20 Square Inches Of Trouble - Sheet Film

No apologies for the inches, children. It is what the adults use to measure photographic surfaces.

Even if we do give in to buying inkjet paper in A4, A3 and A2 sizes, we still get boxes of 6 x 4 and 5 x 7 from Ilford. And we measure print sizes in 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 10, 12, and 20 x 24 as well - it must put the wind up to the bureaucrats in the EU standards Department something chronic.

We also measure one of the standard sizes in the industry for sheet film as 4 x 5 inches. Europeans tried for years to make this into 10 x 12 centimetres but it never really took off - people still think of 5 x 4 or 4 x 5. 20 square inches of sensitive emulsion to put into the new Ilford Obscure pinhole camera - for good or ill. There is a 10-sheet box of it included with the kit - Ilford Delta 100 - a tabular grain film of excellent tonality.

Note: you can also get Ilford HP 5 and Ilford Delta 400 film in 4 x 5 packs from the regular fridges at the Camera Electronic shops. They are the larger 25-sheet boxes.

The convention of sheet film is familiar to all the old hands - but newbies to large format need to remember that the sensitive emulsion side of the film is TOWARD you when you can feel the film notches on the right hand top corner of the film. You will feel, rather than see them as you will be in total darkness for this loading and unloading procedure.

In the case of the Obscura, as soon as you are sure it really is entirely dark, open the box, locate that upper right notched corner, and lay the sheet into the large of he two boxes. Then drop the smaller box into it and press until the magnets catch. You are loaded for ( extremely slow ) bears. Unloading is the reverse of the procedure, and you can make use of the three-tray spare film box that came in the kit to hold your exposed film for processing later.

Now 4 " x 5 " is a little bit larger than the sensor on the average digital camera or mobile phone....and records a geat deal of information. The pinhole of the Obscura may be laying in a slightly soft image, but it will be laying a lot of it in there. If you were to make a contact print of the resultant negative - provided it was a good exposure - you would be amazed at the amount of detail that has been captured. If it is a bad exposure, you will be struggling to see anything.

The best hint I can give with the end result is for people who have good scanners like the Epson V700 or 800 series. You'll have a sheet film holder in your standard Epson kit and can easily translate a negative to a digital file. I do it all the time using the " Home " setting in the software. There is plenty of detail captured from the sheet negative.

Users of sheet film who develop their films with traditional developers like Rodinal have sometimes bemoaned the grain structure that it produces. Scanned work in small sizes exhibits none of this problem and the contrast of the grain is excellent. Remember that you can also use Kodak Portra sheet film for colour work and have it developed at a professional lab.

Camera Electronic Endorse New Camera From Flapoflex

The biggest news this season is the industry-shaking announcement of the team-up of Camera Electronic with Flapoflex Corporation...and the introduction of the Flapoflex Mini camera.

Here are the first images of the camera after it was handed out by Howard Frank. Let us walk you through the features:

1. Pure non-digital operation. Sharp eyes will spot the film rapid rewind crank and fast-wind lever. No more worries about charging batteries and corrupting memory cards with the Flapoflex.

2. Solid-state viewfinder system. We have not seen a viewfinder window this solid in years.

3. Compact dimensions. Micro 4/3, eat your heart out...

4. Helpful permanent branding on the lens cap and body.

5. Permanent lens cap. never lose it again.

6. Flash-free pentaprism.

7. Patented DeepSqueeze padding on all grippable surfaces. No finger strain.

8. Fashionable white/black/grey colours.

When people ask you what the Flapoflex Mini can do, we respond with " What can't it do? " While they are answering this we make a run for it.

Flapoflex did...

Smart Enough To Be Dumb

Way back in the 1960's I bought a book in a secondhand bookstore in Spokane, Washington, that was made up of Kodak pamphlets. These were loose-leaf style instructional treatises that explained how to use the Kodak materials of the day to do professional work. I thought they were the official word from on high. They were actually the official word from Rochester, New York. They made a million of them dealing with any and all aspects of photography. Some were arcane and dry and some were very entertaining.

Later in the 1980's and 1990's I rejected all the principles that they taught - sure that I knew better. Besides, they spoke of films and processes that had been superceded - so how could they have any relevence? I foolishly gave the looseleaf binder full of pamphlets away...

