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Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography

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Re: Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography

#61
post #8

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen ... speaking as someone who used to spend hours and hours as a kid in the 1980s in our garage, making prints in our home-made darkroom. If one is already going to go to the trouble of printing on photographic paper in a darkroom, then why not just go out and get a real enlarger, a real film camera and use real negative film? The quality will be so much better. Also y…

While I can appreciate the full frugal/retro point of getting an old camera & enlarger for cheap, realize that in doing so there is therein no support for continuing the industry (however paltry). You're not going to get a new enlarger (short of an old never-opened box).

The buggy whip industry still exists, because there are people who in fact want new buggy whips. You can still get record players. Would be nice to see a remnant of the photo[chemical] industry continue, and these guys are doing exactly that by bridging how most photos are now taken with a way to use the old "expose & develop" model.

Re: Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography

#62

Wow, A casual reader might get confused with these comments and think that HN means Haters News. Here we have a product that a curious person (like myself) interested in learning how photography used to work would buy in a heartbeat, and still the top three comments (as I write) are " Who is this for?", "This is so goddam stupid." and "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen". If these guys are doing this…

This teaches you nothing about how photography used to work (it works the same damn way). What it is is how things sorta worked before negative scanners and photoshop.

The iPhone has a 8MP sensor, the screen is 0.6MP why would you intentionally handicap yourself like this? So you use it to develop the results and realize the picture looks like shit. So why bother.

Re: Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography

#63
A big part of my dislike for this is that this isn't going to teach anyone how photography "used to work" or anything like that. It's a toy.

I work in a darkroom, I have a lot of experience processing film by hand and making prints. I know a bit about it.

This seriously looks designed by someone who has never spent more than two hours in a darkroom. Encouraging people to set up tiny darkrooms in closets or wherever they can with trays of open chemistry, is a bit irresponsible.

Here's the MSDS for Ilford Multigrade, the developer they recommend: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2007117133512849.pdf And for the Rapid Fix: http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2012430120381541.pdf It's not super dangerous stuff, but you still need to take some reasonable precautions with it.

And that tray rack? Anyone who has ever worked in a darkroom would never think of stacking trays like that. You need to pick up the print from the chemistry and let the excess drip off before moving to the next tray--this setup is going to be having people spilling photo chemistry all over the place, in a room with no ventilation. Smart.

All the text on the indiegogo site just sets off my rage. Everything at Ilford is not "vintage technology", they have been churning out new products for years. And this? "Old school print development makes every print slightly different, due to microscopic imperfections in the silver halide coating on paper and the chemical reaction that turns parts of the coating black or grey." This is just plain wrong.

This isn't preserving analogue photography. It's trying to sell the idea of being a darkroom. The indiegogo has lots of text about red light bulbs (most darkrooms use amber lights, but I digress), prints hanging on a line, the smell of chemicals, but almost no examples of what the prints made with this thing look like. Why? Because that's not the point.

Re: Analog photography is dead. Long live analog photography

#64

Analog vs Digital: A photo sensor in a digital camera is an analog device. The "digital" camera requires an ADC (Analog to digital Converter). Camera film records information digitally, the light sensitive film (silver halide) either lets light through, or it doesn't. Basically the silver halide crystal is either "on" or "off".

>A photo sensor in a digital camera is an analog device. The "digital" camera requires an ADC (Analog to digital Converter).

Correct!

>Camera film records information digitally, the light sensitive film (silver halide) either lets light through, or it doesn't. Basically the silver halide crystal is either "on" or "off".

Uh, no. There is a continuous range of the amount of light that is blocked by the film negative (for each layer). What you're describing would be something like 1bit color depth RGB.

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