Packing A Camera Bag

For a number of years, whenever I've had the good fortune and finances to travel abroad, I've taken more than one film camera to cater for what I want to achieve in my photographs. I did go through a number of trips when I deliberately restricted myself to just one camera, and, eccentrically, chose the Stereocrafters Videon to make stereo shots, but more recently I've always taken a 6x9 folding camera, the perfect combination of portability and negative size for landscape shots (which for a time was my Agfa Record I), and, for 'snapshots', a half-frame camera to get the most out of a roll of 35mm. However, I've since added a 35mm folding camera to my bag for general photography.

On a forthcoming trip to St Petersburg by train and boat, I'm taking three cameras I've written blog posts about: the Zodel Baldalux, Kodak Retina IIa and my Olympus Pen EE3. For film, I am taking: 5 rolls of HP5 Plus medium format; 3 rolls in 35mm; 3 rolls of Ilford Delta 3200 in medium format; Ilford Delta 100, also medium format, 4 rolls; 3 rolls FP4 Plus in 35mm, 1 roll medium format; 2 rolls of Ilfodata HS23; my last roll of Kodak Tech Pan; and some vintage film in 620 format to use in the Zodel Baldalux (which also requires taking a few spare 120 spools, as the 620 spools won't fit in the take up side of the Baldalux), which are: 2 rolls of Verichrome, with 'develop before' dates of October 1948 and May 1949; 1 roll of Verichrome Pan, (March 1986) and 1 roll of Ilford Selochrome (March 1950).

1940s vintage Kodak Verichrome

Although I very rarely shoot colour, I'm also packing a couple of rolls of recently expired Fuji medium format colour film. This may be an excessive amount of film for an eleven day trip. Additional equipment includes: a Weston II lightmeter; a yellow filter to get the most from skies such as in this shot (which happens to be a 32mm push-on filter, which fits the 50mm f2 lens on the Retina, and rather conveniently, the 105mm f4.5 lens on the Baldalux); and gelatin tricolour filters if I want to attempt three-colour composites. I may also take the Mamiya-16 Automatic as it doesn't take up very much space.

Mamiya-16 Automatic

Mamiya-16 Automatic

In photography, the term subminiature refers to a class of cameras using a film format smaller than 35mm (as, when introduced, 35mm film was considered a 'miniature' format compared to plates or sheet films). Although subminiature cameras pre-date the second world war, their popularity was greatest in the immediate post-war years, most notably in Japan, with the Hit camera and its various copies. These cameras used 17.5mm film and were generally 'point-and-shoot' types, with a single shutter speed, aperture and fixed focus meniscus lenses. The desire for greater sophistication and control was met with a generation of cameras using 16mm film which emerged in the 1950s and 60s. These cameras were designed around proprietary cassettes or cartridges, which in most cases were incompatible with those of other manufacturers. These various subminiature standards were essentially supplanted by Kodak's 110 format, which utilised paper-backed 16mm film in plastic cartridges. With Kodak behind it, the 110 cartridge became widely adopted, with many manufacturers producing cameras for it.

The Mamiya-16 Automatic was first produced in 1959, and evolved from previous Mamiya-16 subminiature cameras; the 'Automatic' in the name refers to the use of the selenium meter to determine the correct aperture, done manually, but more convenient than the use of hand-held light meters. The inclusion of the meter makes the Mamiya-16 Automatic about half as big again as the preceding models, but it is still only 104mm wide by 32mm high and 48mm deep. The camera is of all-metal construction, and feels reassuringly heavy for its small size: this is a fully featured camera of its day. All the user controls are located on the top plate of the camera, as seen clearly set out in the picture below.

