matthew_brain

I use a unicolour roller base with an 8x10 unicolour print drum. I have also read the warnings in some developer literature about low chemical volumes with dilute developers but it has not been a problem for me. I have acheived good consistent results with D-76 stock to D-76 1:3 and even Rodinal 1:100. By reversing the roller direction, the uniroller really swishes the liquid around so you would only run into problems if your drum leaks (which can be fixed in a couple of ways).

 

I typically put 200ml of solution into the drum but for really dilute developer I put 250ml at the the correct concentration in.

 

The unidrum is nice as the chemicals won't touch the film until the drum rotates, I had a look at an old cibachrome drum, and couldn't work out how I would put the film in and stop it moving.

 

Nb Sticking a spare thermometer to the roller base so the tip is in front of the drum and having a 75W moveable desklamp nearby is a great way to ensure the drum temperature stays constant, you can move the lamp depending on the ambient temp.

The fresnel is just a 4x5 inch piece of plastic that sits over the ground glass. It makes the image brighter by distributing the light of the central hot spot over the entire ground glass.

 

In theory fresnels can be designed for different focal length lenses to maximise brightness. In practice any fresnel will increase the brightness to some extent.

 

The original linhof fresnel kit came with the fresnel lens and two little spring loaded hooks that replaced two screws above and below the ground glass. This allows the fresnel to be quickly hooked on or off the ground glass to allow fine loupe focussing without the lens on. That was for the 1950s Tech IV. The master may already have these hooks as standard above and below the ground glass, so you can just get the fresnel from anyone.

 

When the ground glass is in its vertical position, in the center above the glass is there a a little clip that extends over the glass slightly, if there is than you have what you need. It should just flip back.

 

Matt

Ah just what I was looking for.

 

Thank you both for some very useful data - I love the curve and the time for 4 minutes.

 

Thanks very much

 

Matt

Hi,

 

I was recently shooting in a dark forest and only had Velvia loaded.

The recipriocity times for velvia stop at 32 seconds (the best film

for this sort of thing is Provia). I usually have luck extrapolating

the recip times given to longer times that Fuji don't recommend but

was wondering if anyone else has done the work of formally working

out what the recipriocity characteristics of Velvia are beyond 32

seconds.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

I really like Velvia shot at ISO 32. It has a lovely range of unsaturated tones at this speed. For a whilst I shot Provia for the extra speed, but soon came to the conclusion that for the apertures I commonly use, the extra speed was not much help - ie a small amount of wind would still be better corrected by changing the composition or waiting for a lull, a 2-second exposure instead of a 1-second exposure did not make a lot of difference.

 

Where I still use Provia and find it excellent is for anticipated low light situations where its brilliant recipriocity characteristics come into there own.

 

By the way, I'll insert a new post asking for recip times for Velvia beyond 32 seconds.

 

For BW I use T-Max 100 but appreciate the 400 speed films on a 6x8 back for hand held rangefinder shots.

 

Matt

 

I found that ISO 100 Provia was so slow for much of my shooting that the

Have a look at

http://creekin.net/films.htm

where the maximum densities for each colour on the characteristic curve is compared for numerous slide (and print) films.

 

People might shoot me for this but I find Velvia to have a wider range than many other slide films. It just has to be rated correctly (around ISO 32). I did tests with my equipment and have made a mark on my spot meter at the exact point where shadow detail in velvia becomes totally black, and another mark further up where the characteristic curve actually shows enough difference in tones to be useful. These marks are far closer to Zone V (if you rate velvia at 50) than other slide films are for the same point - i.e. I find velvia to rate lower to get the same exposure values.

 

By working like this, I can pick up a wide range of subject brightness and usually still manage to have deep shadow detail and colour in the highlights.

 

In summary I recommend that what ever film you use, test the latitude with your equipment to see what you can force out of it - and I find velvia to offer a very wide latitude when used in this way; I felt it was better than provia and E100SW (however blue shadows will occur with it and many other slide films if not filtered). Velvia used like this has a lovely range of pastel tones that are not over saturated.

