All ready for first prints

We went for a long walk to day with my wife. We ended up walking around 11km and somehow, to small surprise to Jessie, happened to hit Calumet on 18th street. As you can see from the map the shop wasn't just on the way (it in the southernmost spot of the route).

I bought a storage binder and some sleeves for my 4x5s. I also bought some Ilford photo paper. Now I'm running out of excuses to go print the pictures.

Steps so far:
1) Get camera
2) Fix camera
3) Get film
4) Shoot, shoot, shoot
5) Develop films
6) Find darkroom
7) Get paper

My future darkroom - Reyko Photo Center

I have been looking for an affordable place to rent darkroom to print my new films. There is a city run Photography Center, which is in temporary space until they building is renovated. The cost was 50$ for half a year membership + 5$ for each visit.

My choice though is Reyko Photo Center. They have a cool space and all kinds of cool photo gear to rent also ;). The cost is 8$ / hour no membership fees. Cool!

Films are back from development

Got films 7 through 10 back from development yesterday. Here are some findings.

The drawing circle on my Dogmar is so small that when I dropped the bed for shot #7 the upper corners were cut off. The bed was dropped in order to get better DOF for the shot. I have to test if compensating by rising the lens would yield better results.

I can load the film into the wooden holders a tad crooked or I can put the film holder into the camera a bit crooked. In any case the shot #9 was not streights in relation to the film.

Camera case arrived

Ready to go shooting
Originally uploaded by Tasmanic

I won an eBay auction for original Graflex camera case. Who would like to carry 40s camera in new millennium bag? After removing some unnecessary parts from my speedy it fits the case perfectly. Plenty of space for film holders and other crap. Maybe I need to clean it up and change the orange foam to something more appealing. Bright color is a good choice though; easier to find items in the case in the dark.

Not a great day

I had uneven number of films exposed so I thought I go to North Beach here in San Francisco to shoot one more picture so I can drop some holders for development tomorrow. Everything went fine - until I got to North Beach.

I started getting my gear out of the trunk of my car and grabbed one film holder from my bag. The safety guards hadn't been closed properly (I wonder who messed up) and the exposure guard slid open. With lightning fast reflexes I closed it back up. Remains to be seen if the film inside got some unwanted light. That would be shot #7 I have to look out for.

This brings me to the point of complaining about Fidelity Elite 4x5 film holders. The safety guards move very easy and might open up accidentally while in transport. The old wooden ones have the safety's so hard that it's very hard to open them up - even intentionally; I think I prefer that problem.

The second problem arose when I set up the tripod. My Slik let one of the butterfly screws go. The design is a bit weird to start off. There is a metal screw with 10mm head which has been covered with hard plastic butterfly screw head. I think I can glue it back on, but would still like to complain to the manufacturer.

After 15 second googling I realized I can buy just a new head for the darn thing. The legs are still 100% OK. Now come to think of it I have always wanted a ball head for the tripod.

Fort Bragg

We drove up to Fort Bragg over the weekend and my intention was to shoot some 4x5s on the way. Well the way was quite long and I ended up driving more than shooting. I came back with only 3 sheets exposed. I'll have to do the same trip one day alone so I can spend as much time behind the camera as I wish.

New old film holders

Got four more film holders from eBay. Now my single trip capacity has increased to 10 shots. Cool 400% increase.

Large Format Photography dot Info

A lot of useful info, hints and tips.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

I think someone should save the information. The site hasn't been updated in almost 2 years. Sites like that have the tendency to vanish once the administrators get tired of paying for the domain or hosting.

Loading 4x5 film into film holder

I have had it hard to find instructions on the net about handling 4x5 film. Here is my attempt to make this information available to everybody who is interested.

One of the problem is that when you load the film holder you naturally have to do it in total darkness. At least I have a lot ot trouble seeing in that kind of conditions so there has to be a way to make sure you insert the film the right way around into the holder.

In the 4x5 sheet film there is a few notches on top right corner. When you feel them with your right index finger you are looking at the emulsion.

The film holder open up by pulling the exposure guard, opening the flap on the bottom of the film holder. Now you can slide in the film, the notches up or down, your choice, just make sure the emulsion side is facing the exposure guard.





This is easy enough to do even in darkness, but without having any film to practice on in the light it was difficult enough for me on the first time.

The eyes, the eyes

I got the negatives (#5 & #6) back from the shop today. Both were otherwise ok, but the focus was a bit off. The DoF is so narrow in the Dogmar fully open that I really have to be careful with the focus. Now I have 2 negatives that are sharp on ears and soft in the eyes. Can't really fix that...

3rd shoot

I have had my mother and brother-in-law visiting for the past two weeks. This morning I took the opportunity to take a portrait of Charles. Even though the Dogmar (6.5 inch ~ 165mm) is somewhat longer than the Ektar (127mm) I was surprised how close I have to take the portraits.

After some calculations I have deduced:

127 mm Ektar is equal to 35mm lens on 35mm camera since the 5 inch longer edge of the film happens to be also 127mm.

This would make the 165mm Dogmar equivalent of 45mm lens on 35mm camera.

The shoot itself went good but I think I broke the cable release attachment in the shutter. This forced me to release the shutter manually from the camera and the long exposure time might have caused the camera to shake and blurr the image. Note to self: Get the cable release fixed or get steadier tripod