Thrift Store Finds (Yashica T4)

Being successful at thrift store shopping, you should have the habit of visiting such stores on a regular basis. Lately, I got a lot of very interesting photographic equipment from my local store. Today might have just been the best yet. For just €1.95, I got myself a copy of the legendary Yashica T4 in mint condition. The camera is untested up to know. I first will have to shoot the film in yet another thrift store find, so that I can move the battery between the cameras.

Yashica T4 front

Yashica T4, what I paid for

Presently, this is a $500 camera.

In reverse or random order, I might post more of my finds in such stores in the future. Hopefully with images from and taken with said finds. 

(Semi) Stand Development

Some opinions might make you believe that you need at least 5ml of Rodinal to develop a film in stand development.

To be honest, I never understood that statement.

When doing stand development with 1:200 dilutions, I just eyeballed with what I got, and it turned out alright every single time; mainly for 120 and 135 Foma films. My tanks are using either 590ml or 250ml of liquid. In both scenarios, the amount of Rodinal is obviously less than 5ml for a 1:200 (give or take) dilution.

I have the suspicion that the above statement is more based on the lack of a device being able to provide decent accuracy for measuring small volumes.
While I do not claim this finding for me, I feel it would be a good idea to promote the finding by Will Agar.
While I did not learn about stand development from Will Agar, I was made aware of a cheap measuring device Will is abusing for photography purposes: the medicine (or dosing) spoon.

Dosing spoon

The dosing spoon is good for 10ml of liquid to be dosed. In my use, that would make about 2 litres of developer. However, the spoon displays sections of 1ml in good distance, such that a measurement in the region of 1/4ml is possible.
And yes, I used that kind of spoon to dose the amount of raw Rodinal required for my JOBO 1510 tank for developing a 135 roll of Fomapan with less than 5ml of Rodinal.


Method for 120 film:

• pre-soak for 2min
• rinse twice and empty tank
• pour developer in tank and agitate slowly for 1min
• tap tank a few times
• let stand for 90+ min
• empty tank and wash before fixing

Method for 135 film:

• pre-soak for 2min and empty tank
• pour developer in tank and agitate slowly for 1min
• tap tank a few times
• 2 slow agitations every 15min, tap tank after agitations
• after 90min empty tank and wash before fixing

Maybe the agitations for 135 film are not necessary... however, in some experiments, the sprocket holes of the 135 film created streekes of uneven development. The somewhat regular but seldom agitation appears to overcome that problem. However, the agitations will also prevent some of the beneficial effects of stand development  to fully appear.

Long exposure 1/2 night

Over the years I was asked what my tricks for long exposure where under certain circumstances.
It all depends on the circumstances!
First of all, the problem with long exposure is that there are neither cameras nor light meters made for this task.

In this post, I would like to cover the night-time aspect of long exposures. The content of which is also known as the 6-stop rule, converting second into minutes.

This technique involves at least a digital camera having ISO 6400.

Lets have a look at equivalent exposures shutter vs. ISO:

• 0: 1s - 6400
• 1: 2s - 3200
• 2: 4s - 1600
• 3: 8s - 800
• 4: 15s - 400
• 5: 30s - 200
• 6: 60s - 100

The 6-stop rule converts seconds into minutes when using ISO100 rather than ISO6400. Why is that important? Many Astro-photographer are using ISO100 film. Therefore, a quick estimation can be made with an ISO6400 digital camera, before spending hours of waisting film.

Chasing Gear

This might be somewhat out of the extraordinary for my style of posts...

Lately, I was spending some time and money on ebay. Here are two hot tips for you to get the gear you desire... and get it for cheap!

• Look in the wrong place!
• Search with spelling mistakes.

Examples:

• Looking for a modern Large Format camera, go to "Photographica"
• Looking for an old wooden camera, go to "Film Cameras"
• Looking for a Rondinax daylight tank,  search for "Rodinax"
• etc.

