Joined: May 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 3,091 Location: Ashford, Kent, UK
Ifound some Timmins negs « Thread Started on Oct 23, 2009, 6:26pm »
Hi all,
Those of you with long service and long memories may remember I said some time ago that way back in February 1978 I went with a few other journalists to Timmins in northern Canada to cover some cold start and cold running trials by Leyland Trucks.
I thought that as it was a commissioned job all the negatives had gone to the publishers. But today I was sorting through boxes of old negs and found some from the trip that were never published. They're not, perhaps, the best of the five rolls I shot to describe what went on but I thought you might like to see some of them.
We'd been warned to expect night-time temperatures of about minus 42 or 43 degrees C and daytime shade temperatures about minus 15 to minus 18 degrees C. I'd heard stories about battery dependent cameras stopping working after about 10 minutes at minus 40 because the batteries wouldn't deliver, so I wondered what camera to take.
In the end I reasoned that as Russia made cameras to operate in similar temperatures perhaps one would be a good bet. I went to Technical and Optical Equipment in London who at that time imported all Russian cameras, and asked their advice.
I spoke with one of the Russian technichians there who said a Kiev was probably the best bet so I tried one in the shop. Then he said he would like to 'winterise' it for me. I called in about a week later and saw the same guy. When I tried the camera I was very pleased. It felt like a different camera. I won't say it was as smooth as my pre-war Contax II but it wasn't far short.
I asked what he had done and was told he'd taken it apart, cleaned out all the old Yak oil and grease (his term!), replaced a few parts that didn't fit quite as well as they should do, screwed it all back together properly the way it should have been done at the factory and relubricated it with very low temperature lubricants.
I got a bit of good natured ribbing on the plane on the way over, things like "How often do you have to trim the wick on that antique", but in the end I had the last laugh. When the other journalists' battery driven SLRs slowed down and stopped my "ancient technology" Kiev carried on without missing a beat. I was also pleased that the FP4 I was using stayed flexible at low temperatures. I used the Kiev some time later in the Sahara desert, and it coped equally well with mid-day scorching temperatures. It's still working well and smoothly 31 years later.
Anyway, here's a few of the pictures I found. If I come across any more I'll post them.
Inside the control cabin at around 3am, minus 39 degrees C. The Leyland guy is monitoring loads of sensors connected to the trucks to record things like cranking speed, time taken to start and so on. Half a second at f/2 with my elbows braced on the back of a chiar.
Same subject but I moved round a little to get what I think is a better shot.
Ready for the road trials next morning. Shade temperature about minus 12 to minus 15 degrees C.
Long cold walk. One of the guys thought he'd walk up the small hill to get a picture of the truck climbing on the ice. He had to move out of the way to let the truck past, and fell into a snowdrift up to his waist. But he did get his picture.
The plane that took us back to Toronto. No idea what make or model. The pilots who flew in and out of Timmins thought nothing of landing and taking off on an ice and snow covered airfield. So long as the snowploughs cleared enough room for them they were happy. I suppose they were used to it.
Re: Ifound some Timmins negs « Reply #1 on Oct 23, 2009, 7:54pm »
I have to say those are some sharp well done negs by the looks of them and you can hand hold a camera very well to boot. Not too much wrong with a properly serviced Kiev even today. What lens was on that Kiev? The outdoor scenes are all too familiar. That is a Dehaviland Canada DCH-6 Twin Otter belonging to the old NorOnt Air.
Joined: May 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 3,091 Location: Ashford, Kent, UK
Re: Ifound some Timmins negs « Reply #3 on Oct 24, 2009, 8:33am »
Thanks, Bob and Mickey.
I guessed someone would identify the plane. Nice plane as I remember it, smooth and quite quiet inside.
The lens on the Kiev is the standard 50mm f/2 Jupiter 8M, based on the pre-war Zeiss Sonnar but with later 'rare earth' glass. I never got any other lenses for it.
Exposures were judged by reflected light using a Leningrad selenium cell meter and adjusted at times by a spot of guesstimation depending on the subject. The FP4 was rated at 200 ASA and developed in my standard B&W brew of ID11, full strength for nine and a half minutes. I found this combination hard to beat for fine grain with good gradation.
Re: Ifound some Timmins negs « Reply #4 on Oct 24, 2009, 12:21pm »
I can see why you never got another lens, that Jupiter 50/2 is plenty good. Couple that with your metering and development skills and you get great B&W shots. Wish I had developed those skills. Like most all DHC planes they are great and still doing well today. They are smooth and quiet but doing an over 6 hr SAR sortie in a military one with no W/C leaves a little to be desired.
Joined: May 2005 Gender: Male Posts: 3,091 Location: Ashford, Kent, UK
Re: Ifound some Timmins negs « Reply #5 on Oct 24, 2009, 5:17pm »
Quote:
Couple that with your metering and development skills and you get great B&W shots. Wish I had developed those skills.
