MONOCHROME SLIDES REVISITED

By Ken Smith (Area 4)

Monochrome Slides Revisited When TMax film first came out one of the first things that struck me was the clear base. It seemed to me to be the perfect film for reversing to obtain quality black and white slides. Several formulae have been published in the Club newsletter and I tried them all with success ranging from none to poor! I knew it could be done as Kodak market a kit for doing it, at a price I would rather not pay. Salvation came in the form of a posting to the darkroom news group on the Internet. It came from a guy in America who had successfully processed TMax as slides He offered to send the formulae via email to anyone who requested them. I did and they arrived very quickly.  

As I had suspected, the main difference was in the fomula for the developer. I mixed up the developer and, using the other parts of the formula from previous kits I had mixed, had a go. The results were extremely good, definitely the best monochrome slides I had ever produced. The clarity, tonal variation and contrast were as good as anything I have produced with colour slide. Photographically they were garbage — just shots of my rather untidy and overgrown back garden. 

The formulae sent to me by Paul were originally published in Photo Techniques, so there is no problem with passing them on. lam not too sure about copyright ~ terms of publishing them in even such a small magazine as ours so I am not sending the formulae to Bill for inclusion with this. If anybody out there is interested in trying this, contact me either through e-mail:

dmorrel@ukonline.co.uk Tel. 01642 311848 or via snail mail at my address as in the Club Handbook.

Dave Morrell (Area 4).

OLD BATTERY NEWS

Roy Salmons (Area 3+ Co-ordinator)

Our intrepid battery tracker, Geoff Lowe - has been active yet again! Geoff sent me a letter today with his latest findings of hard-to-track-down batteries, so I thought' I'd better dash off this little additional before sealing the envelopes, just in case you need one of these cells for use over the Christmas period. To quote from Geoff's letter: More Battery Info I have come across some further information regarding the above which I hope may be of interest. 

In the latest Black & White Photography magazine there is a one page advert by Al Cameras, whose address is:- Unit 2, The Broadway, Elm Park, Homchurch, Essex. RMI2 4RN. Phone:- 01708 620604. 

The advert reads as follows:

HARD TO FIND BATTERIES

PX-l           per 2 £5.95 
PX-640               per 2 £5.95
PX-625 (l.35v) limited stock per 2 £7.95 
PX-675 (I .35v)          per 2 £5.90 
PX-2 I (old Prakticas)     each £7.95 
PX-614 (old Yashicas)     each £7.95
Batteries p & p £2 U.K. only. 

Thanks, Geoff. That will be of interest to members. I was fortunate enough to find a PXI4 in a camera shop near my daughter's home while visiting. They did say they would be having more in, but Fm assured that they haven't yet.

Photoworld still has stocks of PX2I at £5 for CRC members (enclose a stamped addressed strong envelope for return).