Photography

[J Rindt]

Any of you guys into Photography.?
Finally got my darkroom up and running about 2 months ago.
I wish it was bigger.....just a converted (small) bedroom, so about 10x12. The closet shares a wall with a bathroom, so i was able to fit a smallish sink in the closet.
My sink is only about 2x4......i wish i had Two... and that they were 2x6. 

[shooter]

......i wish i had Two

everyone wants "MORE"
I dabbled back in the '80's, wound up with a few "keepers"
modern day hi-res digital puts Film Photography in the same cob web recesses as oil painting
Barnes Noble had "refurbished" polaroid 600's for sale, film $20+, I'm keeping my eye out for 8-tracks now

[Ritchie200]

I've mentioned this before, but I have an old Pentax 6x7 that is collecting dust.  The lenses are to die for, but....  Then I thought that maybe I would try large format film.  However, with the resolution these days, the only thing I look at now is printer resolution and paper quality.  Plus, unless I do what you are doing, I am hosed, because there are no good film labs left - and I don't have a clue with pans and chemicals.  I never thought digital could give the quality of my 6x7.

Jim

PS, wanna buy a good camera?

[J Rindt]

There are still "Plenty" of labs left that will do Color, 6x7, and scan The Negs, and give your Negs BACK TO YOU..... 

[EL34]

I was big time into photography, but that was in the 70's :)
I had a darkroom for black and white, which is what I liked to shoot

I shot a ton of Kodachrome, but that stuff all went to Kodak to be processed

[shooter]

I never had a dark room, I would go to a local developer, have a proof sheet made, then spend an hour selecting, using cropping guides, marking up the proof sheet, and come back 2 days later with that 1 shot

[P Batty]

I've mentioned this before, but I have an old Pentax 6x7 that is collecting dust.  The lenses are to die for, but....  Then I thought that maybe I would try large format film.  However, with the resolution these days, the only thing I look at now is printer resolution and paper quality.  Plus, unless I do what you are doing, I am hosed, because there are no good film labs left - and I don't have a clue with pans and chemicals.  I never thought digital could give the quality of my 6x7.

Jim

PS, wanna buy a good camera?

I had the Pentax 6x7 as well, the 45mm F4 is my favorite lens of all time. I also worked in film labs, from the early 70s through the digital changeover in the late 90s. I saw the writing on the wall when I would make high-rez scans from my 6x7 negs that weren't any better than the digital images from high-end cameras. Film does have a different "look" than digital, but it is different, not better.  Early digital cameras were awful, but by about 2008 they had pretty much caught up. If you don't mind the grain, film still has some advantages and an optical enlargement of a negative will beat most scans.

I don't miss my darkroom at all- my $100 Canon Pro-100 printer does the job for me.

[Ritchie200]

Man, their glass was incredible!   I have the 90 leaf shutter that was 2.8 - so versatile, the 105 which was a 2.4, and the 300 which was still a 4.0.  Those things were light buckets.  I guess I will throw it all up on fleabay but there are pages and pages of 6x7 stuff.

I know there are still labs out there that will do medium format, but I went through a bunch of labs before settling on a commercial one because of the quality work they did.  They are now of course long gone.  So I too am fine with my, now old, Leica V-Lux 1 that at 10mp pretty much matches my 6x7 work.  I may upgrade some day to the 20mp version.  I'm not looking to start collecting lenses again with one of the big brands.  Plus I wouldn't know where to start with all the buttons and do-dads nowadays! (says the old man...!)

Jim

[J Rindt]

Man, their glass was incredible!   I have the 90 leaf shutter that was 2.8 - so versatile, the 105 which was a 2.4, and the 300 which was still a 4.0.  Those things were light buckets.  I guess I will throw it all up on fleabay but there are pages and pages of 6x7 stuff.

I know there are still labs out there that will do medium format, but I went through a bunch of labs before settling on a commercial one because of the quality work they did.  They are now of course long gone.  So I too am fine with my, now old, Leica V-Lux 1 that at 10mp pretty much matches my 6x7 work.  I may upgrade some day to the 20mp version.  I'm not looking to start collecting lenses again with one of the big brands.  Plus I wouldn't know where to start with all the buttons and do-dads nowadays! (says the old man...!)

