A Photography forum. PhotoBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PhotoBanter.com forum » General Photography » In The Darkroom
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Buy film, not equipment.



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #11  
Old October 4th 04, 03:30 AM
Donald Qualls
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 03:40 AM
Gregory Blank
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 05:38 AM
Michael A. Covington
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"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  
Old October 4th 04, 10:58 AM
Donald Qualls
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 11:03 AM
Donald Qualls
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 11:03 AM
Donald Qualls
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 12:39 PM
Mark Fohl
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"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  
Old October 4th 04, 01:45 PM
Gregory Blank
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 01:45 PM
Gregory Blank
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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  
Old October 4th 04, 01:45 PM
Gregory Blank
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

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
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Focal plane vs. leaf shutters in MF SLRs KM Medium Format Photography Equipment 724 December 7th 04 10:58 AM
darkroom wannabe EC In The Darkroom 59 September 4th 04 01:45 AM
Digital quality (vs 35mm): Any real answers? Toralf 35mm Photo Equipment 274 July 30th 04 12:26 AM
Digital quality (vs 35mm): Any real answers? Toralf Digital Photography 213 July 28th 04 06:30 PM
The first film of the Digital Revolution is here.... Todd Bailey Film & Labs 0 May 27th 04 08:12 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 06:04 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PhotoBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.