returning to film photography

I'm Ron from Yellowknife, I've posted other introduction information on the introduce yourself to APUG forum. Several moves back, and over a decade ago, I had been doing some B&W and colour medium format photography. Most of it was astrophotography, some using a home made double scotch camera mount for time exposures without star trails. The winters here are long and dark enough to do that but I'm not sure what parts of the set-up would work at our winter temperatures. If I can afford it I'd like to build, repair, or buy a 4X5 camera light enough for my motorized camera mount, this could be a winter project for me, I have other projects that should be completed before I start this.

The goal, apart from some winter night photography work, is to make up my own photo archive of parts of Yellowknife as it is today. There's been a push on to tear down old buildings and transform the city from its mining town roots into something more civilized (but I think lacking in character).

I've just subscribed and hope to be here on and off looking for advice and help as I set out to get back into film photography. My wife of 35+ years, Laura, has OK's putting some processing gear into our small laundry furnace room, provided I keep the expenses reasonable. She's actually very supportive, I wouldn't want to give any other impression.

Anyone care to give me some helpful suggestions?

Just buy film and shoot film. That is the best way to start.

You might look at a 120 based system to keep costs down. A Bronica ETRS system is low priced, high quality, and lightweight.


Kent in SD

I took a quick look on the auction site to see what prices were like. If I'd like to import one the prices are very low (compared to 20 years ago), there isn't much available in Canada. They're a 6X4.5 ? Interesting and worth considering although I'd prefer a larger format if I can do it at a reasonable cost.

Hey man welcome back to film. That is great to hear and I hope you throughly enjoy it. Where will you be doing prints?

I'd left film photography for several reasons, lack of interest wasn't one of them. The reasons for letting it go and coming back now are: 1) its the first time since 2003 that we've bought our own house, the rented places didn't have room for the gear, 2) since originally packing up the gear from the move in 2003 from the east coast to Saskatchewan it has several times been in outside storage areas and some of it was badly water damaged, 3) not having a place to set up an area for film processing meant having to send out everything which didn't work well for push processing astrophotography shots, 4) although they made occasional mistakes, like cutting the film into frames in the middle of of a frame (a good astrophotography B&W shot looks like unexposed film with specks on it), I had a good working relationship with Elmira photo in Ontario. who like many smaller labs that would give me that personal attention I wanted got out of film, 5) it was starting to look like film was getting hard to find, even before we packed up to move in 2003, even now the selection is limited compared to fifteen years ago. The list could go on.

If I wasn't still putting in overtime and other commitments on my time I would have made more progress unpacking by now.

Why now and why larger format. While I wasn't unpacked and ready to go the demise of my ruggedized point & shoot digital camera brought to the surface my dislike of things that are unnecessarily automated, unrepairable, and disposable, where the challenge is figuring out the buttons and features (which are great with respect to digital cameras) but require little understanding. So the disposable point & shout digital camera may be replaced with a similar one I wasn't up for the expense (and early obsolescence) of a quality digital camera, I'm more into something a couple of steps above a box camera that will take a decent higher resolution photo. 4X5 film and processing seems to have survived so far, quality affordable used parts are available, the basic functions are there, generally I don't need a built in (fill in the blank here) feature, it could be made light enough for my tracking camera mount, I'd like to try some alternative processes just for fun, and the list could go on. Recently it dawned on me that Yellowknife has been through dramatic changes in the last few years, the Giant mine headframe, a landmark from the 1930's, has been torn down, the Con mine headframe, behind our house, is scheduled to go (over the protests of many residents) next year. The downtown core is being bought up by the city bent on modernizing the cities image, and many of the old character buildings are threatened or gone. Walking through the downtown core on Saturday I was surprised at how the downtown core renewal had gone, but then I was struck by an awesome photo opportunities that remained. Outside of town many kilometres of the only highway south have been burned over in the last two years, the last trip I did in June there wasn't a bison to be seen, even the familiar landscapes are changing.