Jim

Yeah...that is ONE Reason i have not gotten into digital. I already have a bunch of Nikon/Olympus/Minolta/Canon...film gear.
The idea of paying for a Digital SLR and lenses is not fun.
I am kind of a beginner all over again. Dodge, Flash, Burn, Filter, Toning, Reducing, Etc etc etc . I have to learn this stuff all over again. It will be a few more years before i am ready to go beyond Black and White Film. 

[flamingoguitar]

Photography is one of my hobbies as well. Like a previous poster, I'm also a pentax guy. I develop my own film and then scan.
And Ritchie200, if you're serious about parting with that 6x7, I could be interested.

[Ritchie200]

Marshall's and Strat's on trade and you got a deal!  Haha!

Seriously, I will have to dig it out.  I'm making it sound worse than it is - it's in a nice padded case!  I'll take some pics of what I have and PM you.  I also still have the original boxes everything came in if you are interested in those as well.  I haven't looked to see what the old stuff is going for these days, so I need to do some research.  Everything is in really good shape other than the flash sync plug inner barrel pulled out of the leaf shutter lens.  I've got that cobbed together and operational.  All the shops told me I'd have to send it back to the factory for repair....  Ah no....  A new lens would have been cheaper back then!  TTL meter system.  Big Sunpack flash and some other stuff I would throw in if you wanted the whole package.  I pulled batteries out of everything a long time ago so no leaks or damage (Something that the TTL systems were known for - buyer beware on fleabay!).

I would just ask that you give me some time to pull it all together.  I have zero spare time right now.

Jim

[J Rindt]

  Early digital cameras were awful, but by about 2008 they had pretty much caught up. If you don't mind the grain, film still has some advantages and an optical enlargement of a negative will beat most scans.
I don't miss my darkroom at all- my $100 Canon Pro-100 printer does the job for me.

I have talked to A LOT of professional photogrphers these last few years, and circa 2006 is a date that seems to keep coming up. I realize you said 08, but you get the gist.
It must have been about "That Time" when digital really became the dominate and inevitable choice for "anybody" that was going to make a living via Photography.
Be it cameras, printers, paper, software, inks, glass, etc etc, I suppose Digital had become the Dominant/Obvious medium. .......Film was a niche thing and a hobby medium at that point.
I am just a hobbyist, and there is no digital equivalent of the Film Darkroom. It remains a special and "magical" place. Sitting at a computer for photography is a bummer when compared to a room with Red Light 

[Ritchie200]

Be careful to explain to significant others what you mean by wanting to spend time in a “red light room”!


When ‘blad came out with their first digital back I knew the end was near.  I should have got out then.  They were prohibitively expensive (not that anything associated with that brand has changed...), so I thought I still had years to go!  Yeah, proof sheets and a magnifying lens. Light box for the negs. Waiting a week for the finished re-touched product from the lab. Hoping the client will still like it blown up. I used to do horse shows and advertising for the horse industry. Animals are much easier to work with but dealing with the owners are worse than bridal work....   Actually I’m not so sure I miss any of that!😂


Jim

[flamingoguitar]

All my old pentax cameras and most of my lenses have been to Eric Hendrickson. He does great work.
I got caught up in the newer and better camera thing and went nikon before giving up on film and going digital. Film lost it's fun for me. After a while with digital, I missed the fun I used to have back when I first started with a k1000 and b&w film. So I got back in again. I deliberately stayed low tech, although I did pick up an ME Super in a trade deal that I like a lot. But, that's as 'modern' as I get with it.

[shooter]

Be careful to explain

My 1st gig outta the Navy was 2nd shift, So. Chicago, fixin CT scanners, 8 guys on days, just ME on 2nd
Nic showed me around, made introductions, then proceeded to spend most of an hr in the dark room with a tech!  I measured voltages, fixed broke stuff.  There were 8 sites, and he repeated his work in at least 3 of 'em

These were taken with, basically a "throw-away" 10Meg, does have 10X optical zoom.  a nice Colorado alt beer, good music, 20 minutes basic editing later, done, no clean-up, well maybe Cheeto dust 

[J Rindt]

All my old pentax cameras and most of my lenses have been to Eric Hendrickson.

