Developing Film in Coffee

Yes the title is correct, I'm going to show you how to develop an ordinary B&W film with instant coffee granules.
Here is what you need:
1 Jar of instant coffee
1 packet of washing soda crystals
Developing tank, liquid measure and thermometer.


Firstly, when you shoot the film lower the ISO by one stop, in this case I'll be using APX 100 (Jessops pan) rated at 50 ISO.
Load the film in the developing tank in the normal manner.

Next prepare the coffee developer.

5 heaped teaspoons of instant coffee (one per 2fl oz/60ml)
2 level teaspoons of Washing Soda crystals (NOT baking soda).
300ml (10 fl oz) water at roughly 25 deg C

A heaped teaspoon looks just like this

Firstly dissolve the soda crystals in the water, their purpose is to 'unlock' the developer ingredient present in the coffee granules.
Next put in your coffee, stirring well to ensure that the coffee has been dissolved fully.
You will notice that there are a few bubbles in the mixture and bubbles aren't good for development, so leave to stand for a few minutes but no longer than 10 as the mix must be used within 30 Min's.


Pour in the mixture and agitate slowly for the first minute, then tap the tank a couple of times to disloge any air bubbles.
The process time is 30 mins so its handy to have a watch, pen and paper to note the passing time.
Agitation used was one inversion every 30 seconds.

After 30 Minutes, rinse with plain water and fix in the normal manner.
Here are the negatives:

Slightly milky looking and brownish (due to staining action of developer) and also quite low contrast but certainly printable.
If you need further convincing here are some of the images.

Nice tonal detail, good grain and sharpness and although I don't think it will replace Rodinal as my main 'brew' I think you can see for yourselves that coffee is a more than capable developer.
A stimulating thought?

All Pictures and Text © Mark Antony Smith

1930's Voigtländer Bessa

Voigtländer have a long history producing both cameras and lenses. The company were founded in 1756 manufacturing optics and in the 1840's started making Daguerrotype cameras, so they were making cameras at the very start of the photographic industry.
The Bessa 'folding' camera was produced between 1931-49 and took 120 film, giving a negative size of either 6"x9" or with an insert 6"x4.5" there are later Bessa Models, Bessa 1 & 2 I have a review of the Bessa 1 here: Photo Utopia Bessa 1
These cameras also came with different lenses, this one has the cheapest 'Voigtar' 105mm F6.3 the better lenses were the Skopar and colour Skopar.

The framing is done by either a simple folding metal frame (seen on the right in the above photo) or by a small window from waist hight just like the Kodak Brownie.
Focusing is done with a scale, portrait, groups and landscape each marked with a red dot and also distances marked in feet.
The shutter has a very basic range of speeds 1/25 1/50 and 1/125 plus B & T. This was OK in 1930 but in these days of blisteringly fast film of up-to 400 ISO slightly restrictive.
I believe that the models fitted with the Skopar had a better shutter range.
The aperture values are F6.3- F22 which obviously helps with the slow shutter in bright light.


Above is the frame counter window, which is a simple clear red plastic the second window is for the smaller 6x4.5 size.
The film is advanced by turning a metal 'key' and there is no frame locking or winding stop, so you'll have to be careful not to double expose.



In this view we see the back open showing the spool retainer, which is quite neat making the camera pretty easy to load.



The above view is of the camera folded showing on the left the wind on 'key' and at the top right the fold down shutter release.

This type of camera can be found for very little money in thrift shops and jumble sales, and considering how well made they are (it will outlive me I'm sure) they represent a nice project.
They certainly make you slow down and think; wind on- shutter-aperture-focus and are actually great fun to use especially if you have the facility to develop your own negatives.

Above is an image taken from a roll of Fortepan 100 (formal test of that film soon) and as you can see the result is pretty acceptable considering the age of the camera and un-coated lens, certainly the 6x9 neg size helps as does the fact it was shot at F11.
In fact i like the feeling of 'antiquity' that the lens gives as its quite low contrast but detailed.
One other caveat I've found is it takes practise to fire the shutter without blur as the top speed is only 1/125 and the fold down shutter release is quite 'clunky' if I was to use this camera regularly I'd use a cable release.

Images and text © Mark Antony Smith

Found Film:1960's Kodak Tri-x

Next is another iconic film Kodak Tri-x-pan. I know a little more about this film, it came from a professional photographer and was shot in a 1960 Rolleiflex link
Here is the film:



I processed the film in stock ID11/D76 for 9 mins. I had some idea of the content as the photographer has written on the paper seal 'Warrington & snow scenes.



Sure enough on developing the images there were several snow scenes of a house and some shots of a seed factory.


A close up of the people and seed sacks.