Well, here we are in 2017, and I am still doing light set-ups for some shots that are straight from those  1960's trade pamphlets...because the Kodak people knew what they were doing. They had years of experience dealing with different face shapes and skin tones and as these have not changed, neither has the technique for lighting them. We now do it with pixels and RAW files but we do it on the same basic anatomy as before....

Formulaic? Stilted? Outdated? Well ask your portrait sitters if they would like to look good to themselves, to their relatives, to indifferent viewers, to you, or to the camera club committee. If you are brave, ask it before you set up the lights. If you are foolish, ask it when you present the bill...Ask it of yourself when you do the studio accounts...

Okay. You know the answer... Now go out there. Go to the secondhand bookstores...if not in Spokane, Washington, then in Melbourne, or Perth, or Sydney. Go to Camera Electronic and ask Saul if you can buy the old Linhof Grossbild and Leica LFI books. Haunt the internet. Haunt the Workshop Camera Club Photographic Markets ( they have enough ghosts there to satisfy any taste...).

 Find those old pamphlets and books. Buy them and smuggle them home and never admit to your hipster friends that you have read them...but learn what light does and what people want and how to do it. Your studio bookings list will thank you. So will your accountant.

PS: If you fancy your knowledge newer and with more theatre go to some of the SHOOT Photography workshops.

Photographic Preservation

There is nothing more distressing than coming across historic images that have been badly damaged by poor storage and handling.

 The papers and emulsions that made up the bulk of photographic records of last century were sturdy enough things to start with but when people failed to take care of them they frequently did not survive the lives of their subjects.

The autochrome on the top of the post is an example -the original plate was made with multi-coloured grains of starch that were dyed dufferent colours and then exposed through a tri-colour filter pack to yield some of the first colours shots. Unfortunately starch is ideal for the growth of mould if there is a damp and warm atmosphere. And it is nearly impossible to remove it without losing the image.

It's not just a matter for the antiques either - you can find paper prints from just a few decades ago that have been left out in the sun, or marked with stains and careless handling in every family photo shoebox - frequently they contain real information that you want but the condition has beteriorated past all saving. And the notorious sticky-sheet albiums of the 1970's and 1980's proved no better.

I will say that the manufacturers of the materials did not help in the mid part of the century. The Kodachrome slides stayed very well, and we can all be grateful for the fastness of the colour of both the original Kodachrome A and the improved Kodachrome II. But the Kodacolor films and particularly the Kodacolor prints avaiable in the 50's contained dyes that have proved so fugitive as to defy even the best restorative programs on the Epson scanner or the computer programs.

Really, when you see the sorts of problems that occur for the dedicated historian or just the family picture collector, you really do have to thank your lucky stars that we are shooting digital these days. We just don't have these sort of problems.

Get A Grip Week - Day One - The Murky Past

 

This is the week when you get a firm grasp of getting a firm grip - when you go from the ridiculous to the sublime and then back again.

We promise ridiculous, and the heading image might suggest it, but if you were shooting a medium format TLR camera 20 years ago, you would have a different opinion. Because TLR cameras were made to be particularly hard to operate...and that was deliberate.

Think I'm joking? Pick up a Rolleiflex and hold it in your left hand. See how your finger falls on the shutter button? And your right hand holds the film winding handle? All good? Now focus the camera...

Yeah. Gotcha...

You might just get away with a Minolta Autocord or Flexaret with the focusing lever under the lens stage, but you're still going to be juggling things and I'll bet you'll eventually drop it in the mud...

Now try attaching it the camera to this ( no-name ) grip from the 70's. The big base takes the square base of the camera. The big hand grip lets you hold it firmly and the hand strap firther re-inforces the steadiness. There's a flash shoe - admittedly plain but then the flashes of those days used PC synch cords. Unfortunately the cable release that feeds out from the bottom of the grip is missing but that was the ideal way to trigger the camera - from a mechanical trigger under your finger. Focus, wind with one hand, shoot with the other. Then take your films to the chemist and wait a fortnight...

Oh, and look at how neatly the thing folds into itself for storage in the big leather camera case -the one with the paisley strap. 1970 was good.

 

Okay, joking aside, this grip is well thought-out. Like the Hasselblad grips of the same period - and the equally smart right-handed Bronica winding handles - it balances the camera function wisely between two hands and lets the shooter function far better than with a bare camera. And that is what the digital grips you'll see later in the week do for modern times.

