Of all the things I know
I understand almost nothing

maandag 30 april 2012

Special (very)


 The data: Queens Day 2012, pre 1957 Gevachrome ortho in the 1950 Agifold, 1/25 at F8. In Rodinal.
So far, so good.
But then I thought: why not test the flash-sync.
Well, the Agfa alone wasn't enough, but with the фотон added, bounce-flash to avoid shadows, I got the image.
Wow. You can clearly see the colour change (yes, and the fog, but she is 55+)


zondag 29 april 2012

Pinhole Mondrian

Piet Mondriaan did like the Dutch mills, so I thought, today, a "homage"...
Well, in fact I forgot to turn over the sheet holder, of course.
But I like it, and more Dutch than this you can't get.

With the pinhole-Linhof (see below). And have a peek at the gallery of pinhole day, (you have to google that, my blog doesn't do links...) pinpics from over the whole world. (Hole world?)

This is the "Old Mill" in Wijchen.

zondag 22 april 2012

Earth Day

A really small foretaste of the "pentecostal lecture"...

vrijdag 20 april 2012

1968 Свема


There is a lot to say about this ABГ 1968 Свема, but you'll have to wait till Pentecost. But it's a small miracle this tiny refill survived. Today in the Киев 30 - well, it was of course made for that.

The mill in Linden has, very strange, no real name.

A view in the loo


You all know by now that I'm a light-junk. I believe my "addicted to light" portfolio is still on the site of the Royal Photographic Society. Anyway, a few days ago I saw the light, early morning, and then the sun disappeared. But I installed my Linhof, and today - well, as time goes by, so does the light: too low. So I'll wait six months for it to return on the exact spot, the "Velke Sdrce" on the glass.
 That will be 17th October. Autumn.

BTW it's 1/2 sec at F 6.3 on Fomapan.

woensdag 18 april 2012

Some quality stuff...



The rear lens from my 2.8 Pentor 135mm walks freely in his tube, but screwed on the 2X Panagor converter stops rattling, why?
Yesterday the <1990 Тасма 250 in old Vividol was vèry grainy, so the second half goes into the fresh Rodinal.

I'm going HiTec today, as you see. But is it that bad?


This mill is the "Jan van Cuijk"

And then they removed the wings, and put a Chinese hat on top...

maandag 16 april 2012

Pinhole !


This time no error: pinhole. And again (why didn't I see that in the picture post Kern Aarau below? ) the "Linhof" logo clearly visible. I used my hand as shutter, this will be the reflection of that logo, very strange but possible. But if anyone has a better explanation I'm very interested!



PS  This mill is called "SeldomRest".
(And look at flickr photostream erwinruys for the better, right explanation...)

zondag 15 april 2012

Millacle


This (again...) is very, very special. I still had one fourties Agfa/Perutz and today I also had the courage to use it.

 And yes: the same happened as over a year ago: brittle film, gelatine went her own way and anti-halo the other.
  But this time I was prepared (which in fact only meant I didn't panic when I saw the mess...) So I had my glass plate ready, managed to catch some gelatine (in the fishing-process I over-stretched the film to 8cm, so later little cracks appeared when drying) and there it is: another time machine.
The "White Mill" was built in 1760, the KW Pilot in 1936, and the (1946?) film was developed in Ansco Vividol, at least 40 years old.
(No, this mill doesn't turn the "wrong" way, it's the mirrored result of "fishing and scanning".)

vrijdag 13 april 2012

Kern Aarau


I almost couldn't believe it: was this my pinhole? Soo sharp, and it would be even better when I wouldn't overexpose 8 times and kept on moving in the decades old Ansco Vividol developer. 
How come? I didn't make a sloppy hole as usual: carefully, with a hot needle in nice black paper and some finishing. Wow. Worked, I thought.
BUT THEN I SAW THE DATE: FRIDAY, THE THIRTEENTH. I KNÈW: THIS CANNOT BE TRUE. AND IT WASN'T. LOOK ABOVE, MONDAY 16 APRIL. FOR SOME STRANGE FACTS.
What happened: I had taken two pictures, and misjudged. The very overexposed was 1/25 at F8, the 5 secs pinhole was correct! Look at the small picture.

