Medium-format photography adventures!

Friday, 4/20: I receive the camera that I bought from eBay: a Mamiya 645 1000s with 80mm f/2.8 lens. The seller threw in a couple rolls of expired (2007) black-and-white film (Ilford Delta 100).

I find an instructional video that helps me load the film for the first time and shoot the roll (15 exposures) over the rest of the day. The camera is 3 pounds of boxiness with no handle or strap.

Sunday, 4/22: Pasadena bargain camera show! I get a fairly complete film processing setup (developer tank, thermometer, graduated cylinders, storage bottles) for $5. But then I see a better tank (Paterson Universal System with 2 reels and a force washer) and get that, too.

I also get a camera bag ($8). This makes me much happier about my life.

I trek over to Freestyle Photographic Supplies to get chemicals, but it turns out they're closed Sundays. I go to Samy's Camera instead. Their staff is eager to help but quite uninformed. I end up with a small packet of Kodak D-76 developer powder (enough for 4 rolls at 1:1 dilution), a lifetime supply of stop bath, and a decent amount of fixer. $25 total.

I try to do some real work, but daydreaming about developing the film gets too distracting and I eventually succumb. Here is the procedure. Scanned results below:

Medium format experimentation

Some favorites from the album:

Initial impressions:

• Black-and-white deals with lighting contrast much better than color film. Shooting slides taught me to avoid direct midday sun, but with this film you can actually make out details in the shadows.
• Colorful subjects...aren't. Red → black, blue → white. Texture becomes much more pronounced, though, and geometric shapes (like buildings) are surprisingly interesting.
• I can't really say I notice better detail in the larger format, but the negatives are nicer to look at. Also, my scans from the library's flatbeds are at least as good as the 35mm scans that I send out for.

Tuesday, 4/24: 

I'd shot a roll of color film (Kodak Ektar 100) on Saturday and I got that developed today. Scanned it at the library. They're in the album. I converted some of those to grayscale (just using the mean of RGB) and it's interesting to compare them to the ones shot in black-and-white.

Also, color negatives are hard to scan! I just could not get the color to come out right. Maybe the scanner has some secret mode that I couldn't figure out.