#lightsquared

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared and its largest creditor, Dish Network Corp Chairman Charles Ergen, have resolved a long-running dispute over Ergen’s treatment under LightSquared’s proposed restructuring. 

There has been a lot of talk about Internet access being a human right. The comparison has been made between Internet access and the telephone - and the government's responsibility to provide universal service even though the cost to the telcos of running cables out to rural, isolated homes and communities does not justify the effort. 

In the meantime there have been a lot of efforts to bridge the digital divide and provide free or low-cost broadband access to folks in large and small towns, and rich and poorer areas of cities. 

Recently the well funded company LightSquared collapsed. LightSquared was hoping to provide a nationwide 4G LTE wireless internet connection via satellite. Eventually they run afoul of spectrum issues because the bandwidth on which they built their technology interfered with GPS devices. LightSquared could have totally disrupted the wireless data market. Instead, it seems to have been a total failure. [NOTE: there are some plans to revive the company under a modified business model]

Google has joked with the idea of free broadband connected through your sewer system. 

Google seriously implemented free wifi hotspots in partnership with airplane wifi service provider Boingo. 

Chicago recently announced plans to offer free wifi in public places throughout the city. It's not clear how that project will be funded. 

The point of all this is that many people are trying to figure out how to provide a reasonably fast data connection to people for free. As all communication traffic slowly migrates from cellular and landline networks to data networks, this seems like a good market to be in. However, how does someone make money doing it?

Enter mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Karma. Karma is selling a $79 hotspot that you can use for free so long as you open up the network to public access. The more data you share with strangers, the more data you get to use for yourself. 

Karma went live last week. For the cost of a $79 3G hotspot, you get 1 GB of data that doesn’t expire. You can buy more bandwidth for $14 a gig. You may never need to pay another penny, though. Every time someone else logs into your hotspot you get an additional 100 MB of data. Guests can use 100 MB free before being asked to register for an account or logoff. If you were a good enough sharer you could rack up enough free data to last a lifetime, or, at least as long as Karma is in business. 

Another MVNO, FreedomPop is trying something similar. GigaOM mentions a few others companies trying to find a successful way to market shared bandwidth and airtime to encourage use including Fon and  OpenGarden. 

Apples to Apples

In the first installment, I discussed how it was to use the tiny Pentax Auto 110 in my daily shooting and touched on Lomo's new Orca 110 black and white 110 format film.  In this post, I will be discussing how it was to develop the film, scan it and my impressions of this film.  

Coming Up with Developing Times

One of the challenges with this film for me was that there was no development times for Ilford Ilfolsol 3.  Lomography had times for D76, HC-110, XTOL, Rodinal and others so I went to the Massive Dev Chart and tried to find times that matched the Lomo times and cross-reference them with Ilfosol 3 times and hoped for a match.  At the same time I enlisted the help of The Film Photography Podcast Flickr group to see if anyone had any insight from their own development.  

While I waited for input from the active and helpful FPP crowd, I found a match on the Massive Dev Chart.  The times from Lomo matched Orwo UN54 film exactly.  But there were no times for Ilfosol 3.  There has been some speculation as to the origin of this film.  Was it ADOX?  Lucky?  Now the question ran through my mind, maybe it was Orwo.  Orwo does make 16mm black and white film, so it might be a possibility, even though their 16mm film is Bell & Howell perforated.  Questions about packaging saying "Made in China" entered my mind, but I wondered if Lomo bought un-perfed film, and then had it perfed and assembled for 110 in China?  Who knows, but it is an interesting thought.

Getting my mind back on the task of developing, the closest times I could find that included the developers and times that Lomo provided and had times for Ilfosol 3 was ADOX films.  From there I deduced a time of 5:30 at a 1+9 dilution.  A little while later a post on the FPP Flickr Group came up from a user named adoephoto and he posted his results in Ilfosol 3.  He used a time of 5 minutes and it looked just about right!  I adjusted my time and set it up in Darkroom Timer, a free Android App for my phone that helps with developing film and set off for the darkroom.

Cracking it Open and Developing

One of the things that is different about 110 film is that you usually have to destroy the cartridge to get the film out.  Kodak and Fuji film cartridges are very well sealed and I've only had luck salvaging one cartridge, but had to sacrifice the film inside of it.  Why would you want to salvage the cartridge?  Well, I've been wanting to split and reload my own film to offer some more variety in my film stock.  To do this you need a good cartridge.

I had heard that the Orca cartridge was easier to pull apart, so when I went into the dark, I told myself I would try to delicately pull the Orca apart.  And it was pretty easy.  Whereas the Kodak and Fuji 110 film seems to be vibration welded together, the Orca stuff seems to be glued. The Orca film held light-tight, so don't think that there is any problem with the Orca film, it's just easier to salvage a cartridge if you are careful.  Score one for Orca.

I loaded my film on my Yankee Clipper tank that has a 16mm setting on the reel and developed my film.  I was a bit concerned when i was pouring out each step as there was no determinable  color change in the chemistry as it was poured out.  I've had film such as T-Max pour out bright vivid colors, and others muted colors, but there was always something.  Not so with Orca.  With some trepidation I pulled the negatives out of the reel.

They looked great!  The film base for Orca seems as thick and easy to spool as Fuji Superia and the negatives were crisp and clear.  I hung up the negatives and waited for them to dry, but on first glance, this film looked like it was a winner.

