jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 I was in Washington DC early last month, and took the Kiev 4. It felt truly strange, walking around the home of Capitalism with a camera built in the land of Communism. Anyhow, George Mason came out quite nicely.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 And, of course, the Washington Monument... (all scans courtesy of Wal-Mart's overnight processor - slight changes by Serif Photo-Plus) Jon<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 And ole Tom Jefferson. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskovacs Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 A Soviet Fotosniper would attract more attention in DC :) Which film? Either the film, the scans, or a foggy lens, but the shots look a little "flat" and even hazy. I've had to clean every one of my Soviet and German Contax optics from haze and oil issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 THe haziness is a combination, most likely. It was a bit hazy, the sun was heading down rapidly (I was actually in DC for a training class), and the scan was done by Wal-Mart's el-cheapo overnight processing. The film was Fuji "Super HQ" 100, also Wal-Mart special. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 Oh, and the 4x6 prints are a bit snappier than the scans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskovacs Posted June 3, 2005 Share Posted June 3, 2005 In any case, I should probably also point out the good. I especially liked the composition of the 2nd image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 3, 2005 Author Share Posted June 3, 2005 I thought so, too. Better backlighting would have 'popped' the trees better, imho. The one that bothers me is the statue of Mason. I don't know why I cut his legs off. I was fairly close; and I wonder if I was suffering from some parallax. I 'learned' photography as a boy with my father's old Nikon S-2. Yes, now its a collector's item, but in the 70's, it was just his old camera. He had 'moved up' to a minolta xd-11 (which he still uses). But that was quite awhile ago. I've been using minolta SLR's for years, and I just don't think about the parallax 'thing' anymore. But I do like my kiev 4. FUN camera, and an inexpensive stroll down memory lane. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
william_barnett_lewis Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Hello, I like #2 best as well. But what I want to comment on is this: >I 'learned' photography as a boy with my father's old Nikon S-2. Yes, now its a collector's >item, but in the 70's, it was just his old camera. It makes me sit back and wonder what my son (currently 3&1/2 and playing with a too badly broken to economically justify fixing Lynx 5000 (repaired a foobared VF only to discover that the shutter was hosed.) will think of Daddy's odd old cameras. Perhaps he'll someday realize the joy of the folders too... The flip side is that here in Madison, Wisconsin (perhaps the one place in America to make Berzerkly look conservative), wandering around with a Kiev makes one seem almost normal. I, of course, like to wear a shirt and tie while shooting here... Oh, and did I mention that I wear the insignia of a US Army Military Intellegence officer as a tie tack? (None of the usual jokes need apply. That school was _hard_.) You'd be amazed how many recognize it and freak out at it... at least, around here... :D William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskovacs Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 William, I visited Madison WI last year for a conference and took <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=423104">all my photos </a> with a Kiev 4A & Jupiter 8M :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lesged Posted June 4, 2005 Share Posted June 4, 2005 Enjoyed seeing your photos Jon. I'd like to refine the identification of your camera. It is a Kiev 4AM. The "A" indicates no meter, the "M" is the last of the Kiev 4 series. The rewind lever is the give away. I have two Kiev 4AMs and very pleased with them. If you haven't bought another lens besides the Helios -103 that is mounted on your camera, you should consider the Jupiter 12 35/2.8. It's is a super lens and still very reasonable, as is its excellent finder. When you have more bucks to spend on your Soviet companion, the Jupiter-9 85/2 should be on your wish list. It's another splendid lens, albeit, rather heavy in the Kiev mount. BTW, my response was not meant to be pedantic. I expanded the model designation to help any PN members who may want the same model Kiev you have displayed. My two Kiev 4AMs are dressed in basic black. LOL with your Kiev 4AM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenelsonfoto Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 The problem with these scans is not haze, but JPG artifacting... notice the compression sickness signs. Re-process the scans and make sure to set JPB compression to no less than 75% in Photoshop, not more than level 10 in Paintshop. Beyond those points you should begin to see degradation of the final output in the preview window, of course depending on the resolution of the original scanned file. JPG compression is a killer if one is not careful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 5, 2005 Author Share Posted June 5, 2005 Hi again I think I have 'found' the problem. The scanning from Wal-Mart was poor. Attached is the scan right off the CD. Note that its 100% unprocessed by me - havent even rotated the image. It isn't anywhere near the quality of the printed 4X6. Oh well......guess I gotta bite the bullet and buy a decent scanner. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cenelsonfoto Posted June 5, 2005 Share Posted June 5, 2005 Looks to me as though you were focusing on the monument. Your foreground is soft, not sure what aperture you were shooting at here, but that is causing the "hazy" look. The monument is nice and sharp. I saved your master file to my desktop, rotated it, resized from 200dpi to 100dpi and 511 pixels width. I applied USM to it (Paintshop) at 1.00/100%. I also put a digital Velvia effect on it to boost the greens a bit. What you see is what you get. Not a bad image, maybe make sure your foreground is sharp next time and grab the background via hyperfocal? Craig<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason_thomas1 Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 My sympathies on the lack of cherry blossoms! I was there April 20th, sightseeing on my honeymoon, and there was ONE tree with cherry blossoms left. I think we missed them by a week or so. A little disappointing, but fortunately, the trip wasn't centered around seeing cherry blossoms! Dogwoods were nice then, at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon_macmillan1 Posted June 7, 2005 Author Share Posted June 7, 2005 Hi again! Thanks for pointing out the focal difference. Yes, I think I was shooting at infinity. No, I didn't write down what I was shooting at, but considering it was hazy and late in the afternoon, I wouldnt be surprised if it was f5.6, and the depth of field wasn't enough to get the Monument and the cherry trees. Thanks! Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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