deal" the cost per 100 feet of film is under $50.00. Pretty much under $3.00 a roll. Also this is a silver rich film that has mucho exposure lattitude. Has an old school look of back in the day.

I get negatives that capture the contrast I want to print.

Cal
 
There you go Cal! Just wait til you silver print them.
-Dan

Today I am looking at 5222 negs in my Omega DII with 135 lens. Very long lens improves quality. Super sharp on the easel 8x10

ADOX Borax is still my go to Has the best tonality and cheap to make

Microdol-X is flat and slow, development times go super long on my Uniroller and Jobo Multitank. That is a distinct advantage for me. I had a gallon of Microdol-X last me five years! Kinda stores like Diafine, just use it every few weeks You can make replenisher for it using stock solution
 
There you go Cal! Just wait til you silver print them.
-Dan

Today I am looking at 5222 negs in my Omega DII with 135 lens. Super sharp on the easel

ADOX Borax is still my go to Has the best tonality and cheap to make

Microdol-X is flat and slow, development times go super long on my Uniroller and Jobo Multitank. That is a distinct advantage for me. I had a gallon of Microdol-X last me five years! Kinda stores like Diafine, just use it every few weeks

Dan,

All this inspiration is mostly your fault. LOL.

Our friend Phil hooked up Joe and I with the Student Discount with the 5222. How cool is that?

The DDX is coming in handy because I have a lot of dated film that I need to consume. The time for DDX and 5222 I kinda took a lucky guess. First developed two rolls at 11 minutes, and then did a second two at 10 minutes. E-Z-P-Z. Pretty much some experience helped. Does not look like pushed film.

My negatives have some density to wet print. I also have the contrast worked out so that I have the contrast and range of tone with mucho mids. The midrange looks metalic if you know what I mean with a polished glow.

Some magic happened.

BTW I'm so jealous of your darkroom.

Cal
 
Well hopefully Phil will continue to be a film student LOL That is as cheap as Eastman NYC will go

I have no extra time right now but will be busy with this stuff very soon. Need to make 70mm silver prints
 
Well hopefully Phil will continue to be a film student LOL That is as cheap as Eastman NYC will go

I have no extra time right now but will be busy with this stuff very soon. Need to make 70mm silver prints

Dan,

Been obsessing over my baby Linhof gear. I still have a roll of Rollie 400S to play with.

Did you know that I have a 645 Linhof CINE. That's about 120 shots 645 from 15 feet of film. I have a Zeiss 53/4.5 Biogon and in 645 I figure is a 35mm FOV. With my 6x7 CINE I figure about a 24mm FOV with the 53 Biogon.

Cal
 
That's very hot glass retro old school You should shoot that 120 400s with both lenses

Dan,

The 53 Biogon serves as both a wide (35mm FOV/645) and an ultra-wide 24mm FOV/6x7).

My other lens is a Zeiss 100/2.8 Planar.

Interesting story about buying the 100/2.8 Planar. Basically an entire kit was being sold that included a Tech IV, grip, cable release, hood, filter holder, caps, 6x9.5 film holders, masks instructions...

The EBAY seller was very up front that the Planar had lens separation issues, but the rest of the kit alone was worth the $800.00 BIN. So basically I bought this kit as if it was a lottery ticket. I figured I would send it to John at Focal Point to see if I could get the lens separation repaired.

$250.00 later I had a perfect lens. Of course you know that the lens could shatter as a result of the attempt to repair, and still $250.00 would still have to be paid, even for a failed repair.

Also I kinda came under the wire because John soon thereafter retired. A clean/perfect 100/2.8 Planar sells for around $2K if you can find one. Pretty much I won the lottery.

Also with every Linhof purchased comes a free gym membership I say. LOL.

The single coated Zeiss glass is very exceptional. Pretty amazing.

My friend Christian 3-D printed a Graphlock mount and adapted a Polariod film holder that exposes pack film full sheet. I load up the truck with FP-100 when it was $20.00 a pack.

A camera you like might not have is a Plaubel 69W "Proshift." I kinda use the Plaubel like how you use your "Handy."

Cal
 
Hey does anyone happen to have a LARGE format film or paper holder that can be used for exposures? I mean large format, not the 4x5 or 5x7 formats.
I'm hoping to find an 11x17 or 16x20 holder that I can load with paper then use in my super secret art/photo/grad school project.

Aside from that, does anyone know how to build a ULF film or paper holder? I figure I could do it with some clamps and sandwiching wood. My only must is that it has to have a dark slide.

I wish I could get liquid light to behave. I have a quart of that stuff but can never get development right. Or maybe never get exposure right. Who knows. Every one of my experiments with it have failed.

EDIT: I just realized what I need is a large format X-ray film holder. Large, like 1:1 scale chest X-ray holder. Something bigger than 8x10. I wonder if the online-auction-place-that-sucks-valuable-time-away-from-life has such a thing.

