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Roe Lee Park Pavilion - Pracktica MTL3.
Ilfodata B, ASA 25, f16. Developed in Rodinol1:300, 30 minutes
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A while ago I was given a box of old photography junk. Most people would have thrown it away but I
had a rumage through it and found some useful stuff. Some I'm actually using! A couple of old bakelite 35mm developing
tanks, bits of measuring stuff, some reusable 35mm film canisters (for hand
rolling. Film not tobacco!) and a couple
of rolls of Ilford HP5+; all good usable stuff.
There was also a sealed tin with white tape round it. On the tin it was marked Ilfodata B made by
Ilford. If what was on the tin was
right, this was 100ft of 35mm film.
Guess what? I was quite excited!
Off in to the reading room, I mean darkroom, I mean bathroom
(it's multi-functional!). I shut the
door and carefully opened the tin and sure enough, there in the dark, I could
feel a roll of film!!! So I snipped a
bit off and rolled a short length. I
gave this to Bob to have a play with.
He's more experienced than me with weird stuff.
After searching the internet we could not find any
information on this. We found one
article on Ilfodata HS something or other which was made by Ilford for copying
documents. We had an inkling that the
film we have is for something similar.
So we were still in the same boat. We had absolutely no information about this
film; what it’s ASA (ISO) rating was, how to shoot with it or even how to
process it. Bob thought it might be ‘contrasty’
with being a document film but also thought that the developer pyrocat would
sort it out.
Assuming that this was the last 100ft of this film in existence
(that we know of. There is none on eBay
or in of the places where we know to get weird stuff from) we thought we should
contact Ilford and see what information they held.
They basically knew as much as we did. They thought it was manufactured somewhere in
the 1970’s (which we gathered from the design on the tin) and suggested an
Ilford developer that we probably wouldn’t use anyway.
So back to square one!
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| Pracktica MTL3 with Pinhole lens on. |
This weekend I decided to bite the bullet and shoot a little
bit and try developing it. I have to
admit, my knowledge of handling film is limited but I am learning all the
time. Back when I shot film, I mostly
shot colour and sent it to a lab. I
dabbled a bit with processing black and white but didn’t go beyond a couple of
rolls. So, I’m on a learning curve of
chemicals, techniques and working in the dark!
It’s fun. I mean really fun!
Friday night I rolled enough film to shoot five frames. I had the idea that I would try shooting with
a 35mm pinhole again.
Come Saturday morning I nipped down to Roe Lee Park to shoot
the pavilion there. It has sort of
become my test subject!
I shot one frame with my 50mm lens at ASA25, f16, couldn’t
tell you the shutter speed but I think it’s around 1 second maybe ½. I then shot one at 5 seconds to try and take
in account reciprocity. I then changed
the lens and put a 43mm pinhole lens on and finally a 75mm pinhole.
During the evening, I re-read the article on the HS and one
thing jumped out at me. The author had
said that the film was similar to Kodak Technical Pan. I went on Massive Dev Chart and look up
Technical Pan Developing times. At least
I would have a starting point and could mess with development on the results of
this short length. I’d nothing to lose. There sure enough was Rodinol, 1:300 for
rating ASA25. Excellent. I could do this. I mixed up the chemical and began the
process. 40 minutes later and I was on
the final wash. A bit nervous I peel the
film off the reel.
Wow, was my response.
The photograph made with the lens on was stunning. I could see every tile, every mortar joint in
the building. The negative look
gorgeous.
The pinhole isn’t quite
right but it’s getting there! These are
scans of the negative. For some reason
the scanner has cropped the top of the building off on but it gives an
idea. The neg is so much better though!
The other night I decided to revisit some shots that I took at Widdop the other week. There is nothing wrong with the original shot. In fact, I actually like it. What I was interested in doing was trying to see if I could emulate a pinhole camera using Photoshop.