View of the Mamiya-16 Automatic top plate

The camera has a 25mm f2.8 Mamiya-Sekor lens. Focus is by estimating the subject distance which is set on the slider above the camera's name. Framing is done by the bright line viewfinder which folds down when not in use. Many subminiature cameras have a fixed focus lens: the main rival to the Mamiya-16 series seems to have been the Minolta-16 cameras, which were fixed focus, until the last Minolta subminiature model in the 1970s, the QT. As the lens is of short focal length, it has a very good depth of focus, and there's a small circle to indicate the hyperfocal distance between 6ft and infinity. The lens is protected by a sliding cover, which also locks the shutter when closed. Shutter speeds run from 1/200th to 1/5th and B (early production models also have a 1/2th second) and are set in the large wheel in the middle of the top plate. Apertures are selected by rotating the exposure calculator dial using the semi-circular tab. The exposure meter has an ASA range from 10 to 1600 (I believe the fastest film available at the time the Mamiya-16 Automatic was produced would have been Ilford HPS, at 800 ISO, which means the light meter would be designed to allow a one-stop push). As seen in the close up shot below, matching the shutter speed to the selenium meter needle selects the correct aperture, shown in the window directly above the shutter speed dial.

Close up of the meter dial

Other features of the camera include: a built-in filter, which slides over the lens, and can be changed by opening a cover on the underneath; PC socket for flash on the underneath of the camera; a tripod socket on both the bottom plate as well as on the side, located on the accessory shoe, which doubles as a fixing for the camera's wrist strap; and a film reminder above the wind on, with "Color/Black & White/Empty" printed on it.

The original Mamiya-16 camera used two metal cartridges, with the 16mm film travelling from one cartridge on the feed side into a second on the take-up side, meaning that the film doesn't need to be rewound once shot, and the empty supply-side cartridge is then transferred to the take-up chamber. The Mamiya-16 Automatic was designed for a new two chamber cartridge, not dissimilar to that of the 110 format, but the camera was still compatible with the earlier single cartridges. My example of the camera had a two chambered cartridge inside when I bought it, but I also found a pair of original single cartridges for the camera. The two chambered cartridge has spooless supply side, into which 45mm/18 inches film fits, taped to the take up spool in the other side. The Mamiya-16 Automatic's frame counter goes up to 20, but I've found that it's fairly easily to shoot 24 frames in practice, although with a longer length of film it becomes too stiff to advance (as the supply chamber doesn't have a spool, more film will fit into this than the chamber with the spool). Incidentally, the frame counter is not automatically reset when loading/unloading, the manual instructs the user to advance the empty camera to 18, helpfully picked out in red, and after loading, to take two shots to be ready to shoot the film.

Mamiya-16 Cartridges

For the first few test rolls that I shot with the Mamiya-16 Automatic, I used 35mm Rollei ATO 2.1, cut down to 16mm width using a ruler and craft knife, as, due to being orthochromatic, it's easy to do so under a red safelight (also loading the camera under a safelight means not losing the first couple of frames due to exposing the film when loading). I developed the film by taping it, emulsion side outwards, to some unwanted 35mm film and used standard Paterson spirals and tanks to process the film (dedicated 16mm tanks for subminiature cameras were produced, but without one this is the easiest way to develop the film, although I did have to untape it from the 35mm film to fully wash out the antihalation backing once developed and fixed).

Rollei ATO 2.1 (scan from print)

I was disappointed with the quality of the results of scanning my first negatives, as the flatbed scanner I was using is not quite capable of resolving the fine detail of the film; this is much less noticeable in larger formats of course. I made some prints on Ilford MG paper instead from some of the negatives of the first couple of films shot in the Mamiya-16 Automatic (I rarely print my photographs these days, almost all the images on this blog and my Flickr photostream are scanned from the negatives for convenience). One of the things that I wanted to do with the first couple of films I shot was to test the camera's ability to focus down to 1 foot. To do so, I photographed a page from a type catalogue, seen below, and measured the distance to the film plane indicator on the camera with a ruler for accuracy, necessary for close focus. The type size at the top of the page is 6pt; with close focus, there is considerable parallax error, and although there are marks in the finder to indicate this, it's a good idea to make sure the important parts of the composition are in the lower right portion of the viewfinder: in my shot of the type catalogue I had thought that the top of the page with the name of the typeface was included (Garamond, incidentally). This ability to close focus the Mamiya-16 Automatic also just happens to tally with the association of subminiature cameras to espionage in the popular imagination: as well as being small enough for easy concealment, it's also perfect for copying plans and documents.