Thanks all.

Phil Forrest

Phil,
I missed this post before somehow.

1. I have an 8x10 wooden kodak holder that I bought in Mexico City in a tiny shop when I was going walk about (of course I would find a camera shop). I got it for doing paper neg experiments, which I haven't gotten round to.

2. look for Chamonix film holders on ebay. They are of course chinese (not french), and make wooden holders in lots of sizes. What is cool is that they have drawings of their holders with some key dimensions on some of their listings. You could use these as a guide to design your own. If you google around there are sites that I have found before that have charts with key dimensions of standardized film holders, including the larger sizes.

Chamonix-film-holders-from-5x7-to-20x24in

3. My 13x18 Linhof uses the old style "millionfalz" single shot holders. Theses are hard to find and expensive. I was sketching some designs for building my own, but I have now diverted my attention. Now I am designing a 5x7 quickload type holder with paper sleeves that would be simple and cheap and easy to load the film or paper neg into. If this concept is feasible, it should work at larger sizes too.
 
Oh I forgot to mention, the idea with the "Quickload" sleeves was to also build a portable developing tank that you could develop one or two shots at a time on the spot. With Ilford direct positive paper this would be like a large format "instant" camera. Not quite as fast as instax, but still pretty quick.
 
Is there a date yet? I need to get my 5222 from Cal...

I've been so busy it's crazy.

Joe

Joe,

Mother's Day is now behind us. Pick either Sunday the 19th or Sunday the 26th. Location The Rochard on Lex and 97th.

I contacted Landrew. He has a whole crew of photographers, and when the Seattle like weather is behind us I think we should have the June Meet-Up at that outdoor beer garden in Astoria. I wanted to do this last year, but it did not happen.

I'm also thinking of doing a BBQ on Randal's Island sometime in the summer.

I'll bring the 4 sheets of 5222 negatives that I developed at 11 minutes and then 10 minutes that were shot at 500 ISO. I'm pretty proud that my decades of analog experience allowed my lucky guessing to pretty much make negatives that transcend format. Lots of medium format IQ. I would say that these will print big well and the mids looked so "polished" that the mids take on a metalic quality.

It also helps that 5222 has great lattitude and is old school mucho silver rich. It really does not get better than this. I'll bring the Tri-X negatives also that are 120 shot at 400 ISO. Unfortunately the Delta 400 and HP5 look like they need to get "pulled" a bit: perhaps 320 ISO for them. I'm hoping I can do a mixed tank: Tri-X 400 ISO; with Delta 400 at 320 ISO; and HP5 also at 320 ISO for my 120 films.

The developing time I have for above should also work for FP4 pulled to 50 ISO for when I need to kill film speed. Remember this is for 120 and all my medium format cameras have leaf shutters. I max out at 1/500 second shutter speed.

I am also so pleased in having all the gear I have. Thought I overdid things, but pretty much everything has a purpose. I think I will do some more film vacations where I shoot one day and develop the next. I pretty much loose myself, and the take away is mucho satifaction.

What really gets displayed is my skill and experience, and I find this highly rewarding when the rest of the world makes little sense. I have an entire universe to escape the real world.

Cal
 
Joe,

I'll show you some of my ideas for respooling and bulk loading. I'll bring this Leica spool loader, some of my 70 mm bulk loaders that could be modified/utilized, and the Topcon 250 exposure spool loader. I have some bulk film that I use for testing that has been exposed.

Cal
 
Yesterday's event at the Applestore in Williamsburg was lots of fun. About twenty people attended despite the rain. Realize that part of this event was a neighborhood walk to take Iphone photos followed by an editing and share session.

One guest came from Finland. She is a follower who happened to be in town.

Maggie got an Apple watch as swag.

Cal
 
Mother's Day is now behind us. Pick either Sunday the 19th or Sunday the 26th. Location The Rochard on Lex and 97th.

Cal, don't make me pick. I'll pick a day and won't be able to make it. :bang:

Someone else should, but if you leave it up to me, lets say the 26th.

Joe
 
Cal, don't make me pick. I'll pick a day and won't be able to make it. :bang:

Someone else should, but if you leave it up to me, lets say the 26th.

Joe

Joe,

I'll pick the 26th then. You have my number if you want me to drop off your film.

You should see the negatives I made using 5222 at 500 ISO with DDX. Very impressive.

Next is pulling 5222 to 200 ISO. Pretty much one film and one developer for 135 so I can blast away. With 200 ISO and 500 ISO I can do lots of photography.

Cal
 
Hey John,

Its the middle of May and 46 degrees in NYC on my walk to work. Crappy overcast rainy weather with gusting winds.

They are sanitizing the South Bronx.

Shocker is that I no longer will be a caveman and now have what I believe is an Iphone 8 that "Maggie" gifted me. I will also be starting a blog.

Kinda weird don't you think. LOL.

Cal
 
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