First Attempt

[Stan160]

I have just loaded up the film sheaths of the two plate holders for my Ica Ideal 385 for the first time. A couple of jobs to do around the house first, then off to the local park to play with my new toy

Wish me luck! I will report back later with the results later!

Ian

[Curt]

All the luck in the World and good printing too!

[Stan160]

Hmmm, not as successful as I hoped

The first piece of film moved and got in the way of the darkslide, preventing me from replacing it.

The second piece, after development, has no trace of an image on it but is uniformly dark all over apart from the edges which are clear where it was held under the lip of the film sheath. I'm guessing the film holder isn't light-tight.

On the plus side, my development routine seems to work and I found it easier to work in total darkness than I was expecting.

[Stan160]

Woohoo! There is something there after all!

It's so faint that I couldn't see anything until I held the film up in the daylight.

Under-development possibly? I have only developed roll film in tanks up until now.

[Rob_5419]

Hi Stan,

glad to see you're getting into plate photography too.

Not sure what went out with the film/exposure/lighting/development details although it's kind of groovy listening into the post like a journal blog

[Mike Kovacs]

Woohoo! There is something there after all!

It's so faint that I couldn't see anything until I held the film up in the daylight.

Under-development possibly? I have only developed roll film in tanks up until now.

Did you load the film in backwards? The emulsion side must face the lens.

[Stan160]

Did you load the film in backwards? The emulsion side must face the lens.

I followed the instructions on http://www.largeformatphotography.info/loading.html so hopefully I got the film the right way round.

The only recognizable image is at the opposite end of the film to the darkslide opening, and the fog is noticeably worse towards the other end so I think the problem might be the 80 year old felt in the film holder! I am going to test for light leaks using paper next time I am at home during daylight hours, as it will be quicker and cheaper than film.

Thanks,
Ian

[Mike Kovacs]

Like THIS?

[Stan160]

Thanks Mike, those illustrated instructions are great. At least I can be sure the film was loaded the correct way around and the problem was something else.

Ian

[JPD]

To avoid light leaks I never remove the darkslide compleatly. Some darkslides have markings so you know how much you should pull them out just to make the film/plate ready for exposure.