They aren't rocket science skills, Bob, give them a try. They'll soon become second nature.
Most people these days seem to have forgotten how to use a hand-held meter.
Hand-held meters aren't very fast to use compared with TTL metering, but if the camera hasn't got TTL you can't use it. I'm not fond of non-TTL meters built into cameras. To me they're a hand-held meter with a camera hanging on it.
I've got quite a few hand-held meters in my collection, selenium and CdS but the CdS ones were made to take mercury batteries and they're not very accurate on silver oxide. I've had a couple of Westons, which I liked, but two of the most reliable and long-lasting are both selenium, a Russian Leningrad 4 and a Zeiss Ikon Ikophot.
I prefer to use reflected light rather than incident light. The secret is to get close your main subject if you can, and meter off that. If you can't get close, meter off something as near the same brightness as you can, and in the same lighting, either sunshine or shadow. I've metered off concrete and black asphalt roads, my own jacket or slacks, anything. If you can't find something the same brightness choose something as close to it as you can and then adjust the reading by plus or minus a stop or half a stop. For general scenes take a reading off the back of your hand or off green grass. I find either gives a good general exposure.
Not hard to master, but snowscapes are notoriously awkward. This where you have to some guesstimation. With snow in particular you have to give less exposure than the meter might suggest or the snow is over exposed and you lose all the detail in it. The same applies, though not so much, with beach scenes and seascapes. Only experience ca teach you that.
I haven't mentioned the well-known "Sunny 16" rule. I know some people like it but for me it requires too much guesstimation adjustment for anything but general scenics in bright sunlight. You can't use it on overcast days.
With developing, black and white film is very forgiving. Plus or minus half a minute or so in the developer, or plus a degree or so (never minus) developer temperature doesn't make a lot of difference despite what the books tell you.
When I was using black and white a lot I decided to standardise. I chose FP4 as a good all-round medium speed film. I tried all sorts of developing brews but settled on the old and time-tested Ilford ID 11 (much the same as Kodak's D76), used full strength and used once only. I used a tall metal tank with centre-loading spirals, which I like, that took three films at a time. My standard developing time was nine and a half minutes at 20 degrees C, slightly more than Ilford and Kodak suggest.
I used a stop bath with an indicator in it which turned it yellow when it was exhausted, and Ilford's Rapid Fix.
Most important for negative lasting qualities is thorough washing followed by a final rinse with a few drops of wetting agent to give even drying with no water spots. I've got B&W negs I developed nearly 60 years ago and they're still as good as the day they were made.
Oh, I almost forgot. You'll need some clips to hang the film up to dry. You can use "Bulldog" type clips intended for paper but they soon rust. I've got some Kodak stainless clips that are lead weighted to kep the film hanging straight. A 36 exposure 35mm film is 64 1/2 inches total length. Cut off the tapered leader and a bit off the tail, but add the length of the cips and you need at least 5ft 6in to 6ft to hang it up. Make sure you've got room to hang it and a hook ready before you start wandering around holding a wet film above your head looking for somewhere to hang it.
I tried developing colour print film but the chemicals had a short life once they were mixed, and it was cheaper to have the film developed by a local one-hour place.
I do very little film photography these days, it's getting too expensive compared to digital but occasionally - about three or four times a year - I get a hankering to try out a "new" collectable camera or exercise one of my older ones. I've got a good stock of film left and I still do my own B&W developing but I put the colour print film out to a local one-hour guy that does an excellent job at a reasonable price.
As I said, give it a go. The equipment won't cost the earth. You can pick up a good selenium hand-held meter very cheaply because so few people use them. Don't wory if it's a stop or so out compared with a later TTL meter as long as it's consistent. You can allow by adjusting the ASA or ISO speed setting.
You can also find a developing tank cheaply, and a decent mercury thermometer isn't expensive. You'll also need something like a crown cork (crimped-on beer bottle top) to open today's crimped-together cassettes, and a changing bag or changing box to load the tank. Also a pair of small scissors to cut the end of the film square.
Have a few dry runs in the light with an old piece of film till you can cut the end square and load the tank with your eyes shut.
I used to buy cut-price B&W film online in pro-packs of 10. Don't worry too much if it's close-date or even a little out of date. I've used B&W film up to 18 months out of date and not noticed any ill effects. I keep colour film in a small fridge, but don't bother with B&W. It doesn't seem to matter.
Don't believe camera fair and flea market dealers who tell you all these things are now collector's items. They aren't - except for photograhic museums and odd-balls like me who like to collect all sorts of photophernalia. BTW I believe I was the first to coin that word some years ago from photographic paraphernalia but I see it's slowly starting to come into general use.
Don't bother with books on developing. They go into all sorts of technicalities like characteristic curves, grain edge clumping and so on, largely I feel to impress the reader with how much the author knows.
You're the boss, not the film. Keep it simple and consistent. Find a method that gives you good results and stay with it.
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