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#11
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Tom Phillips wrote:
Hey, if William Henry Jackson could do it successfully under the most difficult circumstances (in the wilderness or on the tops of 13,000 foot mountains with no food or water for plate processing), it can't be that hard today :-) And a second take on this -- Jackson was using, IIRC, wet plates, which means he was also carrying along a full darkroom for coating and sensitizing as well as developing, including both collodion (only slightly less explosive than guncottong) and ether (the only solvent common prior to the 20th century that would dissolve collodion). And the plates he created weren't even orhtochromatic, they were as blue-sensitive as graded printing paper. No thanks, I'd rather deal with mercury vapor. But I'd still far rather deal with modern panchromatic film in ISO speed from 100 up. I hate having to calculate reciprocity corrections for a daylight shot... And continuing to have film means not walking away from the only film company still producing B&W that looks likely to still be in good shape this time next year. Okay, I don't like the product line contraction, either -- but in the face of falling demand, it's inevitable, and the specialty items like Tech Pan pretty well have to be the first to go. Ilford, OTOH, is dropping *all* sheet film, last I heard, and all but their most popular papers; Agfa is pretty much headed up the same path, from what I've been reading. I like the Fomapan 100 I shoot in my plate cameras, but I'd rather still have the option of Tri-X and TMY in my 35 mm and 120 formats -- which will end sooner than otherwise, if enough people boycott Kodak over the discontinuation of a favorite niche product. -- I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz! -- E. J. Fudd, 1954 Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth and don't expect them to be perfect. |
#12
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Or you could just coat the glass with some colloiden
nitrate and fume that. In article , Donald Qualls wrote: For a lot less than $8 per plate, I can buy Schott 2 mm glass precut to 9x12 cm size, chemically silver it, sensitize it with iodine and bromine vapor, and have modernized Daguerreotype plates on which to experiment with developing in modern chemicals instead of mercury vapor. I could pay back the investment for fuming boxes and other necessary equipment long before I'd go through that 100 plate minimum order -- and the images I'd produce would be much more memorable and saleable, if I 'm so inclined, than a glass plate negative or ambrotype equivalent. -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
#13
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"Donald Qualls" wrote in message . com... You haven't shopped for dry plates lately, have you? AFAIK, there's one company on Earth still making them, a factory in Russia; a British distributor with a business model similar to J and C Photography in this country was, last I checked, in negotiation with them to purchase a lot of plates -- I recall the price was to run around $8 per plate in 9x12 cm size, plus shipping from England, with a minimum order of 100 plates. Out of my league... Kodak seems to still have some T-Max 100 plates available, I think, though I haven't actually asked them. The other place to look for dry plates might be university chemistry, physics, and astronomy departments. Some of them may have gotten overstocked decades ago... |
#14
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Gregory Blank wrote:
Or you could just coat the glass with some colloiden nitrate and fume that. In article , Donald Qualls wrote: For a lot less than $8 per plate, I can buy Schott 2 mm glass precut to 9x12 cm size, chemically silver it, sensitize it with iodine and bromine vapor, and have modernized Daguerreotype plates on which to experiment with developing in modern chemicals instead of mercury vapor. I could pay back the investment for fuming boxes and other necessary equipment long before I'd go through that 100 plate minimum order -- and the images I'd produce would be much more memorable and saleable, if I 'm so inclined, than a glass plate negative or ambrotype equivalent. I presume you're talking about the sensitizing process for wet plates -- or are you after the collodion dry plate process that failed to fly in the 1870s because gelatin dry plates were safer and cheaper to make? Either way, to sensitize the plate you have to first embed sodium chloride and/or bromide in the collodion, then apply silver nitrate to form the silver halide in place, because silver halide isn't soluble; for wet plates, you then have to expose and process before the collodion's carrier (the ether) evaporates completely, rendering the collodion impervious to the water that carries the developer; I don't know for certain how development was carried out on collodion dry plates, but sensitizing was about the same. Fuming works on the silver plate for a Daguerreotype by forming the bromide and iodide directly in place on the surface of the silver; it won't work with a surface that doesn't incorporate a high percentage of metallic silver (and even then the surface has to be immaculately clean -- 80% of the work in making a traditional Dag is in the burnishing of the silver layer on the copper plate). Point being, however (back to original topic), if enough people boycott film producers, we hasten the day when film isn't produced any more. Sure, that's not likely to be tomorrow, but I'd miss Kodak products even while I was shooting Foma, Efke, and Lucky -- and who knows how long Foma and Efke can stay in business without the billion potential customers who can't afford anything else that Lucky starts with... -- I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz! -- E. J. Fudd, 1954 Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth and don't expect them to be perfect. |
#15
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Michael A. Covington wrote:
