What's New at 120studio.com
2017 August 17
Thursday
Headlamps
Reminder to self here: Don't use brand-new headlamp as LED work light (use a real LED work-light instead.)
I looked at the band and said, "Wow, I already got grease on it." But then I realized it wasn't grease at all.
It was the material, melted and carbonized.
Tech; Electricity; Metal & Shop
New Article: Soldering Heavy Wires and Cables, Part II. This one has more illustrations and is more of a step-by-step procedure.
2017 August 15
Tuesday Evening
Tech: Computer
JPG Compression Oddity: The photo for the headlamps article (below) was not displaying correctly; it looked highly pixelated on my screen. I don't know if it was doing that on yours. Other 1000-pixel photos looked OK, and the original one looks OK on my screen... until it was on the web page. And there's nothing different about the code that should make it display any differently than the other 1000-pixel images.
What's also weird is that it looked OK when I tested the page to make sure it looked normal. But today it looked all pixelated. And when I re-uploaded a version with the same compression... it was pixelated in exactly the same way, as if the compression had been set extremely high. But it wasn't; that's the part that doesn't make any sense.
I think I found the problem, but I can't explain it. The exact level of compression for that particular photo was messing it up. One notch to either side and it was OK. But not on that exact setting. No idea why.
2017 August 12-13
Weekend
Tech - Electronics - Reviews
New Article: Is One of These The Best Headlamp Ever? Ah, a bit of hyperbole... or is it? There are a lot of headlamps out there with many different features, ranging all the way to thousands (yes, thousands) of lumens. However, there are a couple basic features that headlamp manufacturers quite often overlook. One of these I mentioned briefly in Shop Tips #4: Efficiency.
Check out the review!
2017 August 10
Thursday
Metal & Shop
New Article: DIY Cart Build, Part 2: Axle, Wheels, and Tires.
Many people who put together their own trailers and carts go for a MIG or flux-core welder. But if you're going to weld 1/8" metal or perhaps thicker, it's tough to surpass a stick welder. Sooner or later you'll have to weld outside, where MIG welders can run into problems because of the breeze. Stick welder, no problem.
Even this type of welder should be enough for a cart build; if you're welding 1/8"-wall tubing and you have access to a 20-amp circuit, you're all set to use 3/32" 7018. And if you don't have a 20-amp circuit, you can easily weld together a cart with 3/32" 6011.
This evening I worked on a project that involved stick welding sheet metal, and I went between 7018 and 6013 electrodes, both in 1/16". Love that 7018; the 6013 made some of the ugliest welds I've done in a while. I don't really like 6013 electrodes, but it might be more the fact that I was welding thin sheet metal. Because even the 7018 welds weren't the greatest on the sheet metal.
Maybe I'll do an article about this later.
2017 August 9
Wednesday
Audio Gear
Someone asked me recently about a Jensen XP 101 loudspeaker unit. (If he emails me back with the go-ahead, maybe I'll post the pics). I'm not familiar with the exact model, but it looks to me like the kind of loudspeaker you'd see at a fairground or something. And it looks like something from the mid-20th Century.
Actually I've got a couple questions on different pieces of audio gear; will attempt to answer them here when I can. If you guys are OK with me posting the photos you've provided.
Slide Film
I've been asked if the photo of the Fire Circle Forge used a filter. That's an interesting question, because this type of scene does have-- or produce-- some special lighting. And when you have special lighting, sometimes you want to modulate that with a filter. That one didn't make use of a filter, though. At least not for image modulation.
I don't remember how I metered it; but I am fairly certain I reasoned not to set the background as Zone 5. A scene like this, approaching dusk, should look like a scene that's approaching dusk, so you don't want it to look like bright day. On the other hand, if you meter on the brightest areas of the coals, that background would be pitch-black. So I might have used Matrix metering on that one, or I might have guesstimated somewhere between the brightest and darkest; but no filter on the lens, except (I think) a Tiffen UV Haze to protect the lens from scratches.
