Yashica Mat 124 + 400TX = Fun

[cooltouch]

This past Saturday, some friends of mine and I packed up our photo gear and headed south to Galveston, which is on the Gulf Coast. It was a beautiful clear day, but rather windy and cold down in Galveston. Just about perfect weather for me.

This event was what we like to call a "Film Crawl," which means that we pack film cameras, and we take our time photographing the subjects we come across. We'll usually bring along a digital or two, most often used just to sort of document what we're doing that day.

So I packed my Bronica ETRSi, Canon FD gear, Nikon gear, and my Yashica Mat 124. I was shooting color slide film in the Bronica and Canon -- the Nikons never came out of their bag, unfortunately -- and Tri-X Professional 400TX in the Yashica Mat. Since I'll be sending the slides off, it'll be a while before I'll have anything to show in that regard. But I developed the Tri-X last night, and scanned the roll today.

Here are a few from the roll:

My friend Lee setting up his Shen-Hao 5x7. In the background is an old, long-abandoned cotton press.




I'm guessing somewhere between 50 to 80 tons of forged steel. The structure is about three stories tall.


Some Civil War era muskets (reproductions, actually)




We hadn't planned it this way, but we found out after we arrived in Galveston that there was going to be a Civil War battle re-enactment there later that afternoon. We visited both side's encampments before the staged battle and took some photos. The above two photos were taken at the Union encampment. As the battle raged, we were burning through rolls of film. I happened to have my Bronica in my hands when it suddenly moved close to where I was sitting, minding my own business, changing lenses, and as they began firing, I got out of there and used the Bronica to record the mock battle. Photos of that I'll share once I get them back from the developer.

Anyway, back to the B&W images, I developed them in Kodak D-76, using a 1:1 solution. This is the first time I've ever developed b&w using 1:1, and I don't know if I care for it as much as developing full-strength. The contrast is sharper, and the grain is more pronounced. When I develop full strength, the grain is finer and there seems to be a greater midrange tonality than what I get with 1:1. Still, I can see where the higher contrast would be nice. Just wasn't what I was expecting.

The images were scanned at 2400 ppi on my Epson 4990 scanner. I then spent way too much time getting rid of the dust spots post-production, but, other than cropping, that was the extent of the image editing I did. No additional sharpening is necessary with that Yashinon lens.

If you would like to see some more photos of the film crawl, go here and scroll down a bit:

http://www.texasphotoforum.com/forum/houston/135259-next-houston-film-crawl-2.html

[greg]

Very enjoyable series. I always rate fun higher than actual results, otherwise it is a job.

[F16SUNSHINE]

Interesting contraption Mike. I've never seen one up close before.
Sounds like a fun day. I just returned from a film crawl of my own (and dog) and hope to post something later.
One suggestion on the developer as you used it. Try less agitations.
The highlights and higher mid-tones will stay together better if the developer is not replenished as they exhaust it.
Highlights develop much more quickly than lower values. As a result they will exhaust the developer quicker. Agitating brings new developer to the surface and can burn highlight detail.
Lower mids and shadow details exhaust developer very slowly.
As you use higher ratio reductions and the resulting longer development times... it seems agitation becomes more and more of a deal maker or breaker.
Sunny scenes need little agitation compared to darker low light scenes.
Probably you know but now it's out their for everyone.

[cooltouch]

Actually, I didn't know this, and I appreciate your sharing the info. So if I may follow up on your comment then:

For agitation, I began by rapping the bottom of the tank sharply on the sink two or three times, then inverted the tank maybe 3 or 4 times. Then, for the rest of the developing time, I was inverting the tank about 4 times every 30 seconds or so. The 4-time inversion cycle is fairly brisk, lasting about 5 or 6 seconds.

I'm using a largish Paterson tank -- the one that will hold two rolls of 120 -- filled to 500ml. I followed the directions that Kodak has on the D-76 envelope as well as its literature for the 400TX film: 9-3/4 minutes at 68F (20C, right?). In the literature they just describe agitation at 30 second intervals.

So, what sort of agitation technique would you recommend?