Side note: The Rollei TLRs only made ergonomic sense when you did as Mr. Franke, the owner of the Franke and Heidecke company, did. He suspended the TLR from a neck strap off substantial lugs on the side of the camera, held it out in front of himself with his stomach, and then had both hands free to twiddle the focus and winding controls.

Next post: Olympus grips everything in sight!

"Just Bring Your Camera"

"And I'll give you something for your film".

These two statements were frequently heard in the analog era when someone wanted you to do a professional job of sports, event, or wedding coverage but did not want to pay a professional price for the result. You were foolish if you thought that it was going to excuse you from doing a professional job - that was still the standard. But you were not going to get paid. You were a relative. Or a mate. Or the relative of a mate.

It always went the same way. The cost of the film and processing was never fully paid - they gave you something but that something was based upon their recollection of the price of a roll of Kodak Gold  or Sakura film seen at the checkout of the local supermarket. If you presented them with the actual cost of the pro neg film and the processing at the pro lab they recoiled in horror and accused you of being a gouger.

Once the pictures were delivered they asked for the negs, and then they took them off and used the pictures without any credits or thank-yous. But they would pass you onto their mates at a party to do the same thing for them...at the same rates. It was like being a football - the boots that kicked you changed but the sensation was still the same.

Well, now everything has changed. Now with the digital era the mates of mates realise that there are no more films to be bought and no more lab fees to be paid...so they no longer have to offer anything in compensation. They are entitled under their rules of the game to demand all the RAW files, all the jpeg files, and frequently the memory card as well.  You'll sometimes be offered a drink - and that is rare - and sometimes be offered "exposure".

Exposure is the method the ancient Greeks used to dispose of unwanted infants on hillsides and it is equally effective on modern photographers. The only difference is the modern mates of mates will then tell the mates of their mates that you'll do their weddings/sports carnivals/car shoots/parties for free, and you can die on that hillside repeatedly.

"Just bring your camera".

When To Use A Pro Lab - 350 Reasons

The new digital photographer can be forgiven for being confused by any number of aspects of the sport - there seem to be so many to learn.

He or she used to be confronted only by which film to use, does the orange needle match the mark on the light meter, and is the Chemist open so that I can drop my film in? Then in two weeks it was should I buy another roll of film or a bag of barley sugar and box of bandaids?

Now it is white balances, tonal curves, video frame rates, colour spaces, and all the rest. No wonder they have started putting an " Automatic " setting on new cameras and dedicating a knob or lever to it. The relief for some shooters must be palpable.

It is nearly the same for the shooter who wants paper prints of their work. What do they do now that the chemist has gone out of photofinishing and reverted to selling overpriced vitamin supplements and something for the weekend? What are the alternatives with that card full of images?

a. Print it yourself at home on a multifunction printer from Officeworks. No, please - go ahead and do it. The printer will only cost you a hundred bucks and you'll be so disappointed with the results that you won't even have to buy expensive ink cartridges later to try again. The larger multifunctions make attractive pots for cactus.

b. Get Officeworks to print it for you on their big machine. This sometimes works to some extent if your file is perfect and your need is modest. Do not expect art. They are not going to correct your flaws. GIGO.

c. Get an Epson photo-quality printer and do it at home. This works. Start off with the Epson Surecolor SC-600 and move up to the SC-800 if you want larger prints and cheaper ink. Then cast your eyes at the even larger range of large format printers from the company. They will not be cheap but their quality of print is professional and you can be sure that the prints that emerge with K-3 ink on quality Epson, Ilford, Permajet, or Hahnemuhle paper will be be permanent and accurate.

But sad to relate, you are still going to have to be doing a good job with the files. You'll be telling the computer what you want, but you'll have to make sure your monitor is showing you the truth. ( Hint: Spyder colour calibrators, EIZO screens...) And you'll have to make sure that the computer tells the printer the right thing to do ( Hint: either, you, the computer, or the printer will have to manage the colour. Decide early.) And you'll have to make sure that the printer knows what paper you're using ( Hint: paper profiles.)

You will also need to ensure that you put the paper in the right side up. Do not ask this writer how he knows that. Take it for granted that he knows...

