Recent content by Jimskelton

If a video comes up on your feed with subtle to obvious click-bait, is a talking head, and was posted days to hours ago, there's a good chance it's AI generated. I find this phenomenon interesting, as other past trends in content generation. People in general don't like to be fooled. So if you...

Since the last time I posted, I've gone with "post-flashing" the paper just before the first development and not using .4% hypo to control the highlights and reduce contrast. Photographic paper has 2 qualities that are good to know about when doing reversals: 1. It contains excess silver...

About the split knob: The existing focus knob has a gear and a cam. The gear focuses the lens, and the cam controls the aperture when the solenoid engages it (when the flash is plugged in). The cam is connected to a lever which stops the shutter from opening fully during exposure. When focused...

Yes, this would be the smallest 6x9 out there! How did you decide to power it? Using old cartridges with good batteries or an add-on unit? This is a great SX-70 hack, and it could be used for other film types such as b&w or colour paper which can be reversed into a positive, sort of like...

I just uploaded templates and 3D files you can use to make a bellows more easily. Check out https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7320174 I also did a short video on how it's done at Material can be a challenge, but you can use the fabric from a film changing bag, or blackout curtain fabric...

This sounds like a great idea! In effect, does your design hold one sheet per cartridge with a dark slide? And if so, can you reinsert the dark slide so you can unload the cartridge in daylight? I found if you cut down a piece of sheet film to size, then slot out the corner that engages with...

I'm observing similar backlash to AI generated images as there has been to heavily "photoshopped" images. Although there's an underlying curiosity with created images (which I think is born out of a human propensity to create), the public in general does not like to be fooled. When you see an...

I use 1% Potassium dichromate/1.2% sulfuric acid for the bleach with 5% Sodium sulfite as the clearing bath followed by .4% Hypo for 30 sec to reduce mottling and get better highlights and I can do 8 or so 4x5's without the blacks suffering. Dektol works OK but results in high contrast. Ansco...

I live in Canada and RA-4 chemicals when I could find them were quite expensive. Fortunately, The Camera Store in Calgary sells chemicals manufactured by Flicfilm, which is based out of Longview, AB, just south of Calgary. They sell CD-3 powder in bottles, as well as sodium sulfite and potassium...

This topic was discussed in an earlier post, though the OM-1 that I worked on was the original model which had resistor values that were quite different from the specs: So the values I came up that worked would likely not work well with later OM-1s that use resistor values as pictured. I got...

So, a mechanism like this? This may work, and I like the idea of the shutter slowing down at the apex before the blades are completely open to reduce bounce and the forces on the leaf pins, as well as decelerating before closing. Linear springs would apply a lot of force to the pins and leafs...

With your metal design, you should be able to use strong metal springs to achieve fast opening/closing times, and perhaps achieve shutter speeds upward to 1/60 at least. My wooden prototype can't take too much force... Cocking the shutter would be basically pulling the strong spring over the...

This is quite the project! I don't have a metal shop, but have access to a wood one, so was curious as to what was possible. Someone asked me about making an 8" leaf shutter, which is a little big for a 3D printer, so tried making a prototype out of wood with vinyl blades. The shutter itself is...

The 215 is one of the low end pack film cameras with a 2 element plastic lens and only 2 apertures: f/8.8 and f/45. The plastic lens is surprisingly sharp but is not as good as the 3 element glass lenses in other models such as the 250. The biggest downside of the 215 is the "imagesizer"...

I'm not sure there is an "optimal" Metol/HQ ratio for all situations. If you want a high contrast developer, Metol can be as low as 10% (Ansco 42). If you want a low contrast developer it can be as high as 100% (D-23, Ansco 120). Also factored in is the amount of activator (Sodium...