From both sides of the pond :)

My school friend has kindly brought some stuffs from Germany again. Thanks a lot, Enam.

 

Kaiser Slimlite LED Light Box 2448 (5x7 inch): [URL] After some analysis, I picked this one for the following reasons

- weighs only 500 grams, and about 21mm thin - very good whilst on the move

- takes rechargeable/alkaline batteries (6 AAA), or a power adapter (9 volts & 2 watts).

- has a colour temperature of 5000K, with a CRI of 90, two very critical features for slide/negative evaluation, scanning, slide and other copying activities.

- Interesting observation: according to the accompanied spec sheet, it has 20 LED bulbs, which I think, I can change as and when needed. Not likely though, because I'm hoping to build a large light box myself.

- It comes with a very neat looking bag to keep it safe, and away from dusts.

- In case someone is wondering, it is made in China, not in Germany. But you can be assured of Kaiser's very good quality.

 

Adox CMS 20 II [URL]: One of the sharpest and highest resolution films ever. I've been eagerly waiting to try this film. I really wanted to use it with 'ADOTECH II' developer. FYI, Adotech II is actually made by SPUR. Their version is called 'SPUR Modular UR New' developer. But unfortunately, the developer is way too expensive.

 

Candidate Formulas

(1) Developer-X (PG110B)

(2) TEA Version of H&W Control, see post # 11

(3) Caffenol LC+C (speed enhancing low contrast microfilm developer)

(4) Obsidian Aqua: Not sure if it will work, but worth a try.

 

Compare to the Adotech II, or SPUR's offering, they can be made quite cheaply. If you look at the individual formula, they are very similar. But those tiny variations matter.

 

I'm likely to try Jay's Developer-X first - because his one is the latest and I like his Dev-X outputs (, along with his OA, 510-Pyro stuffs). In all likelihood, he must have done those technical/qualitative evaluation already and is aware of the other high res. film developers, which I am not capable of. I can't wait to try them. All I now need is some free time and some good daylight!

 

Rollei RPX 400: My second bulk roll of this very forgiving film. So far, it has dealt with my mistakes quite nicely. If you're buying from EU, this is probably the best value ISO 400 film.

 

T-MAX 100 (TMX) and T-MAX 400 (TMY-2): For my upcoming medium format camera. IIRC, Kodak did a lot of research to come up with these TMAX films. I would like to start with SPUR HRX and Jay's Obsidian Aqua. It's a shame that Kodak is struggling these days with its film business. :(

 

Ilford Microphen: Got this mainly for pushing films to ISO 1600 and beyond. In some films, compared to HC-110, Microphen does a better job - i.e., better looking grains. I like me grains as small as possible! They compliment HP5 Plus, RPX 400 nicely at higher speeds too.

 

I'll be using ID-68 in the future though, because in all likelihood, Microphen and ID-68 are quite similar (, if not the same). For more information see Ian Grant's Lost Labours.

For a detailed discussion check this very illuminating APUG thread.

Done