DX RAISES IT`S `UGLY` HEAD FOR BULK FILM USERS

By Bill Reid (Area 20).

It was way back in CRCN No.47 (October 1987) that Bob Lewis brought to our attention how the introduction of DX would affect Home Processors who re-load their film into cassettes. For myself it has never been a problem as I am still using my Canon AE-1 purchased around 1984 and, in recent years this was complimented to by a useful little compact camera, which was auto everything, except in the use of DX. However a couple of months back I purchased an even more all-electronic, all-singing, all-dancing Samsung 105G, a remarkable little camera, with a pin-sharp 38mm - 105mm lens. 

There is an easily read liquid crystal screen where you can chose all the functions, including, Fill-in flash, Over/under exposure from ½ to 2 full stops, time exposure from 1 to 60 seconds, continuous exposure, a `portrait` setting, interval exposures and a setting to make double exposures. A switch on the top moves the zoom lens from wide to telephoto settings, with the actual setting shown in the readout window. 

As the auto exposure is by sound wave, a button on the front allows you to set the focusing at infinity when photographing through windows, and, to save your batteries the camera switches off after ten minutes of un-use. On doing so it pulls the lens back to wide angle and a shutter closes to protect the lens. 

My son took it on a weeks visit to New York and came back with a super set of colour prints which proved that the camera will deliver the goods. However it was only after I had made up four cassettes from a bulk roll of the Club`s Konicachrome 100 film that I suddenly realised that I wouldn`t be able to set the correct 100asa setting for the film. 

A quick glance through the Samsung`s instruction booklet found that with a `none` DX cassette loaded the camera sets itself at `only` 25asa!! No good at all! So what to do! 

Another read through Bob`s article and the only way out seemed to be to try cutting up some pieces of kitchen foil and gluing them to the cassettes. That proved more trouble than first thought. I got hold of a cassette of colour negative film of 100asa and cut the tiny pieces of foil to the same design and eventually got them glued pretty close to the same area on my own cassette of film and re-loaded it back into the Samsung camera. Yes! reloaded, as I had already loaded a cassette into the camera before considering the DX problem. Thankfully the camera has a button that allows you to rewind a film part way exposed. 

The camera also gives an `error` warning if the DX doesn`t work properly and as the liquid crystal readout indicated that all was well I decide to leave things until eventually finding out if the exposures were correct once the film was processed. However this meant that I only had one cassette out of the four that I had re-loaded so  wondered to what could be a better way around the problem as even if the foil did work, it probably couldn`t stand up to multiple usage. 

The only way out appeared be to getting hold of up-to-date 100asa cassettes. As modern cassettes have permanently fixed `caps` they are usually damaged by the force of removing them. However the container itself remains useful and all I would need is a cap to fit. I went to my local Boots shop and explained my situation to the chap at the photography counter and he was most helpful. 

I got hold of four 100asa cassettes. It was interesting to note that they don`t actually open the cassettes but simply cut the film off the end, but at least it meant that the cassettes were in mint condition and not damaged. 

Back home. I first I forced the caps off the cassettes with as little force as possible. I then tried fitting the caps of my usual plastic re-loadable cassettes but while they wouldn`t stay on. The problem is that the newer caps are much shallower and the rim of the cassette case isn`t the same all round but three parts `higher`. I next tried a metal cap from my older cassettes, in this case an old "Sakurachrome" cassette (That dates me a bit). It was satisfying to find that it made a very positive fit. 

I next searched out a few more metal cassettes and removed their caps and transferred the remaining three cassettes of film into the DX cassettes (in my changing bag) and now had a total of four useful cassettes of film to give the new Samsung a good trial over the following weeks. 

There was one anomaly that puzzled me! While the four cassettes I got from Boots were all marked `100asa` each had a different formation of `contact`  shapes for the camera sensor switches to work on. I should add that all the cassettes were for different makes of colour negative film. Obviously the asa setting would be `100`, for all, but why the variation? 

So while these cassettes `should` set my camera to the desired asa hopefully the different cassettes won`t be telling my camera something that could might affect my using Colour Reversal Stock!! Only after processing will I know for sure. 

It while talking with Pete Guy, at Repton, that he informed me that Jessop sell stick-on DX labels, which of course solved the whole problem. Now, as you editor and dealing with all sorts of photographic problems, didn`t I know of these before now! However as Ron Croad was also there and selling Konicachrome film I decided to to buy three cassettes to be sure of having correctly DX`d films. However, again, I found that Konica`s cassettes have a different shape of contact areas. It became quite puzzling as to why there was so many all supposedly telling the camera to set the same 100asa, film speed. 

On my next visit to Jessop I made a point of buying a strip of their DX stick-on labels. You get five labels per strip. They are extremely well made, if as little fidgetty to place precisely on the cassette, but I soon had five more cassettes ready for use and will be. AND, yet again, Jessop`s labels showed a different contact shape, even to Konicachrome DX markings! 

I became clear that cassettes for 24 exposure lengths have a different pattern than for 36 exposure lengths, therefore it seemed that modern electronic cameras tell the cameras how many exposure come around before winding the film back into the cassette, and likewise cassettes for 24 & 36 exposure lengths of Colour reversal film do likewise. But then, I had used one 24exp cassette with 36exp of reloaded film and didn`t have any problems. However, this still doesn`t answer why various brands of 36 exposures should be different, and also Jessop`s labels, which could be used for any length of film you wish to reload! Any Ideas? 

With, eventually, nine cassettes of film ready for processing how did the exposures turn out? Strangely, and gratefully, there didn`t appear to be any difference between any of the films. I used the latest Photocolor Chrome Six Plus kit, which really is an excellent kit, giving consistent results throughout all films. Using a 600ml size I split this into two 300ml lots and process two films at a time, using the two sets of brews alternatively which allows the chemicals a reasonable period between each use, to settle back to their normal colours before being used again. 

Obviously if I had had a tenth film that would have processed equally well and would prove that getting ten films processed from this 600ml kit is possible, and I wouldn`t mind trying for 12, but I think you will agree four processing sessions is quite enough for one days work. 

An finally, what of the results from my new Samsung camera? As is usual, with a new camera, you get varying results of exposures which will be taken care of with experience. The exposure meter appears to be very accurate and there is need to overexpose by at least one stop on all against the light shots, even with quite a small amount of sky in the     scene and most definitely by the  seaside or harbour settings. In every case where I didn`t over ride the meter I got serious under exposure. An irritating point are that setting the modes only last for that one exposure and you have to reset for every shot. For example having set the `fuzzy` mode to take moving objects, but on attempting to take two-three shots one after the other the other two shots were in normal shutter speed, which showed in the pictures. However on the positive side, film speed is perfect with no need to compensate in the processing. The viewfinder isn`t quite as accurate as TTL, but again experience will sort this out and I appreciated having the auto focus and auto wind-on after each exposure. So altogether the Samsung 105G will prove a very handy `second` camera to use when my main Canon AE-1 and accessories aren`t required.