Lane Dry Plates

[Jim Noel]

I have just received my first shipment of Lane Dry Plates. I will make my first exposures and process them today. I am looking for others who are using them for the purpose of swapping experiences.

[mrred]

I am curious too.

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[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I have been playing with them a bit. Findings so far:

I found 2 ISO to be accurate, so long as I take into account the color sensitivity of the plate by paying attention to and compensating for blues and greens in the image. Strobe works fine, but needs a bit of power (at least 1200ws).

The recommended 5-6 minutes development with HC-110 dilution B was not enough time in trays, and left very flat plates. I have tried a few different times with dilution C, usually from 8 to 10 minutes. I haven't printed any yet. Developing by inspection would likely be best, but am not yet sure what a correctly developed plate would look like under a safelight.

I am having some problems with scratches on the emulsion. I don't yet know if these are my fault from processing or handling, or are from manufacture or transportation. Jason Lane has been very helpful problem-solving. You can see the effect of the scratches on the attached image, it looks like an area of low contrast. My first thought was that the plate was emulsion-side down in processing and was getting scratched by the bottom. After a few more plates done emulsion side up, I am pretty sure this is not the case, and that the abrasions are not from tray processes. I will post as I learn more.

[Two23]

Have not yet tried processing but will soon. Early batches were a bit inconsistent in ISO but later ones are better. I'm mostly using these with 100 to 160 year old lenses.


Kent in SD

[Jim Noel]

A good start to what I hope will be a very helpful thread.
Jason - are you using holders designed for dry plate? Is the dark slide hitting the plate at any point? Is the leading edge of he slide rough? These are questions I will be asking myself if I get similar scratches.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Thanks for the suggestion, I am using Linhof plate holders. I have used these for years in 6x9, 4x5, and 13x18 with plates that are far more sensitive to scratching than dry-plates, so am pretty sure that is not the cause.

[Jim Noel]

Thanks for the suggestion, I am using Linhof plate holders. I have used these for years in 6x9, 4x5, and 13x18 with plates that are far more sensitive to scratching than dry-plates, so am pretty sure that is not the cause.

Back to the think tank.

[Nodda Duma]

A good start to what I hope will be a very helpful thread.
Jason - are you using holders designed for dry plate? Is the dark slide hitting the plate at any point? Is the leading edge of he slide rough? These are questions I will be asking myself if I get similar scratches.

It’s kind of a head scratcher (pun intended, haw!), as it’s the first time I’ve seen this issue. Of course there’s a first for everything. Not to imply at all it’s something he did, and I’m helping to troubleshoot potential causes before I send him a replacement box. Prime suspects: the scratches are either residual emulsion on the back that needs to be cleaned off (residual emulsion on the back is to be expected, just like the 1880s), or the plates saw an incredible amount of shaking and vibration in the box during shipment. As for being made during handling/development...long as he kept the notch up and to the right just like sheet film then the emulsion would be face up during development.

The emulsion is more prone to scratches than modern film. The Linhoff holder has side lips iirc that the plate slides under. If there was dirt in there then the emulsion would be scratched all to hell as the plates were inserted. When I’ve used my Linhoff holder I keep the plates pushed down against the spring back so the lips don’t rub against the emulsion. The emulsion is also very delicate when it’s wet, and needs to dry completely before scanning.

The contrast of the ASA 2 plates are similar to film with a gamma of about 0.7 under normal development...similar to film. This is intentional to accommodate printing on modern paper. The ASA 25 orthochromatic plates (about to be released for sale) are higher contrast.

-Jason

P.S. I just ran a plate in and out of my Linhoff holder and got scratches along the edges similar to the pic above. See attached pic. So I’d suggest pushing it down against the springback plate as it’s inserted into the holder. This isn’t an issue of course on the more common wooden plate holders which drop the plates in rather than sliding in.