onsdag 17. februar 2016

I used this day on film wasting!

Oh yes, on wasting some otherwise good old silver!

You may think I'm talking about the fact that I have been using the Diana F+ camera lately, and that could well be a different word for wasting film as good as any other film wasting for sure, but nope! 
I'm thinking about the fact that I have been developing a few rolls snapped during my trip over at the other side of the sea, and that they came out totally like a mess.
Not all the rolls, mind you, but the three last ones. The first two went on well, or at least as they usually do. Ilford FP4+ they were, and they seemed to be as good as I can get them considered my limited developing skills.
Then I threw in the last batch, all inside the same tank
Three rolls of american B&W film. Tri-X, as it happens. All fresh and fine, and no reason to even suspect that anything bad could happen. 
Well... fogged-up, they were. All three of them! Exhausted fixer, I suppose. I dropped them in there again, inside the smelly tank, and fixed for another five minutes. They did not get very much better I'm afraid. Just a tad.
If I had been the lucky owner of some fresh fix, I would have made up a new bath of the stuff straight away, but I used the last few drops of it some time ago. 
Well... that's life for the cheapo home developer, and film waster, I guess. 
At least it's just a few rolls of ruined pictures. No reason to go totally bananas and through the roof! 
I will, however, see to that I got a new bottle of fixer stocked before any further attempts of developing stuff. Too bad, actually, as I had plans for some fine darkroom printing some day very soon. I might be able to get something shipped quite fast anyway, to be good to go before the weekend.

Here you see! From inside the huge cathedral over in York, as seen from inside the old Diana F+ camera. It kind of works, if you just are able to remember what kind of ASA film you got inside, and are able to count to ten, or thereabout, as you trigger the thing. Some support are always welcome, but not always available. 

The Diana F+ works great, though. Or, at least the films I developed yesterday gone through that thing during last week was not fogged or anything. They might be called wasted, though, but that's more an individual thing. Taste, and such, you know. 
And of course it works, as there's nothing much inside the thing that can go wrong anyway.

OK then. One more, also from York I think. Not the New one, over the big Atlantic, but the old one up there for a few hours drive north of Lundene, in England. The streets are about as old as the town itself. The vikings used to be in the area, but we spotted none this day. Even the viking center was closed. There have been some hassle with flooding water lately, as we all know. And sure, snapped with the Diana this one as well, only this time I used the timed exposure thing. Not the B setting, that is. Don't know the timing of it though, but it's a bit short for 100ASA film in dim light, as you see. 


2 kommentarer:

  1. Ah yes, the old exhausted fixer problem. A timely post, Mr Karlsvig - I am really pushing the boat out at the minute with re-using my fixer, so this has reminded me to mix some new stuff before I do any more. Like you, I wouldn't like my 'masterpieces' to be ruined just for some silly thing like that :) Still you got some decent snaps out of it so far, my friend.

    SvarSlett
  2. So far all is good, Michael. It's getting worse, believe me!
    I hope your fixer is a bit more updated than mine, but this was quite oldish, and had taken a bit of punishment through the last few months. I know I mixed it up last time I was home, and have used it for both prints and films for a while. 4 liters it was, and it was very good the day before when I fixed those Ilford FP4 rolls. Not so with the Tri-X ones, though.
    Well... I just hope I can make something a wee bit interesting out of them anyway.
    I will, of course, keep you informed and updated. I will also post, no matter how bad they look :))

    SvarSlett

Feel free to drop me a comment about anything, anytime