"Donald Qualls" wrote in message . com... You haven't shopped for dry plates lately, have you? AFAIK, there's one company on Earth still making them, a factory in Russia; a British distributor with a business model similar to J and C Photography in this country was, last I checked, in negotiation with them to purchase a lot of plates -- I recall the price was to run around $8 per plate in 9x12 cm size, plus shipping from England, with a minimum order of 100 plates. Out of my league... Kodak seems to still have some T-Max 100 plates available, I think, though I haven't actually asked them. Really? I understood they'd been discontinued as of 2002. Doesn't really matter; I can't afford $5/plate in boxes of 20 or 25, and the last of them were 4x5 in any case, not the 9x12 cm I can use. The other place to look for dry plates might be university chemistry, physics, and astronomy departments. Some of them may have gotten overstocked decades ago... I wonder if I could find a European observatory with a huge overstock in 9x12 cm they'd let go for the hauling? Then all I'd need to do would be to drive my Ford across the Atlantic, back it up to their dock, and load -- shouldn't take more than two weeks for the round trip, if I can just find the on-ramp to the Transatlantic Freeway... Seriously, and realistically, commercially made dry plates aren't going to be an option for me; I simply don't have the budget for them. If I can no longer get sheet film in 9x12 cm, or that I can cut to that size, I'll have to start making my own -- which, for me, is more likely to run to Dag on glass than collodion or gelatin plates. -- I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz! -- E. J. Fudd, 1954 Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth and don't expect them to be perfect. |
#16
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Michael A. Covington wrote:
"Donald Qualls" wrote in message . com... You haven't shopped for dry plates lately, have you? AFAIK, there's one company on Earth still making them, a factory in Russia; a British distributor with a business model similar to J and C Photography in this country was, last I checked, in negotiation with them to purchase a lot of plates -- I recall the price was to run around $8 per plate in 9x12 cm size, plus shipping from England, with a minimum order of 100 plates. Out of my league... Kodak seems to still have some T-Max 100 plates available, I think, though I haven't actually asked them. Really? I understood they'd been discontinued as of 2002. Doesn't really matter; I can't afford $5/plate in boxes of 20 or 25, and the last of them were 4x5 in any case, not the 9x12 cm I can use. The other place to look for dry plates might be university chemistry, physics, and astronomy departments. Some of them may have gotten overstocked decades ago... I wonder if I could find a European observatory with a huge overstock in 9x12 cm they'd let go for the hauling? Then all I'd need to do would be to drive my Ford across the Atlantic, back it up to their dock, and load -- shouldn't take more than two weeks for the round trip, if I can just find the on-ramp to the Transatlantic Freeway... Seriously, and realistically, commercially made dry plates aren't going to be an option for me; I simply don't have the budget for them. If I can no longer get sheet film in 9x12 cm, or that I can cut to that size, I'll have to start making my own -- which, for me, is more likely to run to Dag on glass than collodion or gelatin plates. -- I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz! -- E. J. Fudd, 1954 Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth and don't expect them to be perfect. |
#17
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"BBarlow690" wrote in message ... The real issue isn't to buy more, it is to use more. Maybe we should each declare one day a week a Newsgroup Free Day, and go ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ HERESY! Heaven forbid! photograph instead of cruising the 'net? Or make a solemn, kept promise to ourselves that we will each find a way to make twice as many negatives and prints next year as this year? Kodak, et al aren't going to keep materials in production just because we (me included) moan about them going away. The problem, as stated so well so long ago, is us. Excuse me, gotta go make some 8x10 negatives! Best to all, Bruce |
#18
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I doubt that 4x5/8x10 sheet will completely disappear
shy of it being worse stuff than the plates I might make I'll stick with conventionally made films...Kodak included. In article , Donald Qualls wrote: Sure, that's not likely to be tomorrow, but I'd miss Kodak products even while I was shooting Foma, Efke, and Lucky -- and who knows how long Foma and Efke can stay in business without the billion potential customers who can't afford anything else that Lucky starts with... -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
#19
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I doubt that 4x5/8x10 sheet will completely disappear
shy of it being worse stuff than the plates I might make I'll stick with conventionally made films...Kodak included. In article , Donald Qualls wrote: Sure, that's not likely to be tomorrow, but I'd miss Kodak products even while I was shooting Foma, Efke, and Lucky -- and who knows how long Foma and Efke can stay in business without the billion potential customers who can't afford anything else that Lucky starts with... -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
#20
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I doubt that 4x5/8x10 sheet will completely disappear
shy of it being worse stuff than the plates I might make I'll stick with conventionally made films...Kodak included. In article , Donald Qualls wrote: Sure, that's not likely to be tomorrow, but I'd miss Kodak products even while I was shooting Foma, Efke, and Lucky -- and who knows how long Foma and Efke can stay in business without the billion potential customers who can't afford anything else that Lucky starts with... -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
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