The Challenge of Scanning 110 film

I have an Epson V500 scanner and it has done an admirable job scanning my film.  I have had great and easy scanning of 35mm, 120, TIP Instant, and Fuji Peel Apart film and negs, but without a dedicated 110 film holder, it's a bit tricky.  It really is due to the size of the film.  I had read that you could use all sorts of methods, including using tiny rectangular "Reed Magnets", but none of those techniques really seemed any better than just laying the film on the glass, emulsion side down and scan away.  The film seemed to lay a bit flatter than my Fuji Superia, but that could be because I let the film hang with a heavier weighted clip at the bottom of the film.  I don't know if that is the actual case, but the film did lay pretty flat and I will continue to use the heavier clip from now on.

I've recently found that a company called Veho makes a cheap scanner that includes 110 holders.  I didn't want to spend the $50 for the scanner to get the holder as there are other custom holders for about the same price.  Luckily I found that Veho makes spare 110 holders.  I just ordered a set for $18 and am awaiting their arrival.  

Other than a little bit of patience, the film was easy to scan in and didn't need much tweaking at all in the Epson scanner software.

So, how did the film come out?

A New Standard for 110

Okay, it's time for some images and some thoughts.

One of the things that I noticed in my roll of film was a line running through some of the frames on the right side about half-way up. I can't be 100% sure, but I think this scratch in the film is perhaps from the film not having backing paper and it might be getting scratched on the back side as it slides across.  I've seen other examples online that have this same issue.  It's not a huge deal since this is 1st run film, but it's something to be aware of.

The tones that this film produces is very pleasing and it seems to have a nice latitude.  My Pentax actually exposes at 80 ISO, and this film is rated at 100, but I didn't notice any highlights blown out in this roll. Orca seems to be a medium contrast film to me.  I tend to enjoy a higher contrast film, but there is plenty of latitude in the film to push the films output to your liking.

In the example below I wondered what the film AND the camera would do.  The bright white tiles and the metal of the cheese grater could blow out easily and with no exposure compensation on my Auto 110 (The Super version has some control so be on the look out for one of those if you need a little more control).

As you can see the Pentax has a great lens.  This is the 18mm lens (35mm equivalent on a 35mm camera) and it handles detail from edge to edge pretty well.  The black part at the bottom of this frame is actually my shirt and not a defect in the film.  I don't know what the actual coverage of the viewfinder in the Pentax is, but apparently it's a little less than the actual film.

In the next picture, take a look at the details in the highlights.  The shoulder on this film on the highlights is pretty broad and captures the subtle details without blowing it out.  The 5 minute development time (instead of my initial thought of 5:30) might have something to do with it, but if you want a consistent and medium contrast shot, then I think this is the way to go.

What about The Grain? 

One of the supposed faults of the 110 format was the excessive grain that most people saw in their negatives.  There has been much talk of the reasons:

Cheap film stock

Processing from the mass market was poor

Small Negative size

Expired stock (since a lot of us didn't shoot 110 until it was discontinued)

At first glance I thought this film was a little grainy.  To me it almost looked a little like a nice 400 ISO film, so I decided to compare some of the other films I've shot on a 1:1 basis.  What I did was take each scan from each film stock and chop a 500 X 500 pixel square out of it.  Most of my 35mm work is scanned in at roughly 12 MP, and the 110 stuff was a little bit bigger so I scaled the 110 shots down.

Here is Orca 110 at 100%:

Here is Fuji Superia 200 (converted to B&W for grain comparison) at 100%:

Kodak Tri-X 400 (35mm) at 100%:

Kodak BW400CN (35mm) at 100%:

As you can see, Orca performs well across the board.  I wish I had some 100 ISO 35mm film to compare to, but sadly I am still trying to finish up my rolls of TMax and Ilford Delta.  I would guess the Orca would be close, but probably won't match the fine grain of either one of those films.

It is better than the 200 ISO Fuji Superia, but keep in mind this was cold stored, but expired color film that was scanned in and converted to B&W in Photoshop.

I think it compares favorably to Kodak BW400CN, and that's not a bad thing at all.

Here's some more shots from my first roll.

I wanted a shallower DOF in the image above, but with the Pentax, you just don't have that control...but look at the sharpness!

And check out the 50mm lens (100mm equivalent) in action in the portrait below!  This is a handheld shot indoors and the Pentax was telling me that it was going to be a shaky shot due to the low light.  But the Pentax rocked it.  And I would have no problem taking this file and printing it out to a nice size to hang on the wall.  

Another portrait from the Long Beach Swap Meet.

Now, check out the range of grey's in this shot of the back of a stadium.  Orca handles all the subtly very well!

The End of the Roll

I kept on shooting past the count of 24 just in case I miscounted, and I noticed a couple of things.  

I only got one "light leak" and it was on shot 24.  I don't think this is due to the backing paper, but I think the film somehow gets some light on the last frame sometimes in this batch when it is being assembled.

What's crazy is that on the VERY last section of the film, where the cutout is, I got a shot on it and it as apparently it's an unexposed part of the film.  Interesting effect.

Final Thoughts

Does Orca past the test?  I think it does with flying colors...wait, er...black and white.  I think it shows that a modern 110 film more than works; it's a nice alternative  when you don't want to lug around your 35mm camera.  I can only speak of my Pentax Auto 110 and not other 110 cameras, but other than lack of DOF control, it's a great 2nd or 3rd camera to have around all the time.

Orca is a great film, and once Lomo irons out some of the trivial bugs, it will be film I would use all the time in my Pentax.

Go get some now!

If you want to see the whole roll of Orca shots I took, check them out here!

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