Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 12/22/01 3:18 AM, John Straus at Mail@SlideOne.com wrote: > It's almost Ho, ho, ho time and PAW 2002 is right around the corner. I hope > to embark on this mission and have as much success through the year as > others have, if nothing else learn from the experience. > > The question I have is what are some good ways of shooting a roll a week but > not spending a lot of $$ doing so? My normal methods are shoot slides or > print film and go to a ProLab for Dip&Dunk. That is just not going to be > economical for me to do that @ $9 or $17 per roll. You're either dreaming or you have an incredible 'hit rate'. The only week that I shot only one roll was week #2, and that is one of the weakest pages on my site. It was just too damned cold to go out that week. Before my PAW project I would shoot about a roll a week, now I'm up to about a dozen! That's an AVERAGE week. > > Sooo I was thinking of going back to some B&W neg film and do the processing > myself. It would save some $$ (I think) and I could look at the film a lot > faster (same eve) instead of taking it to a lab and wait 3 days. I can set > something up to at least process the negs but I still need a proof sheet. I > have a slide scanner but the thought of proofing a few frames at a time > feeding in and out doesn't seem like the best way, or is it? I was thinking > of getting a cheap $100 flatbed to do the proofing on and I could use it > anytime I didn't want prints made for the color neg film I shoot. How do you > guys do it? Any thoughts or ideas appreciated! Souping it yourself is the only way to go, and I'd shoot more color if I had the facilities to process it (jobo?), but my 'darkroom' is a changing bag and the kitchen sink. The big advantage is not the cost savings, but the control and quality. I don't think any lab would be willing to go through all the compensating agitation tricks I've been learning. a 50-roll box of HP5+ is $132 and a 5-liter package of Xtol is $6.99 at B&H. Developer is about the only thing that gets cheaper and better at the same time - dilute it 1:3 :) You can use a small light box upside down on a flatbed scanner to make 'contacts', but it's hardly worth the trouble (I have a high-end UMAX with a transparency lid, and I do print proofs, but that is not what I needed the scanner for, and the contacts don't tell me much even if I bother to look at them). I have the Leica 5x loop, which though it is expensive, has a really great attachment that holds a strip of negatives perfectly flat, has a little hole where you can see the frame numbers through the mask, and a ground glass bottom so I can just hold the thing up to an ordinary light - no light-box-crook-in-the-neck. It's really much easier to simply evaluate the negatives than you think. That piece of Leica glass (actually Schneider, I think) will outlast any scanner, high-end or cheap. Good on you for committing to a PAW 2002. My own project has been like getting an MFA and turned me into an aspiring but broke pro. It changed my life. Gilbert - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html