oleksandrk

Thank you for your responses. Lens coating looked perfect on the outside, even with UV light I did not spot anything first. I somehow was too relaxed to check it properly which was not very clever. Now its too late, I even left positive feedback earlier. I wrote a message to the seller, but not expecting much. This is one of those Japanese ebay sellers that has “MINT”, “TOP MINT+”, “EXC++++” and other scam description categories. I’ll just be asking for photos taken from inside into the light next time ..... it’s a shame Fujinons are rare in the EU. It costed 220EUR/250USD and customs missed it somehow so I did not have to have to pay the usual 25% on top.... So not a huge damage indeed. I’ll keep it for spare shutter and will look for another lens.

I bought a “MINT” multicoated Fujinon NW 135mm from Japan. It looked immaculate from outside, though later I checked from inside into the light and saw horrendous amount of cleaning scratches. Then I saw them from outside too when lens was on the camera outdoors. I know that scratches like that don’t affect images in many situations, especially when used with the hood. But I tend to replace this one as I don’t want to be constantly in the need to use the hood and in doubt of whether I get the most from it or not. Opinions?

I recently got 4x5 LF field camera in addition to 6x7 MF one and enjoying every bit of it. Key motivation: focus and perspective control that view camera provides. Convergency of objects and lack of possibility to put near objects and infinity in focus started disturbing me at one point. As a big bonus, one gets straightforward possibility to develop single negatives and thus master development process. Weight is the same as MF, or potentially even lighter - there are amazingly lightweight cameras and lenses out there. LF forces me to be more thorough, it’s not anymore “shooting” process, but finding the right motive, perspective, weather, light... which to me is fun on its own. The whole experience is in a way meditative. Of course, it should be possible to be as thorough with MF and digital equipment, though I find that as part of natural flow with LF. Film cost becomes pricey, especially for color, though it depends how you look at it. I believe that 5 *really* good images that you put effort into are better than 100 average ones. The cost and slowness of it makes me think that for someone with little experience it is better to gain that experience with something else first, be it 35mm, MF or digital. The drawback for me is that it is very difficult to find access to a darkroom with 4x5 enlarger, unless you have enough space for it at home. Contact prints are still too small, so I end up scanning them. Even good scanner can be both costly and challenging to find. After all, I am convinced that it is not the format or equipment that is deciding, but the amount of effort, time, and persistency to improve that one puts into photography.

Vicinity of Fraunberg in Bavaria, Germany 6x7 film camera with Kodak Ektar

@cameragary you may want to check extension tube manuals (usually googlable as pdf file). In GS-1 case they contain a table with minimum and maximum focusing distances. The lesser focus distance of the lens - the less are min/max distances and the more is enlargement ratio. To give you an example, Zenzanon PG 50mm (should be close to PE 40mm) focuses at around 2-3 cm from the object! And provides 0.87 enlargement ratio. Focusing is so sensitive that it is only useful for home/studio use in my opinion. I spent once like 20 min bent on my knees trying to focus it properly at a small flower.

Just wanted to update this thread with gratitude as this book advice was very valuable - thanks Vincent! It is indeed fantastic book that clarifies the concepts in clear and compact form with practical real life examples. As for light meter, I ended up with Sekonic L758D which is combined 1 deg spot + incident meter in one and costs reasonable money when bought used on eBay. This is such a good tool that I don’t see me switching to any other meter in the foreseeable future. To be honest, I am still puzzled why would Pentax Digital Spotmeter go off eBay at nearly hundred bids and at the price higher than device like L758D.

Seems like new types of scanners might be especially harmful. Below is an article elaborating and demonstrating rather wild damage. Tips Bringing film through airport security - How X-rays & CT scans effect film | The Darkroom To validate the theory you could shoot test film and then develop it immediately to see that there is no more damage.

Vicinity of Maria Thalheim in Bavaria, Germany

Just for a record, I went ahead and did normal development in DD-X at 20C / 9 min 30 sec. Results are good.

