chemical

Making Collodion From Scratch

A few days ago, for the first time ever in my experience with wet plate photography, I mixed up collodion from scratch. I thought I'd share about the experience.

Galaxy Unveils Its ‘Hyper Speed’ Direct Positive Photo Paper with ISO 120

Once readily available, direct positive photo paper has near seemingly disappeared from the market. Ilford recently resurrected their Harman Direct positive paper with plans for it to be available throughout the world this August. Now, another competitor, Galaxy Company, is working to bring their own positive photo paper to life. And Galaxy has a unique feature on their side, which they are calling ‘Hyper Speed.'

The Magic of a Chemical Photo Restoration Process

If given an old print to restore, most photographers these days would probably choose to scan it and fix the image up in Photoshop. Japanese restoration expert Murabayashi Takao uses a different technique: one that involves the magic of chemical processes. Watch and be amazed in the 10-minute video above.

R3 Monobath Developer Lets You Process Your Film with One Chemical Bath

In March 2014, we reported that inventor Bob Crowley and his startup New55 were working on producing a new line of 4x5 instant film. That Kickstarter campaign turned out to be a smashing success. As the company continues to work on its instant film aspirations, its has released a new product that many photographers may find useful.

It's a new monobath developer called R3 that lets you develop, stop, and fix black-and-white photographic film with a single bath.

New Chemical Iris Technology May Change the Way Smartphone Apertures Work

As smartphones have gotten smaller and smaller, the need for the cameras inside of them to shrink has become more pressing. One area where there's a lot of room for improvement is in the traditional mechanical aperture.

As we begin to hit the physical limit of the overlapping blades, researchers at the University of Kaiserslautern have designed an exciting new ‘micro iris’ that uses small chemical rings rather than a physical blades, dramatically shrinking the size of the aperture components in the camera.

It’s Not Just Rebels: Canon Warns Some Wireless File Transmitters Flake Too

Have you been getting rashes on your skin, or redness and irritation in your eyes? Do you own a Canon WFT-E7A Wireless File Transmitter? Those two things might be related. If you remember, a couple of months ago, Canon recalled tens of thousands of Rebel T4i/650D DSLRs due to an issue with their rubber grips that caused allergic reactions. The rubber had been overloaded with too much of certain ingredients, leading to an unexpected chemical reaction that caused white flaking. It turns out the faulty rubber was used beyond the Rebel: Canon has just released a product advisory warning that its file transmitter may have the same flaw.