Which Polaroid holder?

[sergey___]

Hello,

Could You say, which type of Polaroid is more usefull and convinient?

I plan to use it for cheking focus and exposure in 4x5, and no plan to use Quickloads in 545.

It looks like that packfilms 405 are cheaper about 2x then 545, and packfilms are easier to handle.

Excuse me for spelling,

Best Wishes.

[ellis_vener_photography]

I use a 405 and a 545i. The reason the film for the 405 is cheaper is

because it is the smaller 600 series format. If you are going to use a

variant of the Polaroid pos/neg film to check focus use the full size

4x5 version (Type 55) in the 545i holder as it is full size and the

negative is more easily cleared than the 655 negative.

[c_matter1]

Use whatever variant of the neg film for focus check. The grain of

the print makes it pretty much useless for a magnified focus check. I

just peel it and (carefully) put mu loupe on the back of the film and

hold it up to the light. Watch out for the goo, though

[ellis_vener_photography]

The problem with using the smaller pack film is the opaque anti-

halation backing; without processing it in the sodium sulfite (or maybe

running water) you won't be able to see through the film

[james_chow4]

I had the same question and went with the 545i holder. Sure, the film

is expensive, but you can see nearly the entire shot, so you know if

the corner is going soft or the lens hood is in the way, etc.

 

<p>

 

However, I've always found it difficult to judge exposure from

polaroids. I use type 54 for 4x5 and Polapan 672 and Polacolor 679

for MF. Maybe it's because I usually shoot w/ velvia, so the latitude

is much narrower and saturation much higher than that of the

polaroid. What appears perfectly exposed to me on polaroid 54 ends up

slightly underexposed on velvia (rated at 40, focusing distance is

far, so it's not a bellows comp. problem). One friend of mine says

his velvia chromes on 4x5 always seem to be 1/2 stop under the same

chromes shot w/ his EOS, and one LF pro I know tells me that

determining the exact exposure via polaroids is pretty futile.

[sergey___]

Thank You very mach for the answers.

May be I will go for 545i, if at all (I am not a pro).

Best Wishes.

Sergey.

[ellis_vener_photography]

james,

It is not that futile. You just have to test and match your "real"

films" IE to that of the Polaroid.

[larry_huppert1]

I agree with others about Polaroid type 655. I only use the neg for

focus checking, so clearing the negative isn't important to me. Type

55 is *much* easier to work with, altough with some patience, sharp

fingernails, and tolerating a little Polaroid goo, you can remove the

black backing off of 655.

 

<p>

 

I wouldn't say that Polaroid alone allows you to be exact on

exposure, but it's very good for validating that your in the right

ball park. That combined with other shooting practices will get you

to very good exposures (e.g. exposing two or more sheets identically;

processing one; and then pushing or pulling the second sheet).

Polaroid is also great for tuning your lighting plan for a shot.

 

<p>

 

Regarding Velvia, I shoot it rarely, but have heard of some people

shooting it at Exposure Index 25 or 32. In general, have others

found a difference between the exposure characteristics of a sheet

film variety vs. the roll film equivalents?

[james_chow4]

It seems I have to overexpose the polaroid type 54 a tad for velvia

to look right for my tastes (I usually rate it at 40)...this will

require more testing. Just about everyone I know uses the polaroids

just to determine if the exposure is 'in the ball park,' and then

brackets a couple of shots.