Temporarily moving back to Warsaw: Qs

[Vilk]

Czolem Warszawiacy,

I will be going back to my town for extended periods, planning to take part of my workflow with me (not to be buried under a pile of rolls when I get back to my darkroom). I haven't "darkroomed" in Warsaw for 30 years--therefore, a few questions...

1. Is the Stodola camera show stil on?
2. Can you get HP5+, DD-X and Rapid Fixer there (or anywhere else) without a problem?
3. What's the water quality? Hard and spotty? Soft and smooth?
4. Any good B&W labs, with film scanning services?

All input appreciated, the more recent the info the better!

Buziaki!
Vilk

PS. Anyone up for a mug of mulled poltorak at Pasieka?

[Vilk]

ok, the first round on me

[Jeff L]

This may be old news for you but there's a Flickr Polish Analog Group. They may have some answers.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/polisha...oto_7386181044

[himself]

hey,

Stodola is still there (Sunday 'till 14:00), and I'm not sure what it was like last time you were there, but prices are quite high. You should be able to get what you need there tho'. There's also a photo store near Rondo ONZ called Czarno Biale http://www.czarno-biale.pl/sklep/ that has a lot of chemicals and film, probably the best I found. They should do scaning too, other than that there's the chain ProfiLab which I never had good relations with, but you might get better results, there's one behind the Empik on Marszalkowska.

The bad news is the water is terrible, very hard and spotty, full of heay metals too - you can almost taste it.

Hope that helps.

[Vilk]

Gentlemen, just what I was looking for, thanks infinite!

Good to hear about Stodola (I'm staying at Batorego ), even better to know there's backup. The prices are high indeed, but I should be able to sustain it for a short while; water quality may turn out into a success story, too--if I leave my mom a nice filtering system as a souvenir!

Overall, looking forward to giving it a try. (OK, I'll bring some X-Ray bags, too, in case it doesn't work out.)

Thanks again!
Vilk

[himself]

so that's perfect then. I used to live on Dąbrowskiego so know the area and can confirm the water is so bad... 5ltr bottles of water are cheap tho

forgot to mention it was 4.50zl to get into stodola in June, so I imagine it should be the same now.

[Vilk]

which side of niepodleglosci? my school was the 37, at narbutta

[himself]

I was on the oppo side, but I know the place. was yours that soviet still building?

[Vilk]

you mean the school? yeah, it was early 1950s vintage. i visited it last year--pretty gloomy, begging to be used as a movie set... or at least a model shoot location!

[Trask]

I was in Warsaw about 7 months ago for a conference, and found time to do the Stodola show and to visit Czarno Biale. I didn't find anything of particular interest at the show, though I was tempted by a few Russian lenses. But who doesn't like going to a camera show, if only to see what's going on locally and meet some people? I don't speak Polish, and the lady in C-B didn't have strong English, but we managed to communicate just fine, and I walked away with some developers, including a pouch of D-74 by Calbe -- haven't tried it yet.

I also managed to catch a concert at the national concert hall, and drink some terribly rich chocolate. All in all, I enjoyed the visit!