Ilford: Film Formats Explainer

Ilford Photo has a short video that introduces the three major film formats that it sells and some of the features of each format. Ilford is one of the major providers of B&W film today, providing Ilford and Kentmere branded film, papers and Ilford chemistry.

Tim Layton Fine Art: Preparing Glass Plates

Tim Layton of Tim Layton Fine Art shows how to prepare glass plates before use.  Whether for preparing the plate for hand coating printing paper, hand coating a dry plate or any other use for glass plate in the darkroom, Tim shows how to make the glass safe for handling.

Watch on YouTube:

35mmc: Reversal Processing of B&W at Home

Well, if you haven't seen the need for a beautiful B&W chrome, a monchrome slide, then read no further.  For those who want to know the simple steps to process your favorite B&W film into slides, read on.  Larger formats, such as medium format, or imagine an 8x10 slide, can be viewed on a light table or sketching tablet with the naked eye.

First, credit to 35mmc for the article, Fomapan 200 Slides, which brought this technique to light.  With just a quick googling for the prime ingredients, and the following recipe is listed:  Roll Reversal Safe Alternative, by fellow Blogspotter, Mektar Polypan.

Just add two common household ingredients to your B&W processing to bleach, followed by exposing the film to light and a second development step.  Simple!  Your Blogger will be trying this formula to see what can be achieved.

TOP: Six Things

MIke Johnston of The Online Photographer opines that he would do six things differently, if he had to do it over again.

Of course, to appear in this blog, one of those things was, of course, "I would have stuck with film."

His take, once you start a cohesive work of art in a medium, keep going.  The remaining five are also note worthy.  Especially for anyone starting out.

Read on at TOP for Six Things.

Tim Layton Fine Art: How to Dry Mount Prints

Tim Layton of Tim Layton Fine Art gives a step by step guide to dry mounting a silver gelatin print and adding a window overmat.

One of the key tools that he uses to provide a perfectly cut print is a rotary trimmer.  While not cheap, Tim demonstrates the fine cutting this device is capable of while keeping a perfectly straight line.

So, without delay, here is the vlog by Tim:

Darkroom VLOG 5/23/2020 Ep. 11 How I Dry Mount My Silver Gelatin Prints by Tim Layton

Cinestill: E6 Development Kits, with a Twist

Cinestill has done it again. This time, a new, three-part, E6 development kit, with a twist. One can now select the first developer, which affects the contrast and colour of the final outcome, with one of three effects. Called the Cs6 Creative Slide 3-bath kits, the variants are: DynamicChrome (D9), DaylightChrome (D6) and TungstenChrome (T6).

These are available as individual quart kits for $39 ($2.97 off as of writing) or a three pack of all the first developers with the blix and colour developer in one kit for $74.99 ($5.95 off as of writing). The single first developer packs will process 8-16 rolls (100 ft) of film, while the three-pack will process up to 32 rolls.

Of the three, TungstenChrome (Cool-Tone) allows box-rated speed in tungsten light. Otherwise, with normal development slide film would require an 80A filter with filter loss of up to two stops.

The DaylightChrome (Neutral-Tone) comes as a convenient liquid concentrate and offers normal development characteristics in a convenient three bath kit.

The DynamicChrome (Warm-Tone) offers slightly more saturation with an extended dynamic range for slide film. Offering up to 6+ stops of dynamic range. Unheard of for reversal film.

According to Cinestill, "...slides should be superior to color-corrected negative scans, without sacrificing creative control."

Read more about the new Cinestill Creative Slide E-6 kits from:

- Studio C-41
- The Phoblographer
- Petapixel

Cinestill: Transparency

Cinestill Film has been hinting this weekend on something new, something transparent. Could we be seeing a new cinematic reversal film being released? Find out, later today!
 

Developing Your Film... Wrong!

This great video shows you why exposing and processing your film incorrectly, can lead to some of the best results.  This is key to getting a great shot, as explained in Mortenson's Printing Method, decades ago.

Here, Professor Agar shows you how it is done and why you would either overexpose or underexpose your shots with examples.

FPP: Now Offering Minolta Spy Film

The Film Photography Project is now offering Minolta spy film and a 3D printed cartridge to load with the film.  The cartridge is being offered on pre-order for $9.95.  The films offered are two B&W films and two colour filmes, all unperforated for maximum usable frame size.

The B&W films are, X2 which is Eastman Double-X 16mm Unperforated Film rated at ISO 200 and HR which is an orthochromatic film rated at ISO 20.

The colour films are, a slide film, 100D rated at ISO 100 with E6 process and 50D, a negative film rated at ISO 50 with ECN-2 process.