I guess, you got the idea... just look in the wrong place.
Why?
If you want to by a truck for cheap, find one that is listed under sports cars. You bid on it, and nobody will notice, since, in sports cars, nobody cars about trucks. However, once in a while, a seller will post his product in the wrong spot.

By doing so, and being patient, I was able to score a fully functioning Linhof 4x5 camera, including an international back, a 90mm Schneider lens in a Compur shutter, an orange filter, an extra lens board and three film holders for way under €300.-, which I consider a bargain.

Today, folks often do not know what they are selling. I wish you good luck on finding your treasure, like I did lately.

Daylight Development Tanks - Agfa Rondix 35 & Caffenol

As mentioned in the introduction to the topic, I purchased, 2nd hand, an Agfa Rondix 35 daylight development tank. On the interwebs, it seems that some folks had questions about the performance of the tank when used with Caffenol.
Eager to test the tank, in particular with caffenol, I loaded an ISO200 C41 film into my Canon QL17 and went out shooting.

You might be familiar with the fact that you should over expose by 2 stops when planning use caffenol on a C41 film. That precisely I did, I exposed the film as if it was ISO50.

The Agfa Rondix holds 200ml of fluid only.

So, the following recipe was used today.

• 200 ml water
• 2 tsp washing soda
• 2+ tsp coffee crystals
• 1/4 tsp ascorbic acid

The temperature of the mix was more than room temperature, however, I did not measure it. Concerning temperature, I developed films between 18C and 26C at the same timing.

Processing with the Rondix requires constant agitation. Still I kept my timing the same (slightly reduced ascorbic acid in the recipe thought).

• 17 min Rondix type agitation
• 3 water changes for washing w/ several cycles (wash should pour out clean)
• 3 min fixing
• 5 water changes for washing w/ several cycles
• 1 last wash w/ a drop of dish washing soup, several cycles

The process resulted in really nice negatives.
Washing according to the Ilford method takes less time in a regular (reversible) tank. However, I am confident that the Rondix provides all one needs for developing film in daylight easily.

Observation: My tank was sold to me with the remark that it might be unused. I believe that, since there was no smell to the tank at all. However, that also means that the seal never has seen any moisture. My tank leaked a little bit at said seal, with a little I mean like 5 drops during the entire processing. Still, I should try to find a solution (new seal) to this issue.

As soon as the film is dry, I will provide some scans.
2 more tanks to test, stay tuned!

Daylight Development Tanks - Introduction

Daylight development tanks, very convenient to film shooters, are not made any longer. That is a real pity, since those are really convenient for developing your (B&W) film w/o the need for a darkroom or even a changing bag.

In today's digital age, that means that one can shoot "full frame" (135 film that is) with moderately price to extremely inexpensive cameras, develop the film (in bright daylight, using coffee) and scan to produce the images, w/o any need for a darkroom whatsoever!

As mentioned above, daylight development tanks are not made any longer and they are more and difficult to obtain on the 2nd hand market.
Personally, I got lucky on 3 daylight development tanks, I am sure that I overpaid, but, at least I can call those mine now (in order of purchase):

• Jobo 2400
• Agfa Rondinax 35 U
• Agfa Rondix 35

Interestingly enough, all those tanks are German brands. I wonder if there were daylight development tanks of different makes too.
Concerning 120 film, I am aware of the existence of the Agfa Rondinax 60.

All three of the above 135 film tanks work on very different principles.
The Jobo 2400 and the Agfa Rondinax use reels, similar to conventional development tanks, on which the film is rolled onto. In contrast thereto, the Agfa Rondix 35 does not employ a reel at all.

In the Jobo 2400 the film is fed onto the reel in a way similar to the any other Jobo or Paterson reels, it is slid in, although, from the inside rather than the outside. At the end of the process, the film is cut from the cartridge. The advantage of the Jobo 2400 is, that it is watertight and can be used as a regular developer tank, also for stand development. Here is a video with a demonstration of the tank.