The close-up shows the name of the company 'Gartons' and a google search quickly showed me that there was indeed a Gartons of Warrington seed factory, although they are no longer trading.
Here is another shot of the factory



And finally a shot of the house in the snow



Possibly the photographers house?
I think this film was shot between 1960-65, I know the camera was a 1960 F3.5 Rolleiflex and I think (though can't be sure) that Kodak stopped using metal spools for 120 in the mid '60's
© Images and text Mark Antony Smith 2007

More found film: 1950's Adox KB17

After my successful soiree into the world of processing ancient film, a couple of people have given me some more films to try, first up is the iconic roll film Adox R17.
As you can see from the image above Adox still produce film and you can compare 1958 box alongside 2007 packaging.

I have blogged about the history of Adox in a previous post link  so I'll not go over that ground again here.


Inside the box the roll was wrapped in a red foil, I'm not sure if this is original, but it seems to be the correct width and colour, so I have no reason to doubt Adox used foil and the picture above is representative of the product.

Above is the roll taken out of the foil, it has a metal spool and on the backing (not visible) the word 'EXPONIERT' which means exposed in German.

I decided to process the film in Ilford ID11 at the recommended time for KB17 which is 6.5 mins.
Here are the images:


There has obviously been some slight damage from the backing paper over the last 50 years, but overall these images are surprisingly good.

They definitely come from the correct timeframe for the film which was dated AUG 1958, judging from the clothes.

From this shot a calendar can be seen, the date March 1958

A window view, clearly England, I'll try to find out where and who these people are.
More to follow....
© Images and text Mark Antony Smith 2007

Last of the 1940s film

Simply beautiful

This is the second roll, much better than the first with less fogging. One thing is for sure this guy was a very good photographer!
more later...

© Mark Antony Smith

Looking for clues

More images from the 1941 Agfa Ultraspeed bought on ebay.
The reason for the hiatus between developing the next batch was in order to get a more suitable developer, and after seeking advice from a few people (thank you) i settled on Ilford ID11 (Kodak D76) at stock dilution.
The main reason for this was to minimise grain and as it was pointed out to me that it is similar to Agfa 17 the developer recommended on the enclosed data-sheet.
anyhow here's some images:

Cherry eater
and

There are more on my Pbase account (link in sidebar)
Well I think I've found where these images were shot. On the wall under the 'Naval' banner is a smaller banner which says 'Camden Post Office Club' I think it is highly likely that it is Camden NJ that we are seeing as it is only a short distance from Reading PA (where I bought the film)
We know when, what City, who...
I'm digging..
So far I may know one name the man seated in the lower picture, I'm waiting for confirmation from a local historian
keep digging..
© Mark Antony Smith 2007

A Latent Past

It's been nearly twelve hours now since I first saw the images on my 1941 Agfa film, I'll be honest I haven't slept much, so many things going on in my mind.
I have 5 images that I'm guessing date from the period 1938-1941, I've scanned them but haven't really worked on them.
here are those images straight from the scanner:

I call this image "Sons of the Desert"


This one: Gentlemen, There will be no war with Germany

Those are so far my favourite images, if you want to see more then I have a gallery here
One thing is for sure the original photographer was very good at catching the moment, I'd love to know who he was!
Edit:
I've e-mailed the guy who sold me the film to find out how he acquired it, to find out what City or town it was from. I'll then try to contact family history people in that City to find out who the people are.
Its a long shot I know but one I feel I have to take, who are these ghosts?
Further Edit:
According to the seller it was from Reading PA, so if you live in Reading Pennsylvania they might be your ancestors!

All images and text © Mark Antony Smith 2007

Agfa Update

Well, I opened up the tin in order to do a clip-test.

Inside was the film, a corrugated card insert and these instructions on a pamphlet:
Click on the image for a larger view, to make texts readable, here is the other side:

I hope some of the info above will be useful to someone:

I cut off a length of film about 6" and loaded it into my spiral no problem the film felt OK and travelled into the spiral very easily.
I then prepared the developer and fixer. I used Rodinal at 1:25, pre-wet for 1 min at 20 degrees C then developed for 5 mins with gentle agitaion for first 30 sec then every min thereafter.
It was then fixed for 3 mins in fresh Ilford Fix.
No stop bath was used just a small rinse in water.

After a small final rinse about 5 mins, I opened the tank...
At first I was disappointed as the film looked completely fogged, but as I held it to the light I saw to my surprise there are IMAGES.
Badly fogged either by age or light at sometime (who knows when in the last 60+ years) but there are images of people.
The film is drying as I'm typing this and I'll try to scan and post them later....
But for now here is a copy from DSLR and a Macro lens:

and closer crop:

Ghosts...
All images and text © Mark Antony Smith 2007

Agfa Ultra-Speed

If you read this blog regularly you'll know that recently I found a roll of Agfa-Speed Ultra on Ebay. The film is a little out of date.... well it actually expired in 1941 which makes it ancient history film-wise.
It was made by Agfa-Ansco in America, Binghamton N.Y to be exact, and according to my google seaches had a Weston speed of around 80.