Film in Minox cartridges is also available.

If you like this, you might also like Shooting 16mm Film.

Shooting 16mm Film

Here are a couple of articles on how to make film for a 16mm still camera and how to make a reel to develop it.  There are a variety of 16mm film cameras, ranging from the well known Minox to the Mamiya 16 and Minolta 16 to the Yashica 16, the Kiev cameras and more.  A list of the many subminiature cameras can be found at subclub.org - a repository of everything subminiature.

The first up, Kosmo Foto offers a simple, but effective method to make a cutter to slice a roll of 35mm film into a 16mm roll.  Using just a couple of blades and a matchbox, an effective tool can be made to cut perhaps 3 rolls of subminiature film from a single roll of 35mm. 

Your Blogger recommends a low speed, T-grain film, such as Kodak T-Max 100 or Ilford Delta 100 for finest grain.  Most any modern film will work fine, but given the small frame of 16mm film, a low grain film would be recommended.

The second step is how to process the film.  Paying to develop 16mm film may be difficult and expensive. the film is an unusual size and quite short.  Labs that handle 16mm movie film probably do not want to handle it and still film labs might not be able to process it either.  Developing B&W is fairly straightforward if you have the tank and reel for it.  Buying that might be expensive as well.

The folks at 35one20.com have a solution for 110 film, which happens to be the same size as 16mm.  Simply cut down a plastic, 35mm reel to fit.  The collar on one side of the reel leaves just enough space for a roll of 16mm to fit.

So, that wraps it up, a way to make 16mm film, a list of 16mm film cameras, and a way to make a 16mm film processing reel.  It is that easy to step into the world of subminiature photography!

World Wide Pinhole Photography Day 2020

The last Sunday of April every year, which would be this Sunday, the 26th this year, is World Wide Pinhole Day.  Emulsive.org has an article on this event, COVID-19 style.  Due to the lockdown covering much of the world and thus affecting the ability to process film, the deadline for submitting pinhole photographs shot on April 26th will be June 30th.

The event only requires that the submitted photographs be shot on Apil 26th through a pinhole.  Medium does not matter, whether it is paper, film or digital.  Ultra-long exposures such as Solarcan photos need only have the shutter open on this Sunday to qualify.

Visit pinholeday.org for full details, and check the Emulsive.org article.

Kosmo Foto: The End of Plastic Film Canisters?

Our friends at Kosmo Foto have this quick article on Street Candy film being packed in recyclable canisters.

Read The End of Plastic Canisters? at Kosmo Foto.

Article: Analog.Cafe

The Analog Cafe is another resource for analog photographers run by a gentleman with a BSc in Science.  He has collated a collection of resources for photographers during thie period of COVID-19.

Check out theAnalog Cafe Covid-19 Prevention Advice and Resources page.  You may wish to bookmark it as it is frequently updated.

Stay safe during Easter!

Labs Still Open While We Stay at Home

Our friend at Kosmo Foto has a list of labs that are still open for film sent by mail, should you have a pressing need to have your film processed.  Most places around the world are closed to the public, but the post office is still open.

Your Blogger is waiting for the familiar and reliable local lab to re-open, but feel free to send to one of the labs listed if you need to.

Blog Note: COVID-19 Scale

There is lots of news in the film industry going on, at a break-neck pace.  Your Blogger is working from home, which seems to take up more time that working at the office.

Polaroid Originals changed name to Polaroid, coming around full circle.

PhotoKlassik International changed name to SilverGrain Classsics, to differentiate itself from the German PhotoKlassik magazine, a different publication.

Ilford shut down its plant and factory store in England.

As fast as the pandemic spreads, there are closings and openings.  Many services and products that are available in stores, now closed, are still available online. 

Your Blogger misses the film processing lab already.  Some labs may still be open, check yours, before mailing film in.

Stay safe.   It is going to get worse before it gets better.

Darkroom Dave: Split Grade Pirnting

Not far from the Ilford tree, the master printer trained at Ilford labs known as Darkroom Dave on Youtube offers and alternate process to achieve good print exposure without dodging & burning.

The technique of split grade printing, by using filters with multigrade paper, is demonstrated from start to finish by Dave.  Rather than using a single filter, such as a number 2.5 grade filter, he uses two filters, often a number 1.0 filter and a number 5.0 filter.

The lower the number, the lower the contrast.  Dave suggests using a 1.5 filter instead of a 1.0 filter for more contrast in the finished print, or a 0 filter for a less contrasty look.  He always uses the 5 filter.

