p500vax:campbell (04/25/83)
I've used a unidrum for develping color negatives and slides, and won't ever go back to the old way.....but not so for b&w. The constant agitation necessary for color elimiates the compensation effects of most b&w developers and gives very(!!) contrasty negatives. Also, if you read the developer capacity ratings for the common developers, there is no way to meet them using the film drum, especially at the higer dillutions. If you do come up with some legal combination, concentrated developer makes the contrast problem of constant agitation even worse. I have been known to load the drum up with 6 rolls of film and use it as a conventional tank, but I think using it with 1/3 as much developer on rollers is a shakey practice. I also have had a Cannon A-1 for over 3 yrs, and it has given me no trouble at all, except for the normal short battery life, but the new lithium batteries have taken care of that. I'm not sure I would recommend it now as a new camera, though, because it doesn't do TTL flash metering like many others in the same price range, and the elimination of the breech mount cannon lenses that made cannon more durable in the old days. The TTL flash thing is no big deal for many people, but it's a great thing for macro flash shooting, where the sensors built into auto flash units don't work at all, and the calculations and measurements involved in manual metering are a good guess at best, not to mention impossible when you're 3" from a butterfly or something. Does anyone out there have any recommendations on a 4x5 field view camera? I've borrowed and used a monorail, and it just doesn't work when the camera gear weighs more than me and the trail is 5 miles long. click clop thump.. craig campell ...megatest!campbell