A little unsure about all the settings and alternatives? Then you need the Automatic solution...

d. Take the files on a hard drive, CD, or memory card to a professional photofinishing lab. They have not disappeared with the advent of digital - in fact the good ones are going strong because they are the good ones. And they are resourceful, technically skilled, and helpful.

A visit to a professional photofinisher like Fitzgerald Photo Labs at 350 Fitzgerald Street, North Perth
is almost as easy as it used to be to put your films into the chemist. There are real people there who can look at your files and advise you on the optimum sizes that they can be printed. They can suggest paper surfaces for larger works. They can frame the bigger prints - and there are so many options for modern display that you can never run out of a fresh decor idea.

They are able to handle film needs as well - lots of people still shoot on film - and converting the negatives and transparencies to digital files is easy these days. You can get your work back in dual form - digital as well as paper print.

Again you can be sure that the pictures you pay for will be permanent. The big labs use Epson K-3 ink on their big machines.

The joy of a big lab like Fitzie's is that the printing people are there to talk to you and they know what they are doing from long experience. It is not just machine minding in a large furniture or discount store for them. Their job is a profession and they produce professional quality - and that's why Camera Electronic depend on them for our advertising banners and promotional prints. These need to be right and they ARE right.

For those of you  point out that I have forgotten the discount store and the furniture shop...well I remember them when I need tee shirts or kitchen chairs. But not when I need good quality photofinishing.

" How Many Batteries Do I Need? "

How many pockets have you got?

The question of batteries rarely concerned us in the old film days - at least for the little people. The mechanical shutter and the finger-powered film advance worked pretty well all the time and no electricity was needed. Adding a selenium light meter to the mixture still avoided a battery, but as soon as the CdS and later cells were incorporated and we got electronic shutters and motor drives we started to have to be cagey about on-board electricity.

We started to have to look for 22.5 volt batteries for flash guns...similar ones for Polaroid cameras...D cells for Graflex flash guns...and then a whole raft of cells for the early strobe systems. Victor Hasselblad introduced us to a small blue-coated stack of nickel cadmium cells for one of his cameras and they were NEVER happy batteries.

Well, things are now digital, and batteries are a fact of life. We get lithium-ion cells with every camera we buy and if we are wise we grab an extra one from the accessories rack to go with the new kit. Of course they are re-chargeable items - that is part of the appeal of digital photography - but the amount of juice that any given camera takes is variable factor and sometimes you need more than one battery to have reasonable working time.

A case in point is my own dear little Fujifilm X-10. It works well, but the small battery fitting in it poops out at about 200 shots. If I am going for a full day's shooting at the car show I need to take 3 batteries. If I were a car show shooter with a big Nikon D3, D4, or D5 DSLR I could expect about 2000 shots on one battery and would not need a spare for the day*.

Here is where the user of the big pro DSLR has it over the user of the mirror-less camera in most instances - the battery on the bottom grip of this kind is larger and goes longer - or it repeats the battery in the camera and thus doubles the life. But the whole assembly is heavier, so there we go again with the pros and cons.

That's the new Pentax K-1 in the pictures with the accessory battery grip on the bottom. Well-proportioned for a larger hand and all the controls you could decently want scattered on the top and back. A rumour on another site says a new grip for another camera may well have two batteries plus the one in the camera - 3 altogether - makes lots of electricity but adds extra weight. We'll wait and see if the rumour site is right.

* but I'd take a spare for the day because I am the nervous type.

One Of These Things Is Not Like Others

Oddly enough, all of these things do the same job - when inserted into the appropriate cameras they all take 250 images.

In the case of the Canon 250 shot magazine the camera you will need is a one of the F1 film cameras with a 250-shot reporter back. None for sale new, of course, and very few made when they were new in 1971, but you can always haunt ebay or Boris...You'll need a 100' roll of film to charge it, another 250 shot cartridge to receive the film, and a darkroom to get the stuff spooled up. It might be a good idea to go speak to the pro lab to see if their processing machine will cope with the length of the film you use. All up, figure about $1800 minimum for your 250 shots. Plus negative sleeves...

The 35mm cassettes will go in any 35mm camera so you might luck out there. Pick up an old compact for $ 80 and add the film...$ 90...and the processing...$ 125...well you'll be a lot better off for your  250 negatives. You'll only spend $ 295 for negatives.