Loading the film onto the reel of the Agfa Rondinax 35 U is similar to loading a steel-reel. The film is fixed to the inner part of the real and rolled on, slightly bulged. As soon as the film is completely loaded to the reel, a knife needs to be engaged to cut the film next to the cartridge. Due to the fact that the reel is upright in the tank, the reel has to be turned at all times during processing. The Rondinax is not water-tight and therefore has to be kept upright during precessing. Check out this full tutorial.

The Agfa Rondix 35 is the most economical amongst the three, in terms of chemicals' volumes. However, when it comes to washing the film, it is the one that requires the most activity and time. The Rondix does not employ a reel, the film is wound onto itself on a spool. Agfa's advice is to actually roll the film onto the spool when there already is developer in the tank. My advice is to install the film and spool, fill the tank with developer, than close the lid and start winding the film.  The Rondix will keep you busy turning a little crank back and forth for the entire time of the processing. The cartridge will be attached to the film throughout the entire processing, this allows the reversal of the film onto itself. Actually, I use the cartridge to anchor the film for drying. The Rondix is not water-tight and therefore has to be kept upright during precessing. Again, someone else already did a video on the topic.

It is my turn now to use said tanks with alternative developers, e.g. Caffenol, and share the results.

Mechanical Cameras (chemical that is)

Some time ago, I got myself a collection of 4 "untested" (i.e. defect) vintage cameras for real cheap from a world renowned auction site.

The jewel of the collection was a Minolta A5, with a jammed shutter (blocking the film advance lever). I slowly pealed the layers off that thing, and like an onion, it presented the guts, ever so slowly. Finally, I got the lens barrel holding the shutter mechanism separated from the rest. Some tweaking even got the shutter back to work... However, to the present day, I was unable to reassemble this particular camera.
Main problem: I can't get the lens back into the threaded mount. Potentially this camera is a total loss :-(

Second in place was an Argus C3. This camera had a problem with the cocking mechanism, which opened the shutter incidentally. Not good, that for sure. Also the tripod mount was fill with a broken off screw, which is not good either.
The quick fix for the shutter cocking mechanism was to tighten up the shutter release and fix it in the timed position. OK, now, the bulb mode is gone ... but what is a bulb mode good for, if you can't use a tripod? Mind you, the broken screw in the tripod mount.

In third place, a Fujica Half. Actually, this camera was the main driver to place a bid! Again, the shutter was jammed, blocking the film advance lever, similar to the Minolta A5.
Seems that fixes are much simpler with the Fujica. Carefully removing the black rubber, the front-plate of the camera, which is held by 4 screw only, can be easily removed. W/o the front cover, the shutter release mechanism is exposed. Upon wiggling said release a bit, it loosened up and finally released, allowing for cranking the shutter.
The Fujica Half is back in business! Even the automatic exposure stuff seems to work.

The forth and final camera in the bundle was some cassette film plastic thingy not worth any further mention....

At the end, 2 out of 4 cameras a working fine. A third may potentially be rescued, although, I doubt if there is any incentive to rescue this particular Minolta A5 over just trying to get a working one for cheap.

Long live 135 film!

Load 135 Film Correctly

Lately, there are many videos on FaceToob and YouBuke telling people how to load 135 film... guess what most of those are plainly wrong. (Search for "load 135 film" and see for yourself!)

Well, of course you can put the cartridge in the camera first. That means that now you got to pull out film and fiddle it into the take-up spool. Well, since the film is somewhat stiff, and you already set a constraint, things are more complicated from here on, in particular since now the perforations have to be matched to the film sprocket. This way, and this is what you can see on those videos, people make sure that all is fine by cranking some frames just to watch the film exposing and winding on the take-up spool.

No, I am not going to shoot a video, not yet...

However, here is how I load a film (assuming the usage of a camera in which the film cartridge goes into the left hand side).

