mostly – but not only – about film photography
I used a rather old (expired 1969) Kodak Pro-X 125 film in an 1929 build voigtländer bessa 6×9 camera.
Sunny sixteen rule, 1/100 sec, 11.
The film was stored since the early 60´s in camera, in a rooftop storage in dirty environment.
Developed in HC 110 1:31 7min at 20 C I got surprisingly nice results.
I am thinking of doing some pinhole macro work.
Looking the internet up I found some interesting thoughts
If you draw a ray diagram you may see a problem if you bring it very close to your subject, and your film sensitivity curve isn’t narrow.
For one thing the material in which the hole is made would need to be very thin, or you’ll get some odd vignetting.
But also remember that pinhole does a very poor job of focusing different wavelengths to the same plane. As the subject gets closer to the pinhole, that issue should get more noticeable: rays containing all the colours will need to approach the pinhole from more extreme angles.
Hence my suggestion to use a film with a narrow sensitivity curve… it’d be best if it were sensitive to a single wavelength
Seems I will have to do some tests myself
Finally a free afternoon. I went out with the (black) Cameradactyl 4×5 to try a few shots with the cheaply aquired, cleaned and mounted 127 lens.
Of course as soon as I arrived with my bicycle the weather went to light rain.
The tripod mount I glued in is not stable (looking for an idea to get it right) and while composing the camera was rather wobbly on the tripod.
Fuji X-ray film (Fuji AD-M 18×24 100 Bl. mammography film, one side emulsion), Rodinal 1:100, 20 Celsius, about 10min under red light with visual control.
The pic shows part of the eremitage, a long forgotten place where some monks once lived in solitude near the Nahe valley, Bad Kreuznach.
A very nice ultrawide pinhole camera from James Guerin at aupremierplan.
Here is his description the loading of this camera:
The film plane is curved to ensure even exposure across the negative, not possible with a flat film plane with such an extreme wide angle view (141° angle view of equates to a focal length of 6.4mm in 35mm terms). T
A side-effect of the curved film plane is that it results in a curved horizon in your photos unless the photo is taken with the camera level. This is why a precise bubble level features on the top plate of the camera.
https://www.largeformatphotography.info/lenses/LF8x10in.html
http://www.brucebarrett.com/large_format/LF_Lens_Coverage.html
and some theoretics:
http://paulbourke.net/miscellaneous/lens/
a quick comparison of similar „focal length:
| 35mm | 4×5 | 8×10 |
| 20mm | 65mm | 120mm |
| 24mm | 75mm | 155mm |
| 28mm | 90mm | 200mm |
| 35mm | 115mm | 240mm |
| 45mm | 150mm | 300mm |
| 52mm | 180mm | 360mm |
| 63mm | 210mm | 420mm |
| 90mm | 300mm | 600mm |
| 105mm | 360mm | 720mm |
| 135mm | 480mm | 900mm |
Tilting the front or back plane with a large format camera is a important feature.
The Scheimpflug rules explain the effect.
It states that the film-, sharpness- and lens plane meet themselves at some point.
In a usual small format camera they meet in infinity, therefor the planes are strictly parallel : III
As soon as you tilt, the planes meet and you can play with depth of field:
Front plane tilting needs a larger image circle of the lens and puts the film to the edges of the image circle, out of the optimal sharpness region of the lens.
Back plane tilting avoids this problems.
Usually the tilt is just a few degrees, much less I expected at first.
The Agfa Isolette (I)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZVx9psFESI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5klXMZcX_Zk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIMiCsTkcMw
And more :
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agfa_Isolette
http://www.optiksammlung.de/Agfa/IsoletteI.html
Loading the film :
https://youtu.be/EbvFVDC7j9A
I got a nice old camera, but the shutter was not working and the focus ring would not turn.
The wonderful page here explains a lot about this camera.
The repair :
First I unscrewed the focussing ring (3 small screws to loosen).
Than a serrated focus ring has to be unscrewed anticlockwise after turning the „half a screw“ out of the way.
Now you can unscrew the front and the second lens anticlockwise.
Next the aperture ring goes of.
From the back of the camera I now unscrewed the third, back lens, than a screw, than the bellow can be loosened from the shutter assembly from behind.
A few small paper rings ( focus adjustment ) have to be carefully stored.
From the front now i succeeded unscrewing the first and second lens en bloc, the grip I got with pieces of old bike tires.
The shutter now free I used Isopropanol and a ultrasound cleaner for about 30 minutes, works like a charm now, than I used a little Silikon Spray on a toothpick to lubricate a few suspicious screws.
I still had trouble to separate the first/second lens element (they should allow to focus), heated them in the oven to 60 degrees Celsius, ultrasounded them, lubricated them, and soaked them in oil.
Soaking in acetone finally loosened them enought.
Now they are seperated and the hardened green glue is completely removed.
And – finally – the camera is ready.
But – adjusting the focus comes first.
I taped a piece of transparent paper at the back ( where the film would usually be ).
Than I put the camera on a tripod and turned the front lens until a
skyscaper in about 800 m distance was sharp. Now I put the focus ring in
infinity position on and screwed it tight.
Done.
This morning I loaded a film and will take a few shots after work.
By the way :
Another victim of bellow – lightleaks told me to repair the bellows with
McNett Aquasure, it seems to be a good glue and much cheaper than a new bellow…
Another tip is to oil the bellows with Ballistol, a well known weapon oil.
And last not least – a rather funny hack :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9192444@N06/3954217278/
Sometimes, like here with very old Technical Pan (in 510-pyro) the old Isolette can deliver something unexpected sharp and detailed:
Here are some links to manual pages for our old cameras :
http://www.butkus.org/chinon/index.html
http://mikec62.tripod.com/
http://thecameracollection.blogspot.de/p/manuals.html
http://www.antiquecameras.net/
http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/CAMERAS/VINTAGE/
Not so much manuals 😉 :
http://tazmpictures.com/site/?page_id=1577
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/cameras/overview
http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-27.html