This looks as good a place to start as any

[Kenneth Cooke]

I am a 35mm rangefinder system user who uses only B&W film stock nowadays due to the sad demise of my beloved Kodachrome II. I process all my work at home in my cellar. I look forward to some enlightening exchanges on all aspects of film photography with other interested parties

[Axle]

Sweet welcome aboard! I recently just started doing developing myself, however currently the only place I can is a couple hours drive for me.

I do like 35mm, however I'm becoming more of a 120 fan.

[Kenneth Cooke]

Sweet welcome aboard! I recently just started doing developing myself, however currently the only place I can is a couple hours drive for me.

I do like 35mm, however I'm becoming more of a 120 fan.

Thank you for the welcome. I have, in fact done my own B&W processing since the late 60's but for many years concentrated on colour reversal photographing mainly mountain landscape and climbing.

I have always used 35mm apart from a brief time when I used 6 X 6 but I much prefer 35mm format and the convenience it gives me. I use Leica M6's exclusively and find that Summicron lenses give me all the sharpness, contrast, resolution and image presence I need. I also use a Leitz Focomat 50mm enlarging lens in my Durst 670 Colour Head enlarger which I find comparable to the Rodenstock Rodagon 50mm 2.8 which I use sometime. I print B&W exclusively on both RC and FB Multigrade papers from Ilford which I can grade with my colour head.

I don't know what system you use but you might consider upgrading within 35mm before stepping out of that format into an area that might not fulfill your expectations.

[Axle]

Leica eh, fancy..

I don't know what system you use but you might consider upgrading within 35mm before stepping out of that format into an area that might not fulfill your expectations.

For 120 I use a Yashica-12 or a Rolleiflex Planner 2.8 F. In 35mm I use a Nikon F3 or F80.

[drg]

Welcome to Photography Review!

The last few film users need a place to gather!

I'm only intermittently using film any more though I do still enjoy it for some applications.

Many of our members like the Medium Format for ease of handling in the post processing realm and the need for less enlargement to get the size of print they'd like to mount.

You have a very good setup for enlargement it sounds and some history doing it. We'll look forward to your posting some photographs! There's a Kodachrome link or two (at least one of which I started) to show off the 'old good stuff' one last time!

There are several ongoing discussion about post processing and combination's of developers, printing papers and techniques to help newcomers find possible solutions. Any experiences you have would be welcome additions to those posts!

Again, Welcome the PR!

[Kenneth Cooke]

Just had a really good day in the red light area printing a couple of rolls, one Rollei Retro 100 which in it's previous life used to be Agfa AXP100. It really prints well on grade 2 across the range but I did print some snowy church graveyard images which suited grade 3-1/2 better.

The other roll was Kodak T-Max 400. Now I have been a Tri-X 400 fan for years and I find T-Max takes a little getting used to. Lack of grain being something I am not used to and quite frankly I do miss it.

Due to the lack of grain with T-Max I invested in a s/h Peak 2000 enlargement viewer this week which is really very useful and allows you to see edge to edge sharpness providing that is the image was sharp to begin with.

My other must buy for anyone who is having difficulty loading film spirals is AP Photographic of Spain. They make Paterson clones but have improved on them by including a flange on each side of the spiral to help guide the film into the bearings. I have used Paterson Tanks for 40 years but due to a disability brought on by a couple of stroke I now find it very difficult to control the loading process. Enter AP spirals this has solved the problem and they are only £3.00GBP each and fit existing tanks