 

Hope this helps

 

Matt

Do you mean it has black leather like a master.

 

I have seen V's on ebay with black leather. My guess is that it is a late V if it hasn't got the top flap. Have a look at

 

http://www.cameraquest.com/techs.htm

 

and see if you can decide.

 

Does it look like the rangefinder was removed or was never there. If it was never there it is a Technika or it had RF it was a Super Technika.

 

Matt

Hi Ray,

 

If you do feel like a quick summary (I don't own the book - probably should), I'd like to hear it. I have noticed the same thing when I compare MF and 4x5 negs taken with the same lens. Of course they were developed to different times but usually within the manufacturers recommendation. The 4x5 negs never look as brilliant, despite the fact that with a loupe they acheive the same sharpness. The MF negs have more of a 'painted on' appearance.

24. Started when I was 22.

I have an old Linhof Technika IV with a cam for the 90mm lens and a viewfinder.

 

When I began LF having a cammed lens initially didn't seem much use to me until I missed some shots in quick changing light. The real benefit of smaller formats in my opinion is the point and shoot potential when you need it.

 

Now when walking with others (wife, groups) I often get a quick shot with either a 4x5 sheet (wide) or a 6x8 rollback (for longer focal length) on the 90mm lens. I either pull it out and take it or rest the camera on top of my rucksack. It is fairly fast (for large format). I just choose a fairly small aperture. Incidently for landscape shots (that are not out over a big valley) with a 90mm, you can often just guess about 2-4 degrees front tilt with f32 for such quick shots.

 

I use a neck strap to hold the camera whilst I put the lens on the board. I made my own camera bag that allows me to pull the camera out first, then the lens, then the light meter; just so I can do this quickly from the top of my rucksack.

 

This is no where near as enjoyable as composing on the ground glass but it means I come home with more photos and don't upset my companions too much. Also it makes using a light-weight 90mm super angulon less hassle in very dark situations.

 

Finally most MF settups seem to be nearly as heavy as LF settups and LF has the advantage (as implied above) that a shot from one lens can be cropped to the size of a MF transparency / shot on roll film effectively giving you two focal lengths. I carry two lenses, but sometimes just the 90mm for this reason.

Don't attach your umbrella to your tripod - it will get blown away with your camera or bumped or ...

 

Smaller umbrellas are fine but the best thing is to make some sort of attachment to hold the umbrella onto you (eg a piece of PVC pipe strapped to you. Second to this, if you have a heavy back pack or something, a piece of PVC pipe in that will hold one OK (for lower compositions).

 

Much better is to have some sort of waterproofing around your camera (as mentioned for example) and just pull out the light meters / film holders when needed.

 

Typically I find it is best to set the camera up with one lens on in a car or tent into its waterproofing, then go out with filmholders and light meter in coat pockets and don't change lenses. Have something to wipe water off the lens with too.

 

An umbrella is good for setting all the above up in the rain, but I find it just gets in the way after that (it is useful as a wind shield though).

Similar question to a man with a 35mm camera and 24mm lens and another with a 4x5 camera and a 90mm lens.

 

Typically the 35mm guy tries to stand in front of you because he doesn't need a tripod and knows his image is going to be a postage stamp compared to yours.

Picture 2 for above post

Emil,

 

Unfortunately I do not have a digital camera, here is a very basic line drawing of what I use. I hope it is explanatory enough. If it isn't let me know.

 

Basically it just clips into place after removing the focusing hood - very quick, easy to swing out if you want to take a fresnel off and then use a loupe and best of all (and why I made it) it doesn't cover any of the rear movement knobs (on the technika) and it allows you to put a filmholder in without removing it. I have tried t-shirts etc, velcro, elastic. This is the best for my usage.

 

Hope it makes sense

 

Matt

BH lists the focusing hood as :

45 Folding Focusing Hood/Groundglass Cover for 4x5 Linhof Cameras

So I assume the technika hood fits the technikardan.

 

On the technika, the hood attaches to the groundglass frame by a spring loaded pin at one end and a male/female type socket at the other.

