Dry plate tin types... the poor man's wet plate collodion? 

Enjoyed your tryout of Nejc's tintypes. They didn't come out too badly all things considered! While I'm not a wetplate collodion guy, I've done dry plate collodion, seen plenty of WP tintypes (I have family tintypes) and good ones are more contrasty than that. But beginner's plates often look like that -- as you say, just takes some experience to understand the necessary exposure for the process. I have been making and shooting my own gelatin dry plates for 9 years now, and have learned a fair bit about what's needed, mostly by making every mistake possible. Assuming they're "ordinary" (blue/UV-sensitive only) plates, you really need to consider your light when shooting. That is, you can take a meter reading at some reasonable ISO (anywhere from 3-25, depending on whether your emulsion was speed-sensitized beyond the basic) but then you really need to consider (in order): 1) the color of the light: the amount of UV in the light has a huge effect, so e.g., earlier in the day requires less adjustment than later in the day, more blue faster, less blue slower; 2) the colors in the scene: if it's blue or violet or has some component of reflected light that is, it will be very light (hence white skies, and it's easy for clouds to simply disappear) -- otherwise it will be dark. Red roses will be black, grass and foliage various dark shades of gray, skin tones will surprise you from time to time -- on ordinary plates my reasonably fair skin always looks as if I'm quite tanned because of some underlying pigmentation, whereas my wife's...does not; 3) bellows extension: don't forget this if you're shooting up close. So take your meter reading, and add a fudge factor that takes these into account, and you'll be much more likely to get the exposure you need. Then develop to get the density you require for the intended result of the plate: whether it be scan, silver gelatin print, or historic process print (cyanotype, salt print, carbon print, etc.) It's a heck of a lot of fun if you like the process, and tedious as all get out if you don't. Fortunately I enjoy it, else I'd have given up long ago!

Great episode. The Zebra Dry Plates are an interesting idea - I sold my 4x5 and 5x7 rigs but if he made the plates in 2x3 sheet film sizes for the RB67 Sheet film/plate holders I'd love to play around with it. Right now the only time I use those is for Direct Positive Paper. Would be fun to try some plates in there. I heard you mention the Kowa SIX at the end of the video - hopefully you got a good one. I've owned and worked on several Kowa SIX's over the years and you're more likely to buy a problem child than a good one. When they work they are great - nice bright viewfinder, brighter than first-gen Hasselblad 500c's. I like the compact form in regards to front-to-back - they feel like shooting with a TLR. Glass is nice too. Its just that the bodies tend to freeze up and get jammed, and the lens leaf shutters can get sticky or stuck. I think if they are used often they are fine - its the sitting on the shelf that kills them.

Very interesting episode. I have pondered giving the wet plate tintype process a go, but I always talk myself out of it. Because as you said- rabbit hole. I’m keeping it on the bucket list, though. Now this dry plate is a little more tempting, but no clue where I’d order the chem here in the US. But I’ll snoop around and see. As always, I learn a lot from your videos. So thanks for doing what you do!

hey, maybe at 9:01 thats why most plate holders are different, aka like a picture frame, loaded from the back, secured with a pressure plate, and the darkslide works on a separate plane to the plate, so nothing can catch the slide on the way in\out.

Result is pretty good and interesting. From what I saw in Zebra videos, I would rather use the glass plates, which look great but ofc it is only a negative

As Mike Raso said with Polaroid you can't expect all your first pack to turn out. It's an investment he says. I bought a beautiful glass plate camera and got some glass plates expired which my friend is bringing to France soon so I can experiment on those before I buy the zebra ones. With the large amount of cameras I have and repair I'm surprised I get any images out of them but I do. Don't beat yourself up you got results and any more you do will just get better. What company in Germany did you buy that chemical from? I'm in France so should not have a problem. I remember as I kid doing photography and getting glacial acetic acid I was on some police watch list as they thought I was making drugs! Fed up with the rules in the UK.

120ist the reason they are called 'wet plate', is the fact the collodion is a replacement for albumen in the process, aka egg white, so everything up to the fixing and staining in the darkroom has to be done while the collodion is loose and wet, once this 'base' is dry nothing will stick, aka stains, like lacquering a piece of wood, nothing sticks. Dry plates where the next innovation/invention, to make the process a lot slower so one can do things with more thought, and not having to have the "ice-cream truck" with you to develop the tin or glass plates; as the time was so short; rather, you can shoot and go home to develop at your own pace (relatively speaking), it hadn't got to the speed of todays acetate backed 135 120 and 4x5" sheet film stocks, that came later, in the 1950's or so, when Kodak designed it.

Always hard to judge from a RU-vid video, but I do know that wet plate collodion plates are indeed quite impressive. But I also like your tintypes. Although I looks like you had some issues developing :) You should definitely get a shutter for your barrel lenses, just for consistency.

Great effort and interesting results for sure. Maybe try studio with strobes next?

Would these work in the Pinsta camera? 🤔

What you did not mention was how you got over the problem with your safelight.

They probably benefit from overcast days.

I think I will wait for you to work the kinks out of this process before I try it.