focusing issue

Alfonse's pacemaker is probably acting up again.

I'm afraid that there's no solution in moving up here to the

Southern Hemisphere - well Oz at least - as the photographers

are also upside down, and a bit backward too.

Obviously, your dealer sold you an Australian camera. Get him to take it back. Or maybe you could try reading up a little bit about the optics involved. Start with "Optics in Photography" by Rudolph Kingslake; page 2 should shed some light on your problem.

Dear Alfonse,

it appears to me that maybe you have the groundglass inside out? You could try placing the glass rough side out, instead of in, that may help. Alternatively, you could try this, get a reasonably large mirror, placing it at a suitable angle between the subject and the lens, this has the effect of reversing the image left to right prior to the image entering the lens, giving the effect of correct orientation when viewed on the groundglass. The upside down thing may take a little more effort, it will require you to stand with your back to the camera and by using another mirror, (or the reflection in a nearby window) allow viewing of the image in an acceptable manner. A further answer to the problem would be the surefire method that I use, that is to take a photo of the groundglass screen with a digital camera. Then by downloading the image and running it through Photoshop, you can flip the image left to right and upside down thereby allowing the image to be viewed normally. For this to be relatively easy, you will need a laptop, a digital camera and some patience. If this all becomes too hard, simply stick to 35mm, as the results may not be worth all the hassle, (this is a proven method used Downunder!) Cheers, and lots of luck, Dean.

dear alfonse,

yesss! this is a common problem with lf cameras. i had it too until a "really expert photographer" told me the ultimate solution:

he went to the hospital to let operate his brain. the neurologist turned his brain 180° around the horizontal axis, connected the optic nerves again and that's it!

the only disadvantage is that he is not longer able to drive his car, but if you imagine these horrible traffic jams in the citys of the world, he won't really miss it!

Dear Mr Deluer,<br>

I stop joking : if your camera has a Graflock back, just buy a reflex angle viewer, and the ground glass image will be no more upside down.<br>

But il will always be reversed left to right. The same situation happens also with some MF cameras, like TLR (twin lens reflex).<br>

<br>

It's more simple to correct in the brain left and right image inversion than up and down.<br>

Hope this helps,<br>

Best regards.<br>

JLL

In answer to Ann's question.

 

The image you see on the ground glass is rotated 180 degrees. What we mathematicians call orientation is not changed. If you focus on a person facing the camera, his/her right and left hands are not switched around. Similarly, print won't look like what you see if you hold it up in front of a mirror and look at the reflection. That would be reversed or backwards or whatever you want to call it. You can see that orientation is not reversed, because if you fix the image in film, develop the film, and then view it from the back, you can see the normal upright image if you hold the film with the top up.

 

However, the usual description of the gg image is also correct. You can accomplish a 180 degree rotation, by flipping in the third dimension about a horizontal axis (i.e., turning it upside down), and then flipping about a vertical axis(i.e, reversing left and right).

 

If you play around with mirrors at all, you will realize the image you see there is reversed left to right. I was reminded of this recently when visiting my eye doctor. The chart is projected on a wall, but the room is not wide enough for the full 20 feet that is assumed. So they use a sequence of mirrors to reflect the image. The image of the chart you see in each of these mirrors is reversed from what you see in the previous mirror. So they need an even number of mirrors to produce an image in which the letters don't look backwards. In my doctor's office there were an odd number of mirrors (three), from which I concluded that the projector was starting with a reversed image, probably from a slide turned around, much as you would have if you put the emulsion side up in an enlarger. Pentaprism viewers on cameras employ an even number of mirrors to make sure the image is not reversed. Reflex cameras using a single mirror (as in a TLR) produce a reversed image. Since such a mirror is reflecting just the kind of image you get on the gg of a view camera, you can see that such an image can't have a reversed orientation, as I noted above. If it did, the mirror would reverse it again.

Leonard, Thank you for your concise and well explained answer... I always find it takes me a while to become reoriented to the left/right reversal of my Rolleiflex after I have been shooting large format for a few days...... & thank you Alfonse for starting an interesting and enlightening thread. Cheers Annie.