Rollei ATO 2.1 (scanned from print)

Rollei ATO 2.1 (scanned from negative)

Rollei ATO 2.1 (scanned from negative)

Having successfully shot a few rolls of the cut down Rollei ATO 2.1 film, I bought some 16mm film to use in the camera, not wanting to rely on being able to cut film to the correct width in the darkroom. 16mm film is still widely available, thanks to the format being used for movie cameras. For motion picture purposes, 16mm film comes in a number of lengths, the shortest being 100ft/30.5m, and it's available unperforated, and single and double perforated. When using single perforated 16mm, it's advisable to ensure the perforations run at the top of the images, as there's a wider rebate to the negatives at the top, which leads me to think that the camera was designed to accept single perforated film, although the perforations aren't used to advance the frames. As the image projected inside the camera is reversed top-to-bottom, in practice this means the perforated edge is nearest to the bottom plate. In the plastic two chambered cartridge, the perforated edge runs next to the plastic bridge between the two chambers. 

Kodak WL Surveillance 2210 film

From a well-known online auction site, I purchased a roll of 16mm Kodak WL Surveillance 2210 film, a fast film with wide exposure latitude. Even accounting for plenty of wastage, 100ft of film should provide well over 50 cartridges of film, making each very cheap (I paid £15.50 for the film). I rated the film at 400, and stand developed it in Rodinal 1:100 for one hour. The first test of the WL Surveillance film was largely spoilt by a light leak thanks to the top cap of the plastic cassette staying in the camera body when I pulled the cartridge out, a reminder to be more careful to put tape around the caps to hold these in place. By contrast, the metal cassettes have ball locks on the caps on either end, as well as being heavier, so they drop out of the camera with greater ease.

Kodak WL Surveillance film

Kodak WL Surveillance film

The results from the Kodak WL Surveillance film inevitably display more pronounced grain than the Rollei ATO film, but the film's faster speed, latitude and longer tonal scale balance this for purposes of ease of use. As is common to subminiature cameras as a format, the ratio of a small frame size to the size of film grain and its resolving power is large determinant of subminiature image quality. However, these cameras were made with portability and economy of film as priorities, long before the emergence of compact 35mm cameras such as the Minox 35 removed one of their chief attractions.  Using 16mm subminiature cameras today, the main stumbling block is not the availability of film, but the different cassettes for each brand of camera: compared to the Mamiya-16 series, the Minolta-16 cameras appear less scarce and also had the dubious honour of having an Eastern Bloc copy, the Kiev Vega (it strikes me that making new proprietary cassettes could be one niche the much-forecasted 3D printer revolution could be good for). 16mm subminiature cameras also retain an advantage over the 110 format in the fact that, although the 110 cartridge also uses 16mm film, it has its own arrangement of perforations, and it's much more difficult replicate this as opposed to using 16mm film or cutting down other sizes.

Sources/further reading:

Mamiya-16 Automatic on Camera-Wiki
Mamiya-16 review on Dominic's Classic Cameras
Mamiya-16 cameras on Submin.com
The Subclub page on the Mamiya-16 Automatic

A box of vintage plates and paper

In my post 'Recent Glass Plate Work - part one', I speculated that vintage photographic plates are a finite resource. The size of this resource is a great unknown, and I mentioned in that post that boxes of glass plates appear frequently in online auctions, generally singularly, or sometimes in two or three. However, a recent successful bid yielded a box worth of vintage plates, films and papers - exceptional enough to write a post about - which arrived yesterday and should keep me in glass plates, along with those I already have, for several months. Dating the contents from the label designs of the various boxes, most of the plates are from the 1940s to 50s (it's possible some may be from the 1930s); the flashbulbs are from the 60s.

The contents in full:

