Over the summer I’ve acquired a few more cameras and tried lots more film, so check back for reviews and other fun stuff!

In the mean time, I hope this will tie you over:

Since Christmas I’ve been collecting the necessary items to start developing film at home. Well, the last thing I needed [fixer] came in the other day, and since then I’ve done three rolls… one Kodak Tri-X 400, one Kentmere 400 & one Ilford HP5+ pushed to 800.

Although I was rather nervous to develop my first roll since high-school, with a little help from my better half, it was a breeze… and the second roll went even smoother.

Now, I’m not going to go into the whole process of how it’s done because there are already so many great step by step instructions on other photographers’ blogs. So, I’ll just point you to some of my favourites:

• Fecal Face Dot Com has a great set of step by step instructions, which are pretty entertaining.
  
• Cromogenic.net also has a nice, to the point writeup of the process.
• Shawn Hoke did a wonderful three-part set of instructions, which is defiantly worth the read.
  
• I’m saving the best for last here… Ilford has published a fantastic, in depth and very thorough set of instructions which you can download as a .pdf.

What’s been your experience processing film at home? Got any good tips or tricks? Leave me a comment and check out the gallery below.

[Show as slideshow]

I got this thing because I was sick of lugging around my father’s old, gigantic, crappy Minolta Freedom AF (more like freedom fixed focus) when I wanted a camera, but couldn’t bring my F80.

After a little research, and some eBaying I found this lovely Sears 35rf… a rebranded Ricoh 500rf.

The eBay description said it was unused. That was true. When I got it the focus ring was stuck. With nothing really to lose, I forced it. It took a while, but now the focusing is, more or less, smooth.

The light seals are a bit gooey but still in tack; however, I had a couple very noticeable light leaks on the latest roll of film I had developed… I think I’ll have to change them soon.

Right now I’m using regular Dollarama brand Alkaline 1.5 volt batteries and the metering seems fine, at least good enough for print film.

The lens is sharp and fast enough… although with the closest focusing distance of 3ft and widest aperture of f2.8, there’s no real bokeh to speak of.

All in all, I think it was $30 well spent.

As Jeff puts it -

“Loud, wild and crazy tones are what this pedal is all about. A pretty pink finish with a colour changing LED and a thick wall of crazy fuzz in a small little package.”

Check out the video and see for yourself, but I’ll warn you now… it’s not for the faint of heart.

The pedal was built around an RCA germanium transistor in the fashion of a Muff Fuzz with a pot added for bias adjustment. I recorded the demo with a Vox Lil Night Train and a Gibson SG at a little louder than what I consider ‘apartment volume’. I would have liked to do it with my AC15, but just couldn’t without exasperating the neighbours.

Maritime Analog has some great things on offer and in the works. Check ‘em out!