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PESO 2021 - 142 - GDG

GD
Godfrey DiGiorgi
Tue, Sep 7, 2021 2:55 PM

I've been having fun with a couple of nice 1950s folding cameras lately, both a recently acquired, slightly beat up Kodak Retina IIIc (circa 1955-1956) and the Voigtländer Perkeo II (1952-1953) that I've had for a good while now. Both are excellent cameras with good lenses, and great for walking about because they are light and compact.

I took the Perkeo out the other day loaded with some ancient Kodak Portra 400 I had laying about in my film box. I don't really shoot color on film anymore ... modern digital does color so well I see no point to mucking with color processing chemistry ... with the intent of seeing whether the film was usable for B&W processed with my standard chemistry. I used the Hasselblad 907x in a copy camera setup (copy stand, Essential Film Holder, and flat panel light box), fitted the V-system Makro-Planar 120mm, to digitize the 6x6 negatives.

The results are interesting: The abused old film has very high base fog at this point but still produces a highly detailed if grainy negative. The tonal scale is far less than when the film was fresh but still proves satisfactory for digital image processing. One example is my first exposure of the day's walk:

https://flic.kr/p/2mn4o1s :: Utility Box - Santa Clara 2021

I'll get a set of these exposures rendered and posted soon.

However, I only have a couple more rolls of this film around. I'm mixed as to whether I'll burn through it and be done with it, or whether to just toss it and forget it ... It's a bit of a pain to work and is inconsistent, frame by frame, with respect to exposure response.

Fun anyway.. :D

enjoy,
G

Godfrey DiGiorgi - godfreydigiorgi@me.com

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
--Mark Twain

I've been having fun with a couple of nice 1950s folding cameras lately, both a recently acquired, slightly beat up Kodak Retina IIIc (circa 1955-1956) and the Voigtländer Perkeo II (1952-1953) that I've had for a good while now. Both are excellent cameras with good lenses, and great for walking about because they are light and compact. I took the Perkeo out the other day loaded with some ancient Kodak Portra 400 I had laying about in my film box. I don't really shoot color on film anymore ... modern digital does color so well I see no point to mucking with color processing chemistry ... with the intent of seeing whether the film was usable for B&W processed with my standard chemistry. I used the Hasselblad 907x in a copy camera setup (copy stand, Essential Film Holder, and flat panel light box), fitted the V-system Makro-Planar 120mm, to digitize the 6x6 negatives. The results are interesting: The abused old film has very high base fog at this point but still produces a highly detailed if grainy negative. The tonal scale is far less than when the film was fresh but still proves satisfactory for digital image processing. One example is my first exposure of the day's walk: https://flic.kr/p/2mn4o1s :: Utility Box - Santa Clara 2021 I'll get a set of these exposures rendered and posted soon. However, I only have a couple more rolls of this film around. I'm mixed as to whether I'll burn through it and be done with it, or whether to just toss it and forget it ... It's a bit of a pain to work and is inconsistent, frame by frame, with respect to exposure response. Fun anyway.. :D enjoy, G — Godfrey DiGiorgi - godfreydigiorgi@me.com "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." --Mark Twain