Weblog Entry - 07/21/2003: "learning from flops"

It was a long day in some ways and too short in others. Yesterday's trip to the falls for some pinhole fun wasn't my most productive in terms of number of shots but I may finally be on the right track with using Maco 820c IR in a pinhole camera. I'm still underexposing them by a good bit and will have to increase the allowance for reciprocity failure but I am getting much closer to an acceptable development method. My exposure times yesterday ranged from 5 minutes up to 20 minutes, which meant a good part of my time was spent standing around and waiting for the image to slowly build. Since I had so few shots, I took a gamble and developed them along with my Arista 125 in Rodinal at 1:100 for about 21 minutes. It seems to have worked out okay but I'll know more when I hit the darkroom tomorrow and try to print a few.

I still have to develop a roll of Ilford Delta 100 in 120 which I ran through my pinHolga v3.0. The bellows on an old folder camera scored from eBay was anything but light-tight, so I salvaged the shutter, removed the lens and installed a pinhole. The shutter has both a "B" and a "T" setting, making it almost perfect for pinhole exposures with slow film. If it had a cable release, life would be sweet. The pinClack has one, so I guess I am in good shape in the camera arsenal, with more toys than I can play with in one day.

The slow speed of the Maco 820c IR film has me a little frustrated. You know how I love IR, you know I love pinhole, so it seems logical that I'd want to combine them. I had one of those "forehead thwacking" moments this morning which may provide a partial solution.

Problem: Kodak's HIE is only available in 35mm, Maco's 820 is available in 120 but is too slow. I have several 120 roll film cameras converted to pinhole.

Solution: Use the 35mm Kodak in the pinHolga. There are a couple of ways to do it, both simple and complex. The wide frame panoramic results could be quite interesting. I'm thinking it might be wise to wrap the pinHolga in aluminum foil, just because I don't trust the plastic body to be IR proof. Wouldn't need to worry about that with the metal bodied ArgopinFlex and the pinClack could be even more interesting with a 9 cm wide frame.