Very nice. :)
I never actually owned a Pentax, but there are a few that i wish i did.
Would love to have a 67.
Would dig owning a KX or LX.
I have so many 35mm bodies now that i do not use half of them.
I have four Canon A-Series. All went for a CLA to a decent Canon guy.
The price of the Canon A-Series are pretty low these days. It was frustrating to even try to recoup the price of the CLA, so i donated 2/4 to my local college.
If i want to sell the remaining two, i guess i will have to let them go very cheap. 
Such is life.....

[Ritchie200]

K1000!  My first real camera.  Shot rolls and rolls and rolls out of that thing.  Learned an awful lot by trial and error.  Bought some crappy zoom lenses for it and learned how important glass was.  Sold them all for half what I paid and bought some good ones.  Wow, I forgot about that one...

Also bought a Mamiya 330 from Sears of all places!  Remember when they had specialty catalogs?  Great price with two lenses - it was like $300 or something.  That thing took great pics and was my intro into medium format.  Sold it and the K1000 when I bought the 6x7.

Jim - memory lane....

Haha!  Look what I found!  I drooled over the Mamiya 67 but could not afford it back then.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/booklets/sears_1977-78_catalog.pdf

[J Rindt]

Wow.....Nice Find..!!!
We all have our own prejudices i suppose.....
But it is kind of shocking (now) to look back at some of those prices.

Quite a bit more for the Oly OM2, and i would rather have the OM1.
About the same difference between the Canon AE-1 and F1.....i would Much Rather have the F1.
I have owned all those A-Series Canon, and the AT-1 is the only A-Model i kept. 

Boy-Oh-Boy.......300 bux for a beautiful, and NEW Pentax MX. 

Thanks for ruining my day 

[Ritchie200]

About 30yrs ago, my well meaning (as I described him at the time...) father in-law bought me a Nishika 3D camera for Christmas.  This 4 lens 35mm camera came with a case, flash, and free developing of the first few rolls of lenticular prints.  It also included a video tape of none other than Vincent Price describing the features and showing how to take beautiful 3D pictures!  I put on my best face and thanked him for this great gift (toy...).  I didn't even look at it again for months.  Then one night I watched the video and it peaked my interest.  So I shot a roll based on Vincent's instruction.  Wow!  Too flippen cool! Because there are 4 exposures instead of the usual 2 and rare 3, it was a very smooth transition across the views.  I shot rolls and rolls until the company went out of business.  Then there was a company in Canada who developed and printed.  Then none.  I was even looking at maybe buying a very expensive medium format 3D camera from China to see if I could make a go of it in commercial display ads.  This was when the first consumer digital cameras were being talked about in science magazines.  I got cold feet and in hindsight, thank goodness.  There is a Russian guy selling software and lens material these days (for $$$) to render these images and print for lenticular but most folks just .gif the 4 images and rotate them through for computer view.  10 years ago you couldn't GIVE these cameras away on Fleabay.  Now the pristine examples are going for $400!!!

With the digital revolution I've seen examples of 4 or more point and shoot digital cameras lined up on a bar with a device to engage all the shutters at once.  There are still die hard fans out there.  It IS a lot of fun!

Jim

[J Rindt]

Stop already.! 
You are a, virtual, Photography Gimmick/Nerd extraordinaire.
A kid in my photo class had something like this. It was made in the 1980's. The teacher was helping him with it, at the enlarger next to mine. The guy missed a lot of classes and i (unfortunately) never saw any of his negatives.
Anyway.......Very Cool camera.
God Bless your FIL. The poor guy was trying so hard to give you a Bithchin' gift. 

[Ritchie200]

Haha!   Yeah, that's me!  I think I got it in about 1988-89?  I've also got a collection of old brownie and press cameras too, if that makes it any worse? 

Jim

[J Rindt]

Really...a "Press Camera".?
As in hand-held 4x5 ... a Speed Graphic...Graflex...something like that.?
This gets better and better. 

