Nokton48
Mentor
When I was younger I would often hike with 4x5 to "work over" a scene. When I got something sublime, I would drag the 8x10 but always tried to keep the beast closer to the car. The tripod and holders are what really make it a slog but also incredibly worthwhile
As far as alternative processes is concerned XRAY is a good tool. I would like to learn to make B&W carbon prints like Paul Outerbridge did in the 30s
As far as alternative processes is concerned XRAY is a good tool. I would like to learn to make B&W carbon prints like Paul Outerbridge did in the 30s
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Devil Dan,
Have two baby Linhof 6x9's and a 1952 Linhof 4x5 that use to be Devil Christian's. The 4x5 dates back to the early 50's and bck then they covered Linhofs in real leather. The leather on the 4x5 has this wonderful patina.
Jon Cone has these workshops in alternative processes. I hope to do some of these workshops. Back when Piezography Pro was being developed I was selected to be an early adopter and had access to the inks and process about a year before it was available to the general public.
So Piezography Pro (PP) is kinda turnkey and very well developed. WYSIWYG EZ-PZ enough that an inkject print can serve as a digital proof. Also the same inkset for PP is utilized to make digital negatives, but with different curves.
I have now 15 plus year old Epson 7800, a 24 inch wide printer, that is a workhorse with a history of a long print head life. I bought this printer for $100.00 from a LF shooter who was moving back to Japan.
Currently it has brand new set of dampers I installed and is loaded with Piezoflush until I'm ready to print again.
In the end when I build out the 10x20 in the garage I will expand my printing. Who knows but one day a second 10x20 space could be added to the garage with plumbing to scale things up.
I have Bilco doors to get access to my basement from the garage.
I don't see the small 6x9 darkroom going away. I can justify one darkroom for developing films, and another for printing.
Anyways since I have a 111 year life expectancy according to that longevity test I could have almost 5 decades to annoy people left in me.
Augie
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
I just mailed off a $572.49 oil bill for yesterday's delivery. The spot price went up.
Can't wait for the warmer weather.
I expect that I will get back my NYC taxes that were witheld because of the "11 Month Rule." Seems like we closed on the house just in time to avoid NYC residency tax liability.
I figure that money will purchase lots of R-30 rolls of insulation to do a double layer to create a R-60 attic.
Good thing I'm a skinny bitch because the square hatch to the attic is only 19 inches wide. I'll have to snake the insulation through the hatch. 22 feet in a roll of rock wool.
The same R-30 rock wool I will use to fill the joists in the basement full 2x10's. Soon I will be loading the half the garage with insulation, sheet rock and plywood.
Cal
Can't wait for the warmer weather.
I expect that I will get back my NYC taxes that were witheld because of the "11 Month Rule." Seems like we closed on the house just in time to avoid NYC residency tax liability.
I figure that money will purchase lots of R-30 rolls of insulation to do a double layer to create a R-60 attic.
Good thing I'm a skinny bitch because the square hatch to the attic is only 19 inches wide. I'll have to snake the insulation through the hatch. 22 feet in a roll of rock wool.
The same R-30 rock wool I will use to fill the joists in the basement full 2x10's. Soon I will be loading the half the garage with insulation, sheet rock and plywood.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
In 2007 my reaction to the housing bubble, stock market crash, and the great recession was shooting mucho film with a total disregard to printing, scannng or posting of images.
Boy did this annoy people. While I made negatives people wanted to see images. People did not see any logic to my madness. One season I averaged shooting and developing 150 rolls of film a month over 3-4 months of summer. Then add in the other three seasons.
My thinking was that at $2.89 a roll for rebranded Tri-X at Freestyle, $1.89 a roll rebranded Acros at Freestyle and $3.00 a roll Acros in 120 at Adorama was cheap film, and one day prices will increase. Basically shoot as much film as possible while it was dirt cheap.
So Ha-Ha. I did a smart thing, but now I kinda have a Garry Winnogran legacy/mess to clean up. It might take the rest of my life to edit, print and sort out this huge mess I created.
But now I have an archive of course, and time is the best editor. Many of the shots are historical and as things evolved from the credit crisis all these landmarks and buildings were torn down and replaced as gentrification proceeded.
