[LargeFormat] Re: Shooting LF in below freezing conditions

[Joseph O'Neil]

At 19:55 4/24/03 -0700, you wrote:
>In fact, astrophotographers have long used cold to reduce reciprocity 
>failure. I've seen dry ice cameras for exactly that purpose. No, I would 
>not know how much difference it would make with modern films. The last 
>time I looked into this was about 20 years ago.

         "Cold cameras" are nto very common anymore amoung 
astro-photogrpahers, with gas hypering or even digital having replaced 
those cameras, but for guys who are shooting 35mm films, mostly colour, 
mostly slide, everyone notices that when you shoot in winter - in cold 
climates- that the cold does decrease reciprocity failure, so I see no 
reason why it should not work the same for winter shooting with LF.

         Interestingly at this very moment there's a thread ont eh 
astro-photo mailing list about which 4x5 film is best to use.  You see, you 
need deep red response to caputre nebulae - most colour films cut off the 
red too short for astro-photo use.  For example, tech pan, with it;'s red 
response to 690nm, is a favourite with B&W shooters in not just 4x5, but 
all formats (35mm, 120).

         The other thing that is noted is some of the new colour films 
seeem to have very low reciprocity failure, at elast comapred to other 
films.  For a combination fo good, deep, red response and low reciprocity 
failure, Kodak Elite 200 or E200 slide film is the top favourite in 35mm 
and 120.  The 200 vrsion, after much testing by many people, for reasons 
unkown, has lower reciporcity failure than either the 100 or 400 ISO 
versions.

         the only problem is, E200 does not apepar to be available in 
4x5.  if I am wrong, please let me know ASAP, there's a pile fo guys 
wanting to buy the stuff in 4x5 (a "pile" being maybe two dozen, not two 
thousand.  :)

joe





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