Film Developing
Rusty Iron Pipes, Disassembly Attempt No. 1
Kodak Tri-X 400Developed in Ilfotec DD-X
12 min. 41 sec. @ 71 degrees F
Almost full-strength Kodak Professional Fixer for Film and Paper
Eventually the rust becomes almost like a cold-weld. I wonder if anything will break it loose when it gets to this stage. Perhaps many cycles of heat expansion and contraction will help?
2017 August 6
Sunday
Lawn & Garden Cart
You may be familiar with the cheap cart and all the work I did trying to upgrade it. It would have made more sense to build a good cart from scratch. But at the time, I didn't really know how to go about that. Some people seem to be able to make these things without trying. There's actually a lot to it, though.
New Article: DIY Cart Build, Part 1: The Background. This is the introductory one: a look at why the old cart was so bad, and how it might be possible to do better. It's sort of the groundwork that will help me (and maybe you) choose materials for a new cart build.
Metal & Shop; Hydraulics
I didn't think the reservoir of a bottle jack was supposed to be pressurized. But this one was. Does that mean it had a bad check valve or something?? The instructions for some jacks say to remove that filler plug to let air out.
When the oil filler plug was removed, instantly there was hydraulic oil up in the lights. Based on this, I would strongly suggest a face shield when working with such things.
Film; Blacksmithing
As The Sparks Fly Upward
Fujichrome Velvia 50This was my Fire Circle Forge, which I sometimes refer to as the Exploding Rocks Forge. That's another story for another time, but now I've been thinking of a more efficient blacksmith forge. The fire circle forge has one major drawback, aside from the waste of fuel and heat. That is, it's just an open circle with no bottom. Why is this bad? Well, if you get just the right arrangement of firebricks-- or rocks that didn't explode after a long time-- you end up having to move them individually. And then you hope you get just the right alignment when you put the whole thing back together.
A forge with a permanent bottom lets you move the whole thing, firebricks and all. So, if you wanted to elevate the whole container up on blocks or something, you couldn't do that with the fire-circle forge. But you could do that with a couple other types of forge.
I'm actually working on a solid-fuel forge now; article soon.
Meantime, I really like this slide film photo, partly because this day the Fire Circle Forge was working fairly well. The rocks and firebricks were all at just the right angles, etc. Learning to work a solid fuel forge efficiently is not as easy as it looks. In fact it's kind of difficult. But I'm learning. And one thing I've learned is that a ready-made forge like this one has value, and one reason is that it's got that repeatability. That's something that can be a little scarce with backyard forges cobbled up out of random scrap.
2017 August 3
Thursday
Film Developing
A reader says he was going to try pushing Tri-X according to this article, but then realized the film was actually TMax 400.
First let's skip past the thinking that you "can't really push film"; we've been through this in plenty of depth elsewhere. I haven't pushed Tmax 400 to ridiculous speeds (> 6400), but I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. In fact, here's a website that talks about pushing Tmax 400 as high as 25600.
According to some, Tmax 400 (a.k.a. TMY) does not require as much time as Tri-X for an equivalent push. But I'm thinking it might require more when you start pushing it above 3200. And it looks like that's what that other photographer found, too.
Here's what I'd probably do. Just develop the TMax 400 as if it were Tri-X 400. For 12800, I'd use the 2 hours or 2:20 dev time at 68 F. If the base fog is drastically elevated, reduce the time on the next roll. (You can correct base fog more easily in "post" than you can correct details that are simply not there.) If t= 1x is too long, try t = 0.75x or 0.67x. But I wouldn't start out with t = 0.5x.
Just an educated guess, though.
Your results are going to depend on several different things, including the technique and the water you use. Little things that wouldn't affect the developing at EI 400 will start to make a big difference at EI 12800, I expect. For example, read this part from the C-41 dev article; it's also going to apply to B&W developing.
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