Fun with a new bellows on my old Calumet C1 8x10!

[Will Thompson]

It is just amazing what fun you can have once you get rid of all the pinhole leaks in a old bellows.

Asher and I did a test shoot on this old camera last saturday.

Photos to Soon follow.

[Will Thompson]

Scan #1

http://idisk.mac.com/med007/Public/Wills/8x10/Flowers1.jpg

Not bad considering no Epson scanner driver just OSX generic.

Scan #2

http://idisk.mac.com/med007/Public/Wills/8x10/img001.jpg

Much better, got the Epson drivers to download from Australia site, US and UK FTP not working.

[Will Thompson]

All comments welcome, Good, Bad, and Ugly!

[Asher Kelman]

I'll post the pictures of the set up of the camera for this equipment familiarization shoot. Also the images on the 5D of the same flowers.

Asher

[Ray West]

Hi Will,

I guess you can scan these in at high resolution. The first one, even the low res posted, can be made much 'nicerer' in ps in a few seconds - shadow/highlights, - the second looks too light for me. There is a line across both images almost half way down. It would be nice to see comparison images from say Asher's 5d of the same subjects in same lighting etc, both trying to get the same effect, whatever that may be.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Will Thompson]

Hi Ray, Sad to say but the line is on the original, some sort of Polaroid artifact or crud in the processor\film holder.

Here is another scan of a slightly different exposure Polaroid 8x10 print.

http://idisk.mac.com/med007/Public/Wills/8x10/img002.jpg

Compared to what my eyes saw at the shoot all the prints and scans seem dark.

Still not too bad for a $29, 6 year old, refurbished Epson scanner that has been in the sealed box till this last week

[Erie Patsellis]

Will,
Nice work. I have a black monster as well, though mine had no 8x10 back when I bought it, and I made a wood back, figure I saved a few pounds doing that. Have you ever used lith film or similar graphic arts films?

this:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/epatsellis/umax9.jpg
is shot with Photowarehouse fine grain positive (around $1 a sheet)

Only downside is ortho response, skies typically get blown out, not often a problem, in addition, when working in shade (which is predominantly blue light) the details are held a little better in the shade areas.

this:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/epatsellis/8x10test.jpg
is shot with polychhrome lith film, rated at asa 6, cut from a 12x10 sheet (note that there is some edge fogging, so I will need to be cutting all 4 sides) I inherited about 500 sheets of 10x12 and 1000 sheets of 16x20. I've done some work with some of the Kodak lith films ( and their predecessor, polychrome) developed by inspection (red safelights are ok with lith films) in Dektol 1:6 (around 6mins).

(as an aside, the above pictures of the bottles was shot with
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r181/epatsellis/IMG_1086.jpg
thereby dispelling the whole lens and film affordability issue in one fell swoop. And yes, a 210 5.6 symmar/componon will cover 8x10, even at infinity)



erie patsellis

[Doug Kerr]

Hi, Will,

It is just amazing what fun you can have once you get rid of all the pinhole leaks in a old bellows.

But, can you still play "Lady of Spain"?

[Asher Kelman]

Erie,

Could you tell me where you buy your film? Also what is different about it that makes you choose it?

I like the idea of developing in Dektol 1:6 as it seems very gentle and uncomplicated.

What was the camera before you attacked it!

Asher

[Erie Patsellis]

I got a bunch from a print shop that was closing, you can get lith film in various sizes from Valley Litho Supply in Wisconsin, as well as any printing supply house near you. You may want to check with a few of the traditional printshops around your area, you may get lucky and have a bunch given to you. The biggest advantage for me right now is price, as I'm pretty much broke at the moment, one of the disadvantages of being self employed, sometimes you're up, sometimes down. Needless to say, right now it's pretty down. I do love developing by inspection under a red safelight, using a white pyrex cooking dish makes it easy to see what's going on. Just good cheap fun, as it were, and any prints I sell are used to fund other purchases.

Though I have about a years supply or so stashed of D76, Dektol and Fixer, as well as a bunch of raw chemicals and odds and ends (like a 40"x100' roll of Agfa N31P contone film, or a bunch of Arista diffusion transfer negative and positive films)

I bought the C1 on Ebay, with a delaminated bellows and a 4x5 reducing back, but no 8x10 back (looked pretty bad, actually) for around $50 or so. I spent about an hour or two removing the bellows, carefully seperating the inner and outer bellows, ironed the liner and stiffeners to straighten everythig out and reglued the cover. Took a back I had made for a quick 8x10 project and after about a half hour between the table saw and router, fit like a glove. Total investment was about $65 and a few hours of time. Add a $75 Gitzo Tele-Studex with a 1570M head and a dozen wooden film holders, and a Turner Reich 12" triple convertible, total cost for the 8x10 outfit came up to about $250. Though in all fairness, it took me over 6 months to round everything up. (and along the way I ended up with a few 4x5 projects too)


erie

[Will Thompson]

Hi Erie, Welcome to the forums.

Can you describe in detail what the Litho Film process is, where it comes from and how you discovered it, as I have not heard of it prior to Your post.

[Erie Patsellis]

Lith film was used primarily to make negatives to burn printing plates from, one of the better known films was Kodalith. Typically you underexpose and develop in a very active developer, thereby giving you a near vertical sensiometric responce, i.e. either black or white. By giving the film more exposure and processing in a less active developer, you can get some extraordinarily long straight line responses, I typically get at least 8 stops linearly, though I can contract or expand as needed (see A.Adams, The Negative etc.)

It's really no different than other films, though it is orthochromatic and very low sensitivity, around EI 6 or so in my experience. Advantages are low cost, extremely inexpensive, Freestyle has Arista APHS at $49 for 100 8x10 sheets (see http://www.freestylephoto.biz/sc_prod.php?cat_id=2001&pid=1190)

Downside is that the film is typically thinner, usually .004", though photowarehouse.biz has a film (continuous tone duplicating film) that is .007" thick (listed in their traditional photo catalog, http://www.photowarehouse.biz/catalog.html), the thicker flim does make a difference in ease of handling/loading, though it costs twice as much. If money is tight photowarehouse has fine grain positive for around $10 for 25 sheets, and high contrast dupe film for $18 for .004 and $24 for .007 thickness. If you can work within the restraints, or want an ortho look (insensitive to red light, most films/pictures from the early 20th century were done on othro film, and it is excellent for portraiture, I'm told), it's an inexpensive way to shoot large format.


erie