In hindsight all this was brilliant, but in reality it was just being a clever lazy-slacker. I'm sure that in this body of work are some useful collections and perhaps a few books.
What changed things about 8 years ago was that Leica came out with a new camera called M-Monochrom. Someone here on RFF said, "That is a dumb idea."
In this episode I annoyed people by printing big as well as a lot. I developed a nitch exploiting Piezography and practiced it like a deadly Kung-Fu move. Had an art dealer ask me, "Why are these prints so big?"
Dumb ass did not understand that printing big magnifies technical flaws, overuse of post processing, and is difficult to do. "Big prints don't lie," I would say.
Interesting how almost everything looks great on a computer or cell phone, and how many people don't have an understanding of what a good print is. In work in galleries I see excessive use of contrast and mucho post processing, and digital artifacts.
People don't know any better is the culture.
So I ended up going gonzo shooting Leica digital B&W with the MM. Piezography and the MM was a match made in heaven, and I mastered the craft of becoming a fine art printer in B&W using Piezography. I ended up getting solicited to print for other artists, I printed a show that was exhibited in Hong Kong, and even was given an invite to do a seminar at the International Center for Photography.
Then my gal "Maggie" decides to start a fashion blog and she makes it to the big time. All of the sudden I get sucked into places where I don't belong. I have two days notice to get a tux for a black tie event in Madrid where we are going to be guests in a luxury hotel that formally was a palace for some duke.
I get a free European vacation that spans 4 countries. I get VIP treatment, even though I know I'm nothing special.
Maggie is giving TED talks, becomes a Go Daddy gal, becomes a celeb, and I see her spackled all over bus stop shelters and news stands all over NYC.
She gets a "Shorty Award" for best fashion blogger and beats Victoria Beekham and Fran Dressler. At the Sony Playstation Theater in Times Square it is a surreal moment when the "Fab-Five" play the clips and then announce the winner and it is my gal. I think to myself, "Is this a dream? Is this really happening?"
So I think with high probability that things are not really done yet. When I retire that's when possibilities really open up.
Calvin-August
Boy did this annoy people. While I made negatives people wanted to see images. People did not see any logic to my madness. One season I averaged shooting and developing 150 rolls of film a month over 3-4 months of summer. Then add in the other three seasons.
My thinking was that at $2.89 a roll for rebranded Tri-X at Freestyle, $1.89 a roll rebranded Acros at Freestyle and $3.00 a roll Acros in 120 at Adorama was cheap film, and one day prices will increase. Basically shoot as much film as possible while it was dirt cheap.
So Ha-Ha. I did a smart thing, but now I kinda have a Garry Winnogran legacy/mess to clean up. It might take the rest of my life to edit, print and sort out this huge mess I created.
But now I have an archive of course, and time is the best editor. Many of the shots are historical and as things evolved from the credit crisis all these landmarks and buildings were torn down and replaced as gentrification proceeded.
In hindsight all this was brilliant, but in reality it was just being a clever lazy-slacker. I'm sure that in this body of work are some useful collections and perhaps a few books.
What changed things about 8 years ago was that Leica came out with a new camera called M-Monochrom. Someone here on RFF said, "That is a dumb idea."
In this episode I annoyed people by printing big as well as a lot. I developed a nitch exploiting Piezography and practiced it like a deadly Kung-Fu move. Had an art dealer ask me, "Why are these prints so big?"
Dumb ass did not understand that printing big magnifies technical flaws, overuse of post processing, and is difficult to do. "Big prints don't lie," I would say.
Interesting how almost everything looks great on a computer or cell phone, and how many people don't have an understanding of what a good print is. In work in galleries I see excessive use of contrast and mucho post processing, and digital artifacts.
People don't know any better is the culture.
So I ended up going gonzo shooting Leica digital B&W with the MM. Piezography and the MM was a match made in heaven, and I mastered the craft of becoming a fine art printer in B&W using Piezography. I ended up getting solicited to print for other artists, I printed a show that was exhibited in Hong Kong, and even was given an invite to do a seminar at the International Center for Photography.
