Topic: Expired film and software

[Francois]

Recently, there has been some talk on the forum about the use of expired emulsion (after seeing the pictures taken by Skorj's Steam Punk camera).

And I started to think about expired film and ponder about what it is that alters its characteristics. I was mainly concerned about what effects aging brings to the emulsion. And at the same time, having some time to waste, I wrote a small program to help calculate the sensitivity loss which occurs with time. So, I packaged both the explanation (4 page PDF file complete with graphics) and the minuscule piece of software I wrote into a zip file which I decided to offer the members of this forum.

The program works only on Windows machines (written in Visual Basic... it's the only language I know well enough). So, Mac users, I'm simply sorry not to offer you something for you too.

Here is the download link:
Old Film.zip - 0.05MB

Once you get the file, you will need the following password to unlock it:
Daguerre Was Here

Hope you find it either interesting or useful.

As usual comments are welcome.

[Francois]

Here is a screenshot of the program. I know it should say "Recommended EI" instead of "Recommended ISO"... I might change that in the future if anybody requests an improvement to the code...


[Sorry, image deleted during forum software upgrade. Please re-upload if so inclined.]

[Ed Wenn]

You never cease to amaze me, Francois. Thanks  for this. I'll give it a spin & get back to you.

[Francois]

You're welcome. I can't wait to have another opinion on the program... thing is when your nose is up against the thing your building, sometimes it's hard to figure out where to improve.

I know the program gives me the impression that it will be very precise. And the changes it suggest tend to slowly increase with time as expected. It calculates the recommended EI with a lot of precision but rounds it off to full value (this is why some changes seem to do nothing while others show a difference). It's about a 1 ISO change per month when you calculate it... but over the years, it gets to be a drag to calculate it all precisely by hand...

Anyways, thanks for checking it out

[Brian Scott Peterson]

Wow, that is cool. Maybe worth going out and getting a PC. Nice work!!!

[Francois]

The program is very simple (and super small). Will most probably work on something like Virtual PC (I think that's what it's called, you know, the Windows emulator for Mac that came out a while back?). It will also work most probably on an old Pentium (door stopper kind of old) running something based on 95-98-me. Also should run on Linux using WINE.

You could check out these open source programs:
http://www.winehq.org/
How to install WINE on a Mac... should read first.
http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX
A generic PC emulator for the Mac. You need to install Windows yourself to use this one contrary to WINE which has everything bundled together.
http://www.kju-app.org/

They're both free and should run my small program on OS X

[original_ann]

Wow Francois!  I can't wait to try this out!  What a talent you are

[Francois]

What a talent you are

Well... that's just one more side of me
I'm sure you have some secret talent too.

[original_ann]

I can see sound.  No - really. 

[Francois]

I guess you're not one for the mush pit at heavy metal concerts
(neither am I... I'm built too thin for this kind of action...)

[edthened]

Och Francois, am tryin yer wee bit o' software on ma pack o' Agfa  Ultra 50 Process before 04/2000 an al see hoo a get on wi it      

[Francois]

Hope the software performs well

[Francois]

I can see sound.  No - really. 

I was watching a show on Discovery this morning (it was a re-run of Real Life Superheros) where they were talking about somebody with synesthesia... I was wondering if yours was like that of the girl they were interviewing at Oxford?

Edit:
I checked the title of the show and it is "Real Superhumans"... sorry for the mistake.

[original_ann]

I never saw that Francois.  It's so difficult to really accurately explain what it's like to have synesthesia.  And I didn't even know that it was unusual - - in other words,  I didn't realize (as many synesthetes can attest) that others around them weren't experiencing what they were experiencing.  I have a twin and we both have synesthesia - - so that further delayed my realizing we were somewhat unique.

It's like... we can taste food - - you assume everyone can taste food.  It never dawns on you to say wait a minute... I need to ask people: do you know what tasting is? Can you taste?? 

I have a small synesthesia set on flickr trying to explain the parts that seem somewhat possible to try to explain.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/original_ann/sets/72157594195110629/

[Francois]

The girl they were interviewing, when she heard a word, could see it floating in the air in full color.

Another guy who was on the show (only shortly) said he could actually taste words! He said the name Elisabeth tasted like Creme Brulee

They said Oxford University is trying to figure out genetically what the difference is between them and ordinary people. They're trying to figure out why evolution took such a turn.

By the way, they said you're all most likely related to a common ancestry... interesting.

(here is the link... hope it works Discovery channel canada)