Measure Light – The quest for a light meter for analogue photography – Part One

Light Meter
Light meter with a FTDI USB – Serial Interface for sw development

I love analogue photography, even more when it’s with fully mechanical medium format cameras, such as the Flexaret Automat VII, and the Hasselblad 500c.

However, where are some situations where the correct exposure is difficult to determine. On such cases, one could use a second camera for TTL metering (such as DSLR), a phone app…or a light meter.

On my location, an new sektronick light meter price varies from 109 € to 600 € depending on the model. On ebay you could get an used, cheaper , vintage light meter, but your mileage might vary.

So since the price and availability of light meters were not to my liking, I’ve decided to build my own from scratch, based on an arduino board, with some help of Pedro Virtebo, at Maquinas de Outros Tempos.

Bear in mind this is not the first or last time anyone has done something similar, a simple google search show a ton of similar projects, with different levels of polish. But just implementing these would not give me enough understanding of how a light meter works.

Continue reading “Measure Light – The quest for a light meter for analogue photography – Part One”

My next step into Analogue Photography : My Darkroom – Part 2

Although the darkroom was functional, there were some issues when using it :

  • The chemicals and trays were not stored near the darkroom desk (and therefore increases the setup time before I can do a single enlargement).
  • Spills would go strait into the wood bench, and the workbench was not waterproof.
  • Safe light position was sub optimal : it did not illuminate the trays properly, since the LED strip was laid on top of the workbench.

Renovations

My (late 2018) darkroom prior to renovation.
Darkroom after renovation
Darkroom after renovation

Darkroom after renovation , with the safe light on.
Continue reading “My next step into Analogue Photography : My Darkroom – Part 2”

My next step into Analogue Photography : My Darkroom – Part 1

Introduction

My current (late 2018) darkroom.

3 years ago, on 2015,  I’ve decided to experiment with analogue photography after I got comfortable with digital photography. And I had a simple plan, although without an explicit timeline :

  1. Get into a pin hole photography workshop to see if I really liked the analogue process, before committing more resources into it.
  2. Get started into B&W photography. I chose medium format because I liked the negative size (6×6).
  3. Learn how to develop my own B&W film at home.

Note that in processes that require some investment in tools or equipment such as developer tanks, trays, chemicals, enlargers, etc  I prefer to take a workshop first before buying any equipment, should I decide that my time and resources should be spent elsewhere.

However, after becoming comfortable with developing my own B&W film, it only became obvious what the next step should be : printing.

After taking a workshop on B&W printing, I’ve decided to setup my own darkroom.

My Darkroom

Darkroom, right before use, with the chemicals already on the trays

After deciding to make my own darkroom, several questions had to be answered before investing time and money (and its nothing new for someone who is looking into building one):

  • Location
    • Must be easy to be made light tight
    • Must have room for the enlarger to be permanently assembled
    • Must have room to have 3 trays + assorted materials for enlargements
  • Equipment (Bare minimum)
    • An enlarger
      • capable of handling 6×6 negatives
      • capable of handling contrast filters
    • Safe light
    • 3 Trays
    • Bottles to keep the prepared solutions ready for use.

Thankfully, my garage workshop had the space and was easy to be made light tight without much effort (only 1 small window, a vent and a door), with enough room to spare.

 

Materials / Tools

Supplies used. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain them locally.

Some of the equipment, such as the trays and RC paper, I’ve already had from my pinhole experiments.

However, the enlarger had to be sourced from a store 50 Kms away – I was unable to source it locally.
The multigrade filters was also purchased from the same store.

I was able to source an Meopta Opemus 6 enlarger, with an 80mm lens.
The Enlarger was in a very good state (it was brought a trusty store). With a bit of maintenance, it got even better.

Opemus 6 (minus the head) under maintenance : the condenser was disassembled for cleaning. Metal rails were cleaned and lubricated.

As for the safe light, I sourced a RGB Led strip locally. So far, when set to red, no fogging was observed on the enlargements.

RGB led strip being used as a safe light.  

I’m still lacking some equipment, that although it is not crucial, it will make my life easier :

  • An easel.
  • A focus finder.
  • An timer for the enlarger (probably going to build my own).

For the time being, for the first darkroom, although usable, there is still some more work such as :

  • Better separation between the dark and wet areas.
  • The enlarger should be enclosed, probable with a curtain
  • Forced ventilation must be implemented. 

To be continued…..

My first steps into Film Photography (part 1)

Intro

For quite a while, since I began to feel more comfortable with using my DSLR on manual mode,  I had the desire to get into film photography of a while, being pinhole photography the first milestone.

However, for me to deal with film photography, the only practical choices  were 35mm film or 120 film, in regards to availability. My main choice was 120mm due to the fact that the negatives are larger, making it more practical to handle and to make contact prints in the future. The unfortunate side effect is that it is harder to load into the film spiral during film development preparation. And, of course, way less exposures per roll than 35mm film. Another point to consider is camera price. A 120 film camera is, in general, more expensive that a 35mm camera.

Camera Choice

My budget for the camera was set to 120€. In one hand I could get a Holga 120N pretty cheap and call it a day. Lets just say I quickly changed my mind.
The other choice was to get a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera. But due to most if the cameras on my price range being used cameras (and 100% mechanical), I was wary of getting then on ebay, therefore I’ve decided to source the camera locally, at a store that could sell me a clean and tested camera. Unfortunately such stores are 50Km away, in a neighboring town.

Flexaret VII Automat TLR
Flexaret VII Automat TLR

The camera that fulfilled my criteria without looking like a dug up, rusty fossil, or a plastic toy was the flexaret VII automat.
On paper, 1/500 sec maximum shutter speed sounds quite nice, but it also means that the camera uses a more complex leaf shutter design.

Continue reading “My first steps into Film Photography (part 1)”

Pinhole Photography Experiments.

After being in a workshop on pinhole photography (held at offo, in Aveiro), and getting a grasp of the development process, it was time to actually start to build a simple camera, as well as to start developing its pictures.

But the initial results were not quite what I expected in terms of sharpness.

Pinhole Photography 1
Photography taken at Aveiro, during the pinhole workshop. This one is quite sharp.

Continue reading “Pinhole Photography Experiments.”