An Obscure Product From Ilford

 

There are times when you just have to let yourself go. You have to go out and go mad. Office Christmas parties and federal elections come to mind, though the snacks are better at the latter than the former...

In the case of photography, we all need a dose of fun now and again, and I have decided to take my enjoyments wit a new product from Ilford - the Obscura camera kit.

The box you see with the inspirational if slightly twee slogans on the outside contains a bargain - a fully functional 4 x 5 pinhole camera, 30 sheets of recording media, and exposure calculater* and a book of instructions. The whole thing is $ 50 from the new Camera Electronic Murray Street shop, and they have plenty in stock. Note: I did not get this as a free sample - I paid out my own money for it...

Well, the camera is well made. It is essentially two boxes that slide in upon each other and are kept closed by small magnets - you'll see them as the bright round dots in the illustrations. The box that forms the inner case locks the recording sheet into registration and gives the negative a border. The boxes seem to be formed MDF board.

The pinhole is laser-cut and very precise - about f: 248...an optimal size for the 4" x 5" negative. The shutter is s simple rotary flap that is held closed or shut with those shiny magnets. There is a tripod socket in the bottom of the thing.

There is a sheet of decorative stickers with one valuable inclusion - a sight-line sticker that you put on the top surface of the box to give a rough idea what they camera will see.

The media included is 10 sheets of  4 x 5 Ilford Delta 100 film and 20 sheets of Ilford Multigrade IV paper also cut to 4 x 5. There is an empty 3-tray box to help with storage of exposed films later. There is also a sheet containing printed dials that you can assemble into an exposure calculater* and Ilford have been thoughtful enough to include a plastic pop rivet for the dial.

The only other things that I need to complete the outfit are:

1. A tripod. The trusty Cullmann 622 will do fine.

2. An exposure meter. The dear old Gossen Lunasix 3 will be hauled out.

3. A change bag. Dang - I gave mine away a year ago. Hate to spend money on another. I'll make one from an IKEA cardboard box and a couple of black wool socks...

4. A darkroom. I live in a darkroom, so no problem.

5. A plastic developing tray. Got one.

6. A graduated measuring cylinder and thermometer. Got 'em.

7.  Bottles of film developer, paper developer, and rapid fixer. All my old stuff has long since been tossed so I got three fresh bottles.

8. A copy of " Pinhole Photography" by Eric Renner. My copy is sitting on the desk as I type. Younger readers may opt for looking up the subject on the internet, but Renner is the bible for the subject. His exposure tables are invaluable.

Now more on how this is all to be used in a future weblog column. I shall fast forward to slowing down completely.

* That is not bad spelling or a mis-print. Plan and calculate all you like, but all pinhole photography requires more light. Just set the shutter open and come back later...

"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".

New class of camera

June has seen the announcement of a new class of camera - the medium-format mirrorless model. Fittingly, Hasselblad have been the first in the field with it. It will have a new range of lenses and a new set of tasks to do. The owners may find themselves taking it further away from the environment that the other Hasselblad digital cameras normally occupy.

Mind you, sometimes the current Hasselblad digital cameras are flying through the air or swimming under the water, so that must count as venturesome. And then there were the Hasselblad film cameras that NASA used to take moon pictures...close up... and that was a fair ways outside the studio...

But how about back inside the studio? The slim line of the bodywork on the new camera is more than just a convenient shape - it is suggestive of the sort of thing that may come. And I am thinking specifically of the size and shape of a dedicated studio camera with view camera movements.

Hasselblad may not have this on their minds at all. But it is not to say others don't - readers with an interest in the studio camera will remember that Fujifilm made a series of 6 x 8 studio cameras in the last of the film era that incorporated bellows and rise, fall, and tilt movements. All this while making room for a reflex mirror. I can attest to them being a very well-built device - I was tempted in the old Melbourne Camera Exchange days to invest in a kit, and I do regret not trying one out in the studio.

Ah. well, that was film and this is digital....and by the looks of the bodywork on the new Hasselblad it is slim enough to contemplate being part of a back standard in a view system. With an integral sensor and LCD on either side of the body, and provision for movement of a lesson the front standard, we have a digital version of that 6 x 8.

I wonder if this can have exercised the design minds at Fujifilm? Rumour has it that they will also make a medium format mirror-less digital in the future. Would they see the professional illustration market as a viable niche to enter? I can only hope.

See the Hasselblad X1D on the Camera Electronic site here

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.

