Re: Toners and Leica Glow

[Randolph Carlisle <randcarl@gc.net>]

Oddmund Garvik wrote:
> 
> Duane Birkey wrote:
> 
> >Uranium toner???????  Never heard of such a toner.  How would describe
> >it's effect and color on the print and where can you buy it?   I'm not
> >sure I want to anyhow, I use a  selenium for increasing D-max without
> >significant color changes .
> >
> >(I can't resist this one)  Is this how you achieve the Leica "glow"
> >with your Contax TVS?
> >
> >Still chuckling,
> 
> Jim Brick continued:
> 
> >I think you get photographer "glow" with uranium toner. He may have meant
> >"unobtanium", the rarest of rare metal toners.
> 
> Well, it is OK to ask if you don't know, but chuckling and using irony when
> you have no idea about what you are talking about, is a sign of weakness.
> 
> The "Uranium" toner exists. It consists of what we call in French "Nitrat
> d'uranil", which is a natural, low radioactive substance. Darkroom
> alchemists, like myself, use it to obtain what we in French call "virage a
> l'urane", a warm, light brown tone, similar to brick. Yes, Jim Brick!
> 
> Previously it was delivered in ordinary plastic containers, now there is a
> lot of security measures about storage and use of this product (it comes in
> steel containers and so on).
> 
> The radioactivity is far below the legal standards of course, at the level
> of "natural" radioactivity. Anyway, the uranic toner (better translation?)
> gives a beautiful aspect.
> 
> I am getting a bit tired of this talking about "glow", as something
> exclusively reserved for Leica cameras. I have seen how ridiculous this
> superstition may be. I have seen images made by simple, cheap non-Leica
> cameras being presented to "juries" of fundamentalist Leica users. They
> always went into the trap, pointing out the "beautiful Leica glow". It was
> simple cameras as Minox, Olympus, Lubitel 6x6 (!) and others...
> 
> Chuckling over Contax T2/TVS is not very wise. You should remember that
> these cameras have excellent Carl Zeiss Sonnar lenses, designed by Zeiss
> Oberkochen and made from Schott optical glass.
> 
> I have been using a lot of different cameras in my life, both M-Leicas,
> Contax Ts, Zeiss Ikons, Voigtlanders, Rolleis, Nikons, Hasselblads, Linhofs
> etc. Believe me, I have found the "glow" in all these cameras. MF and LF
> cameras have much of it, of course. I have heard Leica users in LF
> exhibitions talking about that great "Leica glow". Leica is very good, but
> it might leave you blind...
> 
> The "glow" has always been important for me. I am mainly looking for what J.
> Tlumak, in the excellent revue "Rfinder", calls "the extra dimensional
> factor", the impression of life in an image. Some Leica lenses and the
> Rolleiflexes gave me that, and the Sonnar lenses also give me this
> impression of roundness and plasticity. More, or less, depending upon the
> light, of course. Some Nikkor lenses give me this, too, and I have seen
> images made with other rangefinder cameras such as the Contax, Zorki, Nikon
> and Canon rangefinders, (including screwmount Leicas).
> 
> My Olympus mju-2 has the "glow" as well...with a 2.8/35mm lens, 2-zone light
> metering, switchable to spot metering, AE range from EV 1.0 to EV 17 (F2.8
> at 4 sec. - F11 at 1/1000sec), weatherproof, normal price in France about
> $160-170. It is my 'always-in-the-pocket-camera', and it is so small that I
> sometimes have to look after if I still have it!
> 
> My point is not that Leica make bad cameras and lenses! But I think that
> Leica products are overpriced and overestimated. And I know that you may
> obtain similar, sometimes better results with other cameras, much cheaper,
> as solid as, or more solid than the Leicas.
> 
> Photography is more than a camera and a lens. First you need brain glow,
> heart glow and glow in the eyes. At the end comes the alchemy, where the
> circle once again joins the brain, the heart and the eyes. A good image is
> something very complex and mysterious. It has a universal message and is
> capable of making people anywhere laugh, cry, smile, or revolt.
> 
> Oddmund
Oddmund:
Is Jerald Tlumak still publishing the Rfinder newsletter and do you have
his address?
Randolph