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10-01-2012, 03:39 PM   #1
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Pushing film first timer

Hi,
I recently bought a black & white Ilford ISO 400 roll (HP5 PLUS 400) and want to try pushing it.
My film camera is a P30t (great "bang for the buck" as northamericans say). BUT it does not allow to manually input the film speed so i made a litle hack to the film cannister to trick the camera into reading the DX code as an ISO 1600 roll.

If anyone is interested, here I got the DX encoding info: DX encoding - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the original DX code on the cannister. Next is the "hacked" DX code: Some aluminium foil and electrical tape did the trick.


Notice the hack did not affect the rest of the DX code, which stands for the total of exposures and tolerance of the film, half a stop in this case.
Now, the camera will meter as if the roll was ISO 1600 and when I send it to the lab, Iīll tell them to develop it with +2 stops.

If there arenīt any objections, let the "pushing" begin?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Uptade 20/10:
I finally finished the previous roll on my film camera. When I mounted the Hacked roll,the metering was not consistent. Sometimes it metered as if it was ISO1600 and others as if ISO400.
So I thought how to make it better until I noticed that under the dark parts of the code, there is metal also. So I used my dremel modify the code.


This is how the camera reads the DX code:


Now the meter works well as if the roll was ISO1600


Last edited by carrrlangas; 06-14-2013 at 12:09 PM.
10-01-2012, 06:58 PM   #2
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Have you tested the metering yet by comparing against your DSLR? If it's working you should be able to set your DSLR to ISO1600 and check the shutter/aperture. Then frame the same shot with the P30T and see what its meter tells you. If the 2 cameras match up pretty close then it's a good bet your hack worked. If it didn't work, and the P30T was unable to read your hacked DX, it will assume ISO100 and meter accordingly.
10-02-2012, 02:07 PM   #3
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Thanks for posting your hack. I have read of this approach, but have not seen any first hand accounts of how well it actually works. The DX issue is the only reason why I don't own a P3n.


Steve
10-20-2012, 11:57 AM   #4
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QuoteOriginally posted by Venturi Quote
Have you tested the metering yet by comparing against your DSLR? If it's working you should be able to set your DSLR to ISO1600 and check the shutter/aperture. Then frame the same shot with the P30T and see what its meter tells you. If the 2 cameras match up pretty close then it's a good bet your hack worked. If it didn't work, and the P30T was unable to read your hacked DX, it will assume ISO100 and meter accordingly.
Thanks, this is the way I checked the meter. Notice that the camera read the film native ISO400 because I didnīt "damage" the original DX code.

QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
Thanks for posting your hack. I have read of this approach, but have not seen any first hand accounts of how well it actually works. The DX issue is the only reason why I don't own a P3n.
Glad it helps someone. Although it was not very good in practice... But the second attempt worked all right.
I think I would still prefer to have either ISO or EV com dial on my film camera..

10-21-2012, 10:15 PM   #5
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I read the manual for your camera. It looks like there's no exposure compensation, but you could use manual mode and set the exposure where the meter shows -2. Here's a link to the manual.

Pentax P30t instruction manual, user manual
10-22-2012, 02:22 PM   #6
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QuoteOriginally posted by LightMeter Quote
I read the manual for your camera. It looks like there's no exposure compensation, but you could use manual mode and set the exposure where the meter shows -2. Here's a link to the manual.
True, but I rather let the camera handle it if possible. Tha hack took less than a minute and so far so good.
Thanks for the manual, this one is in color!
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