About a year ago, I acquired the legendary Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm f2.5 lens and it was another few months after that I got it mounted on the speed graphic. The first trials of this lens gave me some headaches as I experienced micro-shakes from the large focal plane shutter. Finally, recently I went back to the beast and re-strengthen the mount, so far so good. Can’t wait to go out and take some shots with this!
I also went back to the Graflex speed graphic box and looked at the flash attachment. At first, I thought it was incomplete but in close inspection, everything was intact and looked amazingly cool once attached.
In the early morning, I arrived at the TaiO dock. The tranquility was a good change from the busy norm. Taken with Graflex Speed Graphic + Fujinon 65mm f5.6 SWD lens + Kodak TXP. Developed in Rodinal 1:100 stand. Scanned with Epson Perfection V700.
It was a sunny day during Gordon, Vicky and Cailey’s photo shoot. Ever since I got my Zeiss Ikonta B 532/16, I have been neglecting my Seagull TLR. Here are a couple of shots from the shoot, Seagull 4A-103 TLR + Shanghai GP3 film. Developed stand, Rodinal 1:100 for 1.25 hours, inversion first two minutes, then one turn every 30 minutes. Fixed with Kodak Rapid Fix, scanned with Epson Perfection V700.
Looking cute!Cailey hiding behind mom. There is a very 1960s feel to this photo!
Honestly, not too happy with the grain size, perhaps it’s time to go back to D76! Always hit and miss with these shanghai film.
A recent discussion with Kirk Lau with the boiling water temperature of our taps converged on the topic of stand development. Basically stand development involves throwing away everything that I have learned so far about film processing. Stand development is simply develop your film in diluted developer and after initial agitation, leave it to develop for (almost) infinite time. You rely on the amount of chemical to natural develop your film, rather through agitation.
I still have six rolls of Tri-X 400 that I snapped in Japan back in June that still need to be developed. I haven’t done so not because I am lazy but recently in the development with HC110 dilution H, the grain size appears to be large. I suspect the culprit is the water temperature. Both the tap water in Hong Kong and Shanghai measured to be well above 28C. Even though I have compensated that with less development time but the grain size seems larger than before. I am holding onto these rolls until I figure out what’s wrong.
I attended Herbert and Elaine’s wedding ceremony recently and prepared to shoot the event with my Canon QL17, my Canolite D flash and a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400. The idea of stand development came back to me after the shoot and I figured I will give it a shot. I developed the Kodak Tri-X with Kodak HC110 (1:100) dilution. I did initial agitation of front, back, left, right, each 10 times, then gave the tank a good tap on the ground to avoid any possible bubbles. I then left it to develop in 25C room temperature for 60 mins, followed by a 5 mins water bath. Then I fixed it in Kodak Rapid Fix for 4.5 mins before rinsed in water again and wrapped it up with Kodak Photoflo.
The result was mostly successful. The film developed fine except again for the large grain size. I blame it on the tap water temperature again. I need to put in ice and prepare the developer and rinse water to be around 20C next time! Nevertheless, the shots at the wedding ceremony was super loto and turned out super classic! Totally reminded me of the ones in the dusty wedding albums of my parents.
Two weeks ago, I took the Graflex Pacemaker Speed Graphic for a spin in the Gold Coast. It was a bright sunny day and I thought would be perfect to try out the machine with some el cheapo Shanghai film. Pointing towards the hotel as shown below, I was shooting at f11, 1/50. From my experience with the Polaroid 800, these Shanghai 4×5 film is light hungry. Even though it’s rated at iso 100, you have to compensate this by at least one click (shoot this at iso 50). Most cases, I even have to shoot at iso 25 for low light conditions. I got the most success when I compensate this by 1.5 clicks.
My view through the ground glass.
This unit is from 1955 and the ground glass is full of dirt. Right in the middle of the glass, the fresnel is coming off. I need to take the ground glass out and have a good cleaning of it and maybe replacing this. I didn’t have a focusing cloth and I just used my dark bag which worked ok. It was tough to focus in the 35C weather and the sun shining right at you. On top of that, you have to bandage your head with the focusing cloth. I should look at an angled viewfinder! The Graflok worked perfectly and so did the Grafmatic film holder.
After the shoot, I quickly developed the film at home with my Paterson system 4 tank which came with my Paterson Colourtherm machine. It was a really hot day and the water was at 28C. I developed the Shanghai film with Kodak HC110 dilution H in 14mins and Kodak Rapid Fix for another 4mins. I scanned the photo with my Epson V700.
The developed photo!
When I looked at the negatives, it was fine. When I scanned it, I looked at the top part and I was like, it looks a lot more cloudy than it should? It was a bright sunny day. Looking closely I can see water bubbles! This was the first time I developed 4×5 with the taco method in the Paterson tank. The Paterson tank top is slanted, which allowed some movement of the 4×5 while developing. The AP tank that I used before, the top part was relatively flat and it was fine. Next time if I am using the Paterson tank, I have to use 900mL of solution rather than 650mL. It’s these unexpected “boo-boo”s that makes analog film interesting. The photo really has a vintage feel to it. I look forward to another shoot soon!
After some practice with the Polaroid Land 800, I was at a point of no return. I finally drown myself in the Large Format world. After seeing some photos from the Kodak Aero Ektar lens, I have decided to get a Graflex Speed Graphic. A couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to acquire a 1955 Graflex Speed Graphic from the US. In the original box of goodies, from the expired pack film inside, it seems like the machine had not been used since 1967.