• 2 boxes of Kodak P1200 Super Panchro-Press plates (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch), one sealed, one with the handwritten note: "4 Good Plates".
• 1 box of Kodak O800 Super Speed Orthochromatic plates (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch), sealed.
• 1 box of Kodak P300 Rapid Panchromatic plates (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch), with "2 New fil. 14/63" written on the box lid.
• 5 boxes of Ilford Soft Gradation Panchromatic plates (3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch), four boxes with the 'paddle steamer' trademark, (1940s), three  boxes sealed, one with "6 new" written on the label. One box, previously opened with R.10 label (late 1940s-1950s). One box in 6.5x9cm size, with R.10 label.
• 3 boxes of H.P.3 plates (all previously opened), two with 1950s labels, one 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch, one 4 1/3 x 6 1/2. One box with 'paddle steamer' trademark, stereo plates 6x13cm (?) size.
• 4 boxes of Ilford film, all 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch size, all previously opened. Two H.P.3, one with paddle steamer trademark, one without; one F.P.3; one Selochrome with paddle steamer trademark.
• 11 boxes, all unopened, of unbranded Normal Glossy bromide paper (100 sheets) 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.
• 1 box Ilford Bromide Postcard paper, previously opened, with paddle steamer trademark.
• 1 packet Ilford Bromide Photographic Paper, 25 sheets, unopened, 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.
• 2 packets Ilford Bromide Photographic Paper, 25 sheets, one unopened, one opened, 8 x 10 inches.
• 1 box Kodak Bromide WGS. 1. S. Photographic Paper, 50 sheets, previously opened, 8 x10 inches.
• 1 box Ilford Dark Room Safelights, 7x5 inches, the label on the box ("Variety S For Lantern Plates, Bromide Plastika and Multigrade Paper.") printed with 'J 44' (October 1944); inside one red, one green with a Kodak 'Wratten' 0A label.
• 1 box Sylvania AG3b flashbulbs.
• 1 Chelico film splicer.
• 2 manuals: Minolta Autocord and Walzflex M-500 TLR cameras.

127 Day July 2013

Stairs Down, Baby Ikonta, Efke R100

For this summer's 127 Day a couple of weeks ago, I had one roll of Efke R100 left, the last new roll of 127 film. With production of 127 format film ending last year, I also shot some 35mm Rollei ATO 2.1, cut and rolled with backing paper I'd been keeping from all the 127 film I've used previously. As I mentioned in my previous post, for pictorial contrast, I pre-exposed some of the ATO film to raise the shadow values in an attempt to lower the film's innate contrast. As ATO is orthochromatic, it was a simple matter to cut the appropriate length of film and tape it to the backing paper under a red safelight. The images that result are cropped from the full frame size and include the sprocket holes, not a look I'm generally that keen on, but the convenience of using 35mm film in this way meant I could take more shots on the day.

Beckton Alp, Baby Ikonta, Rollei ATO 2.1 with pre-exposure

I used my Baby Ikonta camera, and also the Foth Derby (although I have yet to develop the film from it, so the images illustrating this post are all from the Baby Ikonta). I took the Greenway from Old Ford Lock to Beckton, to the Beckton Alp (or Alps), a mound of contaminated waste from the gasworks which featured a dry ski slope where I once learned to ski. The dry ski slope was removed some years ago, and the hill is derelict, the viewing platform at the peak having been removed, and it is essentially closed to public access, although I found a gap in the fence where a gate was missing, and the graffiti, litter and fire damage to the remaining wooden structures suggest it is frequently visited. Reputedly the largest artificial hill in London, the views from the top are panoramic.

Remains of the Dry Ski Slope, Baby Ikonta, Rollei ATO 2.1 with pre-exposure

Beckton Retail Park, Baby Ikonta, Rollei ATO 2.1 with pre-exposure

The Greenway, Baby Ikonta, Rollei ATO 2.1 (no pre-exposure)

Rollei ATO 2.1

Rollei ATO 2.1 Supergraphic film

The emulsion marketed as Rollei ATO Supergraphic 2.1 used to be available as sheet film only, under the label of Maco Genius Film, but recently Maco has made it available in 35mm and 120 formats. ATO stands for Advanced Technical Orthographic, which might lead one to suppose it's an orthographic version of Rollei ATP, suggested as a replacement film for Kodak Technical Pan. However, these are both more versatile films which can be used for pictorial contrast without too much difficulty. I've had some experience with high contrast technical films, such as the Kodagraph Ortho film and Ilfodata HS23, a document film, and the general approach to using such films for continous tone or pictorial contrast is to rate the film with a low exposure index, and then either develop with a low contrast developer, or a highly dilute compensating developer such as Rodinal, which I use. I have found Rollei ATO 2.1 more difficult to control than the other films. Maco describe it as a 'true lithfilm' and to get continous tone negatives from it requires careful attention to both exposure and development. However, the film is cheap (I bought a box of ten films with an expiry date of 08/12 for €35 from macodirect.de ) and there are some advantages to being able to handle a film under a safelight.