Then my gal "Maggie" decides to start a fashion blog and she makes it to the big time. All of the sudden I get sucked into places where I don't belong. I have two days notice to get a tux for a black tie event in Madrid where we are going to be guests in a luxury hotel that formally was a palace for some duke.
I get a free European vacation that spans 4 countries. I get VIP treatment, even though I know I'm nothing special.
Maggie is giving TED talks, becomes a Go Daddy gal, becomes a celeb, and I see her spackled all over bus stop shelters and news stands all over NYC.
She gets a "Shorty Award" for best fashion blogger and beats Victoria Beekham and Fran Dressler. At the Sony Playstation Theater in Times Square it is a surreal moment when the "Fab-Five" play the clips and then announce the winner and it is my gal. I think to myself, "Is this a dream? Is this really happening?"
So I think with high probability that things are not really done yet. When I retire that's when possibilities really open up.
Calvin-August
Borge H
Established
Do you have two electrical energy meters, one for the garage and one for the house?
In that case, you can pull an earth cable to the garage from the house and cancel the subscription for the garage.
I also think it seems high values on the currents. I think 200 A and 50 A sound like a very high input fuse. In that case, if I understand you correctly, you should be able to load the house to a maximum of (200 + 50) * 240 = 60 kW.
It is a very high value by Swedish standards. A very large farm has such high input fuses. Our property is a small farm with fields and woods, a total of about 55 hectares (136 acres). We have the incoming fuse of 20 A. Here we have three phase so the maximum power I can load is: P = 3 * 230 * 20 = 13.8 kW.
We have electric stove, electric submersible water pump, possibility to heat the house with immersion heater if we go away. We also have fans and elevators in the barn for animal feed. We have horses, sheep and cows. A maximum of about 6 kW is required to heat the house. Our house is not so well insulated it is from around the year 1900. I have replaced many windows for better with old look, replaced the eternit boards on the outer walls with insulation and board lining. The eternit sheets contained asbestos and required no maintenance, but were ugly and partially broken. Sometimes we jokingly call them Norwegian marble.
I think you can reduce your electricity bill if you reduce the maximum incoming current from 200 A to maybe 75 A. Then you can take out 18 kW. You should be able to do most things with that, even build a studio. With 60 kW of electrical equipment, it gets very hot in the house ...
But I may have misunderstood you? Sorry in that case.
jszokoli
Well-known
Borge H
Established
I thought it was 120 V if you have two wire supply or 240 with a three wire supply in US. I am sorry if I am wrong and got this wrong. I assumed a house always have three wires.
If Augie has only two wires, the maximum incoming power will be 30 kW, if the voltage is only 120 V with two wires, and even lesser with 110 V, 27.5 kW.
But he perhaps can inform us what he has. An incoming maximum current of 250 A is a very high current in any case. With lower current, the cost of electricity probably drops. And with only one electric meter and supply the cost will be even lower.
With only two wires and 110 V and a maximum current of 150 A instead of 250 A, the maximum output power will be 16,5 kW. That is sufficient for a two person household with electric stove, electric water heater etc. It is about 3 kW more than my own maximum power in our farm and house.
jszokoli
Well-known
Here we are split-phase with the amps stated for the total delivered by both hot conductors.
Joe
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Cal, back in late-summer 2005, I had a friend who worked on the civilian side of DRMO, the Defense Reutilization Marketing Office (Now called DLA). Anyway, he let me know there was a big office that was about to be refitted with computer equipment. Problem was, the old stuff worked fine. BUT, in order to get a budget for the next year, the department had to spend-out its budget.
So, the IT guys go in and set up all the computers in this office with brand new equipment on September 29. A bunch of that equipment included these huge CRTs which supposedly cost the Navy about $3000 each. Those stayed working in the office until COB October 1st when it was all packed up and replaced by the really new stuff. My buddy asked me how many monitors I wanted and I said "TWO". I paid $50 each for the monitors then drove up from Ventura, CA to Seattle to pick them up. I sold one of those to a friend of mine for $60 and used the other one until May, 2015. Fantastic piece of equipment.