Here are a few photos:

Above is the Warranty and Warning
Next a rear view of the tin showing the Agfa logo

Lastly a side view.

I shall atempt to use the film in my Leica with vintage Elmars both 50 & 90 mm, I doubt anthything will come out as the film will probably be fogged, but it will be fun (and it's a lovely old tin even if the film is Kaput).

If anyone has any more information about this film, such as a confirmation of film speed or even development time suggestions for Rodinal, it would be most welcome.

Low Tech Fun

This photo was taken about fifteen years ago, with a Cheap Russian 6x6 camera called a Lubitel 166B.  The Lubitel (Russian for amateur I'm told) has a cheap plastic build and a simple triplet lens that gives a wonderful soft look that is great for portraits.

The idea behind this shot was to give a feel of the 1950's- so film choice was important too, the emulsion used was the now unavailable Agfa Portrait 160. The film was one of my all time favourites with a really nice low contrast natural colour that made it my standard film for weddings and portraits.

Agfa Portrait also had another desirable (for me at least) character, in that if over-exposed by more than 3 stops the film would allow halation to occur softening the highlights and killing contrast (and fine detail).

The picture above was overexposed by guesstimate about 3 stops to give the aforementioned effects and I think it worked pretty well. Today you could use Kodak Portra NC a film that gives a similar natural colour palette.

Cameras like the Lubitel and Holga are considered by some to be toy cameras, but for me they are very important tools that not only are fun to use but can give very satisfying pictures quite unlike anything produced by 'high-tech' cameras.

All images and text © Mark Antony Smith

Attention Googlers!!

I have noticed in my site stats that quite a few people are looking for info after being sent here by Google.
These people tend to stay for a couple of seconds, as unknown to them this site has over 40 pages, and if its not the first or second item their time is up (and they're off).
I have two things to help:
Firstly, in the sidebar is a search box entitled 'Search this blog' Hopefully this will allow you to find what you came here for.
Secondly, a common reason for people hitting this site via google is when searching for a film development time, I have placed a link to help in the sidebar called 'Film Dev Times'.
This will send you though to the "Digital Truth" Massive Dev chart, where you just select your film and developer combination.
Hope this helps–
Regards
Mark Antony

Canon 35mm F1.8



About a year ago I was given a Leica M4-P, as it had no lens I had to make a decision on which lens would suit best.
I had been using a IIIc with 50mm F3.5 Elmar so obviously a similar lens seemed to be the ideal choice and I ended up with a 50mm F2.8 Elmar.
Fast forward a few months.
Although I enjoyed using my M4-P and it has become my 'take everywhere' camera and I enjoy using it immensely, I slowly began to find the 50mm (46°) angle of view a bit restrictive. I'm not sure why, possibly its because of the frame-lines that make you aware of the quite narrow angle, or possibly I found a lot of situations where the need to step back increasingly occurred.
So the hunt was on for a better 'standard' and like a lot of Leica M users, I decided on 35mm.
I honestly tried out quite a few, both Leica lenses F1.4 ASPH and F2 non ASPH, CV Skopar and two Canons- the 35mm F2 and the 35mm F1.8
Of course I rated the two Leica lenses and the 35 1.4 in particular is a very well corrected lens and amazingly sharp even at the edges wide open.
I did find that the Leica lenses were prone to flare in very bright light so a hood is almost essential for most conditions.
The CV Skopar is an excellent lens especially when you consider the price compared to the Leica lenses and is a very compact lens although a little slower at F2.5.But in my opinion it's size advantage is somewhat negated as it too seems to suffer from flare, so will need a hood.
The Canon 35mm F2 is also a great lens, probably marginally better than the Skopar (which is a copy of the Canon) and very similar in performance to the Pre-ASPH Summicrons of similar vintage.
I kick myself a little here, as I tested this lens, saw the results were good but when I returned to the shop it was gone!
Because these lenses are secondhand, I'd have to wait for another 35mm F2 or go for my next option.
The Canon 35mm F1.8, predated the F2 version is slightly larger and black and chrome finished rather than black and has an infinity lock.
Performance wise, it lacks wide open compared to the rest here being slightly soft and lower in contrast, but has a couple of advantages over the others.
Price! It is the cheapest lens of the bunch, the price I paid was less than the Skopar. It also seems to be less prone to flare, possibly due to the front element being recessed, acting as a sunshade.


(please excuse image quality)
My opinion of the Canon 35mm F1.8 is that it's a very good lens, cheap, of very good optical performance when stopped down a couple of stops, softish wide open (which can be good for 'retro look' shots).
So far I've found it's the lens that I keep on the camera most of the time and the extra speed over my standard Elmar means I use it for most low light work also.
Below is an example of its wide open performance, using Kodachrome 200 which is often very high in contrast is slightly softened.

