[Leica] An odd bit of Leica gear

[Marty Deveney <freakscene@weirdness.com>]

I just spent a couple of hours using an odd bit of Leitz gear: an 
Aristophot with a Photar lens and a Leitz copy stand.  It's a micro-camera, 
designed to shoot at 1:1 or closer, but at lower reproduction ratios than 
are afforded by microscopes.  Fantastic for taking photos of the little 
parasitic worms that I research for my thesis.  I can use the Aristophot 
for medium-format work too, actually the Photar lens covers out to 4x5", 
but for convenience, I use 120 Tech Pan, some long-hoarded Ektar 25 or EPR 
in a modified rollfilm back.  The larger film area is a major advantage 
over the Zeiss Tessovar, which only does 35mm.

This may be the closest thing to an extant medium or large format Leica 
(though not really at all).

Like everything made by Leitz, it is incredibly well engineered.  I'm 
frightened to think what it cost.

I also had something scary happen on the weekend.  I teach some students 
photography.  We cover everything from technical/scientific work like I 
have described above to street photography, depending on what they want to 
learn.  Anyway, my 'best' (= keenest) student had shot some HP 5+ which we 
developed and printed.  It looked nice.  She wanted to tone them, so I gave 
her my book of formulas and she set to it.  Unfortunately, she misread one 
of the formulas and accidentally mixed some acid with potassium 
ferricyanide.  The result of this was a bubbly beaker belching out hydrogen 
cyanide gas.  I was washing some trays on the other side of the room and 
got a slight whiff of bitter almonds!!!  I got to it quickly and managed 
not to frighten her in the process.  Luckily we mix all our 
non-light-sensitive chemicals in a lab, not the darkroom and all that was 
required was to close the fume hood, hit the 'purge' button and then take 
the sealed waste to a specialist chemical waste treatment facility.  Today 
the fume hood will be decontaminated.  I am still having a hard time coming 
to grips with how easily we could have ended up dead.  I am also wondering 
how I managed to stay calm.

About 2 weeks ago I read about exactly the same thing happening to an 
amateur photographer - he sent his story to Photo Techniques (formerly 
edited by Mike Johnston) to find out what happened.  I thought to myself at 
the time that I ought to make one of my first lectures in my course about 
all aspects of safety in photography (chemical, social etc.).  I think I 
have some extra motivation to write that now.

So, next time you're in the darkroom, make sure you check before you mix!

Marty


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