Of course if you elect to get a new small compact camera and the 8 GB card you can also set 250 shots for about $ 209...but you can keep on snapping after that - the card will hold a lot more shots. They'll be in colour, but most computers will let you see them in black and white and you can even invert the image files if you are a freak for negatives.

I haven't costed out two and a half tablets of artist-quality drawing paper and a handful of pencils but I'll bet it is about the same price...if you draw in negative you'll need more pencils.

Note: the 250 shot magazine is a second hand item, but the Hoodman memory cards and the Kodak T-Max film are both new and readily available in-store or on our online shop.

Vale FP-100C

Trolling through the internet this weekend I found a DP Review post saying that the Fujifilm company will discontinue their packs of FP 100C instant film. These are the packs with 10 exposures inside that fit into the Hasselblad, Rollei, Polaroid, and other holders - the 100 series size. They got rid of their production of of the 4 x 5 packs a couple of years ago.

I am saddened, but with no involvement in the HB or 4 x 5 world at present, I cannot say that I will be injured by it. Those people who still take preliminary exposures with their Hasselblad film cameras or proof out other things on other cameras will be stranded eventually. The small newsagents and others who use the Polaroid four-lens cameras to take passport photographs will be hardest hit.

Mind you, they were hard hit even when supplies were readily available - the business of getting a picture with a chemical instant print that satisfies the computer whizz kids of the airport passport controls - and the grey sleeveless minds of the DFAT - was proving pretty fraught. The chart of do's and don'ts was based upon making a robot image of real people and failed badly most of the  time. I watch the same job being done in post offices with something that looks like it a Sony specialised system and wonder if the results even come up to the old Polaroid shots.

Well, if you need the FP-100c there will likely be some floating about at the end of production, and as it keeps pretty well, you would be advised to get it while you can. It is unlikely to be reproduced in any usable form in Holland.

Talk to the sales staff at CE and see if there is a schedule for end of supply. And if you need a passport photo remember that the shop has a dedicated little digital system and printer that can turn out a pretty reasonable product to satisfy the unreasonable ideas of DFAT.

Note: This in no way affects the Fujifilm Instax cameras or the film for that. That's a different system entirely, and by the reports we see, is going like Gangbusters for Fujifilm.

For all Fujifilm Cameras available to order and in store please visit our website.

The Kit Of The Century

We're already 16 years into the 21st century and so far we do not have personal helicopters or jet packs. These were promised in 1948. I am becoming disillusioned.

To ease my sense of disappointment I intend to take up plastic model making and the first one I build will be my own 35mm camera. The kit for it is the " Last Camera" available here in the shop.

It is the photographic equivalent of an Airfix Avro Wellington kit - large, black, and complex. Unlike the Wimpy, it works -  it is equipped with actual lenses for the optical system and will expose 35mm film like any other camera.

You'll be working at it, however, and you'll need to acknowledge that the designers know what they are doing. You'll need to follow their painstaking directions to make sure that the parts fit and move as they should. You'll get extra parts like a special back casting that can be set to let light leak into the film for special effects. There are two taking lenses in addition to the ones needed for the viewfinder and you can set the camera to see two different fields of view. Not, it must be noted, with film in the camera - you need to do the changing between rolls.

The outside of the thing is plain enough - black on black - but there are stickers to put on it and you could wrap it with contact adhesive paper or paint it any number of ways. If you are nostalgic about the Wellington you can get AF roundels from Stanbridges and stick them on... The price is low enough at   $ 39.95 to allow you to experiment a great deal. And the feeling of accomplishment in building your own camera is priceless.

And we've got oodles of 35mm film to experiment with.

Holga Cameras Zoom In Collector Value...Corner The Market Now...

The announcement a few days ago of the demise of the Holga camera and the stopping of production in China comes as somewhat of a shock for dedicated toy-camera fans.

These roll-film cameras were apparently introduced as a cheap consumer camera for the Chinese in 1981. They shot 120 film but gave the user the choice of film gates for 6 x 6 or 6 x 4.5 images. They were simple, with rudimentary focusing lenses, limited shutter speeds and apertures and a host of quirks.

