LETTERS...

Sir, I find that "Round -a- Bout with Ron Knowles makes very boring reading. As Editor of the National Newsletter I feel that you could get to work with the `blue pencil` a lot more on his padded out repetitive. He can be rude in the extreme on times and when he is rude with unnecessary destructive criticism the `blue pencil` should be applied with vigour.

There is no doubt that quite a number of members, including myself, are very wary of his vitriolic pen which is one of the reasons why we do not submit copy for publication.

I would also like to take him to task for his paragraph in the January issue of the Newsletter and I quote. "Once again I used the washing line for complete daylight reversal... well it was a calm, cold sunny day, quite humid, so there was little chance of dust or of those dratted gnats skating around on the emulsion!" I could not believe my eyes when I read it. Anyone who takes wet 35mm film from the processing tank reel is courting disaster and hanging it outside on the line for daylight reversal will attract bacteria and insects for miles around. You see, the emulsion is an animal product and they just love it.

daylight reversal by all means but in doors. Place the film, still on its reel in a white china bowl filled with water at the right temperature and place on a south facing windowsill, in the sun preferably for five minutes. I have used this method since the days of the late Will Griffiths, on his advice, with perfect results. Of course you must use translucent or transparent reels. As for loading films into the reels back to back for reasons economy remember, during the washing the anti halation backing on the film is washed off in the processing otherwise you will have a mottled blue cast when the film dries. You can imagine taking wet film, back to back out of a spiral for daylight reversal and then trying to get them back onto a spiral to continue the processing? Come on Ron is it April fools day? pull the other leg, its got bells on it.

Bert Sanders. Co-ordinator Area 15.

Sir, I have been a member of Area 15 for 3-4 years now. I was completely inexperienced both in the use of Slide film and Home-processing of any type of film. Bert Sanders has been very helpful at all times. In addition via the Newsletter I made contact with a long standing member, Guy Glassock of Rayleigh. For almost four years now Guy has coaxed and encouraged me to take on home`processing with increased patience, answering all my enquiries and taking me through the process step by step until finally I achieved success with surprising ease. I owe him a great deal.

Guy is a devotee of the "Barfen" 4 bath kit but recently has returned to Light Reversal due to problems with the reversal bath chemicals. I have not done so, but I must admit to having very good results from this kit and also from the Jessop 3 bath kit. Unfortunately both kits, like all others, suffer from the problem of poor keeping qualities.

This is a particular problem for me as my film content is a little slow and to accumulate 3 or 4 films to make full use of the kit before the chemicals have deteriated, is virtually impossible. In these circumstances the whole thing becomes un-economic.

Reading your comments about deep-freezing solutions, may I ask members to express their expert opinions on the following proposal:-

4 FILM KIT

(1) Expose 2 films.
(2) Mix kit & process 2 films.
(3) Discard Reversal Chemical.
(4) Deep-freeze Colour Developers and
(5) Re-use when two further films are exposed - using light reversal.

This presumes that bleach-fix has sufficient shelf-life and that the reversal bath is still re-usable and therefore is most wisely ignored in the second, later processing run.

I also express an interest in seeing some articles and reviews by Club members & experts on other Ameteur processing kits and minority films such as "Orwo", "Barfen" or Ektachrome etc.

As I photograph Merchant shipping at all seasons. In winter I am considering re-rating my 100asa film to 200asa. Kit instructions give details of the necessary changes but what is the likely differences, if any, in the quality of the slides?

Brian Murphy (Area 15).

BLACK & WHITW AT 100F!

Anyone any ideas about the keeping properties of the Photocolor Chrome 6 kits? I have been getting green blacks! The problem goes away if I mix fresh developer each time, so I suspect the reversal chemical in it has changed. I used to always be able to mix up a couple of litres of each of the three baths and use them up (one shot) over a few weeks, with no trouble at all. I can still adopt this procedure with the first developer and the beach-fix, but the dredded greens strike if I try to mix Col. Dev. more than than a few days before I want to use it! Suggestions welcome.

I suppose I should stop being lazy and make up my own solutions, which never gave me any problems. I plead a combination of old age and pressure of work!

Lazyness again! Using a Jobo rotary processor for film processing! If I want to process a B&W it is necessary to alter the temperature control after colour processing, a time consuming job to get just right. I have been experimenting with processing B&W at the same 100F. I find the timing seems to need reducing by about a quarter when using the conventional temperature, but even so, the contrast and density are still high. Has anyone else had any experience in this field?

Counterfeit KODAK!! Counterfeit Kodakcolor Gold film has found its way onto the market. The boxes are a good imitation of the genuine article, but the contents, according to Kodak, are a most inferior product. The boxes bear an unusual logo so should be easily recognisable. There is no suspicion of any slide film suffering the same fate - yet. As a minority product this might be an area left alone by the counterfeiters.

Roy Salmons (Area 3 Co-ordinator).

If the `enclosed` film is Konicacolor, perhaps the `punters` aren`t getting such a raw deal, for their money! Ed.