Nominally rated 25 ISO, (although FirstCall post its speed at 32 ISO), with Rodinal, the Massive Dev Chart recommends 1 ISO and a dilution of 1:300. Maco recommend their own Rollei RLC Low Contrast film developer for pictorial contrast, or for 'normal' development (i.e. a very high contrast, lith-film look), Rollei RHC High Contrast document developer.

Rollei ATO 2.1, exposed at 25, 12, 6, 3, and 1 EI

For a first roll to test the film, I shot it with ratings down to 1 EI, and used Rodinal with a dilution of 1:200, rather than 1:300, as this would mean very low amounts of developer: with a 3-reel Paterson tank, 1:200 works out as 6ml Rodinal to 1200ml water. I kept to the Massive Dev Chart's recommended development time of 12 minutes, using 30 seconds agitation at the beginning, and a couple of inversions every minute. The results look overdeveloped, and also overexposed at 1 EI, but by 25 EI, there is no appreciable detail in the shadows (there is also, as one might expect, grain too fine to be resolved by a relatively inexpensive flatbed scanner). As the highlights still register clearly at 25 EI, it's possible to make high-contrast images with less exposure, if printed (or scanned) appropriately. However, there was a portion of this first film subject to a light leak (which may have been 'light piping' due to the particular type of extremely clear synthetic filmbase used for ATO): this suggested one way to lower the contrast of the film would be pre-exposure.

Rollei ATO 2.1 test roll, showing light leak

The principle of pre-exposure is to determine a minimum exposure where the film gains density, and use this to expose the film uniformly, then take the photograph as normal. This has the effect of raising the shadow values, while having no appreciable effect on midtones or highlights. Pre-exposure can be achieved by exposing the film in camera to a featureless, uniform surface such as a grey card which fills the entire frame before taking the shot. This is difficult to do while the film is in a 35mm camera as most do not permit double exposures, so I exposed short lengths of the film in the darkroom using an enlarger after doing a control test. This is easy to do as it's an orthochromatic film and can be handled with a red safelight. (I also spooled some lengths of the film with 127 backing paper for the upcoming 127 Day next month).

For a second test, I shot two rolls at the same time, one pre-exposed in the darkroom. Again, I used a full range of exposure indexes: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and also 25 EI. I developed these test rolls in Rodinal 1:200 again, but reduced the time to 10 minutes at 20ºC (I also used water instead of an acidic stop bath, as the emulsion on the first roll seems to have damaged easily). The results were better, and the pre-exposure did have the desired effect of raising the shadow values. In the examples below, the pre-exposed film is on the right of each pair.

Rollei ATO 2.1 exposed at 8 EI

Rollei ATO 2.1 exposed at 16 EI

Rollei ATO 2.1 exposed at 32 EI

As I did want to try the film with Rodinal diluted 1:300, I shot another roll, split in two lengths, and pre-exposed one. To develop the film I used 4ml Rodinal to 1200ml water. Compared to my previous test, the results are disappointing. I had hoped that increasing the dilution might lower ATO's innate contrast further, but instead (or perhaps as well) the negatives are extremely thin, even in the highlight areas. This may be that there was not enough Rodinal in the working solution: as mentioned in my post on stand development, Agfa recommended a minimum amount of 10ml Rodinal per film, which is conservative, as manufacturers usually are; I've found 6ml gives sufficiently consistent results. At this point I did feel frustrated at not quite getting a working combination of exposure and development.

Heygate Estate, Rollei ATO 2.1 at 25 EI

Heygate Estate, Rollei ATO 2.1 at 25 EI with pre-exposure

For a fourth roll of film, pre-exposed in the darkroom and shot at 25 EI (with some bracketing), I went back to using Rodinal with a dilution of 1:200, and ideally I would have used 10 minutes at 20ºC, but as the weather was warm and humid, the water from the darkroom tap was 22ºC, even after letting it run for some time. I reduced the development to 8 minutes accordingly, and the results below compare favourably with those using a dilution of 1:300. The high contrast of the film does make shooting any scene of normal contrast problematic if one wants to achieve detail in shadow areas without losing it in the highlights. With a minimum of pre-exposure, I've found this possible at 25 EI, although using an exposure index of 16, 12, or even 10 might provide better results. For hand-held shots using the film with available light, the slow speed of Rollei ATO means shooting at a wide aperture and relatively slow speeds (I generally used 1/50th and no smaller aperture than f4). However, I should finish by stating that this whole post is based on achieving continuous tone negatives from this film, which is not what Rollei ATO 2.1 is designed for.

