[cooltouch]

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i

Pentax K-5 with 35mm f/2.8 Limited Macro, Asahi Pentax slide/negative copier, and a few 49mm filters in between to act as spacers and ensure capture of the entire film frame, and to give the slide copier mount something to grip. The whole is then pointed at a very bright LED on the ceiling, though I will be doing some experiments with a flash in the near future. The filters may be causing some of the problem, and I have debated the merits or otherwise of sacrificing their glass. If I could get some sort of empty 49mm threaded tube, like a filter without its glass, that would be just as good.

I've found it not easy to find tubes the diameter of fliter sizes, and when I have found them, they've been really expensive. I haven't looked for 49mm though -- just 52mm. Me, I have tons of filters that were accumulated from various lenses I've bought over the years and I have a lens spanner so getting the glass out would be a minor issue for me. This would definitely be an avenue to pursue because you don't want anything between your macro lens and the slide or negative but air.

I've experimented with natural light for illuminating slides and just found it to be problematic because of the different colors associated with it. So I use a flash now. I have a couple of flashes -- a Nikon SB24 and a Canon 540EZ -- that I can set to fractional power. Currently, I'm using the 540EZ at 1/32, which allows me to place the front of my rig about 1 foot away from the flash. I've also lowered the flash's diffuser into place to ensure a more distributed light.

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Last edited by cooltouch; 05-02-2016 at 09:04 AM.

[pathdoc]

If that's not the issue, is the slide copier thingy leaking light (I assumeyou aren't putting the negs into slide mounts)?

That's what I think the problem is, and no, I'm not mounting them.

I suspect a little bit of felt (similar to the setup for a light-seal kit) on the edges of the slot for the negatives will fix that problem. Shall look in the craft section of my local walmart and see what I can find.

[longbow]

ME Super M28 f3.5 HP5+@1600 developed with DD-X

[pathdoc]

I have tons of filters that were accumulated from various lenses I've bought over the years and I have a lens spanner so getting the glass out would be a minor issue for me.

I wasn't aware it was possible to disassemble one in this fashion - at least, I'm looking at the one on the front of my FA50/1.4 right now and I'm not exactly seeing bearing slots for the spanner points.

[cooltouch]

Yeah, not all filters have them. I just looked at two of mine. One has the slots, one doesn't. Oh well. Pick out the filters you care for the least and take a hammer to those? I did find this -- kinda long at 36mm, but maybe there are other shorter ones?

49mm Spacer Ring for Lens Filter Adapter Tube Metal Hood Special Effects 49 Mm | eBay

[Duplo]

Been a while, but just gone over the some of the excellent images in this thread, such a pleasure.

Just finalised scanning and uploading a large bach, so here is a few:

Ihagee Exakta Varex IIa, witha Jena Flektogon 35/2.8 on DoubleX film:

[jcdoss]

I know, too many variables (Caffenol CL vs CH, agitation vs stand development, vast differences in time), but I like the stand developed images better. They seem more evenly developed and grain is less prominent.



Walnut Street taken with Pentax Super Program and Pentax-K 135/2.5 on Kentmere 400 and stand developed in Caffenol-CL for 70 min by Jason Doss, on Flickr

[derelict]

Delta 400 (D76) / SL / Super-Takumar 50mm f1.4 (8 element)

Lotus Cortina... Lovely

[cooltouch]

Very intriguing results. I've never heard of stand development before so I googled it. Most articles, in fact all, I scanned through are talking about using Rodinal as the preferred developer, yet I note that you're using Caffenol. How about regular old D-76? D-76 I got -- I'd have to order anything else. There's one article that specifically doesn't recommend D-76 though. And I'm reading up on Caffenol-CL. It's recipe requires stuff I don't have also. One article calls for potassium bromide, stating that Kodak films need it. Well, my B&W film is Tri-X, so I guess I need it. This article also states that Caffenol is rather aggressive with plastic tanks and that Caffenol shouldn't be used in a plastic tank that other developers are used in. Hmm . . . I have only one tank and it's plastic. So, maybe I should just buy some Rodinal? Do you use KBr in your Caffenol recipe? Use a plastic tank that you use with other developers? Questions, questions.

And even more questions. How do you go about controlling temperature? One of the articles I read mentioned using a styrofoam cooler and placing the lid on the cooler to keep the temp constant. I have a good styro cooler with a lid, so I guess I'd use this.

[dracluff]

Yeah, not all filters have them. I just looked at two of mine. One has the slots, one doesn't. Oh well. Pick out the filters you care for the least and take a hammer to those? I did find this -- kinda long at 36mm, but maybe there are other shorter ones?

