My regression has yet reached another milestone.
I was too busy measuring the chemicals so I didn't take any picture. It looks to me the two rolls of 120 negative actually came out quite all right. If anything I might have overexposed some frames when taking the pictures. Oh well, you live and learn. Making mistakes is kind of inevitable, especially for someone like me. The challenge is to learn from them and not to keep making them again and again. I should have written down every f-stop and shutter combination on every frame I took but I never did. I read the Kodak official PX125 paper and seems like I might have over exposed some 1-stop even with the yellow filter attached. I thought I might have my sunny 16 down quite good. Anyway, I really need to see the final positive images to determine how good my exposures were and how well or bad my processing was.
The next step is how the heck do I get the images from negative to positive; either by digitizing them via a scanner or sending them out to a printer. A real darkroom with enlarger is pretty much out of the question at this point.
Stay tuned for any new development.
NOTE:
Sorry for the bowl shot. I clean it every week, it's as clean a bowl as it can possibly can. You can drink from it though I won't recommend it.
I am glad I did a few reloading in the dark just so to make sure that the film didn't get crinkles and received even development in the process. As it turned out, despite some minor winkles on the edge of the roll, the negative did receive even development which was what I wanted.
The negative seems thinner than I thought, especially compared to 135 format. It's almost too soft. I take it it's easier to get crinkles and needs to be handled accordingly.
I didn't save the developer but was able to keep the stop bath and fixer for re-use. The developer seems to be more critical among the three from what I understand so I wouldn't mind to mix it up when I need it again.
Given the amount of work involved, it kind of makes sense to do two rolls at the same time. But I guess I want to have the option to do a single 120 too.
The Epson V700 is a prime candidate in my book but the price is high.
Thirty three years ago, I had the pleasure of developing some b/w pictures in the photo lab of my high school. It was such a thrill to see the pictures coming out in front of my eyes. I then checked out the price of an enlarger in the local Chinese products department store. It was way out of my league. It cost about hkd 250 (if I remember correctly). At that time, I had neither the money nor the space to afford one.
ReplyDeleteVincent
Your high school was pretty good. I didn't get the chance to play with the developer until I got to college. Honestly that was the only thing I got from the course, how to work the dark room. Making your own prints is hard, you need an enlarger or unless you shoot like Ansel Adams who made contact prints from 8x10 negatives. Then you don't need an enlarger. But you still need a dark room with safety light and a few trays filled with chemicals.
ReplyDeleteHonestly that was pretty much the only thing I got from my high school. I can still remember some small details of the few days that I spent in the dark room developing my own pictures. Besides, how much does an enlarger cost now?
ReplyDeleteVincent
Try ebay, then you know the price of an enlarger. But funny thing is when you type enlarger in the search in ebay, it gives you penis enlarger which I don't need.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, photographic enlarger prices vary, I haven't followed that too closely.
Now that you are retired, maybe you can pick up the hobby again.... Just a thought.
For a long time, I had always taken the time out to check out the prices of the enlargers whenever I stopped by the place where the Chinese Products Department Store sold their cameras and photo equipments, imagining one day I could afford one and have the space to set things up. An enlarger of those days was like a nuclear reactor. I have two toilets in my place now, but I don't think any one of them is big enough to accommodate a nuclear reactor. As to the Chinese Products Department stores, instead of selling Seagulls and Liberation, they are selling Nikons and Samsungs.
ReplyDeleteVincent
You can probably hold off the enlarger for now. You can just do the b/w developing. Once you have the negative then you can do the scanning. A decent flatbed photoscanner costs around $200 to $500. I haven't gotten a scanner yet.
ReplyDeleteoh for so many years i dreamed to have my own lab... such a long time that when i think about it, i may have already forgotten all the process :P
ReplyDeleteBefore my bathroom darkroom, the last time I did any b/w developing was probably in 1988 or 1989. It took me 20 years to do my "next" rolls. I say stop dreaming start doing.
ReplyDelete