Some of those quirks included leaking light to the edges of the film and vignetting every shot dramatically. Later models introduced a small electronic flash to the cameras and built-in filter effects. Accessories included some push on lenses and filters. There were a number of colours made. One of the most useful features of the humble Holga was the 1/4" tripod socket at the bottom plate of the camera that took a standard tripod screw. When all else failed, and it frequently did, you could clamp down the Holga and open it up on Bulb and let nature take its course. Or coarse, as the case may be.

The Chinese factory says there are no more products to sell and the moulds for the camera have been thrown away. Perhaps. Chinese moulds are strange creatures and have been known to hide and migrate. But take them at their word and if you want to get one of the last of the Holgas in Perth come down to Camera Electronic and choose your colour.

There's plenty of 120 film in the fridge so you won't lack for operating material - and you might as well go out there and do whatever you can think of. You can't buy a motor-driven version of the camera but you can make Brrrrrm Brrrrrm noises as you shoot it and that's nearly as good.

Holgas were fun and predictably unpredictable and no-one ever took them seriously except the most flippant of photographers. They have been the featured equipment for a few fine-art exhibitions...and not a few custodial-sentence art exhibitions.They never suffered from oil on the sensors or degrading anti-alias filters.

PS: For those of you who have questioned whether this signals the demise of film photography the answer is no.

Old Skool Rodz - And Old Skool Cameraz

Go to the magazine rack of any newsagency and look at the car magazines. Bypass the 4WD and luxury European sedans and look for the hot rod and street car magazines*.

Somewhere in there will be one that refers to Old Skool cars. The definition is a little fuzzy - they're talking about vehicles that are prior to 1966...mostly. And they are talking about American cars...mostly. And you can love 'em or leave 'em just as you wish - the point is that they are being loved by someone and used to their full capacity right now. If you see some of the full kustoms and low-riders they are being used to well over whatever the designers thought was capacity...

The rat rods are another feature of these publications. Not everyone has happened upon a car that can be re-built to factory specifications or prettied up into a show piece. Some old cars are just rusters and the best that can be done is to make them mechanically safe and turn a blind eye to the defects in the appearance. Some owners capitalise upon the look of horrible old steel.

Camera users might well take some guidance from this. If any of h clients of Camera Electronic fancy trips down Memory Lane with photo gear, the shop can provide the vehicles - in the form of secondhand cameras. For some buyers they might be re-living their youth with a camera that they had before. In other instances the buyers are re-living someone else's youth...taking a different Memory Lane than the one they have maps for. This can lead to problems.

If you fancy an older camera with the view that it will give you the experience of earlier times consider that some of those earlier times didn't yield very good pictures - particularly if the historic camera wasn't really a very good camera to start with. Cameras ain't wine - they don't mellow with age.

Also remember that the camera that functioned perfectly well in 1948 is now 67 years old. It may not work as well as it did. Hell, I was born in 1948 and I don't work nearly as good as I did...though I am still pretty to look at.

Finally - the support mechanisms that made the whole system work in the olden days ( Dragons, Elvis, and such...) is not there any more. You can't get your 620 Verichrome Pan developed at the chemist shop for 7/6. You can put modern emulsions through modern specialist labs at modern prices and get modern prints. You can search around for all the parts needed to develop and process and make your own little Rochester in your house - and God bless you for it - but if you need quick pics or lotsa pics it ain't gonna work. Trust me on this - I am typing this from a little Rochester that has been converted into a digital darkroom.

Old Skool is fun. Do it for fun. If you do it for profit expect your Memory Lane to be dark, unpaved, and dotted with potholes.

*FORGED is a WA publication and is well worth buying. Also anything from Koolhouse Publications.

Lady Of Spain

It's an old photographic joke - the collapsible bottles look like concertinas. No end of darkroom workers have squeezed them while dancing around in the dark whistling Lady Of Spain.  Their wives and children wince but there is nothing that can be done about it.

We discovered a mother lode of them in the back shelves of the storage area recently. Buy a set to put your darkroom chemistry in - If you've mixed up a big batch of developer and want to use it in small increments you can squeeze the bottle down to reduce the amount of trapped air and thus retard oxidation of the mix.

They're only $ 7.50 so there must be a lot more things you can think to do with them. Hornpipes....

I Remember Those!

And well I do. Large. Heavy. Complex. Precise. The do-all camera for advertising studio work and art copying in the film era.