Watch Dave make is his magic work in the darkroom, from determining the exposure, through trial prints to the finished product:

Ilford Photo Darkroom Guides: Dodging and Burning

Photographer Rachel Brewster-Wright leads us through the process to dodge & burn a print in the darkroom.  She demonstrates the technique, compares before and after prints and shows the printing process in action.

Note some of the characteristics of the print as it is being developed.  It looks much darker when it comes out of the developer tray under red light compared to when it is dry and shown in white light.

This is typical of any print, and why exposure must be judged only after the print is washed and dried and viewed under white light.  Some expert printers may be able to judge exposure of a wet print, but that certainly does not include Your Blogger and likely not any novice printer.

Enjoy!

COVID-19: Stay Safe, Stay Home

The global pandemic could be worse.  Officials are locking down borders and asking citizens to stay home, if possible.  This is to contain the virus, squelch it out and remove the risk.  The outcome in the best case is that almost nothing happens, few people die and the coronavirus becomes a bad memory. 

Then the self-sacrifice will be well worth the outcome.

But only if people self-isolate and prevent the spread of the virus.

Soap kills the virus, so wash hands, wash surfaces and keep things clean with soap and water. 

In the meantime, some videos coming up to while away the time and learn something useful about film photography.

Zine: Monochrome Mania

A blog with a zine, our cohabitators at Blogspot, Random Camera Blog, have released a nicely printed and bound, first edition of Monochrome Mania.  Only $10 and insanely cheap shipping (by the standards where this Blogger lives), gets one a copy of the newly printed zine.

The contents of the first edition are all about B&W films of ISO 50 or lower. Fill out your knowledge of the slow films available today, with Monochrome Mania.

Camerhack: Adaptors for Old Film Formats

Analogue Wonderland has this great video on a new product that they are selling that adapts modern film to cameras that use long discontinued film formats.

This new product will breathe life into all sorts of old cameras that would otherwise be left to the wayside.  Camerhack of Italy has made adaptors for a number of different formats, including 116, 118, 122, 130 and 130 roll film formats.

Even the 1970s hit format, the drop in instamatic 126 catridge has an adapter that will spool modern 35mm film.  Note that some 126 cartridge cameras will have issues with the extra sprockets in the 35mm film, while other cameras will be fine.  The original format had one sprocket per frame.

Check out the video at Analogue Wonderland for more details and a listing of the products.

Nick Carver: Comparison of Film Scanning Methods

Photographer, Nick Carver, compares three scanning methods for his 6x17 film.  He compares scanning both a negative and a slide, for a total of six scans.  He concludes with the easiest and quickest method for each type of film.  The three methods tested were:  a drum scan from a lab, a scan from a flatbed scanner and stiching shots from a still digital camera.

The results of the scans were then printed each to the same size print, and then the prints were compared.

Due to the rather wide nature of the frame used, stitching digital frames to get rhe full resolution was required.  This was a non-starter, so no surprise, this method did not win in this competition.  A more conventional format that conforms better to the sensor size of a digital camera may not require stitching, which might change the scenario.

Nick found that the quality of a drum scan can vary from lab to lab, so he took up an offer from another photographer with the equipment necessary, with spectacular results.  So your mileage with drum scans may vary depending on the lab.  Nick recommends Michael Strickland for his drum scanning.

Nick's Epson flatbed scans were wet mounted, a method that he recommends, using the Better Scanning fluid mount.

Checkout his full video with the methodology, results and conclusions, on Youtube, time that will be well spent for the hybrid film photographer:

B&H: Kodak Ektachrome in 4x5 Sheets

B&H Photo Video has issued a notification that Kodak Ektachrome E100 is available for ordering.  Pricing at time of writing is $59.95 for 10 sheets.  Compared to a box of Fujifilm Provia 100F, another slide film, which is currently listed at $89.95 for 20 sheets, Ektachrome is a little bit more expensive per sheet.

The comparison price per sheet would be $6 for a sheet of Ektachrome E100 vs. $4.50 for a sheet of Provia 100F.   Of course, Ektachrome is Ektachrome, there is no other film quite like it, so price is just a factor, not necessarily a deciding factor.

Ektachome E100 is also available in 35mm and 120 roll film.

Disclaimer:  Your blogger has purchased E100 film in the past and likely will in the future.  

FPP: Home Processing Kits and P30

The Film Photography Project runs a store, the Film Photography Store, in order to support its mission to promote silver halide film products.