• hold the (open) camera in the right hand
• pull out the cartridge axle
• press the film rewind button for a free-wheeling sprocket
• hold the film cartridge in the left hand between palm and middle finger, ring finger and pinky
• hold the film leader with thumb and index finger
• now you have all the dexterity to smoothly insert the film into the take-up spool's retaining mechanism
• with the thumb of the right hand, hold the film in the take-up spool's retaining mechanism
• gently pull the film across the sprocket (it will self align, since it is free) and across the exposure chamber, using your left thumb as a brake
• gently slide the cartridge into it's place
• now, hold the camera with your left hand, the thumb still resting on the film, this will ensure no unwanted movement
• with the right hand, gently push in the cartridge axis
• with the right hand, very gently (!) crank the film "back", i.e. into the cartridge, in order to straighten out the film - if the film does not slip out of the take-up retention mechanism all is fine
• now close the camera
• crank forward 1 frame (which will be partially exposed during the loading) and observe if the backwinding crank moves correctly and the rewind button pops out

Although the method above seems to involve a lot a steps, with some practice, this is the fastest method to load a roll of 135 film.
It also is the most economical method, usually it get's me about 40 full-frames and 81 half-frames from 1 shop-bought cartridge. (With the BelOMO Agat 18k this method will result in 82 half-frames).

I already mentioned one less common camera, the Agat 18k. There are other cameras (in my collections) such as the Argus C3, which may require either taken 'em up-side down of reversing the hands. I tend to just use the other hand...

Just remember, the cartridge goes in last!

PS: Wow, I found 1 video explaining film loading the correct way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSoDNrxTWjs
Congrats to expert village!

PPS: Unbelievable... the same channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXKTgaM8HBg
Oh boy!

The Poor Man's Leicas - The Petri 7 S & The Fujica Half

Yet another post about film on my blog... sorry you electronic (aka digital) shooters, I have a topic prepared for you too. However, since I rediscovered my love for CHEMICAL (!!!) or "wet" (for good measures) photography, I would like to focus on that stuff today.

Before actually diving into today's topic, I would like to shortly discuss the misuse of the attributes in photography. Nowadays, photography using CCD of CMOS sensors is called "digital". There is nothing digital about collecting charge created by photons in a photo-diode! Believe me, this is an analog process. OK, if you want to be really picky about things, Planck has got the last word, and yes, the collection of photons is quantized. Quantization, however, is not an synonym to digitization. In fact, in the photosensitive emulsion of a film, the same quantum electro dynamical processes are taking place as in the die of an electronic light sensor.
The difference between film and "digital" cameras lies in the recovery of the "latent image".
In "digital" photography, the latent (analog) image is read out electronically (analog) by a CC (charge couple) process, or by process similar to access memory in a computer ("CMOS") and digitized by a ADC (analog to digital converter).
In film photography, or "analog" for those who insist, the latent image is processed and fixed by chemical reactions.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the poor man's Leica!

In my time (my youth that is), I had a lot of fun playing with traditional photography, using 135 film. The dark room was my second home to the time. First in school, later at home. Film photography, however, needs some dedicated space, which I was not available to me any longer when I was at university. Hence, the entire action came to a hold... none of my cameras/lenses was of any use any longer. Actually, I was not taken any substantial amount of photos for nearly 30 years!

Digital cameras just lately came close to what I expected. And only with the purchase of the Fuji X100S, the spark was back!
I know, I did not share a lot of my Fuji X100S experiences here, but I can tell you, the possibility to use it in full manual mode, just like a camera I grew up with, brought me back to film.
You may have noticed my earlier posts about the "sunny 16 rule" and how to determine exposure.

Now I was aiming for a shooting experience like the X100S using film.
My SLR's (all of them) are pretty noisy. Hence, I was on the hunt for a camera that is quiet and fully manually controllable.

You would be surprised to know, there are not a lot cameras out there to fulfill such a simple requirements!
Many legacy cameras involved some sort of automation, be it shutter, be it aperture. Yep, this is exactly what I was not looking for.

After a long search, I ended with one camera that I really love, and another one that will be my workhorse.