We're talking about a Mamiya RB67 here - a big single lens reflex set up with a close-up bellows, synchronised lenses, instant film back and roll-film holders - as well as sheet film holders with dark slides. All in pristine condition - legacy of a quasi-government agency that quasi-didn't use it. So all the juicy goodness is still fresh inside.

Mamiya's have good lenses and are not too hard to use. Not as intuitive as a Hasselblad, but still do-able. And the internal bellows extension makes it - makes it the camera system for close-ups. As long as you do not see yourself scaling Bluff Knoll with it slung over your  sagging shoulders, you should be fine.

Come see it and think up a good use for it.

The Future Of Darkroom Work

Seven years ago when I came to work in Camera Electronic I did not think I would be able to write that header now. The front of the shop still had a few film cameras and there was a rime of old enlargers around the top of the cabinets, but I could see that little was new nor was it likely to stay. I dedicated myself to learning the new digital age.

I miscalculated. As I type this blog post ( admittedly on a digital computer...) I can see shelves with darkroom chemicals, darkroom printing paper, developing tanks and kits, negative files, and a refrigerator full of fresh film. And every day people come in the front door, take away some of these goods, and pay us for them.

Darkroom work would appear to be going on.

We have supplied some new enlargers to schools that are admittedly basic overseas things that need a fair bit of adaptation for use in Australia - but all the rest of the stuff is perfectly usable. Australian dark is as good as US or UK dark - all you do is block up the windows and door and grope around.

Do the new users of old technology get what they expect from the experience? I hope they do - though I am not sure if they think they are going to find a Holy Grail in the wash water. They may, or may not - I do know that if they do not use enough of it they will eventually lose all their images to fading - I have found out my sins of omission with old negatives.

I cannot say whether the colour darkroom will come back - I suspect not. The technology that made it work was getting better and easier in the 80's and 90's and I lucked onto the last of the easy amateur gear and chemistry. Even than it was poisonous, irritating, and messy. Of course this also describes Christmas lunch with the rellies, but we will gloss over that. Colour printing - good printing - has advanced beyond belief with the advent of the digital inkjet printer and I do not think we gain anything by going back and sticking our fingers in the blix.

So - here's to the continuation of tradition in supply and usage. You cannot poison yourself dead or spend yourself broke on black and white darkroom work and an occasionally you will produce a masterpiece. 

Cheap Cool

I have long been guilty of making fun of the Russian makers of the Lomo cameras for their product - and so far I have gotten away with it. I suspect that few people read the ads anyway.

Well, if you are reading this, here is another one - but oddly enough this is actually worth buying for the fun of it.

The Lubitel 166+ is the latest plastic copy of an old German design from the 1930's. Don't frown at the Russians - there were enough American, Japanese, and  Chinese copies of this sort of camera to sink a battleship. Indeed, I believe they used to pelt them down on the USS MARYLAND all the time - to no avail.

It takes 120 film, produces 56mm x 56mm square negatives or transparencies, and has a fully adjustable lens system. 5 shutter speeds plus bulb. 6 aperture stops. Flash synch at all speeds. Cable release socket.

It works. It's brand new and we're selling it off at half price with box and accessories.

If you are a photography student it will attract at least as much attention as the screw-mount Leica in the last posting but at a bargain price. If you wear revolutionary attire and smoke really bad cigarettes while carrying a pamphlet by Trotsky you will be remembered forever by the rest of the class...

The Ultimate Cool

You can tell when people want to be cool - the clothing and mannerisms give them away. Oddly enough, where you would expect extreme conservatism in taste to be the order of the day, the opposite often prevails. Witness the rash of tight jeans, red shoes, and hair in topknots.

Of course modern coolsters can also point to the hairstyles and clothing selections of former times and laugh at the theatrical nature of it all. From the profusion of moustaches and beards on the faces of the young women to the high heels and nylon stockings of the young men, it has all been a show...

One feature of coolicity we have noticed here in the shop has been the trend-driven purchasing of cameras. We've seen fads for instant cameras, plastic film cameras, action cameras, and no end of other oddities. In some cases they have spent serious money on odd products.

Well, if anyone wants to be cool, retro, historical, and hip ( Hep? Hop? Hoop? Ah the hell with it...) here is one mechanical statement that cannot be ignored. Leica screw mount camera - full shutter speeds, no flash synchro, 50mm Elmar folding lens. Pocket history, with the potential to put you out there with the very best of the street and candid workers of the 20th century. Never mind wearing your cap backwards. Wear this on the front of your tee shirt and do the deed in style.

