G'day all...

[SteveR]

Hi everyone, just wanted to pop my head in and say a quick G'day. I don't get much time to sit and trawl the forums these days, but saw this group when I was popping in to check one of our regional groups. I'm a regular darkroom user (have my own setup), I use it to produce the majority of my artwork, a small percentage of my commercial work, as well as a whole bunch of family snapshots. Been having a few frustrations lately, which I'm sure you all can appreciate!

 

[Ralph Javins]

Good morning, Steve;

Welcome to the group.

Yes, there are many frustrations with doing your own film, even "just simple black and white." My own frustrations revolve around the loss of many of the films that I loved to use in the past, and even the developers for those films. There are a few films available today that I have been able to migrate to after a measure of experimentation, but that did take time and effort, and a few trips down a path without an interesting end and the subsequent backtracking. With all of the concern today for disposal of various chemicals, while photographic chemicals are not a serious issue, just the idea now is not popular. To that end, while I do still have most of the enlarging equipment, now I am going more to the "hybrid" processing where the film is developed and scanned to allow work on a computer and also to allow the digital images to be sent to others for their viewing. This last point is something that the people here on APUG can appreciate.

I really do not yet know which takes more time. Yes, being in a dark room is time consuming, but I have also noticed that you can spend hours in front of a computer with Adobe PhotoShop.

While I do have cameras in all kinds of film formats, some of them may no longer be viable. 110 film cartridges might be coming back. I can still slit 35mm or 120 for reloading the 16mm cartridges. APS I think has come to an end with only the remaining stock being available. 35mm is still going along well with only a few painful losses to get to where we are today. 120 roll film is still there, although there have been notable losses there also. 4 by 5 has really dropped. Then the loss of Polaroid for 4 by 5 was really sad. Well, at least Fuji is still making some 3 & 1/4 by 4 & 1/4 polaroid type film for a while longer.

One promising point is that we also have the ability now to even make our own film and emulsion to spread onto it. We can keep taking photographs for quite a while longer, in spite of whatever else Mr. Perez may do to EKCo.

Finally, like so many others, yes, I have some digital cameras here also. At least it does save on the developing and scanning. Most of the time it really is OK, but there also seems to be something missing. There really is something about film.

Enjoy;

Ralph, Latte Land, Washington

 

[desertratt]

I hope 110 film is coming back. I seem have to rescued about a dozen spy, subminiture, 110 -- whatever you want to call them cameras and also Bilora Bella 44 and 66 cm cameras and 35 or so 35mm film cameras. I even have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 110 camera. It's neon green and in very nice codition. I just got a Minolta Pocket Pak 40 that is gorgeous. It came with Owner's Manual, flash cube extender and two flash cubes. Can't wait to shoot some film on these beauties. I even have an old Digital camera with a roaring One MB (actually 1.3) I want to see how good that is. I had an early 3MB digital and it was fine. I also have evrything for a Crown Graphic except a lensboard and lens. But I am getting there, slowly but surly.

 

[cblkdog]

One thing I've found that livens things up is making my own chemistry. Theres not much more to mixing a few basic chemicals than mixing a bag of D76 or Dektol. Hopefully once I do it more I'll understand the working of the seperate chemicals
and be able to tweak them a bit. There's always something new in photography.