Uncle Jonesy's Cameras Podcast #87: Slow or Fast, It's All About the Print

by Kevin Lane

As the year draws to a close, I have been reflecting on what an odd year 2025 has been for me. I probably gave less time to photography this year than any year since going back to film in 2017. It's isn't difficult to work out why. Both my wife, Debbie, and I have been increasingly caring for our elderly mothers. Add to that my weekly commitment as interim workshop producer for my church, and there wasn't much time or energy for photography. Of all the aspects of analogue photography that I enjoy, darkroom printing suffered the most. I made precious few prints in 2025, and what I made wasn't very good, in my opinion.

However, it's a new year, and I feel a renewed enthusiasm for photography. I knew I wanted to do something special for the first UJC show of 2026, so I asked Wayne if he would leave the comfort of his own darkroom and join me for a printing session at the new and larger Safelight District Community Darkroom, where I serve as Education Director. Wayne and I have never printed together before, so I was very excited. You can't be around Wayne and not learn something about photography. And even though neither Wayne nor I had ever worked in this particular darkroom before (it being a new and improved location for Safelight District), we both successfully made a nice print, which you can see below.

Test strips and prints. Wayne’s is on the left.

After lunch we gathered in the office and meeting area of Safelight District to share our thoughts on printing and answer questions from Professor “Bear” Brown about test strips and split grade printing. If you listen to the show, you’ll learn about how Wayne and I differ in the way we make our test strips and why. As for split grade printing, Wayne has been using this technique for years as a means to “dial in” a desired level of contrast by controlling highlights and shadows separately. Last year I decided to commit to split grade printing and learn how to make it work for me. Thankfully, I have Wayne as a mentor, and our listeners can benefit as well.

Our next printing topic is an old favorite of mine: instant prints. I am blessed to have a working Polaroid SX-70 SONNAR One Step camera, and I especially love to use it during the Christmas holiday season for gatherings l love to see the smiles on people’s faces when I had them a print that came from the camera moments before. However, I ran into an unexpected problem when I could find the neutral density filter that enable me to use 600 film instead of the much harder to find SX-70 film that the camera was intended to shoot. I ended up having to borrow a Polaroid 600 camera , which worked well. But this has got me thinking seriously about having my SX-70 SONNAR overhauled and modified to shoot 600 I-type film natively. There are many advantages to this, such as being able to shoot film that is available locally and also less expensive (because the camera has its own power source and doesn’t need film packs with batteries), in addition to having a cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted camera that should produced properly exposed photographs for a long time (assuming Polaroid continues to make film).

As I researched all this, I came across a very enjoyable and educational YouTube channel, The Instant Camera Guy. Jake is a young man who lives in Australia and makes his living repairing and modifying Polaroid cameras, and it is clear from his many videos that he knows everything there is to know about them. The level of skill he demonstrates as his hands disassembles, repairs, and reassembles these old and very complicated cameras is beyond impressive. If I could just solder half as well as he does . . . 

In the course of discussing color prints, I make reference to Nick Carver’s YouTube video on how to make “quick and dirty” scans of color negatives using SilverFast 8. Although I don’t enjoy scanning film, his very helpful video has enabled me to use SilverFast to get color negative scans that actually makes me want to shoot more color film. Actually, I highly recommend his channel; his videos are highly entertaining and informative. 

We end the show with a short discussion of possible locations for our 5th Annual Photowalk With the Shutter Brothers, which will happen sometime this fall. We would greatly appreciate suggestions from our faithful listeners regarding where in the southeast United States we should meet up. If you would like to contribute a suggestion, or if you have other feedback for Wayne and me, our email address is unclejonesyscameras@gmail.com. You also can post comments on our on Facebook and Instagram pages.