myth buster deacon

deacon

deacon

minor bike philosopher
all my photographic life of more than thirty years, I had heard that film goes bad over time. I guess I never had any laying around in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. Mine has always been stored in a refrigerator or freezer.

So when I reopened the darkroom, yes the one the docs said I would live long enough to use again, I decided to shoot the 100' roll of black and white film laying in my portable darkroom. I got really bad negs the first roll. The ones that made the infamous bike in the snow shot. Then today I made all kinds of compensations and still got crap. Now either the chemicals from two years ago or the film has gone bad. The chemicals were sealed and the film open, so I'm guessing the film.

However I do need to make an experiment with the chemicals before I rule them out. I am going to double down with the developer before i do anything else. The fixer is working correctly.

To be continued....
 
yes, film does go bad, I'v had undeveloped film go bad. it also has the 8mm film fanitcs worried because Kodachrome is no longer made ( july 25 2009 was last batch ) so they don't know how long it's going to last.. theres enough to go around for years, but, not if it degrades and goes bad.... I don't shoot 8mm altho, my parents still have an 8mm camera.. I converted my grandparents 8mm stuff to digital over the summer
 
chemicals have a shorter shelf life than I would have thought or the film really is bad. I doubled the solution strength and got good images I think. I also found some of my converted cameras. I don't know if you remember the old polaroid 150 and 160s from the fifties but for a while I was converting them to 120 roll film. I have three or four laying around so I'm going to shoot one of those soon.

First I have to go on line and find out how to close the beast. I have forgotten how to close it.
 
Since some of you have followed along with the new adventure, i thought I would show you one of the cameras I converted.
21o254o.jpg
5320jc.jpg

Some of you old timers might recognize this as one of the first polaroid cameras. this is not the best or most famous I have but it has a very good lens made by yashika and is pretty simple. I converted it to shoot modern 120 film. It is a dandy. i plan to take it around shooting the posters, I don't like the 35mm results even though I have some pretty decent 35mm cameras. they are best for things like people much easier to use. But this is pure novelty class...
 
My mother has a newer polaroid camera and i went looking for film and could not find any anywhere,not at drugstores or walmart. They don't even sell 35mm film and no place has same day development anymore. All anyplace had was disposable 35mm cameras or digital cameras,so i bought her a new digital camera($49) and mini sd card($12)(holds 1,200 pics wow) and some AAA batterys($6)(doesn't last long if using flash). I can bring the card to local drugstore or walmart and they have a computer that you plug the card in and pic what pictures you want printed right there on there photo printers,pics come out good and there only like 29cents a pic.
 
Yes digital has pretty much killed film photography. There is still a film lab at the rite aid near my house but it will be gone soon I'm sure. I am going to shoot my posters in black and white I expect. Those I can do myself but after the negs, I go digital. I have a couple of dedicated film scanners one big format like the camera above and one 35mm.

As a matter of fact I shot a roll of color 35mm today. i will take it to the rite aid for negs then come home and scan them. Then go back to the lab for prints after I fix them up a little.
 
I think so as well. I have a couple of display cases with antique cameras and some that I butchered and make frankencams of.

I have some that shoot sheet film... I might pull those out again as well. I love all that ritual of shooting. In those days you had to be sure you knew what you wanted, since you had maybe half a dozen exposures period.

Now my son in law shoots 800 shots at a wedding. I shot bout a hundred and that was eight more than i should have.

When I was doing this before, I would take one film holder (two exposures) and make the perfect picture. I have never invested in a really good digital camera because I don't want to lose the fun of the chase kind of feeling.

Today's plan, such as it is, is to make some short rolls of 120 film. That is if I still have the extra stuff to do it. Then I want to test the film, camera and chemicals before I really need them. After that I will probably begin looking for poster material.

So be warning I will be looking for help from you guys again.
 
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deacon said:
Since some of you have followed along with the new adventure, i thought I would show you one of the cameras I converted.
21o254o.jpg
5320jc.jpg

Some of you old timers might recognize this as one of the first polaroid cameras. this is not the best or most famous I have but it has a very good lens made by yashika and is pretty simple. I converted it to shoot modern 120 film. It is a dandy. i plan to take it around shooting the posters, I don't like the 35mm results even though I have some pretty decent 35mm cameras. they are best for things like people much easier to use. But this is pure novelty class...
Click to expand...

