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Old February 9th 11, 08:43 PM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
K W Hart
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Posts: 142
Default Hasselblad V question hardware/film


wrote in message
...
Hi all ,

Returning after a 3 year hiatus . I'm slowly building up a 503CW film
camera hoping to also use it as a digital medium format camera.

Is the film still being made ? Who makes it ?

Thanks

Peter
Sydney , Australia


120 size film is readily available from the major manufacturers. My personal
favorites: for color prints- Kodak Portra 160VC or 400VC, and for b&w
prints- plain old Kodak Tri-X. Others have their favorites; these are just
the ones that I'm used to and are readily available to me.
To paraprase Mark Twain: "The rumours of film's death have been greatly
exagerated!"

Processing is another matter. For b&w, I use Kodak's HC110 developer. It
comes in a thick syrup which gets diluted seriously for use. For color
negatives, Trebla (C-PAC) makes a developer that is designed to make 5
gallons (?), but includes instructions for mixing as little as one liter. In
home developing, the developer is the big problem: the life of the mixed
chemical is fairly short, sometimes hours, sometimes a few weeks, depending
on the brand and type. Home developing color film is not the monster some
people will tell you. Developer temperature is critical- you need an
accurate thermometer. Other than that, it's no different from developing b&w
film.

If you take your color print film to a one-hour minilab, be careful. Many of
the automated processors can handle 120 size film, but if the machine has
only been used for 35mm film, the rollers may have a wear pattern (or gunk
pattern) that is the width of the 35mm film. The machine could deposit gunk
or cause scratches along the sides of your 120 film. Ask the people running
the machines how much 120 film they run through it. Ideally, you want two or
three rolls belonging to someone else to go through the machine before
yours!

Printing the film is not difficult either. Ideally, you should have a
dedicated darkroom, but many people get by with using a bathroom.


--
Ken Hart