 

For my darkcloth, I got an empty biro that was spring loaded, cut it a bit keeping the spring and putting it in a larger tube - ie basically made a spring loaded pin to go in the bottom. A wire square is taped to this to which you attach your dark cloth. At the top put one of those spring clips (black ones which hold pages together, unsure of correct name.) that will attach onto the pin above the groundglass.

 

If you can visualise all that, you should have a darkcloth that is completly enclosed at the ground glass end, being attached to the square frame of wire. The wire frame needs to be small enough to fit over the groundglass inside the groundglass frame, without covering over the groundglass.

 

It works well.

 

I hope you could follow that, if you would like me to draw you a picture, let me know.

 

Matt

I once made the mistake of pulling a metal filmholder out of a plastic bag in the dark cupboard. A tiny bit of static electricity light occured, barely enough to see - I loaded the film anyway and 2 sheets were faintly fogged on development on one side.

With the focal lengths you mentioned, you should never have a problem with rounded corners; I havn't and my focal lengths are 90 and 180. My 180 is a fujinon W with a huge 305mm image circle; the closest I can get to this sort of problem is a horizontal composition with maximum lateral shift (front standard across AND front and back tilted parallel) in which the bellows press against the side of the camera and shadow the groundglass a little. As far as I am aware, the corners only occur with very long lenses due to the angle of light from the lens centers (effectively making your long lenses a little bit longer by forcing you to crop a few mm). It is no problem for wide lenses.

 

I have not experienced bellows flare yet.

Get a technika with a rangefinder, particularly if you want to do portrait work. It will be much faster to operate and with a short lens like the 75mm, DOF will be good even hand held (if you need DOF). If you want to capture people moving, the ground glass is not the fastest way to work.

 

Since the shortest lens you want is 75mm, it can be cammed and will function fine on a Master Technika Classic (or Tech IV or V for that).

 

The 2000 does not have the rangefinder but replaces this with a focussing device for lenses shorter than 75mm. You won't need this with the focal lengths you mentioned.

 

Set up time depends on the subject:

 

1. rangefinder hand held - as fast as it takes you to open the camera put in a lens and shoot (I leave a roll film back with 400 ISO Provia on the back of my camera instead of the ground glass just for the quick shots).

 

2. Rangefinder + maximise DOF and no movements (just check the nearest distance with the rangefinder and put this and infinity in your DOF limits), as long as it takes to plonk the above on a Quick Release plate (definitly use a quick release plate), and change from roll film back to 4x5 back. Print the DOF card gif near the end of http://www.largeformatphotography.info/dofknob/

at the correct size onto transparency plastic and attach this onto one of the focus markers (silver triangles with a redline in the middle next to the focussing rails, two screws underneath can be removed and reinserted with plastic DOF card). This will now tell you for any lens the DOF limits on the focussing scale for the lens you use so you can make sure the near limit is in DOF.

 

3. Rangefinder to check near distance (as for 2. for DOF) and ground glass to check framing with front standard rise or shift: a little bit longer (I then have to put my ground glass back on the camera).

 

4. Full groundglass focussing and checking to control perspective and optimise lens aperture for diffraction; about 3 to 5 minutes.

 

5. Multiply everything by two if it is raining and you are holding an umbrella in one hand. (Get a neck strap for your camera, so you can setup with one hand holding an umbrella)

 

6. Enjoy using your camera. Don't feel you need to use movements on every shot and don't worry if your lenses are not the very very latest - they never will be.

 

Matt (http://mattstasmania.tripod.com)

I find the following article on QTLs page very helpful on this:

 

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/fstop.html

 

Near the bottom is a table for enlargement factors at each f stop.

 

Another good way to check the quality for yourself is to scan the images at the maximum resolution of your scanner and then zoom in from Original Size until it is sharp on your screen and then see how big that is roughly. It is possible to see the difference for yourself very easily with high enough magnification, try a distant corrugated iron roof at optimal (see http://www.hevanet.com/cperez/testing.html) and very small apertures.

