Monthly Archives: March 2024

More old skool..

by in Analog, Retro | Leave a comment

Having not been used for years, probably sometime back in the 1980s, I decided that I would get my old Lunasix light meter working again, I was slightly surprised to find a pair of PX625 batteries in the thing & even more surprised that a) it worked & b) the batteries hadn’t leaked. I threw them out anyway & ordered a battery replacement, only you can’t order the old PX625 batteries anymore as they contained Mercury & were banned back in 2000ish. Some quick research revealed that Gossen had produced an adaptor to use modern 1.5v batteries, with a voltage regulator diode to bring the voltage down to the required 2.7v.

The only time I generally use a meter is in the studio, however shooting with some old 35mm film cameras I may sling it in the Domke and use it.

Love these old clocks

by in Analog, Darkroom, Retro | Leave a comment

I have acquired a number of these old Smiths darkroom timers over the past year or so, mostly for free & the most expensive one was £12 plus postage. All of them worked, to varying degrees, all needed deep cleaning & some required the plastic clock front machine polished to remove scratches and chemical stains.

Some required a chemical dip to remove years of grime, and all of them required a re-lubrication of the mechanicals to get them to run for more than a few seconds. Fortunately these clocks are quite simple and dismantling cleaning and lubrication only takes half an hour, the cleaning of the cases usually takes considerably longer. Some have even required the application of wet & dry. My aim is not to make these like new, I prefer them to wear their battle scars earned through years of use. Even the newest ones of these are over 40 years old.

It may be Spring….

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It may be Spring….but fook it was miserable yesterday, anyways a regular client wanted photographs and was prepared to pay so who am I to argue? Day started promisingly enough, but by 0900hrs it was raining, by 1100hrs it was blowing a gale, pretty miserable in the middle of an airfield with zero shelter. To fill in some time during a lull in the action, I got some film cameras out & did some old school processing & printing today.

I have to say that I am really loving the new Ilfolab 1250RC, absolutely glossy dry prints in seconds.

Wet outside…..becoming warm & dry later

by in Darkroom, Photographic Equipment, Retro | Leave a comment

Awful 400 mile round trip to Derbyshire yesterday, but the end result was worth it. I have wanted an Ilford print dryer for years, I originally had a Polysales RC print dryer back in the day, which was adequate, from memory it could dry 6 12″x16″ prints at a time. But I always hankered for a proper print dryer.

Anyway, this one had been advertised on Facebook market place for quite a few weeks, so I made a low ball offer & went to see it. For the price I’d offered it was always going to be coming with me. Now installed in the darkroom & it has been tested & found to be working perfectly. Happy days.

It was supplied complete with the original Ilford Wet Tray, Print Receive Tray & instructions.