Heygate Estate, Rollei ATO 2.1 at 25 EI with pre-exposure

Heygate Estate, Rollei ATO 2.1 at 25 EI with pre-exposure

'126 Day'

Kodak Instamatic 277X Camera

Like the '127 days' to encourage the use of the 127 format, yesterday, 12th June, for a '126 day', I shot the last 126 film left from those I had bought at a Paris flea market. I had previously used one of the films in a Kodak Instamatic 50, and found all the results underexposed. As the 126 format was designed with inexpensive snapshot cameras in mind, most have a limited capacity to adjust settings for exposure, but to get results from a colour film nearly forty years old, I wanted to increase the exposure to counter the film's inevitable loss of sensitivity.  I chose to use the Instamatic 277X above in preference to the 50 (which has just two shutter speeds), as this has an adjustable aperture. Around the lens is a band with pictograms for lighting conditions on one side (from 'beach' to 'dark cloud'), and distances for flash on the other: turning this either way has the effect of opening the aperture, which is controlled by two blades giving a square aperture when in the central position, stopped down.

Perutz Daylight Type Colour Reversal Film

I used Perutz Daylight Type Colour Reversal Film, which has a develop before date of May 1974. Originally 64 ASA, I shot the whole film with the camera's aperture at its widest setting. I had wanted to shoot the film in full sunlight, but such was the weather yesterday that I simply went for a walk and tried to shot the frames when gaps in the clouds appeared.

As colour reversal, the Perutz film was originally for slides. The film was 'process paid' and the box contains an envelope to return the film to Perutz for processing, no longer a possibility. The film also requires different chemistry to the E6 reversal process still in use today, as the Perutz film was made for Agfa's C18 process (Perutz, a photographic company founded in the 19th century, was bought out by Agfa in 1960s). Incidentally, there's an advert for Perutz slide film on YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEYv_pbmcv4

Rather than attempt to develop the film as colour reversal film, it was easier to cross-process it as a black and white negative film. Inside the 126 plastic cartridge is a roll of paper-backed film on a plastic core, rather like any older rollfilm format. The film is the same width as 35mm, which means that it can be put onto a 35mm spool for developing. I used stand development with Rodinal diluted 1:100, for 1 hour. Once developed, the film has a heavy yellow-green cast, but, by giving the film as much exposure as possible, this has resulted in usable negatives.

Recent Glass Plate Work - part two

Ensign Folding Klito de Luxe No.9

Over the past few months of looking out for unused vintage photographic plates, I have noticed that the most common size of plates to find in online auctions (in the UK at least) are in 'quarter-plate' format (3 1/4x4 1/4 inch/8.2x10.8cm). Smaller formats, like 6.5x9cm and their Imperial equivalent are also relatively common, while 4x5 inch plates are rare in comparison. I had been intending to make adaptors for my 4x5 format holders to fit the quarter-plate size, but it was as easy to buy a camera in the right format specifically to shoot the plates: the Ensign Folding Klito de Luxe No.9. This would have been a fairly well-featured hand-and-stand camera of its time. My model has an Aldis-Plano Anastigmat f6.8 lens in an Ensign-Sector everset shutter. The camera features double extension bellows, held by the distinctive hinged metal arms at each side, significant front rise and fall, and front cross movements.

Ilford G.30 Chromatic plate, Ensign Folding Klito

With the Ensign Folding Klito, I loaded a number of plate holders to test plates from some of the already open boxes in the quarter-plate size. Apart from the Ilford G.30 Chromatic plate, which I shot as a single exposure based on my previous experience of the plates (the results were more fogged than the other boxes I used), I made graduated tests with successive exposures on each plate. FP4 first appeared as a plate emulsion in 1955, and as Ilford's packaging changed around 1960, these plates could be dated to 1955-60 (Ilford didn't produce FP4 for roll film until 1968 - and according to Photomemorablia this was not the same emulsion as the plate version: the plates were rated 160 ASA post-1960, unlike the rollfilm FP4, which remains 125 ISO to this day in its 'Plus' iteration). For this test I rated the plate at 40, half its pre-1960 speed rating, and took four successive exposures.

