Park bench



Yes, you've guessed it. Another Super Ikonta shot. I've sold all my other gear and kept just the Zeiss. That last sentence wasn't true, of course, but you never know... This was taken in a light mist in a public park in my home town of Dundee. I'd dropped Cath off for an appointment and had about 40 minutes to kill. I decided I'd go for a walk around the park hand-in-hand with the Super Ikonta.

There's not a lot to say about this photo really other than that it's all about a feeling of emptiness. I'm sitting in the living room listening to Frank Sinatra's A Man Alone album, my favourite of his although not one of his better known ones. It's all about loneliness, melancholy and what might have been. Seems to fit this picture rather well.

As usual, the film was Tmax 400 developed in D76 1+1.

10 comments:

  1. I gotta get me one of those Ikontas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice photo. I will say something about minimum volume of D-76. I used to use that developer diluted 1+1 for developing with a Jobo CPA2 processor. 250ml stock + 250ml of water to make 500ml of working developer for two 120 roll-films. It always comes out perfectly processed using standard small-tank times.

    Ralph Lambrecht is also a Jobo user who finds no problems with lower than recommended volumes with this type of processing. Just something for you to consider Bruce.

    I rue the day I sold my Jobo. (very foolish of me)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I recognise that park! Well, at least I think I do.
    Maudlin Frank and a nice mist rolling in . . you can't beat that sense of total isolation you get in a good mist can you?

    I think you'll be driving the prices of these beauties up though . . .

    ReplyDelete
  4. Keith,

    There seem to be many more people out there doing quite successfully what you're doing than having a problem like me. Maybe I put too much faith in Kodak's info sheet for D76 instead of considering other possible reasons. Someone should do a controlled test to put this one to bed once and for all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is what I foresee and hoped for. Your view on your landscape captured through the Super Ikonta's lens on 6x6 negatives. It must be a perfect match!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Up until last week I have always used 125ml of D76 stock + 125ml of water to make up 250ml to cover a 35mm stainless steel spiral. I've had nothing but nice results. After reading your post about using 250ml per roll I decided to develop a roll of Eastman Double X in 250ml of stock solution and the film came out very contrasty. Make of that what you will but I'm going back to my previous method. I think mixing up 500ml of working solution to develop one 35mm roll is very uneconomical. Of course Kodak would love to sell more D76 to us...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good point Nasir. But why did you change when your results were good? If you're getting the results you want it shouldn't matter what anyone else thinks - even if it's the manufacturer. I changed because my results weren't good and I'm not even certain it was the amount of stock solution that caused the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Marry that Ikonta. Don't let Cathy know. She's more important.
    I became interested in the problem of minimum amount of solution for developing after being told that the information is available or easily deduced. I looked, but all I could find was 6ml of syrup for Kodak's HC 110. I assume that Ilford's Ilfotec HC would be much the same.
    Then I began to wonder what it really means. Manufacturers give adjustments for re-using developer, typically 10% for the second batch and so on. Clearly, if the developer can be re-used, it is not exhausted and the quantities given are not true minima.
    Is the minimum amount the amount that will be exactly consumed? This seems unlikely as pictures of white cats in snow would exhaust the chemicals more rapidly than black cats in coal cellars. Are we looking at some kind of "normal" neg in the calculation? A whole roll exposed to Zone Five, perhaps? It seems unlikely, but it's not impossible.
    Perhaps the minimum quantity is the amount that will develop the de facto standard of 120 sq ins of film without exhibiting any significant or detectable loss of quality or "film speed". (Oh no... not the true film speed debate...)
    Is it possible that the minimum quantity is the amount that assures success even to the incompetent or careless worker (not us of course) and leaves a good deal of latitude for cunning and baffling procedures like semi-stand development which depend on partial exhaustion for local effects?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Bruce,
    I changed my usual method because of your post about Kodak and their data sheet saying that 250ml of working solution was required per roll. If I had never tried it I would never have known :-)

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello from Sunny California. I've just discovered your site, good stuff. I look forward to viewing the archives and reading your new posts. I recently dove headfirst back into film photography (backflip?) I've gone so far as to start a community Darkroom in my town. I'm having tons of fun rediscovering old skills and developing new-old skills. Thanks for the inspiration. Cheers!

    Christian
    Santa Barbara, CA.

    ReplyDelete