Let's start with the workhorse: the Petri 7 S. This camera comes in various flavors, all of which employ a range finder and full manual controls. The shutter speed ranges from 1s/500 to 1s, while a bulb mode is available. Depending on the model, apertures from f/1.8 to f/16 are available. I personally own 2 cameras with an f/2.8 lens, and a third camera, having a f/1.8 lens, is on it's way.
I shot several rolls of film with my Petri's and I am very pleased with the results sofar. Really silent cameras.

The Petri 7 S is very easy to maintain. Cleaning the viewfinder and the rangefinder might be necessary, infos can be found here.
There is a service manual available for free.
Actually, I opened both my Petris and cleaned / aligned the viewfinder / rangefinder.

Still more on the Petri 7 S: They made an auxiliary lens kit for those cameras. The kit came with a wide angle attachment, and telephoto attachment and a cold-shoe viewfinder. The attachments screw right on the 52mm filter thread of the Petri 7Ss' lens. Actually, there are folks who use those AUX lenses on X100(S) cameras with a respective filter thread adapter.

Leaving the Petri and moving on to my very favorite camera today, the Fujica Half 1.9!
The Fujica Half is not a real replacement of any Leica or other type of range finder cameras ever made. There is no range finder on that camera! Although there is a lever for focusing, typical to a range finder. In the viewfinder, one will see an indicator for  "mountains", "a couple" and "portrait".
In theory, the Fujica Half has got a light meter... well, the light meter of my camera is dead.
No light meter, no range finder... why is this still my favorite camera as of today?
I am not even using it's wide open f/1.9 aperture as often....

The Fujica Half offers the opportunity to re-think framing. In it's normal position, the Fujica is in portrait mode. When you think of it, portrait is much more natural to photography than "landscape" (unless one photographs a landscape...).

The Fujica offers the same exposure options as the Petri 7 S, however, being "half frame", the Fujica offers twice the amount of exposures on one 135 film.

Next in the line: AGAT 18k (waiting for it to arrive).

Fujica Half 1.9 - Caffenol - First Scans

As previously announced, the only thing to wait for was the film to dry.

Half frame cameras seem not to be known to today's scanner manufacturers... the scanner software insisted in scanning 135 film full frames.
The following images are results of scanning the negatives with an Epson Perfection V370 Photo.
Resolution 4800 dpi at 16-bit grayscale. The scanner's software does some automatic settings, which I reset in order to have a linear scan.

as output by the scanner - scaled using the GIMP

some adjustments in LR - scaled using the GIMP

Not sure how accurate the first image reflects the scan, since the GIMP converted from 16-bit to 8-bit.
When I look at the actual negatives, they seem perfectly fine for dark room printing, just like the films I developed previously using commercial film developers.


Interesting about half-frame cameras, one tends to pay more attention to portrait shots, which is an interesting experience. Before I obtained this camera, most of my photos were horizonticals, i.e. landscape shots.

Concerning the camera, I would like to point towards this link: "Fujica Half 1.9". The one that I got has a broken light meter, no problem thanks to the full manual control.

In the course of time, I might write some more about the camera. Next plan: shoot a C41 film and have it professionally developed... let's check the chromatic qualities of the f/1.9 lens.

Caffenol-CM(RS) for Jobo 1510 Tanks

That's more a note to myself than any tutorial or recipe. However, the post should contain enough information to just follow what I did, if you want to try it yourself.

My recent acquisition, a Fujica half 1.9 was used to expose a Fomapan 100 b&w-negative film. The film was exposed too ISO 100. The film is currently drying, I will show scan/prints in future posts, stay tuned.

I do actually not claim the following recipe, I adopted Jon Caradies' volumetric version of caffenol (see "The Caffenol Cookbook") to volumes to work with the 240ml Jobo 1510 developing tank.

Measurements
Something important about volumetric gauges, such as TBSP or TSP. Although TBSP bears the meaning of "table spoon", while TSP would refer to "tea spoon", such measures are actually referring to small hemispherical measuring devices and not to actual table or tea spoons. The actual spoons may vary in volume, so, please don't use those as a reference. For more info, check wikipedia.