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.

Stephen Scourfield And The Value Of A Dollar

Bless him. He knows, you know.

At the launch night for the Canon EOS 80D camera held last week, Stephen Scourfield made the candid admission that he knows how much pressing a shutter button costs - or rather how much it used to cost  - $ 1.00.

This was in the days of film and we were paying for the colour transparency or negative film. No matter how you rigged it - you shelled out a buck a shot every time you pressed the release. And this was the time when that same dollar bought you a glass of beer. You had to have a pretty compelling reason to press that shutter button with that sort of equation...

It went up, of course, as the price of film, chemicals, labour, and equipment climbed. It went up astronomically when you changed the size of the film that recorded the image...rather like it does when you go from the very small format sensors these days to the largest ones made...fight it out amongst yourselves whether this is good, necessary, affordable, or whatever.

Back to Stephen. He said that he tries to get what he needs with the minimal amount of shooting. In that, he is guided by the remembrance of the old costs, and by the realisation that time spent shooting and reshooting will also be compounded later by additional time spent examining and re-examining all the files. I'll bet he has had jobs where he has overshot and then cursed himself for it.

Mind you, you can under-shoot as well. I have done this when I had blind and misplaced confidence in the focusing ability of a digital camera and took the quick image on the LCD screen at the back for gospel. Possibly it was, but as I did not examine it carefully enough, I took home a card full of out-of-focus images. Done once, this never has to be done again - if you can remember the shame of it.

Shooting always costs. It costs equipment, electricity, travel, petrol, time, lunch money spent in horrible hamburger joints, tyre wear, clothing wear, and brain wear. If models are involved it uses them up and they demand money for it. Studio space always costs, even if you own the studio. Especially if you own the studio - council rates officers can be the local government equivalent of the James Gang.

IT. ALL. COSTS.

So...the moral? If you are Stephen, you shoot with Canon cameras, you shoot with Canon lenses. You shoot the appropriate body for the job. You shoot the best one you can afford. You shoot well - you look at the light, you look at the subject, you look at the story and how a picture will help tell it. You don't hose down the landscape with mindless blasting away. You shoot things that will print and then you do the work of sorting them out...rather than letting them languish for someone else to choose.

Note for customers: You can short circuit some of the difficult decisions by trying out the new Canon EOS 80D when it comes into the shop. With the 18-135 lens on it you are nearly all the way to the images you want, even before you fire the thing off. You can order it on-line as well.

Canon 80d with 18-55 or 18-135 available for pre-order via our website.

Fully Equipped Olympus Pen F - Lock And Load!

A few posts back I said the Olympus Pen F was going to succeed for a number of reasons  - and alluded to the styling of the camera. Here's a closer breakdown of what that means in ergonomic terms.

The camera pictured is in Camera Electronic now - the illustration pictures were taken on the shelves and don't show all the care that a studio shot might...but the enthusiasts who see the camera in the shop will still get to experience the design. Some people will be immediately attracted to it without really being able to tell why. Here's a few clues:

1. Your hand has to go somewhere and do something. This is the extra hand grip of the Pen F - taken from two angles. Finally enough heft to suit the grip of the average westerner without pinching their fingernails or giving them cramp. The back-of-camera thumb rest is also big enough to provide the opposition to this hand rest - you won't need an ancillary thumb rest. Note for panorama shooters - the tripod socket hole is in about the same position as the sensor, which is a great geometric help.

2. SLR film shooters expected to be able to check the depth of field at the working aperture by stopping down the lens with a preview button or lever. This was either on the camera or on the lens - but it was up the front - not down the back or in a menu. The Olympus Pen F has a DOF preview button at the front right body panel - exactly where we have come to expect it. It will get used more that way.

3. If you are going to have a DOF button on the right, don't confuse the right hand with a lens release button on the right as well - put it on the left. Also make it stand out visually and look good. Here is Olympus' answer - extend the chrome land of the lens mount out to the right and put a large button in it.

4. Have you ever picked up a dozen different digital cameras and tried to figure out where the designer has put the on/off button? And failed in about 40% of the cases? This is something that confronts sales staff every time a new model comes in. Leaving aside the novelty of the camera that turns itself on when you twist the zoom ring, most of the others either have a finger switch under the shutter button or a separate button somewhere o the top of the casing ...in amongst a forest of video, function, compensation, and pickled herring dispenser buttons. Hold your breath and press something and hope for the best...

