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My struggle to get good results with the 1960s Ferrania negative stock continues. As mentioned in the previous post, my first try with Perceptol is a vast improvement over Rodinal, but there's still work to be done. The Rodinal results were awful, whereas the Perceptol result is much better but still too grainy, despite it being known as a very fine grain developer. I have to accept, I think, that the fault lies in the stock itself, not the developing methods, but presumably things can still be improved further with experimentation.
For the record then, this was shot with a Pathe B camera, using the standard lens, and 2 push on lenses, a 0.5m portrait lens and a 1m. These were my grandfather's and came with his camera, which he bought in the 1930s.
The film was bucket developed in 250ml Stock Perceptol + 750ml water. 20 degrees, for 18 minutes, agitation for 30 seconds, then mild moving of the film in the bucket for around 10 seconds each minute. This method has avoided the uneven development seen with the semi-stand Rodinal tests.
1+3 dilution is said to give more grain than stock, so I'll try that next, but for a 30 foot film you really need 2 litres of developer, so it could get quite expensive. 1+3 produces has a compensating effect, so the shadows develop more and contrast is reduced. Again, developing in stock solution should improve things by increasing contrast.
This test film is only around 11 feet of film, so at 42 frames per foot, that's er... around 460 frames photographed with DIY telecine.
The detail in the tape measure at the end shows the resolution of the images, which is quite good I think, and the push on lenses produce far sharper images than I expected.
Thank you to my wife, who agreed to be the talking head. "Talk and move about please" I said, and she did a fine job!
In case you're wondering what the word she keeps repeating is, it's "hola" (she Venezuelan)
Edit:The video plays at a much higher quality on my PC and Tablet when accessed from the link directly, rather than viewed embedded within the post:
https://youtu.be/BU4WnFjgoqU
For the record then, this was shot with a Pathe B camera, using the standard lens, and 2 push on lenses, a 0.5m portrait lens and a 1m. These were my grandfather's and came with his camera, which he bought in the 1930s.
The film was bucket developed in 250ml Stock Perceptol + 750ml water. 20 degrees, for 18 minutes, agitation for 30 seconds, then mild moving of the film in the bucket for around 10 seconds each minute. This method has avoided the uneven development seen with the semi-stand Rodinal tests.
1+3 dilution is said to give more grain than stock, so I'll try that next, but for a 30 foot film you really need 2 litres of developer, so it could get quite expensive. 1+3 produces has a compensating effect, so the shadows develop more and contrast is reduced. Again, developing in stock solution should improve things by increasing contrast.
This test film is only around 11 feet of film, so at 42 frames per foot, that's er... around 460 frames photographed with DIY telecine.
The detail in the tape measure at the end shows the resolution of the images, which is quite good I think, and the push on lenses produce far sharper images than I expected.
Thank you to my wife, who agreed to be the talking head. "Talk and move about please" I said, and she did a fine job!
In case you're wondering what the word she keeps repeating is, it's "hola" (she Venezuelan)
Edit:The video plays at a much higher quality on my PC and Tablet when accessed from the link directly, rather than viewed embedded within the post:
https://youtu.be/BU4WnFjgoqU