Stand development, one year later

Darkroom · 9 min read

I started stand developing out of laziness: one bottle of diluted developer, one agitation at the start, another at the halfway mark, and an hour to do something else. A year and roughly forty rolls later, here is what actually changed in my negatives.

The good part is predictable highlights. Even badly overexposed frames from a sunny beach kept detail in the sky. The bad part is bromide drag along the sprocket holes, which showed up on about one roll in eight until I switched to gentle inversions instead of tapping the tank.

Scanning negatives with a camera and a cheap light pad

Scanning · 6 min read

A dedicated scanner is lovely, but a macro lens, a copy stand and a uniform light source get surprisingly close. The two things that matter most are flatness of the negative and a light pad with a high colour rendering index. Everything else is software.

Notes on a 1970s rangefinder

Cameras · 4 min read

The meter was dead, the seals had turned to tar and the rangefinder patch was barely visible. Two evenings, some foam and a cotton swab later it is my favourite walk-around camera. A short list of what to check before buying one.