Pinhole camera: ADOX Ortho 25 or ADOX Display Film?

Gast · 2006-12-12T08:48:03+00:00

Hallo Martin. der Displayfilm ist, wie schon in der Katalogbeschreibung und auf der ADOX webseite ausgeführt, eine Fotopapieremulsion auf klarem Planfilmträ...

Gast

Hello My 8x10" pinhole camera is almost finished. Now I need to find the right film. ADOX offers two orthochromatic options: the Adox Ortho 25 and the Adox Display film. Has anyone had any experience with these? Which of the two films is more suitable for pinhole photography? Or what do you use for your pinhole camera? Can both films be developed under red light, or does the Ortho 25 need to go into the developer in the dark? And does anyone here – or Mirko – know if the Ortho 25 works in Rodinal (or R09) as well? Thanks for your tips. Regards, Martin

MirkoBoeddecker

Hello Martin. As already stated in the catalogue description and on the ADOX website, the Displayfilm is a photographic paper emulsion on a clear flat film base. This means that, whilst it is significantly cheaper than the ORTHO 25, it is also less sensitive. Furthermore, it is actually only blue-sensitive and is not as carefully sensitised as the ORTHO, as its spectral behaviour in the darkroom is negligible. The spectral curve has not been measured or documented in any further detail. Consequently, the film is only specified with an ISO P rating and does not have a proper ASA value, which makes exposure difficult. The question now is what resolution (lines per mm) your aperture has and how you measure the exposure. I suppose the only way to find out is to try it out. It may well be that the cheaper film is perfectly adequate for your application. Best regards, Mirko

SCKStef

Hi Martin, This might be a bit off-topic, but I’ve been experimenting with AGFA Rapidoprint film for quite a while, and it actually worked at ISO 25. The film is a bit hard, but it still does the job, and it’s actually an emulsion that’s designed for paper. Best regards, Stéphane

Wolfgg

As a schoolboy a few decades ago, I used to experiment a lot with pinhole cameras, because we were studying them in physics at the time. The contraption was as primitive as could be: a shipping box that fitted 18x24 photographic paper, with a piece of aluminium foil at the front featuring a hole (made with a pin). ‘Gradient Spezial’ film was just right (without any printing on the reverse!), with an exposure time of 5 minutes in sunlight and 10 minutes on a cloudy day. The images (or rather, positive contact copying) were so good that the physics teacher immediately took them for the collection. The hole was remarkably well-corrected, and the lack of distortion was simply stunning :(. Nowadays, with variable contrast paper and filters, you could easily control the gradient so that the paper negative produces good detail. Regards, Wolfgang

huehnerhose

Hi, Back then, I used print film for my 8x12cm camera (the good old Nagel). After a few failed attempts (horrible underexposure/overexposure), I finally managed to get acceptable exposure times (between 1/10 and 1s) using artificial light (my grandfather’s 500W photo reflector lamps). I developed it in Eukobrom, but at 1+4!!! 1+9 is far too weak for the film; even with exposures lasting minutes, nothing decent came out. Initially I tried developing the film in Rodinal – but the bath life (I don’t have a large tank) – is unacceptable. Sample image This is an example. Scanned on an Epson Flatbed 4990. The image is a detail from a ‘close-up’ portrait (so actually the whole head fills the frame). So despite the old lens and the film’s low resolution – wonderful reproduction. As far as I can recall, Ortho 25 wasn’t available back then... for me, red-light processing was the number one criterion, as I had to somehow fit the film into the cassettes for glass plates... Regards Sebastian