This past week, the Project has announced the return of the C41 development 1 liter kit and the availability of the E6 development 1 quart kit.   The 1 liter C41 kit is labelled as being able to process up to 8 rolls of 35mm film.  However, FPP reports that at least one person managed to coax 20 rolls out of the kit.

The Project is now selling Ferrania P30 (out of stock as of writing!).  If you are in the USA or Canada, the Film Ferrania North America store still seems to have P30 available.  Otherwise, there are some European partners that may have P30 available.

Happy Film February!

Richard Photo Lab: Why KT Merry Shoots Film

The Richard Photo Lab blog has the top ten reasons that top tier wedding photographer, KT Merry, still shoots film.  Read all about it in the article, KT Merry 10 reasons why I still shoot film.

B&H: 10 Recommended Heavy-Duty Tripods

B&H Photo and Video has an article listing 10 full-size tripods that they would recommend, complete with links to their online store to buy them.  Of course, selecting the same model tripod on Amazon, Adorama or your local camera shop would work as well.

If your camera is particularly heavy, outfitted with a long telephoto or you just don't want your camera flapping about in the wind, a sturdy tripod can assist in getting a tack sharp shot.  One of these tripods is rated to support up to 50 lbs of gear.  Now that is a big camera.

While the article does not itself explain what the features listed mean, B&H has another page (mentioned within the article) that has a tripod buying guide.  Choosing which tripod will work for you requires reading the articles and checking the specs for the tripods that interest you.

Knowing what you want (is the tripod for video, still landscape photos, wildlife photos, etc.) and the weight of your gear can help select the appropriate tripod for your budget. 

Here is a brief listing of the first three recommendations:

1. Really Right Stuff TVC-33 Versa Series 3 Mk2 Carbon Fiber Tripod and BH-55 Ball Head
2. Gitzo GT2532 Mountaineer Series 2 Carbon Fiber Tripod and GH1382QD Series 1 Center Ball Head
3. FEISOL CT-3472LV Elite Rapid Carbon Fiber Tripod with Leveling Center Column and CB-40D Ball Head

Others include (in alphabetical order):  3 Legged Thing, Benro, Induro, Manfrotto, Oben and Slik.  There are, of course, other brands and types of tripods out there, so it is worthwhile to search for more recommendations.

Read on at 10 recommended full-size tripods.

KEH: Cameras to Start From, 35mm to Instant

KEH, the store that recycles cameras and gear, has a quick posting on the Best Film Cameras for Beginners in Every Format.  With links back to listings on KEH, should you be inclined to buy one of the excellent cameras that is listed in the article.

A word on KEH and how they work.  The KEH machine grades and buys used cameras, lenses and other gear.  The process of grading the item, based on ten factors, determines the grade, such as Like New, Excellent Plus, Excellent, Bargain and so on.  From the grade, the price is determined.

Using the grade, one can make the choice of whether to buy an item, knowing that the factors that go into the grade are made with integrity, and that the item may be returned within 14 days of delivery (RMA required) should one not be satisfied.

The article, again:  the Best Film Cameras for Beginners in Every Format.  Check it, even if you have a camera, you never know where it might lead...

Disclosure, Your Blogger has purchased items from KEH in the past.

Sale: Polaroid Originals New Year Sale

Polaroid Originals is having a New Year Sale.  With up to 20% off festive film, 10% off cameras and up to 50% off on Polaroid Originals marked clothing and merchandise, such as mugs. 

Pick up your analog instant goodies at a discount, here.

Podcast: Classic Lenses Podcast

As with most podcasts, a rambling conversation about various classic lenses and... film cameras! This podcast covers so many different classics, offers a Lifetime Achievement Award and a complete list of the CLP awards, just click on this link for the full list. Bonus, one of the podcasters is the host for the Large Format Photography Podcast, see Monday's posting!
 

Podcast: Large Format Photography Podcast

Wouldn't one of the hosts of the Classic Lenses Podcast also be the host of the Large Format Photography Podcast!  Great stuff to listen to while scanning negatives.  Maybe your Blogger should convince his lab to do the scanning, they are really good at it - lets say the colour is spot on from the lab.

The topics and links in the podcast are listed at the podcast website, click here for episode #20 details.

Enjoy the podcasts!

New Year's Deals

Polaroid Originals is offering 20% off instant film until January 5th, 2020.  Just enter code HAPPY2020 as indicated at the top of their web page.  Make your resolution to shoot more frames, and cut yourself a sweet deal at the same time.

KEH is offering 10% off site wide and 20% off on accessories, until January 4th, 2020.  Click on the top banner on their web site to get the code.  Enter the code shown when you check out.

These deals have exclusions and deadlines, check the respective site for details.