Olympus are smart. For years their OM cameras have turned on with a lever on the left hand side - initially associated with a film rewind crank. No more film, no more rewinding, and the only cranks are the ones who operate the cameras...but Olympus have seized upon that portion of the top plate to put a positive knurled knob with an on/off switch that really does let you see that it is on or off. If it pays visual homage to a knurled film rewind knob, so much the better.

5. If you remember the screw-mount Leicas you are as old as this writer. Congratulations. You also remember Sabrina and cheap Australian brandy. But come back to the SM Leica. The slow-speed dial was frequently put onto the right front panel of the body where it could influence the escapement train for the shutter. Same on Leotaxes and Niccas.

Well, Olympus have decided to echo this memory by putting one of the colour control centres on this same position. You'll have to modify the number of commands that this dial can generate by flicking over the toggle switch under the top mode dial, but it will be worth it as you can fiddle with the tone curves no end. The fact that you can do it without pressing into a back menu is likely to encourage you to do it far more often. Keep fiddling - eventually you will stop being Nero and come closer to being Paganini.

6. 4 C spots on the mode dial. 4 Custom channels, accessible from outside with a thumb and forefinger. No button pushing. Again, you are far more likely to make use of a facility if the operation is facile.

7. Big rubber-covered eyepiece at the northwest corner of the map. Can-shaped design to the housing...more for effect than operation, I suspect, but it does echo a lot of older professional equipment. A visual echo calls as much as a vocal one, and buyers have eyes as well as ears.

These cameras, in silver as well as black, are ins tock right now. Please look at our on-line store for pricing and please come in and heft one if you can. They are set to become a modern classic.

Pen F: Currently on display and available in store with limited amounts

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.

Decisions...Decisions...The Fujifilm Fan In Agony

Well, it's sort of pleasant angst, after all.

I own a number of Fujifilm X-series cameras and not surprisingly, a number of Fujinon XF lenses to go on them. I have tried to select the ones that have the correct focal length for the work I do and up until now I have never considered the actual look of the lenses - just their optical characteristics. Then Fujifilm threw me a curve ball - they introduced a lens that looks gorgeous.

It is the new Fujinon 35mm XF f:2 WR lens...in this case in as silver colour to match the silver bodies of the X-E1 and X-E2 and the X-T10. Of course it is entirely suitable in fit for the X-T1 and the X-Pro1 but the silver colour is closest to that of the three bodies first named - and it is all about good looks.

Don't snort. That's one of the factors that influences a lot of camera and lens sales, even if the purchasers do not acknowledge it. Good design is one thing - good looks is another. People are drawn to pretty things.

Well, this is pretty. And pretty good, too, as it happens. I clapped it onto the editorial X-T10 ( in silver...) and took it outside the shop door. In large jpeg  - because my Silkypix Developer Studio Pro 6E doesn't decode the X-T10 yet from RAF files - the image is very good. No CA at the corners or in the tree branches at all. Yay!.

Fast on the focus - no hunting. No front element movement. Aperture stops with a clean and clear feel. And a "Just Right" balance with the X-T10 - some of the other lenses in my stable are a little nose-heavy with this little camera.

Note from the rear view that it has the WR rubber gasket for water resistance. Not an exact match for the X-T10 as the body does not have the extensive water sealing of the Fujifilm X-T1, but it does suggest a wonderful thought; put it on the silver X-T10 and never take it off and never have to clean the sensor again...

With this lens the camera is wonderfully reminiscent in shape of the 35mm SLR cameras that were sold in the 60's as package deals with one standard lens fixed on the front. You can set this to reproduce a famous slide film by setting it to Classic Chrome and I reckon all we need to find now is a brown leather ever-ready case for it to have an instant time machine.

Oh, you were wondering about the angst? Well I already have a 35mm f:1.4 Fujinon lens that is the sharpest thing out of the box. So strictly speaking I really don't need the new one. But the new one is soooo pretty...

Note: It also comes in black, as do all the other Fujifilm X-series lenses and cameras. So you can be professional.

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. 

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.

Fillum Up With Fillum

I'm not just writing this blog post to use that pun, but you do have to admit it is quite attractive...

So - let yourselves be attracted to the back of the shop - the fillum fridge - and note that we have quite a variety in a present. I see 35mm and 120 black and white and colour  - both negative and transparency. Good stuff too. Kodak, Ilford, Agfa, Fujifilm.