Ilford FP4 plate, Ensign Folding Klito

I also had a box of Imperial Special Rapid plates, the test of which did not come out, and two boxes of Kodak plates, Kodak Orthochromatic plates and P.1200 Super Panchro Press. The Orthochromatic plate, below, was partially fogged from exposure to light: the dark diagonal line in the lower left of the picture is a shadow from the cardboard runner that usually holds the plates together in pairs (the rest of the box may be in better condition). The P.1200 Super Panchro Press plates have a handwritten date on the box '11/04/61'; the plate test below is fairly unpromising.

Kodak Orthochromatic plate, Ensign Klito

Kodak P.1200 Panchro-Press plate, Ensign Klito

Having shot the tests, I swapped the original Aldis-Plano Anastigmat f6.8, for a faster lens (to aid focussing in low light), an f4.5 Dominar from an Ica Ideal III, which, unusually for a 6.5x9cm camera, has a 120mm lens rather than the standard 105mm focal length for the 6x9 format.

Ensign Folding Klito de Luxe No.9 with Ica Dominar lens

Entrance to a Park, FP4 plate, Ensign Klito with Ica Dominar lens

Park at Night, Ilford G.30 Chromatic plate, Ensign Klito with Ica Dominar lens

In same lot as the quarter-plate FP4 and G.30 plates that I've tested and used with the Ensign Klito above, there were three boxes of plates, which didn't have a size on them, but were in slightly larger boxes than the others. These were 9x12cm plates, which I shot with a Voigtländer Avus with a f4.5 Skopar lens; I've also got a Kodak Recomar 33, but this has a slower lens, and less suited to night photography.

The three boxes (all previously opened) contained Barnet Line-Tone (Thin Film) plates, Ilford H.P.3 and Ilford Soft Gradation Panchromatic plates. The Barnet Line-Tone plates were too heavily fogged to scan, although an image was discernable against a bright light, from three successive exposures at 10 EI.

H.P.3 - Hypersensitve Panchromatic plates were introduced in 1943. Before the 1960 change in meter settings these were rated at 200 ASA. The box style suggests these plates are from the late 1940s to the 1950s. According to Silver By The Ton, HP4 was first produced in rollfilm as early as 1960 and sheet film in 1964: it may not have been produced as a glass plate, and it doesn't appear in the plates list in the Appendix of Silver By The Ton. The Technical Information Sheet for HP3 plates from the Ilford Technical Information Book is dated 1961, so HP3 plates were produced alongside HP4 in rollfilm for a period. For the test below, I metered for 100 EI, and took four successive exposures.

Soft Gradation Panchromatic plates were introduced by Ilford in 1928. This emulsion was later given the designation R.10, and post-1960 were rated at 100 ASA. These were the first plates I shot last year, in a smaller size, and gave good results. The box of the 9x12cm Soft Gradation Panchromatic plates has an earlier packaging style, possibly dating back to the 1940s. I metered for 50 EI, and gave the plate three successive exposures. The results were as good as the same plates from the 1960s, and suggest 25 to 12 as a usable exposure index.

H.P.3 plate test, Voigtländer Avus

Soft Gradation Panchromatic plate test, Voigtländer Avus

For the first 9x12cm glass plates I shot at night, I chose a fairly difficult subject. The lights inside the telephone exchange are very bright in comparison with the exterior of the building, which is lit from streelights partially obscured by trees. This gives the lighting of the scene a look reminiscent of being underwater. The plate might also be a little underexposed due to reciprocity law failure (for comparison I also shot the scene on Fomapan 100 film). Despite the heavily fogged Barnet Line Tone plate, I'd loaded a couple more plateholders with them, so I shot two. I scanned the best result which shows the light from the doorway just visible.

Telephone Exchange, Ilford H.P.3 plate, Voigtländer Avus

Telephone Exchange, Barnet Line-Tone plate, Voigtländer Avus

Sources/Further reading
Silver by the Ton - A History of Ilford Limited 1879-1979, RJ Hercock and GA Jones
Ilford Technical Information Book Volume 2