PS Yes, I'm Dutch, windmills all over the place. The one below ("another time machine") is the Anna, this one is called Johannus.
My grandfather was miller; my father's name was Johannes, my mother's Anna. Well well well...

woensdag 11 april 2012

the Morning After

April 1968 FP3 in the 1990< Еликон

This was the 4th in a series of "normal" films, around 100 ASA.
Results: 2006 CBEMA (in Реактив) is too thin to handle and rockhard in contrast. 1968 Isopan (as usual in Rodinal): no joy at all, rather strange because her older 120 sister had no problems. The Ilford FP3, one old, one new box, were as expected: nice fog, nice pics. Better than the FP4 I had recently, but that could be a matter of taste.




And to do justice to the Свема: sunday's picture, this time not behind that half-frame Индустар 69, but the И95, that's 38mm.
It almost looks as if the Свема has a built in yellow filter

maandag 9 april 2012

Tourists























The poor things... Nice umbrellas, though. And the 1969 FP3 looks all right too but it has in fact an interesting fog, only visible when underexposed, which is very much possible in my 1990< Еликон 35СМ...

zondag 8 april 2012

29 April...

And do not forget this:
 APRIL 29 IS PINHOLE DAY.

Don't plan it, don't promise, just do it.
This year mine will be "a big one" of course (seen the "easter lecture" below?) but a box, a lenscap, whatever, will do.

Another time machine


The mill is on the street where I was born, the camera is the ± 1930 Agfa Billy and the film is Isopan from pre-november 1966.
Yesterday's younger 135 Isopan was black, so this one was an easter-egg.

zondag 1 april 2012

Easter Lecture 2012 "the BIG ONES"

These are the real "camerae obscurae". Nothing automatic, you take every step yourself, you can see what's happening. Ansel Adams in 2012 (well, more or less...)

 I cannot show you a wooden one, but let's see what happened in the last century.


When I got the Bob O, long ago, a gift from my Canon dealer, I didn't take it very seriously. Nice for the book-shelf. I didn't have sheet-filmholders. But a few years ago I put some 120 through, and they were remarkable. The lens holder has become wobbly, so I put a strut on to keep it firm; I can't focus anymore, but at infinite it's usable. The 125mm Ernemann Detektiv (how romantic) Aplanat is rather soft at 6.8 but not bad at all for this 95+ lady! The oil-valve shutter works fine in springtime, of course it's too fast in the summer heat, and slow in winter cold.


I also got a Kern Aarau from that dealer and took it apart, little did I know. All that's left is a picture from a ± 1971 garden-exhibition, and:
I kept the lens, made it fit to my Linhof and that does work! 150mm Swiss quality from around 1926. Very soft at 4.5 as you can see below but at F 8 it's more than okay.

The 135mm Ортагоз on my ± 1940 Фотокор on the other hand is razor sharp at F 4.5 and it has to be because the diaphragm is stuck. Otherwise no problems with this wartime-hero, and look at that cute original bakelite filter (and I have the also bakelite box)!
Nice, small, fast camera. The sheet holders a bit rusty, but so am I.

And last but very professional the ± 1960 Linhof Technika. Big and heavy, but so easy to handle and fast. And the 90mm Schneider so unbelievably good. Only the shutter has aged. (I developed the sheet very badly, look at my flickr photostream erwinruys for that.) Nice double sheet holders too.

Working with those 9x12 cameras is very slow, of course, but that means: concentrated. You don't push the button without thinking when you only have four negatives with you! And the choise of film is very limited: I use Foma, or older stuff when I can get it. But how nice is it, really composing a picture on that 9x12 finder, and, if you wish, developing individually one negative at the time.

They are not only big, they are great.

(For other "tutorials" click on the label below.)