Silverbased

Welcome! You can use the search box at the right to look for a particular topic. But unfortunately WordPress’s search function does something lame—showing the full text of matching articles, not just excerpts. Sorry about that.

Instead I’d suggest a Google search using the delimiter site:silverbased.org to find relevant posts here.

There’s a known problem where IE 6 doesn’t render my WordPress page theme correctly. Why are you still using IE 6, you wacko? Having said that, if someone who understands CSS would like to help me overhaul my very crufty layout template I would love to hear from you.

To get you started, here’s a few topics from the archives you might be interested in:

Do It Yourself Photography Projects

• Make a pinhole camera from a plastic focus-free 35mm, Part 1 and Part 2
• Build a flash diffuser from a plastic food tub
• Adapt a hearing-aid battery to replace mercury cells
• Make a panoramic 35mm pinhole camera
• Build a chimney hood for your TLR viewfinder
• Adapt a pack-film Polaroid camera into a pinhole

Why Film Still Matters in a Digital World

• The amazing longevity of 120 film
• The trouble with lithium-ion camera batteries
• Why a small sensor chip screws up depth of field
• Why diffraction limits aperture choice in digital compacts
• Loading & winding 120 film for the compleat novice

Background About Optics

• How to decode lens markings
• What 35mm-camera focal lengths are actually useful?
• What is “swirly bokeh” and how do you get it?
• The “anastigmat” (and other simple lenses)
• Why I think it’s politically correct to say “telephoto”
• What to do if you want the least depth of field?
• What does “bokeh” really mean?
• How do you achieve the greatest background blur?

Chemistry and Processing

• What supplies do you need to develop black & white film?
• How to develop really ancient Verichrome Pan
• A new film washing method

Classic Cameras

• A shoppers guide to vintage 35mm SLRs you should probably avoid
• Is that old film camera you found worth anything? (a visual guide)
• A 21st-Century “vintage camera,” the Voigtländer Bessa R
• The beastly Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL
• The cute 1955 Minolta ‘A’
• The excellent but quirky 1958 Konica III A
• A classic 120 folder, the 1958 Mamiya-6 Automat 2
• What makes certain cameras enduring classics?

Other Random Opinions

• Why Kodak’s shrinking cine-film business matters to stills photographers (dated but still relevant)
• Frustrations of inconsistent lens-ring “handedness”
• Can the name “Lomo” be rescued from misuse?
• Does 127 film count as “medium format”?
• Albert Einstein’s strange 1936 auto-exposure patent
• Is a Wein cell a different voltage from a hearing-aid battery?
• Some light meters I like
• Why old-school “Series” filters are still useful
• Are some beloved vintage econo-cameras over-rated?
• How to decode vintage electronic flash

…And thanks for visiting.