I think you should also send your enlarger in for repair. Not only will your camera shoot upside downa and backwards, but your enlarger does the same thing. Too bad we don't have a dark cloth for the darkroom so we can hide when standing on our heads to focus.

Alfonse,

 

You can usually get a refund from the manufacturer in these cases, but you do have to sign a waiver/declaration in order to get the refund which says "I the undersigned am too dumb to own a camera. From now on I will only use Crayolas"

 

:-)

Keep it, enjoy it, be proud of it. Your great-grand-children will be proud of you and will be the proud owners of that camera too.... because of that feature, it's a Special or Limited Edition you have there. And sooner or later the subject you raised never mentioned again.... anyone has similar problem with digital camera yet?

:-)

What a waste of time.

Alfonse, these people are making fun of you and all their answers are wrong, the problem is the lens that is mounted wrong. Instead of having the lettering un top, it should be on the bottom. In other words place the lens upside down to get a right side up image....

Uhhmmm...you're joking, right? Don't you know how lenses work? Don't you know that there's a prism on the top of your SLR that flips the image right-way around for you? How can you call yourself an expert if you don't know these things?

 

Take one of your 35mm lenses and focus the image on a wall. Tell us what you see.

Alfonse, dont worry your camera is fine, just make sure you buy a special enlarger

that re-reverses your images when you print them or use reversal film!

Thanks, everybody. This is the most fun I've had this whole long day!!

:)

Now I'm going to go around my house and turn all my prints right side up...

 

Jim

Alfonse,

 

Thank GOD I found you! I have had a similar problem with my Leica for years now.

Every time I get my film back all I ever see is an extreme close up shot of the left side

of my cheek. I dont know why. I make sure that I am looking through the eyesight

and although the subject seems far away I am almost never looking at my own cheek.

Its a shame too, cause its such a nice camera with the shutter and advance controls

on the left side for lefties like me. I would have reported this problem to my dealer,

but the film is always soooo sharp....

 

any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated as I am beginning to feel

like I have wasted $2500. Maybe the MP will be better,

 

Paul Grossmann former 35mm expert.

Alfonse really, all you need do is take the camera to pieces and put it back together inside out. Real pro LF cameras come in kit form, but the Toyo needs disassembling before you can use it. The dealer should have explained ...

Alfonse

 

I'm curious, what did your dealer say to you when you mentioned this to them....Once they stopped laughing hysterically that is.

Well, I just tested a similar Toyo and it gave great results. However, looking at the images on film I noticed that not only had the image turned upside down and reverse, also the colors seemed reversed. In each direction (north, south, east, west) the same consistent reverse effects.

If Alphonse were here, he'd be laughing out loud but he's no longer a photonet member. He gotcha!! Read his other posts about licking the insides of his Leica shutter cavity and cleaning his Noctilux with pumice.

 

Warren

Someone very smart once told me that if you are seeing it upside down and backwards,

you must be doing something creative. But if you must see it right side up, you should

hire an assistant to hang you from yr feet while you compose images. I am sure any NBA

player in the offseason might be able to help you with this if you are small in stature. Or

you could get an NCAA player to help you with this, since they are in college they will

probably work for less, unless they go to Michigan State. Ah, but enough of giving you a

hard time. If you own any TLR 's, you will see that the image is backwards on the

groundglass, this is in between 35mm and Large Format. So in a TLR you have one mirror

that is correcting the image, in 35mm there are two, but in LF there are none. Go Google

camera obscura, they see the world the same way as LF cameras. Also Google eyes, you

will probably find out that they see the world upside down and backwards until our brains

reinterpert the info. Or just hang by yr feet to make pictures, I'm sure the blood rushing

to yr head will help inspire you.

I just registered for these forums after reading this post. Mainly so I could say, LOL!!!

 

Also (I'll make an official post about this, but it might be something well known) I'm just starting out in photography and I'm somewhat OCD, so I have to try and learn everything as fast as possible (I know it's a defect and my parents should have sent me back) but I remember reading a post about either a medium or large format camera for beggining photographers that wasn't built incredibly well and let in light, but photographers loved it because of the unusual results they would get. I remember it being somewhat clunky looking and that some photography class teachers suggested it for some classes.

 

I know this is out of place and understand if you tell me to take a hike.