Polaroid - Edwin Land

Interesting video about Edwin Land, the man who invented the Polaroid camera.

See it here

Developer Shelf Life

As someone who works full time I am not able to dedicate as much time to film photography as I would like. I also like to experiment with different developers and processes. This means that I don't use up colour or black and white developers very quickly. This is one of the reasons why I use Rodinal quite a lot as it has a very long shelf life. Even half open bottles of Rodinal are said to last at least 40 years! Although the developer goes a dark brown colour, its still works fine.

The dark brown colour of myyear old half full bottle of Rodinal is nothing to worry about

Most other developers are not so flexible. I use Ilford Delta 3200 high speed film quite a lot and the best results are achieved by developing it in Ilford DD-X. DD-X comes in big 1 litre plastic bottles which is quite a lot a developer for me to use up even at 1+4 dilution. DD-X will last for up to 2 years in full bottles, but only 4 months in half full bottles. I therefore always decant it into small bottles to get the maximum shelf life. I have used DD-X that is up to 14 months old (but stored in small, full bottles) with no problems.

I decant DD-X into different size bottles to maximise shelf life

I got the little bottle in Boots (Chemist) the big one is a Tropicana Orange Juice Bottle, from McDonalds. 

Of course you never know how long the developer has been on the shelf of the store you buy it from, but I think Ilford's own shelf life figures are conservative anyway.

I do some C41 Colour home developing using the Tetenal kit (not as much as I used to as I'm in a black and white phase at the moment). Unlike the black and white developers, which I use 'one shot' (pour away after one use) the Tetenal chemicals must be reused. The quoted shelf life of the made up Tetenal chemicals is 6 weeks. The last batch I used seemed to be fine even after 12 months! I keep the chemicals in tightly sealed plastic bottles in a cool dark place.

Flickr Favorites

What photos do people view the most often in my Flickr photostream? Who cares! I hear you ask, well photos are there to be viewed and enjoyed by other people so I may as well consider their opinion and presumably the photos people view the most are the ones they like. Of course there may be other reasons why people view photos other than for purely artistic reasons! The popularity of photos of women seem to be inversely proportionate to how many items of clothing they are wearing!
My most viewed photo on Flickr (by quite a margin) is this one:

This is Kat Marsh, who used to be bass player with my son's ex-band, The King Blues. No doubt its popularity has nothing to do with its artistic quality (although I think its not a bad gig photo), Kat seems to be a very popular lady and a Google search of her name will list this photo, although not near the top. However the photo has no favorites! The photo that most people have added to their favorites is this one:

I enjoyed taking this photo as I had planned it in my head for some time. It shows an Exakta camera in the Wait Level Finder of another Exakta camera. It should really have been taken with a third Exakta camera but it wasn't, its taken with my Olympus OM-2. 

Another popular photo, with lots of favorites too, is this one, also taken with my OM2:

Its the instruments from my Honda 400/4 motorbike, made in 1976. Perhaps people liked it because it awakened memories of motorbikes of their youth!

Which are my favorite photos? Well I like black and white, interesting textures and reflections. This photo, taken recently (also with my OM2) is the one I like most:

It also has a few favorites on Flickr too! Another one I like a lot and has a few favorites is this one (taken with my Olympus XA2):

That's all for now!

Which little Olympus?

I always like to have a small easy to use film camera with me that takes great photos. That way I can capture interesting things that I come across in my day to day life without having a large SLR with me all the time. Key requirement is that is should fit in my pocket (or my briefcase if I'm working). I've tried a variety of cameras but it usually comes down to a little Olympus 35mm camera. I've had an Olympus XA2 for some time, it's a red one that I was given. It's a lovely camera, very small and light and very easy to use. Automatic exposure and zone focusing (3 settings, close ups, groups and distance).

Tempted by the sophistication of the XA, with its coupled rangefinder, I bought one on e-bay a little while back. Trouble is with my not so great eyesight, the rangefinder spot is quite difficult to see in the viewfinder, even with a tiny blob of Bluetack on the front of the viewfinder to make it a little clearer. I have got some good photos out of the XA but I don't find it that easy to use and for street shooting the focus lever and rangefinder are just too fiddly for me.

I used a number of other cameras in my collection for this role. I have a nice Olympus 35RC but its a bit temperamental and sometimes refuses to work (poor battery contacts I think) I also have a lovely Canon QL19 This camera always takes great pictures but its a little too big to go in my pocket.

In this picture the Canon doesn't look much bigger than the Olympus but it is significantly Larger

A rather different proposition is my 1930s Zeiss Super Ikonta 530. Being a folding camera this does fit in my pocket, although its pretty heavy. Its a beautiful instrument, although not really a 'street shooter' requiring a more leisurely approach (and a separate light meter). Of course is takes 120 film, not 35mm. Still, I really should take more photos with it.

So which is my favorite? Well the one that fit the bill and takes the best overall photos, the Olympus XA2 is hard to beat.

Kodak No2 Folding Pocket Brownie

I have been after one of these cameras for a while, and managed recently to 'win' one for a reasonable price on e-bay. These cameras were made from 1907 to 1915. The red bellows that my camera has were changed to black in 1911 so that dates my camera as before that year so it is around 102 years old.

The camera body is made of wood covered in imitation leather, the front shutter panel is made of brass I think and is engraved as shown below:

The patents listed at the bottom of the shutter are dated 1908 and 1909, so the camera was probably made in 1910 or 1911. The dial at the top can be set to I for instantaneous which is about 1/50th second, B is for bulb (shutter stays open until you release the shutter lever (on the left)) and T (shutter stays open until you press it again). Aperture is set using the leaver at the bottom. According to what I have read on Flickr Brownie Group 1 is equal to f16, 2 is f22 and 3 is f32. It takes standard 120 film. The lens in mounted behind the shutter. The shutter seems to work fine and the lens is OK, it was quite dusty when I got it but it cleaned up OK, no fungus I can see.

As New Year's Day was the first sunny day in weeks I loaded it up with Ilford FP4 and took some photos down at the Grand Union canal. Back home I develop it in Rodinal 1:100 using 1 hour 'stand' development. I think the results are surprisingly good: 

The lens seems pretty sharp in the center of the photo but the edges are quite blurry. It was a bright sunny day and the contrast of the photos is good. 

Photos were hand held, so the shutter must be firing at about 1/50th, the aperture was set at 2 (f22). Not bad for a 100 year old camera.