Planet Randy

I’ve finally  decided to buy Reinhold’s Wollaston Meniscus. I couldn’t find a decently priced  lens that will cover 11×14 format, most are ridiculously priced. This 335mm F/4.6 meniscus is only $100 and the quality is amazing – hard to believe Reinhold makes enough money to make this lucrative.

Now to find some time to play.

Trying out my recently acquired Rembrandt Model I 5×7 camera.

Wollensak Verito 9″ at 50 seconds wide open
4″×6″ black aluminum
B&S OWH
KCN

Cooke 13″ at 6 seconds wide open
6″×8″ black aluminum
B&S quick clear collodion
KCN

Cooke 13″ at 4 seconds wide open
6″×8″ black aluminum
B&S quick clear collodion
KCN

Cooke 13″ wide open 3 seconds, 6×8 black aluminum with B&S version of Quinn’s quick clear, B&S Developer, KCN

Cooke 13″ wide open 2 seconds, 6×8 black aluminum with B&S version of Quinn’s quick clear, B&S Developer, KCN

Last year, I’ve acquired three “turn of the century (x2)” lenses and never had the opportunity to used them since I do not have a proper studio camera to mount them on. After talking to Will Dunniway on the first day of our collodion workshop regarding these lenses, he kindly offered to test all three of them for me. Here are his findings…

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Many thanks to Randy Estudillo, owner of all these lenses used here in this visual and performance test.

The lenses ALL proved well, but two suffered some plate collodion issues. Read on>>>Will Dunniway

ROSS No. 3 Cabinet 8×10 lens. No.68347

The ROSS Cabinet No. 3 was spectacular.  Matt Blais of Riverside, California posed for these images during a tutoring session. He is holding a tintype he made. It was cloudy the first day, then turned into a down pour of rain. My exposure in the rain was 22 second, wide open. The next day with no clouds or rain, it was 10 seconds, wide open with indirect light. Whole Plate Collodion glass negative

Matt Blais by Matt Blais. Tutoring image, collodion glass negative

Matt Blais by Matt Blais. Tutoring image. Tintype

Taylor Taylor Hobson, Cooke, f4.5, Anastigmat, series II 8×10 lens soft focus, No. 21663

I made images with the Taylor Taylor Hobson – Cooke, 14 in BF., f4.5, Anastigmat, series II lens this week I only did a tintype because I did not have a sheet of glass this size ready and it was a last minute image on the fly. The image was perfect in the tray, but the highlights blocked out due to the ammonium in my bromide. I am dropping this from my collodion formula for a while because my images from time to time dry lighter. Great for landscapes, but this does not help with portraiture. Very frustrating. The new ammonium bromide I am using must have changed (this is a relative new problem) in the new batches I am being sold. More testing here.

This Cooke lens was mounted on my 12×10, 1875 English, Henry Moorse front board camera. It filled it with more image to spare – even though it is listed as a 8×10 plate lens. It has a 14″ BF. i.e. a 12×10 + plate lens with soft focus built in. My exposure was f8 at 15 second. Very, very nice lens despite the highlights being a tad over-exposed in the dry off.  I wish this lens was mine.

My wife. Frances Dunniway by Will Dunniway. 12×10 tintype.

Holmes Booth & Hayden 1859 Half plate Petzval lens. No. 5732

Randy Estudillo by Randy Estudillo in workshop with Will Dunniway. Whole plate collodion glass negative

This is another one of those sweet Holmes Booth & Hayden, New York made petzval lenses.  It is the kind of optic that once you own it, you should never sell it.

This workshop collodion glass negative image is not representative of it’s performance at all, but it is all I have. Randy took the lens home. This collodion glass negatives detail and its nice sweet spot was muted by using a ‘green collodion’ that was cloudy and had too much water in it. This caused the ‘crepe’ lines throughout the image. I need to spend some more time with this jewel of brass and glass.

Exposure was 10 seconds wide open. The lens is a half plate that was made around 1859-60.

Will Dunniway
2188 Turnberry Lane
Corona, CA 92881-7439

http://www.collodion-artist.com

Dallmeyer 3D, 20 seconds exposure, wide open, 4×6 tin

Here’s my first portrait in Collodion. It’s a little overexposed and I couldn’t get the silver to sensitize evenly using a tray. So, I ordered a 5×7 silver tank from Lund Photographics, hopefully that will resolve the issue. This experience taught me to really keep a CLEAN equipment – it’s hard to fathom doing this process in the field.

I find myself scouring for small pouring bottles and non-ridged trays everywhere I go, even though I already have several that’s appropriate (hahaha…).

Thanks wife!

Dallmeyer 3D, 6 seconds exposure, wide open, 4×6 tin

Getting better in exposing tintypes but still have to deal with unwanted artifacts. I know the key is a “clean, clean, clean” equipment.

Dallmeyer 3D, 2 minutes exposure, wide open, 4×6 tin

After taking Dunniway’s workshop on collodion last month, I was able to gather enough materials and chemistry to makes some plates. This 4×6 tin was taken with a Dallmeyer 3D for 20 seconds wide open under a 500 watt halogen lamp. I’ve still got some technical issues but I’m getting there.

…soft focus that is. I plan on doing some collodion work next year and this Dallmeyer Petzval 3D soft focus lens became available from a trusted source. The “3D” is not for three dimensional, though it does impart a 3D look due to the awesome “bokeh”.

Here’s a couple of first – first soft focus image and first paper negative. I wanted to try this  lens out but was too lazy to develop film, I new people used paper negatives before so I gave that a go. I had some old 5×7 Arista EDU RC paper around; I scoured the  forums and the recommended sensitivity for this paper is ISO 3. Loaded some holders, dragged the Korona to the back yard, found a small bottle, plucked a flowering weed and viola! Cheap as chips.

I’ll prolly enlarge this if I get to enjoy it enough.