I have 1 of those too.. hasn't been converted or used in years tho
 
Cabinfever1977 said:
My mother has a newer polaroid camera and i went looking for film and could not find any anywhere,not at drugstores or walmart. They don't even sell 35mm film and no place has same day development anymore. All anyplace had was disposable 35mm cameras or digital cameras,so i bought her a new digital camera($49) and mini sd card($12)(holds 1,200 pics wow) and some AAA batterys($6)(doesn't last long if using flash). I can bring the card to local drugstore or walmart and they have a computer that you plug the card in and pic what pictures you want printed right there on there photo printers,pics come out good and there only like 29cents a pic.
Click to expand...

yep, digital has hurt the film industry for the continence aspect, but conventional film will always produce a sharper/ cleaner image... I have an older high resolution HP photosmart 4x6 photo printer, that I print with HP premium glossy paper, but I rarely use it, because it costs the same as film, so I use 35mm if it's somthing I'm going to want a 'real' copy of

BTW, Poloroid discontinued instant film in 2008, but re released this year.
 
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Well cold stored film that doesn't change much looked and processed the same as that in the box outside in my old lab. I think I am going to try some new chemicals and the old 2x3 sheet film I have out there. I finished converting another polaroid to sheet film last night.

After someone ruined a roll of color negs for me at a processor, I am going to do black and white posters only. I'm not sure if I will use my colorizing skills or not. I can actually colorize to about 90% correct colors. It all takes time but that is the point of a hobby to use time that otherwise would drag on me.

Now when all my cameras are no longer usable, I might well switch to digital, but then again probably not. To get the versatility I have with my film cameras, I am would be looking at spending heavy, heavy bucks for the buy in.

My son in law is now running my old photo business. He does it better and with digital cameras. His cost per camera is now up to about 3k. If I process my own film, I can do a lot of it for 6k which is about what it would cost me in total to convert.

When I changed to working on bikes, I could get one usable negative for each two or three negatives I shot. I re-spool 120 film so that each roll makes three short rolls. I roll my own 35mm rolls. I usually use about 1.5 feet per roll of 5 frames but only 2' for a roll of 12 frames. The leader on the modern 35mm camera is as long as the 12 exposures. I might break down and spend 50 bucks on a good used compact rangefinder 35mm camera to save that long leader and to carry around on the ebike. My other cameras are huge even the 35mm ones.

2u8lct5.jpg



The first usable poster but it wasn't made completely by me the neg was color so processed in a lab.

I do have a digital camera I use for shooting things just for the web. most of my bikes have been shot with it. It is almost gone now. the lens has fallen off and has no focus at all these days. So I suppose I will replace it with a 50 bucks point and shoot one for just that same kind of thing. But then I'm not really building any more so maybe no,

These days equipment wise you need

a changing bag, 15bucks
a film developing tank 15bucks
chemical 14 bucks
film of course buy in rolls or bulk for 35mm.

You load in bag process in the kitchen then scan the film with a scanner. The scanners is where my money went. I have a scanner flatbed that will scan up to 5x7 negatives as well as prints up to 8x10 but I also have a scanner that will scan 35mm up to 7200 dpi. Which is a file too large for my computers to handle. Same for the flatbed set on max resolution. But I already have those from my last film processes.

The digital file goes to office depot. They will make me an 11x17 black and white print from my digital file for .60 cents. Color on the paper I use is a little over a buck for the same size. I could probably wallpaper a room for a couple of hundred bucks.

Ps. you can also use a standard print scanner if you rig a back light. I only bought dedicated scanners to do color film with. For straight black and white, I had a back light I built myself.,
 
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surfer mike said:
what makes them good is that they don't print the pictures on paper, they use actual film paper for the prints.
.
Click to expand...
it's paper but it's high quality photo paper.. I use much the same thing, but mine is HP brand.. same weight and has water marks making a film like picture
 
Actually I'm toying with the paper negative idea again. With that you dont even need a backlight.
 
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