 

In practice, it is better in the field to get the photo at f45 with the light you wanted than to get the photo at f16, after you have applied movements, but in sub-optimal light. If necessary, I might quickly focus, take the shot at f45 or something and then work on the ground glass for altered perspective and DOF and take it again if the light is still as good (or wait for the light to come back). I shoot landscape though, if you have the time to use the groundglass then use it each time.

 

Final point, no one has ever looked at one of my photos and complained about fine detail resolution. They have complained if DOF is poor though.

 

Good luck, I hope you find what suits you.

 

Matt

The outlook isn't good unless you were going out for some weird patchy color shifts (I had a flat mate you liked these odd patterns over the chromes).

 

If it is really important work, it is possibly worth developing. With 4x5 film, you may be able to get a couple of good sheets and a couple where enough can be cropped to be OK. Depends on how much development costs you I guess.

 

This is a much more economical thing to do to roll film (out of the camera).

 

Good Luck

See:

 

http://www.cyberbeach.net/~dbardell/panorama.html

 

I am very tempted to try something like this, as just about any bit of wood can be made to fit a graflock back. All you need to do is have a spacer between the film plane and the camera body to allow 6x17 on a 4x5 camera and just use the lens as you would superwides: very close to the film plane.

 

Matt

The best padding I've found for camera bag / lunchbox lens cases is to cut up a blue compressed foam camping mattress (approx 0.8cm thick) from a camping store - much cheaper than trying to get high density foam. Put a bit of tape over it if sliding lensboards past it (else it gets a little frayed). It also holds its shape enought to make small boxes or partitions with (or just tape thin plastic from a document wallet around the outside to increase strength).

And (after all this) can cams be ground for III's and IV's. There is some ambiguity about this.

'A N Y full service repair shop'

 

Sounds good. But I will wait in case I pick up a 210mm lens first.

 

What sort of prices are we talking?

Untrue in fact. The fact is I DO use a 90mm cam to focus a 180mm lens and it does work.

 

'The 75 and 90mm cam are very shurt while long lenses have very long cams. You would quickly run out of cam trying to focus a 150 or 210 at close distances. '

 

Actually it is the transverse distance across a cam that controls the mirror in the rangefinder. A 90mm cam has the same transverse distance as a 240mm cam, the 240mm just spreads this distance over greater length (else how could the rangefinder be used at 2 feet with both lenses). Thus the opposite of your above statement is actually the case: close to infinity it is more difficult to match the distance from a 90mm distance scale to a longer distance scale because the 90mm cam moves very quickly through far distances but spreads out more for close distances - this is why I said longer cams are more suited to this task as they produce a distance scale with more points close to infinity. It is easy to match distances inside about 10 feet from one to the other. Using unmatched cams that are closer to your lens would help.

 

'You also need to drop the bed to use a 90 properly. This means you extend the bed, pull out the cam, drop the bed, replace the cam and then go onto shoot after pushing in the bed. Not following these directions will bend your cam. Using long cams from 210 and up will almost certainly bend the cam. '

 

Quite true, to use a 90mm cam properly for a 90mm lens you do the above. And yes having a longer cam in may bend it (so yes it is inconvenient that if you want to use the 90mm and ground glass focussing you have to remove any long cams). BUT a 90mm cam can still be used to drive a distance scale via the rangefinder; simply don't drop the bed or push the front rails back; and draw a new distance scale in front of the one that is there with the rails pushed back. Take your readings of this scale - thus making it perfectly accurate for the distances you choose to mark on it.

 

'Wonder how Linhof survivrd since 1946 making camera that use interchangeable cams, infinity stops, focusing scales and focusing scale stages all these years without resorting to your idea? '

 

Linhof make quality equipment that lasts and is extremely useful. The interchangeable cams and rangefinder are excellent. I am merely outlining an alternative and definitely inferior option to anyone who picks up an older camera with unmatched lenses and would like to use them with the rangefinder without resorting to sending the whole kit away and paying a lot of money for cams. This is especially the case for those of us outside the US and Europe or those who would like to change their lens combination soon.