joseph_ho

you already have pentax lenses so just keep with the pentax! even if you switch emulsions, you will have 2 camera bodies! forget poloroids, what a pain. the pentax will be great for what you want to use it for.

tripods are required for landscape photography, forbidden for street photography.

 

they are also helpful for studio set ups when you don't have a camera stand.

 

personally, i catergorize tripod and flash as basic gear, right next to the camera itself.

if the sand is all mixed into the grease, a good air blast wont do too much for you.

 

if you can take it apart yourself. then you can wipe it all out and replace the grease with just about any grease. a gitzo dist once gave me some of their grease so maybe you can look for a distributorship or repair shop for help. bearing grease for cars and stuff like that should do fine as well.

 

my gitzo head is not so easily taken apart, it got sand in it and i just kept on using it. the sant just got pushed off to the side and never hurt anything.

i would like the badge to be mounted in a user interchangable way. the camera would be supplied with 3 optional badges and a form you can send in to have a custom badge made to your spec. hec, why not make the entire casing interchangable like a japanese cell phone? then we can have cameras with little lights running around inside. or i could paint my own...

6x7's make for heavy landscape cameras, especially if your backpacking! the pentax 67 series has been a benchmark for photographers shooting 6x7 landscapes. the camera is a beast of reliabilty but requires a very brute tripod indeed.

 

do consider 645 as well. they are good for all non-rediculously sized prints. if you want to print larger than 20x30 then you may need 6x7, but up to that size, i feel that my 645 has served be well and i refuse to carry anything heavier than that on hiking trips.

if i get to own this camera, i will probably order a russian fish eye for it soon after.

some cards like the panning one are pretty neat, it sets the shutter based on how smooth you pan the camera.

 

other cards like portrait, are purely worthless.

i just read an item about a dozen posts down about manfrotto clamps loosening, breaking, and needing constant adjustment. the solution to this problem is to get a gitzo!

 

the aluminum gitzos now have rubber caps over spiked feet. so you can pull off the feet to reveal the spikes, the caps are secure enough that they require a real firm tug to remove. you can also get a carbon tripod and put in aluminum sections at thee very bottom. this gives you the spiked feet and extention markings for refrence. gitzo also has a few different add on feet for sand or snow ect...

 

overall, i think its best to start with a carbon gitzo and adjust to your needs from there.

 

i feel that gitzos are superior but in no way invincible as some would say. over the years, one of the leg pivots loosened itself and had to be reshimed and one of the center post plugs fell out and had to be reglued. micheal of luminous landscape reported onne of his tripod legs pulling out of the hub.

a while ago, i went through a ton of threads and read volumes of stuff on various filters. when i was done, i was convinced that hoya HMC filters had the most flare free coatings on their UV filters and they just happen to cost a lot less than B+W.

 

i doubt you will need a slim or wide filter for those lenses.

 

BW kaesemann polarizers are sealed so they are more resistant to delamination when treated to crappy conditions. they also claim that they are made to tighter tolarances. unless you venture to the harshest of conditions, this should be a waste of your money because the filter itself will need to be replaced due to scratches or whatever long before a regular polarizer will delaminate.

 

you can read more about BW filters here

http://www.schneideroptics.com/filters/filters_for_still_photography/

 

and take a look at hoya too

http://thkphoto.com/products/hoya/index.html

gaffers tape can easily ruin the surface of yourr expennsive filters, if you need a cheaper holder, kenko makes one for lee filters. i use it without vignette problems on my 45mm lens for my 645 camera. thats equiv to 28mm in 35mm terms. if there is going to be movement in your pictures, you will need an ND grad instead of combining frames, even if its just grass blowing in the wind, the 2 shot composite is no substitute for ND grad. don't let these guys get you in trouble!

 

100mm filters seem most popular and interchangeable. lee, hitec, signray...

 

some cokin ND grads have been known to be not so ND. i've read many ccomplaints about color shifts and stuff. especially with the standard line. i don't knnow about the larger filters, X series and such.

 

i use one lee ND grad with a kenko holder. its been all i needed.

i am intrested in setting the custom functions to my 645n. i am aware

that i am supposed to send in the camera a pay a fine to have it done

for me but that is ubsurd to me.

 

i want to know any and all information possible about how it might be

done. is there a website that shows how to do it myself? is it in the

repair manual if i can get my hands on one?

 

i have heard that ppl have brought their cameras to the service center

in person to have these set on the spot. if you have done this, how

long did it take? did they do it infront of you?

 

more importantly, was it a sequence of keystrokes? did the camera have

to be interfaced with a computer? was there disassembly involved?

 

i think 45 dollars is ubsurd to set functions on my camera that cost

what it did. especially since i want to be able to change them based

on what i'm doing with my camera any day of the week. i have run a

search and not found any instructions on how to do it. now i am

starting this thread to compile as much information on the subject as

possible for 645n users and myself.

 

thanks for any info you can share.

i have skimed and scanned your post. i have not had your experience of being a photo student but it was close.

 

i used to shoot hundreds of rolls for HS yearbook, i have a digital slr wannabe and a medium format system. here is what i have found.