I don't see myself taking photos that I'd value in something smaller than a 6X6. An example, while doing some indoor candid shots of my mother's 75 birthday back in 2001 (she's still with us) my youngest brother came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her as I took a shot with my Koni-Omega (stock lens) from across the room. When I did my own enlargement I noticed that I could clearly read the time on his analog wrist watch, something I doubt a typical 35mm or affordable digital camera of the day could have done.

Its a work day, I should go back to bed, I got up to take my daughter to the airport for an early morning flight to YYC, to find that she called a cab and left already.

Doing my prints, I don't know yet, I'm up for suggestions, thanks for asking.

hi ron,
sounds like a lot of fun !
good luck documenting the town, i do a lot of that
it is rewarding !
and it is kind of funny, you might photograph 1 thing that had been there for ummm 100 years
and after it is gone and whatever futzing around the town does to the site to make it all nice-nice
you can show the photograph to people and they won't even remember that thing you photographed was there, its really strange.

if you are looking at 4x5 - stuff, think about if you want / need camera movements ( straightening out buildings if you "tilt the camera up" )
or if you can get away with using a 4x5 camera like a big 35mm camera .. compose on the glass, put the film in ( roll film in an adapter, or sheet film )
and expose ... with 4x5 you might not have to enlarge, contact prints are like 4x6 prints gotten from a lab ... and depending on what you want to do
they can be as easy to make as with a light bulb and a pane of glass and some photo paper, or you can use the sun ...

good luck !
john

Thanks for the post John, the kind of advice I need. I just checked out your website and its saved me asking the question of what should I do with my new in the package 15 year old film. I wonder if any of the chemistry or print paper would still be good for anything. You're signature file caught my attention, my wife and I do a little for charity and I'd like to do more for relief work. I'm out of bed again, my adult son wants to be taken to the dentist and might not be able to drive after the 7AM appointment. maybe we could just head to work after that and perhaps quit early.

I think I'm going to like returning to the fold

If I don't drop off to sleep right after work I'll check the forum this evening.

thanks for the visit
and it is great to read of another person / people who gives too !

if your developer or its ingredient-powder is black its all bad
for film, its ez to mix a simple developer like D23 out of 2 ingredients
( not including the water ) .. i cant' speak for D23 but older film and paper
might like something strong like D72 &c easy to mix from scratch or
from a dektol pouch

good luck with the paper and film, it might be good, or bad
at least you'll enjoy yourself tring to figure that out

john

ps the not very movement cameras i was refering to are speed and crown graphics
they can be had for not too much $$ and ones with a graflok back can take film holders.
the ones with movements can be found sometimes for not too much $ too, some of the older ones
( graphic views, calumets &c ) are solid but sometimes heavy ... largeformatphotography.info has some
good reading materials for someone starting out with LF, and graflex.org has tons of stuff on everything graflex.

I think you would be quite happy with an ETRS or ETRSi. I enjoy mine quite a lot.

I have a plethora of cameras in 35mm through 8x10 view and my "walk arounds" are usually something like an ETRS or a GS-1. There is a vast, in my opinion, difference in the appearance of enlargements that the medium format has over 35mm, although I love my 35's.

Whichever route you take, I feel that you will be best served by an enlarger that will handle at least a 6x7 format. I have a Minolta ModIII that I have had since the 1970's and it is a favorite. I only use the 4x5 enlarger for 4x5, whereas the Minolta handles the other smaller formats. If you get a color head, you will find that the current variable contrast papers work splendidly. Using dual filtration (yellow and magenta combined) will minimize exposure time differences as you change grades.

Welcome back to film; I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy the journey.

Hi Stephen, still packed away are a pair of low end enlargers. One did 35mm only, the other would do 6x6. I played with different lenses on the antique MF one, and had a set of gel filters. Hopefully that gear was in a box that stayed dry. On one of the MF sites I've visited was a home-made 4x5 enlarger that someone made by securing metal adjustable shelf rails to a wall and building the enlarger head into what would have been a shelf between the rails http://www.doak.no/index_files/2-enlarg.htm

I'll familiarize myself with the Minolta ModIII, it would be nice if it could do 6x9, I have an old Voigtlander that uses that format.

Supper time.