Another friend called me from Keflavik, Iceland, when I was out in Guam in the summer of 2003. He knew I was a gearhead and he asked me to help him do inventory during BRAC. First thing he said was, "Phil, have you ever heard of a Line-hoff?" I said, "Linhof, you have one?"
"No, I have a bunch of them."
We went over most of the stuff in his inventory and it was a museum of photographic history, which included a lot of reconnaissance gear, since Keflavik was where all the intel imagery over the north Atlantic was processed.
By the time I got back to the states, DRMO had cleared it all out. You name it, it sold by the pound. If it were a camera that could be fit into an aircraft or handheld by a photographer who had a reason to be in Iceland, it was sold. I remember Nikon 6006 bodies with 105 micro lenses that had been drilled, tapped and screwed down to infinity, were being sold for $1 each. Those were favorites for us to issue to the RIOs in F-14s back on the boat.
Those days are over, unfortunately. I'm glad to have grown up in an analog world.
My mom recently retired and has been cleaning out the house after 30 years. She gave me all her old film gear which includes her 1969 Pentax Spotmatic with very yellow 50mm f/1.4 Super Takumar. This is the camera that captured my birth, the first camera I touched and took a photograph with, the camera that made 40+ years of family photos. It has an erratic meter but it may go off to Eric for a full overhaul. I'm happy to be its new custodian and look forward to shooting it one of these days. Pure analog match needle goodness.
Phil Forrest
Deardorff38
Mentor
Phil, Those 50mm 1.4 screwmount lenses are terrific. I bought one for my son who shoots digital. There's a guy on LF forum Scott Schroeder https://www.instagram.com/schrochem/ who also posts great photos with the 50 1.4. I don't have any other SLRs but bought an old black spotmatic with a 50 1.4 just to use wide open. Give it a try..... superb lens.
Borge H
Established
I am confused. I understand it so that if you have 250 A, you can have 250 A in each 120 V outlet or 250 A with 240 V with a three wire connecton. Or should I understand it like 125 A in each hot conductor?
The rated power will then be 125*240=30 kW which is same as 2*125*120=30 kW.
Is this correct?
With a two wire connection the power is however the same 30 kW (or less with 110 V) as the current is higher.
Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
Oh, I know they are superb. All of the 50mm Takumars are some of my favorites ever, partially because the sentimental factor but also because they draw amazingly well.
Phil Forrest
jszokoli
Well-known
125A on each leg. That would be for residential customers, and to be clear other arrangements are used for commercial use, ie 3 phase...
I agree that is still a lot of power for a home, likely they were preparing for electric heat. Cal is actually very close to a nuclear power plant so that may have something to do with it.
On the other end of the scale when I sold my mothers house 10-12 years ago it still had a single phase of 120v at 15 amps...
Joe
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
B,
Sorry for all the confusion.
I have an electronics background (6 month technical school) and I am not an electrician.
My understanding is two hot legs feed a house to provide 120 volts or 208/220 for say a heavy duty air conditioner or an electric clothes dryer. This is the American standards. 220 Volts are the two hot legs Snarky Joe is speaking of. One leg and a "neutral" provides our 120 volts.
For industrial we use 440 volts and three phase. Our system uses higher currents and lower voltages than in Europe.
Most older homes come with a single meter, unless they are multi-family dwellings. On my old Baby-Victorian built in 1912 I only have a single meter, and the "service" breaker panel is set up to distribute up to 200 amps of current. New construction or updated electrical systems are set up to meet a 200 new standard.
Here in the U.S. we tend to be excessive, and some homes are McMansions, but my house has less than 1500 square feet. Average home size here is about 1800-2000 square feet, while McMansions tend to be 3500 to 5K-6K square feet.
So my home has an electrical system that is overkill, but wait what if a decade from now the probability of only being able to buy an electric car exists. Hmmm... a 200 Amp service is a great utility, especially if I take advantage of installing a 10 KW solar array.
I expect that President Biden will give me a tax subsidy to install that 10 KW solar array in the next few years. Perfect timing for me.
I was mistaken about the garage. Earlier I stated it had a 50 amp service (distribution panel breaker box) and then 80 amp, but in fact it has a 100 amp feed. For clarity the house meter and 200 amp service feeds two 50 amp breakers that feed a separate breaker box in my garage that is a 100 amp breaker panel.
