Good tones

My non-technical answer would be that the whole process is a bit 'suck it and see' so it is not really relevant. There is no table of exact timings and temperatures etc to adjust and it will all change with the second print from the same chemicals anyway.

I use it as it comes.

You know what is stupid? When I considered doing this yesterday I did actually say to myself "I will probably have to put it back in the bag and lay the paper down the normal way before I add the chemicals." then I forgot that entirely until I saw these replies 🙄 The joys of getting old.

I have a lightmeter but obviously the highest F stop I have is only 32 and the lowest ISO is 6 I think. I believe the Pinsta works with f266 and ISO 2 so is there an easy way for me to take a reading based on ISO 6 and F32 and convert it to see what the Pinsta needs? I looked at the calculators at Mr Pinsta (in your links section) but they are designed for film so the ISOs dont go that low (unless I am being stupid which is very likely)

A daft question here but how was it envisaged that the syringe holder would be used? Is it expected that you preload the syringes before leaving home? I have done that but was wary about having those extended plungers in my bag. It was also a bit of a squeeze getting the syringes in with the nozzles in the little holes and the 'handles' between the two bars. I know it needs to be tight to reduce leakage but it was so tight I was worried I would snap the nozzles. It also looks like the holder is supposed to stand up but then why does the bottom have a smaller footprint than the top? Maybe I am mistaken and it was always mean to be laid on its back.

That is good. Did you use pre-flashing or just concentrate on getting the bananas correct and were lucky the background came out so well?

Why does the shutter disk have two holes (one large and circular and one smaller and oval) as well as what looks two 'enlargement apertures' though one looks to let no light in? I have been guessing that maybe the larger hole is really just for you to put your finger in an dial like on old telephone to move the disc :-) As for the extra enlargement thingie, I wondered if it was only there so you could easily feel that you had the pinhole covered while in the changing bag. Am I way off? :-)

In the Youtube video showing Pinsta being used in Cardiff dockside, he points his camera at a shiny bollard for ten second before taking his photo. That gives a rough idea. I tried pointing my camera straight up at the sky for 10 seconds which made my dark areas better but still washed out the bright areas. I need to experiment.

My first attempts at pre-flash were not so good. When I took my first photo I messed up. I tried to put the shutter disk in a 'Just before open' position while I got my phone ready to time the exposure but I accidentally went too far so it was letting light in for about 20 secs before I did the proper two minute exposure. Parts were exposed Ok and parts were too dark but it looked more like a light leak than a contrast issue. I remembered in the Youtube videos that he had pre-flashed by pointing at a shiny bollard for 10 secs so I tried just pointing at the featureless sky for 10 secs but although it seemed to help the exposure of the land, it overexposed the sea (which was quite white because it was white-capped waves hitting rocks for 2 minutes) I am almost tempted to merge the two in Photoshop but that kind of ruins the point of using Pinsta :-) Yes, my washing was terrible and I suspect I may have put fingerprints on the first image while loading the paper. I am not going to build a technical solution to pre-flash in the bag so I will have to think about whether I can use some sort of grey card or see if I can use a translucent box to put the paper in and take it out of the bag for 10-25 seconds.