All you need is a fillum camera and we know you have any number of these out there in your cupboards. And fillum cameras are pretty long -lived as cameras go. All the way from the Agfa Isolets and Clacks to the Contarexes and Leica M's and all the way from the Ensigns to the Hasselblad 500's....they all were sturdily made and a lot of them work just as well now as ever they did. You can bet on the Leica M's.

Sick of worrying about charging lithium-ion batteries? Sick of worrying about backup from a card while on the go? Good enough photographer to get the picture in three shots instead of three hundred? Well, get out the fillum camera and off you go.

Processing can be done by you - and we have B/W gear to help with this - or by Fitzgerald Photo labs or other fine photofinishers. You can scan negs and transparencies and then computer at them until you fall unconscious. The world is your lobster, as Arfur Daley would say, and with fillum you can store the resultant neg, slide, or print with far greater certainty that it will survive the next thunderstorm or hard drive crash. And it's damn hard to steal your images if they are hard-copy to start with.

The fillum fridge keeps the stuff cold and fresh, and now is the time to take it out into the landscape - while it is cold and fresh. Or into the studio where there is a coffee pot and biscuits.

July 12 - Kodak Brownie Day - Get Ready For a Blast From The Past

July 12th is the birthdate of George Eastman - long ago in 1854. Waterville, New York, actually. George was interested in photography...

To celebrate this birthday I am inviting or readers to set their digital cameras as follows:

ISO as low as possible - 50-100 is fine.

Aperture at f:11 in manual mode.

Shutter speed at 1/25 of a second in manual mode.

jpeg. sRGB. Basic quality.

Monochrome setting, if possible. You can make it sepia if you wish.

Aspect ratio - 1:1 if possible.

Manual focus set at 10 feet.

Now go out and take 12 pictures. 12 only, ' film ' is expensive...

Do NOT review the pictures on the LCD screen - just go on from 1 to 2 to 3 and so on. Bring them back to your computer and display them out at 56mm x 56mm. No cheating - no photoshopping - no HDR - no plug-ins. Your first 12 pictures just as they come.

Show us the results. You have just used your own Kodak No.1 Brownie  (Digital Division) and if you have used it correctly you should have pictures of your family and the school fete and possibly Mundaring Weir. With luck they will be squinting into the sun. And very slightly blurred. Sun hats will be a bonus.

I'll try to feature the best on this blog.

Uncle Dick

Crowdfunding In Photography

Have just watched a YouTube video on the management's time...and am proud of it! Even used shop electricity to do it...and all to good purpose.

The little film was about crowdfunding for a plastic enlarger. Apparently someone wishes to make a little enlarger that accommodates a mobile phone and then projects an image from this to classic B/W enlarging paper. To enable people who only have images on their iPhone or other phone to pull them off for prints.

It's a novelty, Folks. If it gives you a thrill and reminds you of the dear old fume-laden days groping in the dark, well good on them. The video asks for money up front so that they can buy the construction of the actual devices, with the promise that if they get enough they will be able to do the job and you'll get one of the first batch.

Interesting concept. We've see it in the photographic world before - the Russians apparently got enough western cash to make batches of re-designed Petzval lenses for modern DSLR cameras. Sometimes the call for moolah works and sometimes it goes unheeded - I remember one scheme that wanted to develop a tiny wireless flash trigger for mirror-less cameras that seems to have come to naught.

Good ideas whose time have come? Perhaps. Trendy new business models? Perhaps.

E-shellgame? Perhaps.

Note: if you've got a lot of images on a mobile phone you can get a Fujifilm Instax Printer and do the job yourself right now. In colour. In the light. We've got he printers and film right now. No shells. No game.

No Mo LOMO Sale - Come In Comrades!

Is Camera Electronic calling. Hello.

Is having special sale of Lomo camera and accessory. To be got rid of for making new space.

All new goods. Not sold yet. Now is time to becoming glorious film artist and achieve new heights also new depths.

Lomo can do this to you. I mean for you. Disregard former phrase - all is good.

Now Lomo in special radiation-proof bin at front of store for 50% off. Do not gulag behind - rush in and take advantage of us.

Special recommendation from Central Committee: buy Holga. Holga is good. Holga come in many colours including Red Army Green and Spetznaz Black. Also Glorious Red.

Is Socialist Realism at its best.

PS: we sell film to make for operations with Lomo.

Whole Lotta Snappin' Going On...Instax Film

Our warehouse prospecting team has discovered a seam of Fujifilm.

