Fresh dry plates in a variety of sizes

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Originally Posted by Robert Brazile

So be prepared for that if you decide an outing at -15F is looking less attractive than some time playing inside with studio lights. Don't Ask Me How I kNow This (DAMHINT).

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I love the cold! If I didn't, I'd live somewhere else. I was out hunting pheasants yesterday at 26F below for hours. I am aware that dry plate probably isn't my best choice for shooting the interiors of abandoned buildings.


Kent in SD

If you can hold your camera still, you can expose for 45s without reciprocity (my experience). Above that, I usually added 25-50% additional time to the exposure up to maybe 2 minutes (I need to characterize reciprocity, but this rule of thumb seems to work well). So you could shoot the interiors of abandoned buildings. ;)

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Originally Posted by Robert Brazile

One other thought: because of the band of spectrum the basic emulsion is sensitive to is so far up in the blue and higher end, the speed of the plates is affected considerably by the quality of the light. The plates will be noticeably faster under direct sunlight than, say, most artificial lights or even indirect sunlight. So be prepared for that if you decide an outing at -15F is looking less attractive than some time playing inside with studio lights. Don't Ask Me How I kNow This (DAMHINT).Robert

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Which reminds me of Tina Modotti complaining that Berlin's light was not actinic compared to Mexico!

Quick update: making next batch of emulsion. Glass is coming in, and I just secured a supply of new boxes! Lol. They will arrive in ~3 weeks. Never been so excited about boxes.

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Originally Posted by cowanw

Which reminds me of Tina Modotti complaining that Berlin's light was not actinic compared to Mexico!

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Exactly, and stated much more succinctly! I don't want to suggest that you can't do the inside work, just warning people about it so they take it into consideration. My first plates were extremely slow (maaaaybe ISO .4) and, while they worked reasonably well outside, inside was a struggle. Consider that not only did the less actinic light take much longer to register, reciprocity kicked in and I was finding myself with very long exposures to get reasonable density.

My newer plates are more like ISO 3 (probably pretty close to Jason's) and are a lot easier to use indoors, plus I know to account for it. And I have the means to make them faster, just working up to it. Fun to experiment with!

Robert

Got my J Lane Dry Plates with instructions on the outside of the box!

I will be taking my time.

my plates arrived all the way here in Finland! Hurray!

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Originally Posted by locutus

my plates arrived all the way here in Finland! Hurray!

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Wow! Very quick.

Awesome! I am so excited that new folks are being introduced to the world of dry plate.

Let me know how it goes. I'm particularly interested in the fit of the plates in the holders. In fact, would love it if you guys could measure the opening of your holders and report that back. Antique holders should be ~4.1" wide. I don't expect any issues with those (even being hand-cut), but I learned from one fella that the plates don't fit his Linhof holders. Upon taking measurements, he discovered the opening was 3.99" wide ... sized for film!

Anyways.. I'd like to hear about any issues you run across. As an engineer and a realist, I fully expect teething troubles even though I'm pretty confident in their quality...so I want the opportunity to address problems as they come up.

Oh, and agitate very gently during development / fixing and maintain constant temperature throughout the process. Wash in very slowly flowing or cycled water. This will minimize frilling.

Cheers,
Jason

Uh oh, I have Linhof holders...will let you know.