1/15 sec at F1.8 Kodachrome 200

All in all a respectable performer especially when you take the cost in consideration, which for me is was less than half of the cost of a secondhand Summicron 35mmF2 of a similar vintage.

All Images and text © Mark Antony Smith

Fomapan 200 'Creative'


This film, acording to Foma is an advanced negative film using 'T' grain technology similar to that of Kodak T-Max and Ilford Delta emulsions. It is a full stop faster than the 'Classic' Fomapan tested here

The above image was taken in very bright sunlight at around mid-day metering for the shadow area and closing down 2 stops. The negative shows good shadow detail and highlight separation with fractionally more contrast than the Fomapan 100 Classic when processed at the recomended times. I think this film would be excellent in winter or in dull flat light. I found that Foma 200 was pretty much 'box speed' at the first testing, although recently I have been downrating it to EI 160 which in my seems to give slightly better images. I processed the film in Agfa Rodinal at 1:50 for 8 mins with 2 inversions per min.

And the 100% crop
Looking at the crops I would say that the grain of this film is very fine certainly similar to FP4 which is around a stop slower, accutance is also pretty good if this is a T grain type film

The light and shade in the following shot show how well the film handles a scene with wide range, there is detail present in both the shadow and highlight on the print

The following shot of a door was taken in shadow, and on my monitor looks to have a lovely rich tone

I like the 'Creative 200' its a full stop faster than the Fomapan Classic and is a higher contrast emulsion with similar grain, possibly slightly more compressed tonanally than the Classic.
One thing I'd like to add, I'm not sure about the manufacterers claims that this is a T grain film, it behaves more like conventional emulsions (which is good) but doesn't quite have the smooth fine grain structure of say T-Max 100.
Makes me wonder is this film a T emulsion mixed with cubic grains? or is the grain less tabular than the Kodak?
Edit 2012:
Foma had problems with this emulsion with some users experiencing pin hole emulsion defects. Their response was to stop production and my sources tell me the emulsion and the machinery has been changed in an effort to cure the problem.

Recently the film was re-introduced, and seems to be on a different base, and the actual sensitivity seems slightly lower. The film was out of production for several years, any film in stock currently will certainly be from the new improved emulsion.
On a separate note the make up of the film is certainly a combination of traditional cubic grains (slow record layer) with an over layer of tabular type grains (faster record) which seem to be similar to the Ilford and Fuji Epitaxial type.

All text and images © Mark Antony Smith 2007 & 2012

Ebay acquisition



A rainy cold day, not much to do except look into a few forums, and check out if any interesting finds are listed on Ebay.
Whilst searching for Agfa film I came across the above item for $4.99, and thought 'why not' and was the highest bidder (well the only bidder).
My buy is an Ansco/Agfa Ultra-speed film from 1941.
I'll be interested to see what condition the film is in, I'll bet it is not going to be usable as it went out of date 66 years ago and probably has the 'vinegar syndrome' that afflicts so many films of its age.
If there is any result I'll be sure to post here, if not I'll have a nice tin to keep odds and ends in.

©Mark Antony Smith 2007

Mr Lincoln Has Retired



This typed notice has been on the door of a closed chemists shop in my city for over ten years. The shop is kept in good repair, and has recently been repainted– but remains empty.

All Images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007

Agfapan 400


Another film from the now defunct Agfa. The Agfapan range of films were hugely underated in my opinion, and APX400 probably suffered in that respect more than the rest of the range, living in the shadow of both Tri-X and HP5.

'Wensum Emporium' APX 400 at 1:50 18 mins in Rodinal (Duotone Record Rapid effect)
Personally I feel that's a shame, as it has the wonderful tonal range of the rest of the Agfapan films, with a lovely grain structure and accutance which compares favourably with Tri-x, and to me is preferable to HP5.

Below is a 100% crop of to show the grain pattern:


After Processing the film has a grey base colour, this is normal not due to base fog or poorly stored film, and although it prints/scans well, it may look strange if your normal film is something like Neopan.

It really is a shame about the demise of Agfa. I nearly didn't bother testing their films, but they are just SO good! If I hadn't given them at least a mention it would have been unfair as they are still available though many retailers.
When the current batch are gone one of the truly great photographic emulsions will be history.
So one to try out of curiosity but not a long term prospect.

All images and text © Mark Smith 2007

Warmtone


This photo is a picture of Thrigby Church taken from a high walkway (in a Tiger pen) I liked the cross in the wall, and I've aslso tried to mimic Agfa Record Rapid Paper (monitor willing).
To achieve the effect I made my own record rapid Duotone in Photoshop.

All Images and text ©Mark Antony Smith 2007