It's heavier than your mobile phone but lighter than your conscience. It takes B/W negative film and you really do have to know what you are doing to use it. It will not think for you or about you, but it will obey your commands. Command wisely. You are in powerful company.

Costly? No. Less than the newest compact darling. Lasting? It's lasted 'til now and bids fair to outlast everything on the market today.

Cool? Frosty.

Film 101 - Or How To Read The Fridge Before You Raid The Fridge

Some of our new clients are students and come to us with sheets of instructions from their schools - list of things to buy for their course. This is undoubtedly helpful to them as long as the writers of the lists are up-to-date in the trade and not given to impish humour. I would be quite the wrong person to write these as I would be sending the poor little students out looking for wooden plate cameras and Polachrome 35mm film...

When they come to see us the film requirements are pretty basic - 35mm rolls of either 125 ISO or 400 ISO black and white film seems to start off. Later they progress to colour via various means, but initially it is simple stuff.

But even here they can stumble on the variety of B&W films. Herewith some small clarifications:

a. 35mm film is sometimes marked as "135 film". It's a traditional thing and really the film is quite the same.

b. You can get B&W film from Ilford, Kodak, Fujifilm, and Rollei. The two first are most common. If someone sends you out for Ansco or Perutz or Gevaert they are practicing on you. Treat them with withering scorn.

c. Ilford Delta and standard Ilford are both B&W films but they are made differently. The Delta will give a finer grain but sometimes needs a different developer or developing time than the standard FP4 or HP5.

d. Ditto for Kodak T-Max and the older Kodak Tri-X. T-Max has finer grain than Tri-X. Careful with the boxes as Kodak has made these look somewhat alike.

e. We keep 'em cold because we keep 'em for months. You'll be using them up fast so you needn't refrigerate them.

Now for the colour section remember that your instructors will send you out for either colour negative film or colour transparency film.

a. Any Kodak or Fujifilm colour film name that ends with "chrome" is transparency film.
This can include Velvia, Ektachrome, Provia, or others.

b. Any film box that lists E-6, or AP44, or CR-56 processing contains colour transparency film.

c. American film is color film and Australian film is colour film. Semantics and national pride - the film is the same.

d. Ektar, Fujicolor NPH or NPC, Portra 160 or Porta 400 are colour negative films.

e. Any box that lists C-41 contains colour negative film.

The good news is that they all work and if you get your exposure right they work well. We used them for decades before the advent of digital and some of us still use them for specific jobs.

Your quota of good shots is three per 36-exposure cassette and one of these will be worth keeping. By the end of your course you may be able to recognise it.

The Fitted Case - Camera Luggage As A Status Symbol

Look back into the literature of the 1920's, 30's and 50's and you will see a remarkable thing - the fitted case for system cameras. Leather boxes put together with all the cunning of medieval artisans and meant to contain the finest photographic gear.

We still see them here when old collections arrive for valuation. The leather is generally extremely good quality and is frequently a rich tan colour. The stitch work is prominent but if you examine it closely you will see that it follows the best pattern; angled awl slits and double tensioned waxed thread.

Linings are frequently flock over internal divisions in thin wood. These may suffer over the years with mildew or dirt but can be recovered to some extent. Indeed, even if original stitching has deteriorated it can frequently be re-stitched. Leather work shops carry craft books with instructions for this, as well as diamond awls and saddler's needles. If you set out to reconstruct a fine camera case of the period expect to end up with tired fingers and several punctures in the fingers...

Most of the cases have specific spaces for equipment. And frequently this means that the camera bodies were meant to be slotted in with no straps attached ( Why?) and with body caps on. You can still do this with digital cameras but remember every time you take off a lens you risk sensor dirt.

Are they bound to be practical? Probably not. Were they ever so? Again, probably not - assembling your Leica or Contax every time you opened the case and then disassembling it would have been a major time waster. But perhaps the people who had these cases - the elite of Europe and America - had a great deal of time to waste. And the case, however heavy, could have been carried by lackeys - along with the steamer trunks and fitted leather suitcases that were carried in he Packard.

Pip pip.