Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/24
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Right now I have the test prints hanging up to dry. I found a roll of negs I shot in 1964 or 65 in San Francisco. The film is Kodak Plus X Pan, no emulsion number in those days. I used D-76 then so it must apply to these negs too. The shots are of a group of uniformed and detective police breaking up a public performance by the S.F. Mime Troupe in a park. Those were the early days of the free speech movement and the Mime Troupe put on street theatre that used real live four letter words. Accordingly, they had to be silenced by law and order. The image I selected shows a very clean cut young radical surrounded by middle aged police who are about to arrest him.The negs were made by me using a Pentax H1a slr with 55mm/2 Super Takumar lens. The camera pre-dated the TTL Spotmatics and the lens pre dated the Super Multicoated lenses. I'm impressed with the image quality. I still have the camera which was a gift from my Dad on my 21st. I printed the neg on FB papers from Kodak, Forte, Cachet, Agfa, Ilford, and Freestyle's Europe's Finest graded FB. I used a Leitz Valoy condenser enlarger and a Beseler 45 Dichro head difusion enlarger. All VC papers were printed with a Kodak Polycontrast filter 2 under the lens. Also, I printed the Freestyle paper which is graded number 2 on both those enlargers and with a 1948 Kodal Flourlight A cold light head. The same El Nikkor 50/2.8 lens was used for all prints. I have to wait for the dry down before judging the prints, but, I can tell there are a few surprises. If someone can offer some web space it will be interesting to compare these prints with modern film and lens images. Traditionally, Bill Lawlor