I have the rotary finder. It seems to be a bit more consistent than the metered prism in terms of exposure, though deviates about 1 stop from my hand-held meter in spot-metering mode. The main issue with it is its bulkiness. It's almost the size of the camera body and weights almost as much as 150 mm PG lens. When it comes to packing the kit for a trip and deciding what to take and what not to take, there is simply no space. It is probably good studio tool though, or for 'local' shooting where no full kit has to be carried around. In practice I found portrait composing with WLF not that bad. Actually easier than some of "trivial" macro scenes or pointing into the ground. And with regular prism on a ball head portrait flip must be piece of cake. Anyway, did not want to hijack ETR / Mamiya TLR discussion. Just wanted to highlight that some practical aspects of things may arise down the road. If MLU is only available in ETRSi as Orsetto noticed, I would not underestimate that bit. And WLF + external meter option seem both weight saver for touring and opens up exposure control fun. One nice thing about PE lenses is that they have uniform filter diameter across almost all lenses. With GS-1, Zenzanon PG 50mm is a very good lens, but even basic filter set (95 mm diameter) will likely overshoot the cost of the lens itself and will add up to the weight. PG 200 and 250mm are 82mm diameter unlike other lenses with 72mm which would again require additional filters to buy and carry - I don't buy those lenses almost solely for that reason. Whereas with PE lenses no filter diameter fiddling is required except for the 'extreme' 30mm.

@cameragary I’ve bought another model of Bronica (GS-1) about a year ago and used it heavily since then, so wanted to share some practical brand experience as some of it could be relevant for ETR too. First and foremost, I was a bit disappointed with metered prism. While in normal day light conditions exposures turn up good, I found them to produce rather erratic results in low light conditions / shutter speeds in range of 1/4 sec and below or so, and goes completely wild with 1 sec and longer (despite reciprocation effect calculation etc). Maybe I just got a bad/broken prism or it just went out of calibration. I’ll probably never find out as I basically given up on it and started to use WLF with an external meter. That gives me much better control over the exposure. If I would add smaller Bronica or any other MF camera, I would most certainly buy it with WLF or non-metered prism and would discard expensive metered prisms. Aside from metered prism, the rest works just perfectly. Everything is intuitive, nothing gets stuck or has to be pressed several times, etc. - timeless quality product. Won’t be writing anything about lenses because they are different on GS-1, though not supposed to be better than PE lenses. A bit surprised to read about film back issues on smaller Bronicas. For GS-1 I’ve got 3 backs from different sellers, including an obviously old beaten up one, they work just perfectly without any sign of light leak. Perhaps backs for larger Bronica have better sealing construction? Not sure. Almost 100% of my shots with Bronica I do on tripod, with mirror lock up and remote cable release. That yields what I consider very high technical quality of the image, just enormous step up from 35mm. Not sure how about ETR, but I think I was lucky to get the cable release cord for GS-1, they seem to be rather rare. I’ve got extension tube and did some “macro” shooting. It works. My overall impression is that physical condition like flexibility of the knee joints, back muscles stamina are more important in outdoor macro shooting than actual gear :) For handheld shooting I would still take my 35mm or digital camera. MF SLR, especially 6x7 SLR seems to be just too bulky. Though ETR might be a bit more compact and actually suitable for hand held / street shooting too. That really depends on what you plan to use it for. Just 2 cents, best of luck with your purchase whatever you decide to go for.

Dear community, I don’t seem to find any info on dev times specific for the “new” Acros II film. Are they the same as for original Acros? Has anyone developed Acros II with Ilford DD-X?

Munich surroundings, Germany

Having engineering background and experience of both large corporations and small startups, I would say that judging alone on company size or R&D investment figures doesn’t always match to successful innovation output. I agree that demand in analog market is nothing to compare with digital, but it doesn’t mean that there is no innovation to be made even in a small niche market. Here is a quote re. Velvia from Wikipedia: “The original Velvia (RVP) had been discontinued because of difficulties in obtaining some of the raw materials needed to make the emulsion. Fuji R&D created a new emulsion which substituted different materials in its manufacture yet retained the appearance of the classic Velvia.” Do I really care about “viability” or budget of Fuji R&D team? They managed to come up with a new emulsion and that’s awesome. Anyway, when I posted this topic I did not really mean to emphasize modernity of the films. It’s been great to see some insightful comments (as usual) :)

Bavaria, Germany