Article: Photographer Develops Film in Green Tea

Daniel Keating posted an article on his experiments with developing film in green tea and peppermint extract amongst others on DIY Photography.  Daniel points out that it is the phenols in green tea and coffee that do the work to develop film.  His results look great and he lists formulas for the developing agents of choice, so the Kind Reader can mix their own developers to try a roll or two.

This can be of interest to those wanting a natural product to work with, or to those who cannot source commercial chemistry.

For the latter, keep in mind that stores that supply chemicals for pools or for fish tanks will carry sodium thiosulfate, which can be used directly as a fixer.  In the comments, he posts a link to a supplier. That link also explains typical uses of the chemical, so that you can ask for it at the store.

Keep in mind, that commercial fixer includes sodium sulfite to preserve the fixer.  Otherwise, the fixer will oxidize rapidly.  Richard Knoppow of the pure-silver mailing list gives the following formula for plain fixer, mix and use immediately:  "240 grams of crystaline thiosulfate in 1&nbspliter of water."
Simple.  A acid hardening fixer can be made with the addition of two more ingredients.

Read Daniel Keatings article for the details, photos and more!

Blog: Kodak Print Ad for Film

Kosmo Foto features an article on the full page advertisment by Kodak for print film on the back cover of PhotoKlasik International magazine.  The magazine is dedicated to analogue film photography.  It describes itself as "...  an independent print magazine about analog photography, distributed internationally. The magazine is not a translation of the German PhotoKlassik."

Read about the advertisement on Kosmo Foto.

Blog: Alex Luyckx on Film Formats

Alex Luyckx gives a run down on the various film sizes over the years.  Roll film, such as 120 format film, was given a format number by Kodak many years ago in order to simplify and identify what type of film a camera used.  Some formats, such as large format film and plates, used agreed upon size designations to accomplish the same task.

Read about it all in this post on film formats.

Kickstarter Health Check, September 2019

So, how many film photography related crowd-funded projects are there?  Well, your blogger does not know exactly, but there are five projects that are going to be looked at in this report:  Film Ferrania, Silberra, One Instant (Save Pack Film), pixl-latr and the latest of them all, ChromaGraphica, the dry plate holder for large format cameras.

Film Ferrania

The last heard from Film Ferrania was a tweet on July 15th, with random scenes from the factory.  The last news update was on May 14th, in Meet Daniele.  Hopefully, they are making progress now that summer is over.  While some people on the Kickstarter site are not happy with the introduction of P30 B&W film and no E6 film rewards to date, getting a regular production of P30 might keep the factory running and increase the chances of a run of transparency film.  This is a truly monumental project that involved reclaiming equipment, refurbishing an entire building and figuring out how to produce film from scratch.

Silberra

The last update for the Silberra project was December 23rd, last year.  Your blogger was a backer for this project, so will not be commenting further.

One Instant

The One Instant has been posting updates all summer, the last was on August 29th.  There is also a counter showing the number of instant film packs that have been manufactured.  On September 9th, the counter showed 1321 packs made.  On August 29th, when the counter was introduced, it was listed as having 985 packs made.  There are supposedly 18,000 packs to be produced.  So, if the Kind Reader were to do the math, it is going to take a while for all the packs to be made at this pace, but they are making progress!

pixl-latr

The pixl-latr project has regular updates, the last on September 13th, which detailed a hiccup with the making of plastic injection molded parts.  While Paterson, the big-name maker of photographic equipment such as Paterson developing tanks for film, Benbo tripods, lighting and more, has been helping out on the project, even their experience and knowledge is not enough to get the project on track.  This just illustrates how difficult even a seemingly simple project can really be.  Good luck to Hamish Gill, of the 35mmc blog - a blog to follow if the Kind Reader follows film related blogs. 

ChromaGraphica

The ChromaGraphica project was fully funded just on September 10th.  The project will produce film holders for large format dry plates (glass negatives).  Best wishes to this project, and may they make some spares for those whom missed the opportunity to buy holders during the campaign.

FPP: Low ISO B&W Slide Film

The Film Photography Project has a bunch of new films available for the Fall.  One is a low ISO slide film (ISO 0.8!) that can be processed in the usual B&W chemistry to give a positive image, or slide. 

BW Super Positive Slide Film is available at FPP in 35mm format for just under $8 a roll,  get it at their online store.

They have plenty of other film stocks available, and if you are interested in Regular 8mm movie film, they have some of that too!

FPP: Review of the NEW HC-110 Developer from Kodak

The really well tried and true Kodak HC-110 developer has a new formula.  Kodak claims that the updated developer has all the same developing times for its many dilutions and that one can trust the revamped product to perform as it ever did.

The Film Photography Project reported on this updated developer, including a sample comparison of the same film processed in the older, syrupy HC-110 and the new HC-110.

It looks like afficianados of HC-110 can look forward to using the new product with confidence.

Read the article at Film Photography Project, HC-110 - New Formula for 2019!

Resource: Film Types

First, Ag+ Process hopes that the devastating hurricane has spared you and that you are safe.

If you are an adventurous or new film photographer, FilmTypes.com lists an ever expanding list of silver halide films available today, along with a short blurb on the characteristics of each film, contributed photographs shot on each film and at least one external link to a review of each film.

Quite impressive, just with the selection of popular films that they have now.

Visit FilmTypes.com for details!