How did you calculate wet plate costs? I discussed with one wet plate photographer and he said 4x5 wetplate costs 4..5 euros worth of material. So I concluded that 8x10 is then 8..10 euros.
I suspect my 8x10 film days are coming to a close, given that I can now make an 8x10 wet plate negative for half the price of film.
How did you calculate wet plate costs? I discussed with one wet plate photographer and he said 4x5 wetplate costs 4..5 euros worth of material. So I concluded that 8x10 is then 8..10 euros.
Surely 16 to 20 euro?
How did you calculate wet plate costs? I discussed with one wet plate photographer and he said 4x5 wetplate costs 4..5 euros worth of material. So I concluded that 8x10 is then 8..10 euros.
It costs me one dollar for the 8x10 glass.
A 450 ML bottle of salted collodion costs me about $60 and it will make at least forty 8x10 plates, so that's about $1.50 worth of collodion.
Developer is home-made, and its dirt cheap. It probably costs me about 25 cents (or less) to develop an 8x10 inch plate.
Fixer is Sodium thiosulfate, and I buy it in 10 pound lots for $25. so per plate, fixer likely costs pennies.
Varnish is fairly expensive, but it probably takes 7-10ml per 8x10 to varnish, and at ten cents per ml, that would be $.70 to $1. per plate.
So by these calculations, an 8X10 glass negative is costing me $4.00 or less to make.
I prefer working with panchromatic, and infrared films.
Fomapan 400 is about 125Euro here, thus not that much off from HP5.
Except there's 50 sheets in a Foma box, 25 in Ilfords, the saving is quite significant.
Ian
Except there's 50 sheets in a Foma box, 25 in Ilfords, the saving is quite significant.
Ian
I don't know anything about wetplates but aren't you missing silver bath here? I've understood that it is the most expensive part?
Word to the wise, Catlabs 80 X is likely Shanghai 100 (though Omer swears he has his own formulation produced by the same factory, personally I think the film is very good so I don't care). In my tests 80 X should be exposed at ISO 32, and I have developed it in 510 Pyro for 14 minuets with good results. In a Jobo I did a 2-3 minute prewash to match my inversion time.
However, that HP5 price may be covid high and not permanent. In the meantime you may also like Pancro 400 which you can also get from Catlabs (expose at 320 or 250, and develop for 17 minutes in XTol).
I've given up on the CatLabs 80 X. Stating that it is an 80 ASA film is a gross exaggeration: you need to expose it at 25-32ASA to get any shadow information whatsoever. I might use up the sheets of 4x5 I have left on pinhole experiments, but otherwise I won't be using it for "serious" work. IMO the savings aren't worth the compromises.
Good day Paul, I could use a film in the 25 to 32 ASA range in 8x10. Could you elaborate on the other drawbacks you found with the film?
The main one is its low ASA rating. I also found it has an odd curve that seems to shove middle values down into the range of shadow detail, while the highlights soar off into oblivion. It delivers a particular look that leans towards "dark tones", as you can see in this example: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49790773713_02c3ce5e8f_h.jpg (The foliage was at least one value lighter than it appeared on film)
Thanks Paul, I see what you mean in the example given the foliage tones compared to the highlights. In this particular situation it makes for a striking image.
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