Recent content by John51

I have a Zuiko 28/2.8. When I pan the camera, what was in the middle of the vf stretches as it becomes one side of the scene. What's that type of distortion called? Is it common?

As it's going to be a tester camera to see if you like using film, my suggestion is a Praktica MTL5. As already stated, it's on the the clumsy side. Anything but a Zenit is nicer to use imo. Upside is that a cheap MTL5 from that auction site is likely to have had less film put through it than...

afaik, diesel fuel now has anti waxing agents added. What some drivers of diesel taxis used to do in winter was put half a gallon of petrol in the tank and then fill up with diesel.

I don't get on with the wide lid of the Super System 4. I get leaks when inverting half of the time. Rather than chase perfection, I let the loose end drag. The most convenient agitation method for me is swizzle stick only, so that's what I do. I make an effort to be consistent and so far so...

I took a chance on a cheap XA with the same fault. It had alkaline batteries fitted. Replaced them with fresh silver oxide batteries and it worked fine. Luck of the draw I guess.

Could an OM power winder could be modded to use as a battery pack? Extra weight but it should get a battery hungry camera through the day.

Another extreme would be to compose inside the cameras rangefinder patch.

I have a kitchen worktop fitted as a workbench in my hobby room. I got my Kodak Precision enlarger without baseboard. I mounted it directly to the worktop with a mild steel backing plate underneath.

Going by images that I've seen on screen, the Foveon sensor used in Sigma cameras has a look that is close to slide film. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=foveon+sensor+landscapes&atb=v153-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

I didn't take to my 35mm Paterson contact printer and ordered some 35mm Clearfile neg sheets. They don't fit on 8x10 paper. What I do now is use two sheets of 8x10 per roll. Hang the expense. :)

Nowadays I use a simple kitchen timer. In the 70s I'd be arriving home after midnight and tired from an evenings work. To minimise mistakes, I recorded my voice onto a cassette tape and played it to act as a process timer. Pour in developer in 3...2...1...NOW etc. Can be done on a phone now...

Class will out and the very best will attract clients prepared to pay a premium for their services. Where technology has had a big impact is to remove the economic restrictions to becoming a journeyman. It used to be that simply owning the kit would get you work. Learn as you earn. True for...

I've forgotten the name of the photographer. She did a self portrait sat at a desk wearing a sweater. The self portrait next to it was the same except that she was topless. She made her point with me. Intellectually, I knew it was the same woman. Emotionally, I saw 2 different women.

The easiest way to get 68 degree water is to put it into plastic jugs and keep it in a 68 degree room for a day or so. That's what I do. I have 2L milk jugs filled with tap water and wash the film with 10 changes of water over a period of a few hours. After processing, I refill the jugs and...

The antidote to methyl alcohol is ethyl alcohol.