[Ritchie200]

How about this...  I have a No 2-C Kodak Junior Model-A made in 1921 and it looks like it just rolled off the assembly line.  It is absolutely pristine.  It used the old 130 roll film and has a little window you can open on the back to be able to write on the edge of the negative information such as exposure/conditions/locations, etc.  I've seen pictures of this camera from collections and they all look 100 yrs old.  Mine is perfect.  And it's probably worth $75.00! 


Lenticular brother!  The wave of the future!!!!


Jim

[J Rindt]

Very Interesting...Thanks for the info. 

[PRR]

Advice or proposals?

House built in 1948. While working we found a box of chocolates in the attic insulation, and inside that a roll of developed film. Age or mice have chewed on it, but the images are recognizable. It is likely the people who built the house. The woman lived here 63 years. Her daughter lives across the highway.

Here is my quick reconstruction with a doc-scanner and foto-chop. The pig images are over-exposed near black and are what they are. It would be nice to see if the man in the top row is the man in the other rows. It would be nice to see the distant shack and hills to see if it was shot on this property. The man, woman, and car have good tone-range and a savvy photo-printer can do better than me and my software. Just "drugstore quality", not Custom Print!

More fun: the roll is 127, ~1.75" wide, no longer a standard neg-holder size. I "assume" it can lay in a 120 holder, un-flat, but clearly the camera didn't lay flat either.

I've looked locally and online, nobody is hawking for printing odd old negs to simple well-toned prints. It sure is not worth $20/image to me. Or arguing that the chipped neg is too crappy (I know that). I would pay costs and beer-cash to a friend (any of you), not some far-away business.

Is anybody here likely to be printing B/W anytime soon? And willing to take a look at this roll?

[J Rindt]

127 was typically Square, and those sure look square. I have a a darkroom and actively print B&W. I do not have a Neg Holder for 127, but either my school does, or one of my "Internet Friends" will.......
I would be happy  (I Would Be Super Happy...!!!!)  to take a shot at printing some of those negs for you.
You can contact through Hoffman if you are interested.
Great Find BTW...!!!! 

[PRR]

> 127 was typically Square

Searching says 127 started with a "vest pocket" camera with 8 long images.

There were also cameras to shoot 16 tall exposures, indeed hundreds of various 127 cameras. Limited of course by the number-sequences printed on the backing paper visible in the red window.

However Kodak sold boatloads of "Baby Brownies", 12 square images, in this time period.

This may also explain the overexposed pig. Some BBs had two shutter speeds: ~~1/50 for sunlight, and longer (possibly a "B"). New lovers, new(-to-them) car, new camera.... maybe they were blipping the B setting instead of tripping the I (click) setting. The last(?) 8 images seem "OK" (what I remember of older B/W exposure customs) so were probably done on the full-sun shutter.

[Ritchie200]

Even though the number was bigger, the film is smaller than 120.  If a 127 holder is not available, maybe you can modify a 120?

Jim

[shooter]

It is likely the people who built the house.

I'd have to agree, the pig still has 4 legs 

[J Rindt]

Yeah, i have done that before, cut  a "mask" and made one holder work for another.
I actually found a 127 Neg Carrier for 27 bux on Ebay. I went ahead and bought it.  If these people decide to pass, i may be able to use it some other time.....was not a whole lot of money.
My local college (God Bless Them) elected to keep their darkroom.  As i get older, if nobody in my family wants to carry the torch; i will donate a lot of this "stuff" to the school..... if they are still teaching the traditional skills.
Time Will Tell 

[murrayatuptown]

When people find out you collect old cameras & film (expired film still works, expired pixels not as well), they treat you like the krazy kat lady...you can't say "no", and they feel badly dumpstering things and ok giving stuff away.

I have had friends ship me camera stuff from Boston and Sydney Australia, and the last haul was 10 cartons from a guy who had pro photographers in his family dating back to 1901...cameras from half-frame 35mm to 8"x10"...I don't collect cameras anymore, as in not looking for anything...no wish list. Had to give some away. Was given 3 enlargers by others.. 35mm, 6x6 cm and an 8x10 Elwood.

Phew