Week 41 – The Goerz Taro Tenax
This week and next week were going to be hard in that I have
planned some leave and would be leaving early Sunday, a day I normally square
up all the processing, scanning and writing. Next week is sorted with something
quite new to me and will be coming on the trip, but this week I needed
something that fitted the schedule. Russell made a few suggestions but I felt
we had been there before or that it might come back and bite me. Then I spotted
the long extended bellows on the shelf. Enter the Goerz Taro Tenax…I duped my
wife into researching it! She delved deep with this on google - c1912, a half plate double extending folder,
simple 125mm lens pairing, F stops from 6.8 to 45 and shutter from 1 second to
100th + T & B. focusing is by rack and pinion projected onto a
ground glass. It is from one of the original 4 that made up Zeiss Ikon and the
last one of the group I have to shoot. A good reason right there. Secondly it
gave me a chance to tackle the 1952/3 Ilford Ortho again, I have done all right
with it but I would like to produce a nice small set with a vintage look. Third
and finally I get another go at practicing sheet film which has been a bit hit
and miss if I am honest! So the scene is set – an old man with very old film, 65yrs old, and an even older camera, 105yrs old!…
I did the usual under red light conditions of cutting down
the sheets to 9x12 and loading 3 slightly iffy plate holders and packed them in
a light tight bag. I had said last the time
that I felt it needed to be between my previous rating of asa 25 & 50 so 32
it was. Day 1 rain! Day 2 locked into work. Finally day 3 I got 2 hours. First
frame I chose the old school building at work. I set up, did all my stuff,
checked – re checked! Took the shot… the film popped out as I replaced the dark
slide! Grump! Repeat, this time all went well and I wander down to the Barbican
and took my final frame as good as the second. You need to bear in mind that also
after this I shot 5 frames to test a Kodak conversion appearing in week 51, and
then did an 8 frame shutter test on the undead Graflex for week52, please do
tune in for that!, and processed them so I am pushing the envelope in this
shortened week! Anyway after work that evening/early morning I developed those
two frames in DDX to see if it did better and they looked pretty good, some
expected and understandable light leaks from the holders along with old film
fogging but all else seemed ticketty boo.
Test shots done I reloaded 4 holders this time. Bolstered by
the positive response to my interview published by emulsive film that day I set
off on a Dartmoor drive with the family, they were very good at putting up with
my faffing and I managed all 5 shots slowly but without hitch. I tried a
landscape but I suspect this will struggle for detail, a group shot of my girls
for something a little closer, a derelict church and an old stone bridge. All
good subjects for a vintage feel. I kept with the DDX theme when developing and
was pleased to see similar results.
Now, given the bigger negatives size scanning was not an
option so I made a small mask to help produce some contact prints and at time
of writing I have 3 reasonable prints given the films age and condition, I have
confidence the other 3 will follow suit. There is only 6 I know but this is
quite a lengthy process and time is not my friend. I think some tweaking in the
dark room and with more experience I could cut though some of that fog and push
a little contrast in there maybe but they will do nicely. I may add a little
contrast post print scan bit will leave all else as is…there is a mountain of
dust in those bellows! I got out what I could.
So, I achieved what I
set out to do. The sheet film process went much better than before. I think I
got as much from this film as I am capable of right now and the camera
performed well! It does have a bit of misting on the lens and the leather
covering is a bit dog eared but it is too good to sit on a shelf. Its bellows
are light tight and a good clean made for clear focusing on the ground glass,
it will make a great learning camera for anyone thinking of glass plate
negatives…hmmm, there’s a though!
