Polaroid: News from Polaroid Originals

PolaroidOriginals is offering a Halloween deal of a  free pack of B&W instant film with the purchase of the new OneStep+ camera until October 31st.  The camera is on sale $26 off.  The OneStep+ is based on the iconic OneStep camera from the 70s, with updates to the technology of today, including Bluetooth connectivity, a PolaroidOriginals app with controls for light painting and double exposures.

For the Polaroid fan, the company is offering a 2019 Polaroid-a-day Photodarium calendar.  Peel off a new Polaroid photo from a selection of photographers around the world every day, with information about the photographer and the image on the back of each photo.

Weblinks: Everything You Wanted to Know About Pyro

There are a large number of different developers for B&W film.  The recent rise of monobath developers not withstanding, if one wants to experiment with various developers there is no end.  The so-called staining developers, which are based on either Pyrogallol or Pyrocatechin, have a strong following.

Some claim that Pyro developers give a better negative, with better highlight separation, sharpness and acutance.  Some claim modern developers are comparable.

One of the reasons to use staining developers today is to make negatives for two purposes:  printing with silver halide papers with visible light, and for printing with alternative processes using UV light, such as Platinum (Pt) or Palladium (Pd) processes.  Regular developers tend to produce suitable negatives for one or the other.

The pyrocat-hd website gives a ton of links to formulas to make your own Pyro developer, a list of Pyro developers at Photographer's Formulary. and more.

Emulsive: Every Emulsion from A-Z

Emulsive.org is a massive resource for all things film, but it can be hard to find the really useful things.  One of those is the list of every single film stock still made today, complete A-Z.  While the beginning has a rant on the usual negativity from the Internet, the listing is up-to-date as of writing and is an impressive compendium of work.

Not only is every manufacturer listed with every film that they make, but there is a breakdown of which format each film is produced for, and a total count of each emulsion made for each format by type of stock.

For example, the total number of films available for 110 format is 4, while 120 has 82 brands of film to choose from, 35mm has 158 and so on.

Well done.

Article: 8 Reasons to Use Film

Canva, a company that makes apps for graphics design and image editing, gives 8 reasons to try film photography.  An interesting take. 

Kickstarter: the risks

While some Kickstarter projects result in many happy customers, and your blogger has funded several Kickstarters that succeeded fully, while at least one has fallen short, there is the risk that a Kickstarter project fails without giving out any rewards.

DPReview reports that Dr. Rudolph's APO Plasmat Lens 105mm f2.7 by Meyer Optik was one such project.  The company behind the project filed for bankruptcy, leaving those funding the Kickstarter with no rewards and no chance of recovering their funds.  The starting pledge was US$ 1,049, so there are probably some unhappy customers out there right about now.

A contributing factor may have been a traffic accident involving the CEO and main investor for the company, Stefan Immes.

JCH: Introducing Kassha

JapanCameraHunter has come out with yet another product, a single use camera loaded with JCH StreetPan, Kassha.  Not to toot just his own horn, Bellamy puts the new Kassha up against the established brands, the Ilford  and the Lomo single-use cameras.  The Kassha is priced at ¥2,000 or nearly $18 in US dollars at time of writing, compared to $16 for the Lomo B&W camera (currently out of stock) or as little as $10 for the Ilford disposable.

In the comparison between the three cameras, JCH shoots several different scenes with an identical comparison photo from each camera for the scene being evaluated.  This gives one a good anchor to see which camera excels in each case.  The Kassha seems to do well with street scenes and where contrasty results are desirable, perhaps no surprise since it is loaded with JCH StreetPan. 

Read the full review at JCH for your own conclusions.

Printing: Mortenson's 7 Derivative Technique

Ed Buffaloe revisits Mortenson for his printing technique in this article on the Unblinking Eye.  Not to be dismissed so quickly, as by the f/64 Group of Ansel Adams et al, there is a method to his madness.  The article explains how a good print is arrived at and why you should not print it that way.

Invaluable is the print comparison chart that shows the typical results from the exposure of the negative and the development of such a negative in a 3x3 grid (for the underexposure, normal exposure and overexposure of the negative and the underdevelopment, normal development and overdevelopment of the negative).

The so-called 7-D negative is all about the gradation, according to Mortenson.  Well worth the read for any B&W photographer.