Camera mounts suck!

Here's my original post:

I just bought, via eBay, a camera which I thought would have the same lens mount as the one I already own (so I wouldn't need to buy new lenses). Unfortunately not. Although it is also a Fujica, like my current camera, it is an earlier model and has the M42 mount instead of the x-fujinon mount that my current AX-3 has. Major pisser. Does anyone know of a source for a lens mount adapter so that I can use my x-fujinon lenses on my M42 mount camera? I'm keeping an eye on eBay and I'm pretty sure such an animal does exist. Does anyone know of a dealer that may specialise or, at least, carry Fujica stuff?

The answer is sadly in the resoundingly negative. Apparently no such animal exists. Here's what I found out and posted:

Thanks to all who responded - you have all confirmed what my research has already shown. Apparently, Fuji originally made cameras with the much wider used M42 (c. 1977) mount but then, for the AX series (c. 1980) decided to try to "tunnelvision" their consumers into the X mount. Because their M42 cameras appeared earlier (and, for the time, probably rightly assumed that new fujica lens purchasers already owned M42 mount cameras, that they would want to convert to the newer X-mount lenses) they produced an M42 to X-mount converter.
I can't blame them, after all, who would know in 1980 that their X-Mount would be a boondoggle?

I did consider the suggestion from Rod Smith (on Goggle Groups) to sell the newly acquired M42 mount camera and try to find an X-mount, but I think a more prudent suggestion would be to just simply bite the cost (a whole ruining 24 dollars) of the M42 and go with this for future purchases as it seems far more compatible for ... whatever I may choose to buy in the future as the X-mount is such a rare commodity. No doubt I'll keep the one I have and will, in twenty years, make a huge profit to send my kids to college ;)

Just out of interest, I inherited this camera from my wife who was given it from her late husband's sister. Now I see why she gave it away!

I'm cool with buying new lenses. If anyone's got a deal, let me know!

I got this question in my email over the weekend:

>I have bought yesterday WORK EMULSION by Tetenal. I will try it as soon as possible. I have read that, if you want to use it on glass, porcelane and other glossy materials, you can treat them with normal GELATINE that you can buy in any drugstore. Have you ever tried this?

You bet. Before using the emulsion on any extremely slick surface you need to prepare the surface with something that the emulsion will stick to. If transparency is not an issue then you can use an oil based glaze otherwise gelatin preparation is the way to go. What you do is this:

1 - Clean your surface. It has to be 100% clean. Use laundry soap to accomplish this.

2 - Make a very dilute gelatin solution (approximately 1/2 teaspoon of gelatin to a half a cup of water.

3 - Pour the solution over the glass (or other surface). Drain off the excess. WIPE THE OTHER SIDE if using a glass plate. Otherwise the gelatin will coagulate and cause weird effects.

4 - Leave at least 24 hours for the gelatin to solidify.

5 - Apply emulsion, expose and process as per manufacturers instructions.

Tip: If you want the blank areas of your picture to be transparent then leave the plate in fixer until all of the unexposed areas are transparent (apparently the unexposed chemicals get washed away leaving transparent areas). This takes around half an hour.

The gelatin will fog up making the transparent areas translucent. I have found no way around this at this time. If you find something, let me know (maybe use a glaze rather than gelatin?)

> I was thinking that it could be possible to put gelatin upon metallic plates and after use on it the emulsion, avoiding any problem caused by the contact of it with metals?
While theoretically this is possible, the makers of my brand of emulsion recommend a glaze for this purpose rather than the gelatin technique.

> Another question. If I put emulsion on a drawing paper coloured with oil painting or with tempera would it cause any problem? It would be better to use acrylics?

I have no idea. I've never tried this, but I would suggest that there might be danger of the processing chemicals somehow reacting with the paints. Oil paint should be safe as, after all, the manufacturers recommend using an oil based glaze. Acrylics may or may not work. Try it and let me know what happens.

rts.

I managed to expose another glass plate successfully with just the right exposure. It turned out that it does require a very low F and a fairly long amount of time (two stops wider than the last experiment for 15 minutes gave a very nice rendering). This was three days ago and now the plate, as it continues to "dry" is fogging up. I framed it with green cardboard in the back and now it's going from a strong green to a very pale green as the glass continues to fog.

I suspect that this is just a "feature" of Liquid Light, but I will send an email to the Rockland Colloid people and ask about this phenomenon. I have two more glass plates gelatin primed. I'm thinking about layering them with the emulsion in the next day or two. Perhaps I will try "drying" them after processing in light-proof conditions. Again, this plate was sitting under lights.

The questions were these:

1) Do you need gloves to handle liquid emulsion?
2) What are the exposure times?

No gloves. Fairly easy to handle although I discovered over the weekend that it's best to add a small amount to your whatever, spread it around, add a little more etc, because it's so watery when liquid that it easily runs off your whatever and onto your lap/shoes/floor.

Don't know about times, precisely. You need to experiment a bit. I still haven't got exposure quite right.

Liquid Emulsion - Phase III

I tried a coating on a glass plate yesterday. Unfortunately it was underexposed so it didn't quite turn out properly. I'll have to do it again. However, I did discover something (from reading the instructions - okay, maybe that's cheating ;) - giving your print extra long time in the fixer causes the emusion to turn transparent which is perfect if you want to print on glass.

The other advantage of the gelatin-on-glass method is that if you don't like the result you can simply wash the emulsion off and start again (which is what I will have to do). However, after being left overnight, the emulsion dried out and became brittle - this, in itself, is not a bad thing except that the transparent areas began to fog up. Perhaps more time in the fixer? I gave it the recommended two minutes. Or maybe it needs to solidify in darkness - this was left under our bright kitchen lights. Next time I'll try leaving it in the darkroom.

I also tried it on a piece of cloth. The result is spectacular. Here's a tip, though. Use a piece of cardboard as a backing board. The emulsion will actually stick the fabric to the cardboard making it easy to handle - simply treat it like a piece of photo paper. In fact, you can use a piece of photo paper. Rockland Colloid, the manufacturers of Liquid Light, suggest giving fabric two coats of the emulsion. I don't think that's completely necessary, but I will try it to see if, maybe, it gives more depth to the image. Also, if you use a piece of photo paper as a backing board, don't make it an exposed one. I found that the developer caused the exposed halides to lift off the paper and leech into the fabric covering it with lots of little black dots. The effect is interesting - possibly even desirable, but it completely trashes all of your chemicals.

Liquid Emulsion - Phase II

Ok. This is something I've found out - you can get a good, even distribution of the stuff by using a pastry brush. Works like a charm!

Liquid Emulsion

Last weekend I started playing around with liquid emulsions (Liquid Light, to be precise) and did manage to get a light image on a piece of fabric. I have a piece of glass gelatin primed and ready to go.