So overkill and further overkill.
Joe is correct: I live close by to Indian Point a massive nuclear power plant. Indian Point is scheduled to be shut down and decommissioned in April of this year. I live in an evacuation zone.
Somehow I am like the cartoon character Homer Simpson, but I would expect that my property value will increase due to less risk of a meltdown or nuclear release.
So did you know that there are only about 1000 cyclotrons operating in the world, and I have operated two of them: one was an antique with a tube power supply built in 1967; and my current machine is about nearing 20 years old.
When I have the cyclotron on and beam on a target I am utilizing 80 KW of energy to accelerate a proton beam to transmutate elements into radioactive nuclides. The cyclotron has almost 500 amps of current on the main magnet and the plate voltage on the RF tube is 50 KV. Did you know that the main cause of death among Cyclotron Engineers is electrocution? I work with both high voltages and high currents, either can french fry me or make me into a crispy critter.
The radioactivity I create is used to make short half life radio-tracers for Pet Scan imaging.
So in looking at my old house I seem to have a single feed for Natural Gas coming into the house, but the capability of having two meters. I don't think I'm wrong but the hot water heater feed looks like it bypasses the meter. Forensics of a cut lock wire tamper resistant wire with a lead seal kinda confirms my observation.
Pretty much it looks like in the past someone was stealing natural gas to supply the hot water heater that I intend to dedicate for use for my 6x9 darkroom.
Understand that my oil furnace has built into it a tankless hot water feature, but what compounds this situation is that the feed for the Natural Gas hot water heater runs through the 6x9 space I want to use for my darkroom. It is the only interferance.
I don't see any problem re routing the gas line, but how to not bypass the meter and not be liable for past stealing.
To continue to steal or not to steal is the question.
Cal
Sorry for all the confusion.
I have an electronics background (6 month technical school) and I am not an electrician.
My understanding is two hot legs feed a house to provide 120 volts or 208/220 for say a heavy duty air conditioner or an electric clothes dryer. This is the American standards. 220 Volts are the two hot legs Snarky Joe is speaking of. One leg and a "neutral" provides our 120 volts.
For industrial we use 440 volts and three phase. Our system uses higher currents and lower voltages than in Europe.
Most older homes come with a single meter, unless they are multi-family dwellings. On my old Baby-Victorian built in 1912 I only have a single meter, and the "service" breaker panel is set up to distribute up to 200 amps of current. New construction or updated electrical systems are set up to meet a 200 new standard.
Here in the U.S. we tend to be excessive, and some homes are McMansions, but my house has less than 1500 square feet. Average home size here is about 1800-2000 square feet, while McMansions tend to be 3500 to 5K-6K square feet.
So my home has an electrical system that is overkill, but wait what if a decade from now the probability of only being able to buy an electric car exists. Hmmm... a 200 Amp service is a great utility, especially if I take advantage of installing a 10 KW solar array.
I expect that President Biden will give me a tax subsidy to install that 10 KW solar array in the next few years. Perfect timing for me.
I was mistaken about the garage. Earlier I stated it had a 50 amp service (distribution panel breaker box) and then 80 amp, but in fact it has a 100 amp feed. For clarity the house meter and 200 amp service feeds two 50 amp breakers that feed a separate breaker box in my garage that is a 100 amp breaker panel.
So overkill and further overkill.
Joe is correct: I live close by to Indian Point a massive nuclear power plant. Indian Point is scheduled to be shut down and decommissioned in April of this year. I live in an evacuation zone.
Somehow I am like the cartoon character Homer Simpson, but I would expect that my property value will increase due to less risk of a meltdown or nuclear release.
So did you know that there are only about 1000 cyclotrons operating in the world, and I have operated two of them: one was an antique with a tube power supply built in 1967; and my current machine is about nearing 20 years old.
When I have the cyclotron on and beam on a target I am utilizing 80 KW of energy to accelerate a proton beam to transmutate elements into radioactive nuclides. The cyclotron has almost 500 amps of current on the main magnet and the plate voltage on the RF tube is 50 KV. Did you know that the main cause of death among Cyclotron Engineers is electrocution? I work with both high voltages and high currents, either can french fry me or make me into a crispy critter.
