Gast
Hello,
I was absolutely horrified just now when I hung up an Efke 25 to dry. The last six frames were missing. Completely gone. The rest of the film was perfect, as always. I took close-ups in relatively low light. Aperture 16 for about 4 seconds and aperture 22 for about 8 seconds. I also took one shot at each aperture setting with the exposure adjusted by one stop up and one stop down. I’ve ruled out a fault with the camera. But there’s absolutely nothing to be seen on the negative. Does the blackout effect on the KB25 really have such an impact at around 4 seconds that you end up with absolutely nothing on the negative, not even the slightest hint of density?
Regards, Boris
Gast
Boris,
It must be your camera or some other fault.
The Efke has virtually no Schwarzschild effect in this exposure range.
Could there be a 'calculation error' or a measurement error?
Can you see the frame numbers on the images?
Best regards,
Mirko
Gast
Hello again,
Hmm... I don’t think it’s down to a measurement error. I’ve just checked again, using the light on the light table. The images are there, but completely subject to underexposure. There’s barely a hint of density to be seen; it’s almost impossible to make out with the naked eye. I’ll try to reproduce this again.
Best regards,
Boris
micha
Hi Boris. I use Efke film too. Up to 10 seconds, that’s not really a problem. How did you measure the exposure? Do you have a digital light meter or an analogue one like the Gossen Lunasix 3s? (They have a bit of speed in low light. If you’re shooting black-and-white, that’s something to bear in mind – it takes a lot of experience. It can really throw you off.)
Micha
Gast
Hello,
I took the measurement using my camera’s TTL (kb) (centre-weighted average). It’s usually quite reliable.
Best regards,
Boris
rherz
Hi Boris,
If you haven’t made any adjustments, you could be off by as much as 1–2 stops, depending on the subject. I’ve been noting down every exposure for nearly three years now – or rather, I’ve been marking them between the film perforations – and I’d say that in about 95% of cases I’ve made a negative adjustment. Don’t get me wrong, though. The camera measures very accurately when it sees a grey card. Unfortunately, very few subjects have that exact brightness. Sometimes I do wonder where the 18% grey calibration comes from.
Unfortunately, this experience doesn’t match yours at all – could it be that you had a correction set, or that you’d adjusted the sensitivity setting? Just a thought...
Best regards,
Robert