The machine was in mint condition and was definitely taken care of. From the warranty card inside, I traced back to the original owner named Charles H Marshall, whom purchased this from McCurry Foto Co in Sacramento, CA.
Prior of receiving this brick, I purchased a Polaroid back which was proven to be super handy for testing out this beast. When I was back in Toronto early this year, I attended the yearly auction from the Photographic Historical Society of Canada. There, I picked up three Grafmatic sheet film holder for a great bargain!
When the camera arrived, I was faced with another issue, a super solid tripod for focus and film pack insertion. The Speed Graphic, I weighted it on the scale to be 3kg. The film back adding another 0.5kg. The Kodak Aero Ektar lens (which will arrive soon!) coming in at 1.5kg. This totals to 5kg. My old Manfrotto tripod can only support 2.5kg and a new tripod has to be purchased before I can go out and shoot! After some research, Gitzo is out since what I needed cost around $7k HKD. My beloved Manfrotto was also out since it will cost around $5k HKD. I am not too kind to my tripods and I can’t justify spending so much on it. Finally I settled on the Benro C-2570T + B-2 head. The tripod itself only has three sections and can support up to 12kg. The B-2 head supports 20kg. This combination is rock solid and the carbon fiber tripod only weight in at roughly 2kg.
1955 Graflex Speed Graphic in Mint Condition
I need a cloth for focusing badly in bright outdoors. I substituted that with my film dark bag for the time being.
All photos taken with Canon QL17 GIII, Kodak Tri-X 400, self-developed, Kodak HC110 dilution H (5 minutes at 28C), Kodak RapidFix (4 minutes), water stop and Kodak Photoflo. Scanned with Epson Perfection V700.
Cailey: “My father is crazy” (with Gordon)Cailey: “I am eating again?”Cailey: “What’s going on here?”Cailey and Mama Vicky.
For color film, I generally will save up at least six rolls before I develop them. This is because I need to setup the water bath in my Peterson Auto Colortherm machine and it’s always a good idea to exhaust the color chemicals in one go rather than several (due to oxidation).
This weekend’s lineup, two rolls of medium format Fuji Reala 100, four rolls of 135 Fuji Xtra 400 (one roll inside the film case because it was removed from a 126 cartridge), one roll of Agfa Vista 400, one roll of Kodak TriX 400 as well as a roll of Lucky SHD 100.
The color film are developed with the Tetenal kit. Chemical and water temperature are preheated at 38C. First wet the film with water for 5 minutes, developer for 3:15 minutes, blix for 4 minutes, rince with 38C water for 3 minutes and stabilizer for 1 minute. Both developer and blix agitation for first 30 seconds, then one inversion every 30 seconds.
Hong Kong is hot these days and water temperature sits at 28C. This is difficult for BW development. For Kodak TriX 400, first wet the film with water for 2 minutes. Kodak HC110 (dilution H) for 5 minutes, water stop for 2 minutes, Kodak Rapid Fix for 4 minutes, wash with water for 2 minutes and finish with Kodak Photoflo. Agitation for developer and fixer is the same. Agitation by inversion for the first 30 seconds, followed by two inversions every 30 seconds.
For developing Lucky SHD 100 film, first wet the film with water for 2 minutes. Kodak HC110 (dilution H) for 14 minutes, water stop for 2 minutes, Kodak Rapid Fix for 4 minutes, wash with water for 2 minutes and finish with Kodak Photoflo. Agitation for developer and fixer is the same. Agitation by inversion for the first 30 seconds, followed by two inversions every 30 seconds.
Nine rolls of film drying in my washroom, what a scene!
The first camera that I learned how to use was my father’s Minolta SRT camera. It was heavy and was quite a complicated machine to use for a child. All I remembered was a lot of knobs and my father will be advising numbers like f5.6, 125 here or f8, f11, which at the time meant nothing to me.
My father later bought my older brother, Ed a toy 110 film camera from the Singtao newspaper shop. It was a much simpler camera and we had a lot of fun with it. This camera rarely produced encouraging result. I remembered one time, I put in a roll of 110 film, shot it and gave the roll to my father. A couple of days later, he handed me the envelop from the photo shop. I opened it up, there was only one print in the bag. I asked him what happened to the other photos, he replied, only one showed up. I examined the negative and only shot was exposed and all others were blank. It was quite a dismal experience and that was the last roll of 110 I shot.
Singtao newspaper 110 camera110 film strip from the Singtao toy camera
My first real camera was a fifty cents Kodak Instamatic X-15, which I rescued from a local garage sale. After mild cleaning of the dusty box, I still remember I was quite excited when I first saw the shutter fire. See video here: http://youtu.be/Og1zzugSk7E
My first camera, Kodak Instamatic X-15
Right after, I rode my bike to the local photo hut and picked up a roll of Kodak 126 format ISO 200 film and started shooting. My first subjects of course were family members and other classmates. Success rate was low and I was lucky if half the roll was exposed correctly. I was however happy with the few shots I got and continued with it. Once I took it to a three week long US trip with only 12 shots! Think about saving your shots for the right moments! It will never happen again with the technology available today.
The Kodak Instamatic was easy to use, no focus necessary and no settings were available. The film was in a cartridge, and you simply pop it in the camera. You wind the film through the film advance and you trip the shutter. It was dead simple. A 43mm lens with fixed aperture of f11 and shutter speed of 1/90, even with 400iso film, indoor photography was hopeless and flash cubes were a must.
My Kodak Instamatic shots
The images from the Kodak Instamatic were blurry and often wrongly exposed,
but for a ten year kid, it was an awesome experience.
