Me too, but on the other hand i certainly don't miss breathing all the noxious chemicals.

"but on the other hand i certainly don't miss breathing all the noxious chemicals."

The coverup of p-phenylenediamine effects by the industry (not just Kodak) ranks right up there with polyurethane manufacture and isocyanates. And the softening of OSHA (by the Reagan administration) to allow them to list unspecified "proprietary" ingredients made it virtually impossible to bring a case. But even prevailing and winning a settlement doesn't make the effects go away. They last a lifetime. I have no wish to go back into the darkroom. Just a visit to a pharmacy with a minilab is enough of a reminder for me.

Never seen a video that can produce the amazing look of home-mixed D-23 and a roll of Tri-X film.

Kent

Usually D-76 with Plus-x pan here, at least for the first couple of years. But B&W is just so ... grey. By the time i was 15 i was doing almost entirely C-41 and Kodacolor 100 or 400, printing on Ektacolor 74 with EP2. It was so much nicer and more rewarding than B&W. I did a fair amount of Ektachrome too, but sitting around watching projected slides was getting to be passe by then.

Sad part was getting rejected by a lot of photo contests. Most of them required that the student do their own darkroom work and most of the entry panels refused to believe that a 15 year old could develop and print color.

In any case, yes, still much richer than any video.

Yep, D76 and Pan x for me as well. I only did a bit of color slides, mostly the High Speed GAF stuff. I think it was like 500ASA and I would push it to 1500 or so for concerts.

I remember getting holes in my jeans when I would spill the fixer.( or maybe the stop, I can't remember which one was real acidic)

My mom always said that I would probably be healthier if I didn't have a darkroom in my bedroom. She might be right.

Dave T2

If you wanted incredible range that you could print on #1 paper for Adams-like results, it was Pan-X shot at ASA 12 and developed for up to an hour in weak (1:10) Dektol (no, those are not misprints!)

Learned this trick from a Pulitzer winning journalist back when I was just a kid in college.

I could never shoot that slow. I used PlusX a lot, I think I said PanX before, but Plus X was my B&W of choice. I didn't like some of the slower color films either. I need at least 200ASA (or ISO now) to shoot.

I don't think I could have waited an hour for a print. Not enough patience.

Dave T2

"I don't think I could have waited an hour for a print."

How about just for the negative? That is what I was describing (and yes, we used Dektol).

Sheesh, I missed that. I even lose patience reading sometimes. :)

I bet that would make a beautiful print though. I had heard of using dektol that way, but never was one for experimenting that much. I even stopped using polycontrast paper because I didn't like spending the time testing for the best contrast filter.

Dave T2

In the professional photography lab business ... Kodak was often called "The Great Yellow Father" ... at least by the Kodak service personel who came to our lab.

Now my lab (where I have worked for the last 18 years) is closing and soon I will be out of a job.

Yes, we "went digital" but it did not make up for the loss of income from the film sent to our lab.

Kelly,
Unless you're a bit younger than I thought, I think you would have been using C-22 color negative process when you were 15, not C-41. Were you born after 1958?
Also possible you were using Ektaprint C rather than Ektaprint 2 paper process, which was a five step, rather than unified bleach-fix process.
;?)

I must be quite a bit younger, though C-22 was still around for a few films at the time (Kodacolor X?) and being phased out. It disappeared completely before i got out of high school.

I remember reading about Ektaprint C and am very grateful i never had to deal with it.

Born in 1963, graduated in 1981.

I miss Kodachrome 25, Ektar 25 or later Royal Gold 25!

"Born in 1963, graduated in 1981."
[Musicvid removes foot firmly implanted in mouth]
Graduated 1966. Kids!

Interesting analysis from US News
http://news.yahoo.com/4-lessons-kodaks-comedown-172044000.html

Kodak filing for bankrupcy protection. Talk about the end of an era.

brighterside,

Hope you can find emloyment soon - been where you are with a dying company (I worked for Western Union). All the best to you,

RalphM

Plus-X and Pan-X for me, developed with Microdol. I was into small grain (although I eventually came to love Tri-X for many things and probably shot more of that than anything else). I used to buy it in big reels and then use the bulk loader. I think I got it down to about two cents a shot at one point.

Yeah, I had two bulk loaders and bought hundreds of those metal film cassettes.

Dave T2

Yeah, back in my high school days as a photog for the newspaper/yearbook, we used Plus-X for the still shots, Tri-X for sports. My friends & I started somewhat of a revolution when we started using these new-fangled SLRs rather than the traditional Crown Graflex.

The school's Omega enlarger would work well for the 4x5 negatives from the Crown Graflex, but couldn't enlarge the 35mm greater than 5x7.

The first SLR I owned was a Miranda. The mirror would flip up when shooting, but you had to advance the film to lower the mirror. Later I upgraded to a Pentax H3v (still have it - a good camera).

Oh, the memories!
...Jerry

I quickly developed an intense distaste for grain, moved to High Contrast Copy film. This stuff was normally used for microfilm purposes, but there was a developer solution you could buy that delivered a workable grayscale. ASA was about 5-10, but when I'd shoot with a decent Nikkor lens stopped down a few stops and with a tripod, one could get some amazingly-detailed 16x20 prints. Almost like working with a 4x5 camera.

Anyway, a year later I started shooting only Kodachrome 25 and using the then-new Agfa Cibachrome process to produce color prints from those slides. Great process as I recall, not cheap but fairly easy to do, with relatively wide temperature control limits (for a color developer). I used the dorm darkroom.

I do miss the amazing clarity of Kodachrome 25. Still have my Carousel projector around here somewhere.