Temperature
The following happened at July room temperature (26°C).

Developer
Here it comes, 2 vessels required:

• dissolves 2 TSP of washing soda in 100ml of water
• add ¾ (3 quarter) TSP of vitamine-C to the washing soda solution
• dissolve 2½ (5 half) TSP of (cheap) instant coffee crystals in 140ml of water
• => wait until dissolved or bubbling stopped
• pour the coffee solution slowly into the soda/vit-C solution
• add ¼ TSP of iodized table salt
• => wait for at least 5min, or activity stopped (no more froth)

Process

• Soak film in room-temp water for 5 min.  
• Developing for 13min, 10 inversions during the begin of the first minute, 3 inversions at the begin of every other minute.
• Stopping by 3× rinsing with room-temp water.
• Fixing using Ilford Rapid 1+4 for 3min.
• Washing according to the Ilford scheme:
• 1 inversion - flush
• 5 inversions - flush
• 10 inversions - flush
• 20 inversions - flush
• 40 inversions - add some dish-washing agent - rest for some minutes - flush
• Hang to dry.

I previously developed films in caffenol and was surprised by the quality. However, all previous attempts were using C41 color negative films.
The film that hangs drying has got 82 photos on it, yep, I got 10 more exposures as one would expect from a half-frame camera... and the negatives look amazing!
This was the first time in decades I developed a b&w-negative film. I loved to do this when I was a teenager. It seems I rediscovered this love.

Chardonnol - Chardonnay as Developer

What gave me that idea?!
Well, very simple, Dirk posted a very interesting article (and video) about developing photo-sensitive paper with red wine and some other stuff.
Have a look: http://www.caffenol.org/2012/06/20/wineol-red-wine-developer/

This inspired me to research a bit myself, which brought me to this page:
http://www.phenol-explorer.eu/contents/graph?compound_id=457&experimental_method_group_id=2&food_id=137&unit_type=weight
Interesting! It seem that chardonnay actually produces the most caffeic acid. Now you know why this white wine always caused you problems!
Don't drink it! Use it as developer!
Some more interesting reading on the topic can be found here:
http://www.skinandallergynews.com/views/cosmeceutical-critique-by-leslie-s-baumann/blog/caffeic-acid/5be431eb4418c47d008ed4d6a9534421.html

Right, let's go to my first ever experiment using chardonnay as developer:

Chardonnol

Recipe:

• 0.5l cheap Chardonnay
• 3/4 tea spoon ascorbic acid => measured pH 4
• 2 tea spoons washing soda => measure pH > 11 (maybe 1.5 tea spoons washing soda will be better)

The soup was brown by now.

X-pro development

I developed a regularly exposed Agfa vista plus ISO 200 (C41 color negative film) for 16 minutes in a Jobo Universaltank 160 Mod.4.
Agitation during the initial 30 secs, than every first 10 secs of a minute.
The result was very very faint, somewhat like the experiment I did with Caffenol-STD and a 10 minutes development (see previous post).
Here is a high contrast frame (dust in the darkroom, dust on the scanner, I even seemed to have managed to scratch the film). One image reflects the file that my Epson V370 produced, the other image was a result of playing with curves in the GIMP.

scan as created by the scanning

curves adjusted using the GIMP

Unlike with the under-developed example shown in the previous post, I was unable to recover any color information from the negative. Maybe the development was even too short for this.


I figure, Chardonnol would be a very good developer for stand development, in particular seen the fine grain it produces. Will try 45min with this recipe next.

Here is another example, low contrast now:

as scanned

curves, brightness and contrast adjusted

This time, I operated at the very limits of image reconstruction. I guess, the vertical lines are actually inside the film material, now visible due to the enormous push by the scanning software and my GIMPing.

Printing those frames (by means of an enlarger) could be a challenge. Asks for grade 5 paper, I guess.