Re: Decimated sheet film makers
The Arista.EDU Ultra (particularly in the 200 speed) has become my standard film. It is terrific for processing in Pyro (I use Pyrocat HD), and printing in platinum. I don't know if it would work well for salt or albumen prints, but for platinum and silver it works great. I have not experienced any quality control issues, and I've shot several hundred sheets of it in 5x7 over the span of perhaps 2 years now, covering multiple emulsion lots.
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
Your post borders on panic - populated with inflammatory terms like, "traumatic, dies, soldier, corps, battle, unforgiving, left standing, gobbling etc.." Furthermore, for someone who has been out of LF for 40 years, you make some un-useful assumptions. For example: "I never had a lot of luck with Ilford," and, "tabular grain films are unforgiving". In reality, your experience with Ilford 40 years ago is mostly irrelevant, as their emulsion range has almost completely changed since that time. In addition, if tabular films were really as difficult as you assume, they would not be so popular. They just require consistent processing techniques. There is virtually no significant industry in the world that has the same players or product line that was around 40, or even 20 years ago. That said, there are lots of good emulsions around, from both the large manufacturers and small ones. For slow speed work, I like Efke 25, and the quality control issues are pretty minor, in my experience. TMax400 is a terrific film that we are lucky to have.
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
Kodak Tri-X (320TXP) is still readily available in both 4x5 and 5x7 at reasonable prices so, I am happy. The rest (Kodak Tmax, Fuji, Ilford, Efke/Adox and Foma) is just so much frosting on the cake. Seems to me, things are good.
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
Well, this thread has yielded some information that is useful to me, at least. I'm encouraged enough to give the Arista EDU and the Efke emulsions a serious try. Also it's good news to hear that Ilford has pulled up its socks. :)
Sorry you reacted so strongly to the rhetoric, Toyon -- to each his own. And Joe, for the record, I don't subscribe to the TEOTWAWKI view of things. As I said to Chris, the pendulum has a way of swinging to and fro, as was pointed out regarding vinyl records. New technology has a way of displacing old technology -- for awhile, until the limitations of the new become apparant against the strengths of the old. Then each eventually assumes its proper place in the scheme of things. "Horses for courses," as they say. I happily use my D200 with its low-image-quality superzoom for photographing my sleddogs -- it's just the thing, because they never stop moving and I have to trash 20 images for each one that's halfway satisfactory. It costs me next to nothing either financially or emotionally to trash a digital file; I used to spend a fortune on film and unwanted prints just keeping record photos of my dogs. But that D200 is not the camera I would use to produce an exhibition-quality landscape print to hang on the wall in my study. Mind you, I've seen some incredible coffee-table-book work, digitally stitched panorama photos of "spectacular" landscape country, but to me the colours are garish and unreal, none of it looks like the real world to me. OK if you like photographic fantasy, I guess, but I'm more interested in photography as a reflection of reality. (A bit off the point!)
Anyway, I don't see the demise of silver-based imaging anytime soon. We're going through a rough adjustment phase just now; we may already be through the worst of it, or not. Kodak may get out of the silver biz altogether; who knows what decisions will be made by its CEO and board. Big corporations are not known either for responsiveness to their customer base or for intelligent decision-making. (Just look at Bill Gates; he's good at making money, but he is not good at making good computers or good software. If you want a great machine for graphic arts, it had better be from Apple.) So T-Max and Tri-X may or may not be around for much longer. But if Kodak goes, some smaller company will produce something similar -- assuming that the license to make it is for sale. If not, so what! Photographers have always made their best images independent of what materials were or were not available at the time. Many of those iconic, never-to-be-forgotten images for LF folks were created before Tri-X even existed, virtually ALL of them long before T-Max.
It's really good news that something as reasonably priced as Arista EDU is available and appears to give good results for some users. I think there's enough variety out there to keep me busy for a long time. It was always better to get to know ONE emulsion thoroughly rather than constantly switching films; it takes a long time really to know the characteristics and potential of a single film, to work out the best developer and processing times for one's personal tastes and way of working, etc.
Thanks for the info, guys! :D
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
I consider you to be very lucky indeed to be able to walk into your local camera store and be able to buy any sheet film. My local fifty thousand square foot "Imaging Center" has put all of the film and darkroom chemicals on 6 shelves in the corner. If it is not 35 mm Fujicolor film then you're SOL. All of my film and chemicals come from B&H. Tmax films are excellent films. As John K. mentioned earlier, John Sexton has produced excellent prints with it. Sexton has spoken of his methods with this film and on the LF Homepage you can find an article with his methods. It was an excellent starting point for me and with some testing I know how to expose and develop the film. The grain structure is finer than anything I've seen. In fact, I have had difficulty trying to find grain to focus when using a 30x micro-sight with Tmax 100. So, I say, do your research on what is out there and where to buy it. Then, whatever your choice is, buy it, test it and enjoy it.
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
Quote:
I consider you to be very lucky indeed to be able to walk into your local camera store and be able to buy any sheet film.
That was forty years ago! Now ALL the photo shops are staffed by teenage idiots who don't even know that much about the digital stuff they are pushing, but who aggressively and confidently tell you all sorts of ridiculous things, generally the exact reverse of what's actually the case, and who seem unaware that film even exists!
Nope, it's a question of researching what's out there, which is what I'm trying to do, and placing an order from a great distance -- probably from a US firm, and hoping that the stuff doesn't get ruined when Canada Customs inspects it. That was part of my point -- no friendly neighbourhood photo shop any more, and everything I would want for LF must be ordered from afar.
Re: Decimated sheet film makers
http://www.bigcameraworkshops.com in Canada sells film. Rob is a great guy to deal with too.