A rich horde of Fujifilm Instax Mini film in the economical twin-pack has come to light and the Instax cameras ( and Polaroid 300) that you gave or got for Christmas can start putting out party pictures again.

It's fresh so get in while the getting is good.

AP Kits Back In Stock

The dear old AP Darkroom kit is back in stock.

Everything the budding photographer needs for 35mm or 120 film development - and with a bit of imagination the 4 x 5 newbie can also develop sheet film.

The kit includes an AP tank with reels, graduated cylinder, thermometer, stirring rod, developing trays, tongs, and film-drying clips.

$ 130 is all it costs - you'll need to get a Paterson or Glanz dark bag for film loading if you're going to use the tank and if you want to do tray developing you'll need to go to Bunnings and get a room full of dark. You can get rooms full of dark from IKEA too, but you have to assemble them with little Allen keys and your fingers get tired half-way through.

Note we also have lots of Ilford chemistry now to develop black and white film and paper.

Colour Management In The Post Apocalyptic Darkroom

Colour management has had a bad rap in the last few years - but if you listen to rap, bad is not necessarily bad.

As digital photographers discovered that they could no longer push the button and rely upon Kodak to do the rest...or indeed put their megapixels in at the chemist and go back in a week to collect the prints...they have had to learn how to set the machinery for themselves.

The ones who just post their pictures on Facelessbook or Splatter can get away with less knowledge - the gate demons for these digital infernos tend to strip all hope as well as a great deal of the dynamic range from any image condemned to them. You might as well use your mobile phone, or key ring camera, or toaster...the results will be just the same.

The careful worker who wants to enter club competitions with projected and printed images will need to do much more, and do it right. They'll need to calibrate their camera, monitor, and printer to take into account about 54 factors to allow the scene as seen to be the screen as seen. It is probably not an accident that the words "screen" and "scream" are so close together in the English language, if you get heavily involved into colour management. One wrong setting and disaster ensues.

We can recommend any number of local lecturers who conduct courses on this subject. There are books produced by Focal Press and Epson and Canon and Uncle Tom Cobbly and all on the subject. They will help - particularly the big heavy books. You can stack them on your prints to flatten them.

For those who cannot bring themselves to follow the entire process of training for colour management ( or the requirements to learn to become a fighter pilot...) there is an easier way. Some of the simpler computer programs have the ability to throw their little electric hands up and defer all the decisions onto the printer - they say so right in the instructions.

If this is the case, and you feed the printer with paper made by the same manufacturer...and not the hand-laid unborn beech tree super-art esoteric tissue...you can get a pretty good result. It might not be the same result as what you have on the computer, but at least no-one's hair will be green. An A4 print for a dollar that looks OK.

This is roughly equivalent to putting supermarket film shot on a Konica Pop through the chemist after it has been sitting in the glove compartment of the car for 6 months but do not decry this - art careers have started with less.

Bulk Is Back - Bounce In And Buy Big! Ilford!

Yay!

 After interminable questioning from the retro film enthusiasts, we how have good stocks of Ilford HP5 ( 400 ISO) and Ilford FP4 (125 ISO) bulk film.

These are fresh 100ft. ( 30,5mtr) rolls of 35mm filmso that you can load your own cartidges cheaply. No excuse not to fire off that motor drive now!

In the fridge down the back.

You May Notice... Fujifilm

You may notice over the next few months that whenever we advertise the Fujifilm X-series cameras - the X-30, X100S or T, The X-PRO1, The X-E2, or the X-T1 - that we carefully refer to the company as Fujifilm. This is deliberate.

Fuji is a name that figures largely in Japanese advertising, which is not surprising as there seems to be a rather large mountain near Tokyo called Fujiyama. It is hard to miss...The use of Fuji as a name extends throughout any number of products - I remember in dentistry that there was a Fuji company that made superb filling and laboratory materials in stylish packaging. I suspect one of my crowns is attached with a Fuji ionomer cement. But they are a different company.

So - Fujifilm has been Fujifilm for a very long time and they have been selling Fujifilm film for as long as I have been in the trade. We have their films in the film fridge right now and they have proved to be stalwarts in colour transparency supply where other manufacturers have fallen by the wayside. I can readily endorse the use of their materials in studio and darkroom as well. They work well, and if you work, that is a very good thing.

So - They want to make sure - and we will be cooperating in this - that you know they are the photographic Fuji people - Fujifilm. Even if you are shooting digital now, they are the same old reliable backup. Yay.