The radioactivity I create is used to make short half life radio-tracers for Pet Scan imaging.
So in looking at my old house I seem to have a single feed for Natural Gas coming into the house, but the capability of having two meters. I don't think I'm wrong but the hot water heater feed looks like it bypasses the meter. Forensics of a cut lock wire tamper resistant wire with a lead seal kinda confirms my observation.
Pretty much it looks like in the past someone was stealing natural gas to supply the hot water heater that I intend to dedicate for use for my 6x9 darkroom.
Understand that my oil furnace has built into it a tankless hot water feature, but what compounds this situation is that the feed for the Natural Gas hot water heater runs through the 6x9 space I want to use for my darkroom. It is the only interferance.
I don't see any problem re routing the gas line, but how to not bypass the meter and not be liable for past stealing.
To continue to steal or not to steal is the question.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Phil,
This is a great story. I only hear great things about those old Pentax lenses. You found treasure.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Update: I remembered what I learned decades ago. For clarity 208 is one leg/phase of a 440 line with a neutral.
220 is two hot legs.
It took a while to remember. Like an old computer I lack free disc space.
Cal
220 is two hot legs.
It took a while to remember. Like an old computer I lack free disc space.
Cal
jszokoli
Well-known
Cal,
Not to belabor the point see;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power
Residential service in the US is two hots 180deg out of phase with each other.
Joe
Not to belabor the point see;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-phase_electric_power
Residential service in the US is two hots 180deg out of phase with each other.
Joe
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Joe,
Thanks for the clarity.
Its been decades since I learned that stuff.
Also the application of what I learned in the 70's was performed in the industrial sector in an aerospace company in buildings that were an 1/8 mile wide and 1/4 mile long.
Very different.
Funny how I was good in math. Today I can't even factor an equation. Use to speak and read intelligent Spanish, but then I forgot.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Joe,
Here at work I grabbed a meter and opened a cabinet.
I have a helium compressor. I see three legs/phases, each one measures 120 volts to ground, but 208 volts across any two legs.
This is the electrical enviornment that I remember.
About a decade ago this same compressor caused an electrical fire.
So I was wrong again. LOL.
Good thing that I'm going to retire soon.
BTW thanks for being "snarky." LOL.
Cal
Here at work I grabbed a meter and opened a cabinet.
I have a helium compressor. I see three legs/phases, each one measures 120 volts to ground, but 208 volts across any two legs.
This is the electrical enviornment that I remember.
About a decade ago this same compressor caused an electrical fire.
So I was wrong again. LOL.
Good thing that I'm going to retire soon.
BTW thanks for being "snarky." LOL.
Cal
Borge H
Established
Then it is a three phase system. Three 120 degrees in time displaced phases with 120 V between one of the "hot" phases and ground gives
208 V between the phases. You can check with calculations: 120*square root(3) gives 207.4 V.
Thank you, both you Cal and Joe, for explaining the practical part of the US electrical power system for consumers. I must confess that I did not know this. I will perhaps tell you my background and education an other time....
I understand now that Cals house has a supply of maximum 200 A and the garage is included in this.
About solor cells, they will reduce your electrical consumption from the power company. Here in Sweden you then have two electrical energy meters, one for consumption and one for production if you feed in to the grid as the price is different. The best economy is to produce your own consumption instead of buying. The price if you sell here in Sweden will often be a low "spot-price", much lower than what you buy for.
The power company do not like stand-alone operation of the solar cell inverters. If the grid is down, you should not feed power inte to the grid of obvious resons. So without grid, your inverter will not work if it is not a separate stand-alone system.
A common problem with solar cell systems is shadows from threes, dirt and leaves and of course snow on them in winter. They could also add extra weight to your roof which could be too much. The inverters produce harmonics which could disturb sensitive equipment. Loading a electric car is fine, but if you do not want to buy the energy from the power company you must charge your car during daily sun-hours (or store energy in a battery).
With an overdimensioned power supply you can add a lot of solar energy to the grid, but I guess the economics of this investment depends on politicans.
Best wihes from a Leica-owning retired engineer,
Borge.