Re: [pinhole-discussion] Re: Pinhole-Discussion digest, Vol 1 #887 - 15 msgs

[ednaz]

Stunned at how much it ended up costing 
outside the US.  My wife bought mine for me 
as a gift for $75; basically it has ended up 
being a way of getting the film holder, a few 
ready-made pinholes, a pattern for more 
cardboard replicas for myself  as it turned out
(I had an ice-laden tree limb fall on my original 
one and crush it during a long exposure so I 
ended up building a new one) and for 
measuring distances and dimensions to build a 
hardwood version.  The camera as it shipped 
produced an image sharper than almost any 
pinhole image I've ever seen - and as a 
pinhole dilettante, I'm more interested in the 
effects I get for the work I'm doing than I am 
in the process of building cameras.

Try the 689 film to avoid acute cyan, it really 
does work well.  I also have found that if 
you're doing Polaroid transfers from the 
pinhole camera exposures (Pol transfers 
require 669 film) the natural red/yellow-shift in 
the emulsion layer balances off against the 
cyan cast - it's almost helpful.

MARK POWER wrote:
 
 If you don't mind me asking, how much did 
your camera cost?  Going by 
 past experience, I suspect it's not cheap.  
I've often found cyan 
 tingeing a problem with Polaroid film.  As for 
brass shim, I've used 
 ordinary tin foil and had excellent results.  
Cheaper than brass and 
 in keeping with the spirit of pinhole improv! 
Regards,
 Mark in the UK
 

Total cost was astronomical :-)  The camera 
was $99 in freestylephoto, 
only way they shipped international was by 
fedex +$72 and as it came 
outside EU +$35 taxes. I couldn't find anybody 
selling it in the EU. I'm 
thinking now of using just the film holder and 
for that purpose, as used 
polaroid 405 holder I saw here in Finland was 
220€  and as I ordered 
film and other things, the total shipping per 
item isn't too bad. That 
gives me another question: What's the speed 
in ISO of aph ortho film? 
Diluted Neutol should be ok for continuous 
tone, but what is the 
dilution and developing time approximately?

thanks

-matti

RE: [pinhole-discussion] polaroid pinhole kit

[ednaz]

To all your questions:

1)  The tripod mound REALLY sucks.  I 
wrapped black electrical tape around the 
camera and around the mount.  It's now solid 
enough that I can do horizontal or vertical 
images.  It's ugly, but hey, it's a cardboard box 
to begin with.

2)  Fuji's FP100 will work in it, I've shot it.  It 
won't solve the film loading error problem, 
that's just a matter of getting used to the 
weirdness (or should I say unique features) 
of Polaroid film.  Learning to pull the film out in 
a way that doesn't give you a white triangle of 
blank at the corner of the image is another 
skill that you will find yourself striving to 
master.  It's fussy, no matter what kind of film 
you use.

3)  I wish I understood why they package 669 
with the camera when it's the worst film for 
reciprocity failure.  The 689 film is fantastic  
and I strongly recommend using it - the 
increased color saturation helps a lot, and 
reciprocity failure doesn’t really start to show 
up until you get into the 30 second exposure 
range - I've gotten good color up to 15 second 
exposures.  Take your 669 images into 
photoshop and use the eyedropper tool in 
levels - you'll yield a very quaint 1950's Kodak 
color film look.  Some of the newer Kodak color 
films have a lot less reciprocity failure, they 
say.  I've used black and white, even the 3000 
speed stuff indoors and in dark blizzard 
conditions.  Any Polaroid film will work.  In my 
opinion 669 is the worst possible choice, 
reciprocity failure sets in around 1/10 of a 
second.

And finally, developing time is very sensitive to 
temperature.

_
___
Ed Nazarko
 
-Original Message-
From: pinhole-discussion-admin@p at ??? 
[mailto:pinhole-discussion-
admin@p at ???] On Behalf Of Matti 
Koskinen
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2003 11:45 AM
To: pinhole-discussion@p at ???
Subject: [pinhole-discussion] polaroid pinhole 
kit

hi all,

today I received my Polaroid pinhole kit and 
sort of managed to put it 
together. The tripod mount sucks, first of all in 
the package was so 
little bit of sponge tape that it never held the 
camera, I bought some 
more, but still the tripod mount is unusable. 
Here's so windy that the 
camera moves so much, that the pictures I 
finally got, are all too bad.
I'd like to know how others have got the 
tripod mount rigid?

Another problem was loading the film. I have 
never loaded earlier 669 
type film and so I ruined four first photos. 
Luckily with the kit came 
another film pack, yesterday I tried to locate 
Polaroid pack film here 
in my home town, but it seems no shop has it 
for sale, only for their 
own passport cameras. Does the kit's holder 
accept Fuji FP-100 film?

Then after getting the film loaded correctly, 
the photos are very 
bluish. They look otherwise ok (exposure) but 
colors are badly off. 
Polaroid says long exposures may cause this, 
but mine were about 5 secs 
all and development 1 minute.

All information urgently needed.

TIA

-matti