Recent content by AZD

I have the 28th edition on my desk now. It’s not exactly casual reading, but a useful resource for every aspect of making things from metal.

…because for all practical purposes it equals or betters the M’s. I love mine. When I need a small, light, reliable camera, this is it. The never-ready case is pretty good and keeps it discrete. If I can take a whole bag then the Nikons go out instead. I had an M3 for several years but it...

Glad it worked. I had a similar setup, but using the lamp housing of an old Federal diffusion enlarger with the lens placed inside. Seems like I also saw the most change in the first 2 days.

At the hardware store, big box store, or whatever, look for an “EcoSmart 40-Watt Equivalent A19 Blacklight Ultraviolet Glow in the Dark LED Light Bulb”. It has worked faster than anything else I’ve tried.

Anyhooo… another dandy thorium lens followed me home yesterday - a neat Mamiya Sekor 55mm f/1.4 M42 with Spotmatic still attached as a rear lens cap. Couldn’t resist for $25. Not too much yellowing on this one so I’ll leave it alone for now. Looking forward to running it through the paces as...

I would suggest “equivalent”. Tungsten is something like 10% light and 90% heat per watt. LED is far more efficient, so actual 60W LED is crazy bright.

Wouldn’t be surprised if it appears soon. Compared to the Portra/Ektacolor and B&W sheet film, E100 likely sells fewer units. That would likely make it the lowest priority. Anyway, hoping to see it soon in 4x5 or 8x10, whichever I can get hold of. I recently picked up a 77mm Tiffen 812 warming...

For the technical answer to your question, look up “f-center”, which explains the mechanism. Hardware stores and similar now sell LED bulbs in colors and UV (black light). The UV one works exceptionally well at removing the yellow tint from thoriated lenses. It works much faster than sunlight...

Pm sent

We’re thinking the same. While I have never owned the high LF end stuff, I use Commercial/Wide Field Ektars and can’t think of a reason to get anything else. They provide the look I want. The same can be said of my old Nikkors.

Short answers: - I have used a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor-S auto with color and like it a lot. You may, too. - They are so cheap and widely available you can try it out for little money. - Technically, it is a very good lens that is usable at f1.4 (head / shoulders portraits being my reference) and...

400 speed transparency film. Plus-X. Double X sheet film.

Short answer, more control of the beam, and an approximation of direct sunlight that softer sources cannot produce. One disadvantage is a lot of light can be lost in the tightest beam setting, so a 500W fresnel might seem surprisingly dim sometimes. There should be lots of information...

Thank you for your detailed response. I think I will try to achieve something like this with the 35mm roll I’ve had stashed for years, and maybe some 120. I would like to combine that sharpness with some Foma paper from a batch which has a certain “defect” where the dark areas dry with less...

BW117. I want to say the difference is in the base tint perhaps? BW117 is clean white. Not to distract too much from the main topic, but it apparently came from a refrigerated lot of film and some paper belonging to a retired pro photographer. Lots of Agfa in the mix, including this paper, a...