MorseBlog

To try out my  Minolta 16 camera (£5 on ebay). I bought some Russian (Soviet 1982) 16mm B+W film. The 65 number refers to the Soviet film speed which elsewhere on the box is translated to 80 ASA and 20 DIN. Russian 16mm film Loading the film onto old cartridges is simple enough in a changing bag after a little fumbling around. The first roll of film I exposed using a flash  on automatic mode with a speed of 100 (The Russian film is actually ASA 80). I also developed using semi-stand development with a solution of 1+100 Ilford LC29 developer. Stand for 30 Minutes, invert and stand for a another 30 minutes. Stop and fix per usual. The results were under exposed and grainy. The film had some fog as well. The scan below shows one result and this is after optimizing for levels in Photoshop. Stand Developed Russian 16mm scan. I thought the development was not good for this film and wanted to see where the film speed was best set for. I loaded and shot a new roll. This time...

My latest camera is a bit of a surprise being a medium format buff. You can see more info here at collection-appereils.fr  (requires translation). Minolta 16 PS It is a simple camera with 1/100s shutter speed (1/30th in flash setting) and variable aperture (f3.5 to f16) and fixed focus with a view finder. It takes 20 photos from a roll of 16mm (that's right movie) film. The small cartridges are reloadable. The one I bought did not include a film cartridge but happily I found a couple of rolls of film on ebay from Germany. One is color the other Kodak Plus-X. Both were from the 1980s. I took the roll of the black and white on a trip to London last weekend and developed it at home. These were quick snaps to burn through the film so I could reload some fresher film. I developed them as a wad of film using semi-stand development. My spiral reel cannot accept this small film so I wadded it up in the tank. (I have since found an old tank and reel that takes 16mm film.) This wor...

When my father visited us in 2007 in Bath he bought a very thoughtful gift. It was a shed about 6ftx8ft in size. He knew I liked my projects and Vicki's house did not have a garage or space for hobbies such as woodworking. I had brought over with me my hand-tools having sold or given away my power tools to friends and neighbors. I don't think my father knew of the British obsession with garden sheds and how they become sanctuaries and and expressions of personality. Mine was a simple kit that I assembled after my Dad's visit. Soon I moved in my workbench and hand-tools. I had by then acquired a router, a power planer and a cordless drill. I laboriously dug trenches to the house to bring out power for the tools, lighting, and a small heater. One of my first projects was a garden box to store the outdoor recliner pads out of the weather. Vicki's garden was huge and some ways from the house was a patio that caught the sun and a couple of recliners that were great f...