49mm Spacer Ring for Lens Filter Adapter Tube Metal Hood Special Effects 49 Mm | eBay

The filters that do not require a spanner are usually held in place with a 'spring'. If you look closely where the glass meets the rim you should see a black spacer on one of the sides between the glass and a lip that is attached to the filter ring. There should be a gap in the spacer at some point if you can pull that inwards the spring/spacer hold the glass in place will come out and you should be able to take the glass out quite easily. The spacer is kind of like a snap ring.

[jcdoss]

Very intriguing results. I've never heard of stand development before so I googled it. Most articles, in fact all, I scanned through are talking about using Rodinal as the preferred developer, yet I note that you're using Caffenol. How about regular old D-76? D-76 I got -- I'd have to order anything else. There's one article that specifically doesn't recommend D-76 though. And I'm reading up on Caffenol-CL. It's recipe requires stuff I don't have also. One article calls for potassium bromide, stating that Kodak films need it. Well, my B&W film is Tri-X, so I guess I need it. This article also states that Caffenol is rather aggressive with plastic tanks and that Caffenol shouldn't be used in a plastic tank that other developers are used in. Hmm . . . I have only one tank and it's plastic. So, maybe I should just buy some Rodinal? Do you use KBr in your Caffenol recipe? Use a plastic tank that you use with other developers? Questions, questions.

And even more questions. How do you go about controlling temperature? One of the articles I read mentioned using a styrofoam cooler and placing the lid on the cooler to keep the temp constant. I have a good styro cooler with a lid, so I guess I'd use this.

Lots of questions! Thanks for the interest!

I've only been shooting film for less than a year, and I've only used two developers... Ilford DD-X and caffenol. I don't have any experience or real knowledge of the other developers you mentioned, but as far as I know, stand developing only means that the tank is not agitated, or only agitated minimally but usually allowed to develop (stand) longer.

Most caffenol recipes call for KBr, but I use regular table salt. The rule of thumb is use 10g of NaCl for every g of KBr the recipe calls for, and that's what I did here.

I've never heard of the plastic tank idea, but caffenol is coffee, washing soda, vitamin C, and salt. There's nothing here that would corrode a plastic tank.

I run all my B/W processes at room temperature.... I've never checked the temp, actually.

Let me know if you have any more questions! I'm by no means an expert, but I'll happy share what I've learned!

[Jonathan Mac]

I've posted this before but since we're discussing rigs, here's a photo of my B&W negative-copying rig.

K3 with DA 35/2.8 limited macro, wireless flash trigger to fire the Yongnuo flash at the back. Negatives are in a Lomography Digitaliza and loaded into a custom-made holder with a series of diffusers. The holder is made from a shore box and the diffusers are translucent plastic sheets and packing materials.

I keep saying to myself I need to make an improved mark II version using wood but I never find the time and I have virtually zero wood-working experience.


IMGP2350 by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr

[nickthetasmaniac]

Pentax LX and SMC-M 35/f2. I can't remember the film...

[cooltouch]

Jonathan, your rig proves the old proverb, "Necessity is the mother of invention" anew. It sure is a cheaper way to get to the final result than mine, but I'll wager it works just as well. A couple things I like about it: you can position things such that you're getting exactly a full-frame duplicate of the slide or negative and you're not restricted to any particular lens focal length. I like your "custom made holder." What did you use for your diffusion materials? They look like thin, translucent pieces of plastic, but I'm curious where you got them from.

Oh and I for one am thankful for your post. I had never heard of the Lomography Digitaliza, so I googled it. I found that Adorama and B&H carry it in both 35mm and medium format. I don't really need the 35mm size, but I can put to good use one in medium format for duping that size film. True, I could use the 120 film holder from my scanner, but that is a three-row contraption -- much larger and more unwieldy, And rather unusable if I wanted to rig up a "custom made holder" such as yours. Actually, now that I think about it, I could use the 35mm one also if I wanted to use a longer focal length macro lens. Too bad they don't make one for mounted slides. Hrm . . . now that I think about it -- I have slide holders for an old Minolta scanner that might work for this sort of thing. Thanks for the ideas.

[graeme83]

A few personal firsts with this roll, film and lens.
The film is simply called FT12, a black and white iso50 high contrast film sold by Nik and Trick photo services in the UK. Its supposed to be similar to the old Kodak SO-331, except its fresh stock rather than long since expired.
The lens is a random ebay find, a Vivitar 19mm f3.8 after reading a few reviews I thought it was well worth a try. This was literally the first time it had gone on the camera, so along with the first time using the film this could of been interesting.

I was on the Isle of Wight for a christening, these are taken just after sunrise in a little village called Seaview.
Pentax MX, Vivitar 19mm f3.8, FT12, stand developed in Rodinal for 45mins.