John, about my old processing chemicals (not less than ten years old, and probably been chilled to -40 a few times), here is what I still have.
a previously opned bottle of Tmax developer
a couple of bottles, full or almost full, of Kodak film cleaner
an unopened package of dry (to make 5 gallons) Kodak Hypo cleaning agent
most of a bottle of Kodak stop bath concentrate
half a bottle of Kodak Photo-flo200 solution

And stashed away with that were two uncut strips of developed 6x7 colour negatives (from my Koni-Omega) from when we lived in Saskatchewan and went to my wife's family re-union. Fortunately they were well protected and are still in excellent shape. Sadly some of the older people in those shots have since passed on.

I'm thinking that some of this stuff would still be good to use. The developer is likely unusable. What would be the best way to dispose of it? I'd be interested in alternative processes if there are some with less environmentally damaging ingredients.

Now for the film, 120 size, I have rolls of Agfa Optima II 100 & 400 for colour prints, one roll of Agfapan APX100
35mm 24 exp; a roll of Kodak Gold (I didn't notice a speed on it), and a pair of APX100

This is like opening a time capsule, I'm finding things that I'd forgotten that I had. Sadly I left the AA cells in the flash.

All of the film was still in the package, do you think any of it would be good for anything? I also should find someone who would do the processing for me.

hi ron

photo flo is probably OK ( i am still using and amber bottle of it from probably the late 70s .. smells like flowers )
not sure about the hypo clearing agent, i've never used that before,
i use perma wash, it comes in a gallon bottle and lasts a long long time ( liquid concentrate )
your tmax developer, i'd find the hazardous waste recycling center in your town,
and see if they can dispose of it for you ...

the film might be OK, who knows, the colors might be a little funky if they
are color .. b/w might still be OK .. the general rule is 1 fstop per 10 years expired

i like making cyanotypes, 2 ingredients and water, from what i understand very low enviornmental impact
and when "developed" iron ions are washed free .. the only other alternative process
i do is "lumen prints" which is just putting film or something on regular old photo paper in the sun, and getting
a sun-stained image ... there is an article here on apug to fix them ( baking soda and washing soda and fixer )
http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/all-articles
has tons of easy and fun alternative process-things, some are pretty low impact.

I wonder if we have a hazardous waste disposal here, from what I understand there's 237,000 tonnes of arsenic trioxideoxide (https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100027364/1100100027365) stored underground at the defunct Giant mine site a few kilometres from here, and private security will through you off the now closed Con mine site if your caught trespassing j(its ust behind my house) due to arsenic in the dust on the surface. Believe it or not the drinking water here is still great, as is the fishing.

Seriously though I'll look into disposing of it properly, and keep the rest.

I haven't yet located the print paper.

I have the alternativephotography site open now. Looks very interesting.

Many thanks, have a good night!

NWT Ron said:

I took a quick look on the auction site to see what prices were like. If I'd like to import one the prices are very low (compared to 20 years ago), there isn't much available in Canada. They're a 6X4.5 ? Interesting and worth considering although I'd prefer a larger format if I can do it at a reasonable cost.

Click to expand...

Consider 6x6, I think that you will find it more flexible than 645 while providing a larger negative.

The first roll of film was a learning experience, it had better of been or I'll go broke before I have a presentable photo. Before going on vacation I bought a good used Lubitel 166B and a fresh roll of film, it was light and inexpensive enough to risk putting in my luggage. From my notes, shot 1 was OK, shot 2 misfired the shutter - apparently the shutter release cable was locked down and the shutter went off when I tried to set it, attempts 3 and 4 were OK, however on frame 5 my finger slipped off the shutter set lever before it locked in position and it went off prematurely, frame 6 should have worked if I hadn't forgotten to advance the film before taking another shot, frames 7 through 9 went OK, and then on frame 10 I tried to use the self timer and that didn't work as hoped, frame 11 was another double exposure, and finally on the last frame using a bulb shutter release and flash indoors I might have managed a reasonable photo, that is if I managed to get everyone within the field of view. I haven't sent the film out for processing, I wonder how professional processors go home at night and tell stories of what they saw at work :-(

Lessons learned, I hope.

Ron