This weekend I had my first LF outing. I have three 4x5 cameras, so the choice of which to bring was tough. I ended up bringing my Cambo SCII (Calumet NX) along with three holders loaded with HP5+.
I went to several local spots and carried the camera and tripod over perhaps 5-7 miles of varying terrain. Wow, I really need to rethink carrying this setup on a regular basis! The tripod and head weigh 17-1/2 pounds and the camera and lens probably close to 10. That's just too much to carry for any length of time. My other two 4x5 cameras (Sinar F2 and Toyo VX125) are slightly lighter, so I'll take one of those next time and seriously consider getting a field camera and a CF tripod.
I metered with a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and used the Zone System to place detailed shadow areas on Zone III. Most of my subjects were fairly straightforward and didn't require camera movements, except for a tall windmill where I used front rise to get it all in without perspective distortion. I was hoping for dramatic skies, or at least some clouds, but the weather was uncooperative and only a few wispy cirrus clouds appeared late in the day.
Back at home I developed the film in a Paterson tank with a MOD54. The MOD54 holds up to six sheets, but I decided to develop them two at a time so a mistake wouldn't ruin them all and to allow use of different developers. The first two were developed in Rodinal 1:50 and they came out okay, with the sharply defined grain typical of Rodinal. I'll use D-23 and XTOL for the next four.
All-in-all, an enjoyable experience. I don't think I made any typical mistakes, like removing the wrong dark slide, or forgetting to close the shutter before pulling the slide, but I still have four more sheets to develop, so time will tell.
Here's the best of the two developed so far, scanned on an Epson V850 Pro.
I went to several local spots and carried the camera and tripod over perhaps 5-7 miles of varying terrain. Wow, I really need to rethink carrying this setup on a regular basis! The tripod and head weigh 17-1/2 pounds and the camera and lens probably close to 10. That's just too much to carry for any length of time. My other two 4x5 cameras (Sinar F2 and Toyo VX125) are slightly lighter, so I'll take one of those next time and seriously consider getting a field camera and a CF tripod.
I metered with a Pentax Digital Spotmeter and used the Zone System to place detailed shadow areas on Zone III. Most of my subjects were fairly straightforward and didn't require camera movements, except for a tall windmill where I used front rise to get it all in without perspective distortion. I was hoping for dramatic skies, or at least some clouds, but the weather was uncooperative and only a few wispy cirrus clouds appeared late in the day.
Back at home I developed the film in a Paterson tank with a MOD54. The MOD54 holds up to six sheets, but I decided to develop them two at a time so a mistake wouldn't ruin them all and to allow use of different developers. The first two were developed in Rodinal 1:50 and they came out okay, with the sharply defined grain typical of Rodinal. I'll use D-23 and XTOL for the next four.
All-in-all, an enjoyable experience. I don't think I made any typical mistakes, like removing the wrong dark slide, or forgetting to close the shutter before pulling the slide, but I still have four more sheets to develop, so time will tell.
Here's the best of the two developed so far, scanned on an Epson V850 Pro.