 

now that i no longer shoot for anyone but myself really, the digital camera (E-20) has basically replacced 35mm. i only feel at a loss when i need longer or wider lenses than what is permenently attached to it. also, i looked at the frame counter last night and found that in a year, the camera has in a way, paid for itself

 

that being said, anything that i want really good prints of, i use the MF. if i want prints larger than an 8x10, i use the MF. if i want precise control of depth, the digital is not at its best.

 

with the equipment i own or have access to, i don't see much use for 35mm film! its dwarfed by MF and about as expensive. not much better than digital.

 

my recommendation to you is to stick with largeformat for film. then pick a D-slr with interchangable lenses. choose the lenses to cover ranges impossible or unfeasable on LF and a good zoom for the middle range. i like primes too but the top zooms from nikon and canon are truely respectable.

 

in the future, if you want to shoot on film more convienently, then medium format would be the way to go!

 

lastly, if it where my 3grand, time for a medium format filmscanner, a new monitor, and lots of ram!

i use a 645n for landscapes, i use it as my main film shooting camera. i have shot alongside hassleblads on multi-day hikes. i see nothing special or wrong with that. overall, i think film is good.

 

digital photography has for the most part replaced my use of 35mm film. large format, however glamourous, is not practical for me nor is it the least bit feasable.

 

medium format has its place with me.

i rescued a 101 from my uncle. i reccomend not trying to mess with the foam on your own. when the stuff they used in that camera breaks downn, it becomes a gluey substance and its extremely sticky, some of it gets on the bottom of the mirror too. i tryed to clean it on my own and it was all over the place. i took it to a repair shop and they had a chemical that got it off in an instant and re foamed the camera with the proper materials for FREE!!!

 

so don't touch the foam, don't even poke at it, just get it to a freindly repair shop, hopefully they can take care of it on the spot fro next to nothing.

mine is still fine, after close to 3 years.

surely, you will have a fuzzy black cornered photo if your putting it on a 20mm for a 35mm camera..

if your f-stop is moving towards the whereabouts of f-11, that can get you in trouble. for 5-20ft, iso 400 should be plenty, just shoot wide open. and wait for the ready light on the flash before taking the next shot. i don't use nikon but on my metz flash, i set an audible tone for flash ready so its one less thing i have to look for with my eyeballs.

1) do you really need a flash sync above 1/60th?

2) do you really need to change emulsions midroll and continue the half roll later?

 

if you answer no or not really, the camera to get is the pentax. for a fraction of the price to get started a and an even smaller fraction to add lenses to the system, you get a lighter camera with better battery life, and better auto-focus. you get tripod sockets on two sides of the camera and sockets for both mecchanical and electronic cable releases. you get a very intuitive control layout and very comfy grip.

 

disregard comments about the ziess tag being superiour. when deciding on my camera, i read from one member that he rented all three cameras and made large prints from corrisponding lenses. the pentax print was mistaken for ziess! each line of lenses is sure to have its bloopers. i own the pentax 45mm which is said to be less sharp than both zoomms covering that range. 16x20 prints show no sign of weakness to me.

 

what camera hass the best value? unndoubtedly, pentax.

i have a lee brochure and many of the sample shots show how filters can be stacked. putting a lighter grad in upside down forms a darrk strip in the middle and extrends overall shutter speeds for smoothing out coastal surf. neat stuff. so stacking these filters can get you effects you can't get otherwise. yes, more flare, yes loss of sharpness, but getting the shot comes first.

i was kinda mad and frustrated when i found out that the version without the date function was not availible in taiwan. i had thoughts about disabling it <permenently> but its not been inadverdently triggered just yet. sorry, no suggestions other than keep it in the supplied pouch to cover the buttons while not in use.

they always after photographers.

 

rochester inspectors hand inspected my small camera bag and its E-20n 54-mz3 and all that. sent it through the x ray twice. and then a week after landing, i realize i had left my gerber multi-pier in there and not taken it out before flying like i had planned. if i had discovered it on the plane, i would have had the option of dissasembling half the cabin. hmm, lets have some more leg room!

 

or better, my 10 year old cousin'c craft kit was pulled aside and her kid scissors taken from her. after the trip, my uncle looked into the kit for other items that might cause future trouble. well, there where 3 more scissors to start off with!

 

get on with it TSA!!! forget trying to be the big boys and taking away all our toys cause you really suck at it. reduce the staff, take the money, and give everyone a 4 inch blade before they get on the plane. we'll defend ourselves, the american way! the right to bear arms makes us strong. but in the air...defenseless! terrorist don't have the numbers to fill half a plane with suicide bombers. they can't win if you bring them the tough stuff.

i shoot the 645n for landscapes. 45, 75, 150. all AF versions. i use a rubber hood and a step up ring on the 75 so all lenses have hoods and 67mm threads. but the UV protoctor is 58mm mounted one the lens first ad not taken off.

 

this kit is perfect as an all round system. fits well in a large camera bag with a flash and meter with some filters. no regrets.

i've heard that the pentax 645's sometimes have a case of loose focusing screen. i use the 645n and its what i read before i bought it. never happened to me. you should see what the focus light says as you focus the manual lens. you can also conduct a simple focus test by shooting a test target at a 45 degree angle.

you might like a 645 format.

if you have some workable film such as a BW neg. you can get away with taking a reading when your out he door with the incident meter and adjusting with a guess as you walk in and out of shadows and light. just recheck every now and then to keep on track. i was impressed with myself.