joseph_ho

for landscapes, i always carry a tripod if i'm shooting medium format. even though it is the 645n, one of the most vibe free MF slr's around, it makes no sense that i would carry the weight of a bigger camera but no support. if i don't want that weight, i do 35mm. for me, a main point of medium format is to get more detail then 35mm, and you can get more detail with a tripod then without no matter what the shutterspeed for non moving subjects.

collaborate?

what would you think of a mamiya body with lieca glass?

uhg, i was hoping for faster zooms! the reason i have primes is really only for speed. a 33-55 2.8 would be a must have! 5.6 is annoyingly slow. primes still the way to go?

i use lee with the round Kenko holder. great filter, 20 dollar holder. the only thing i miss is the bellows hood but i don't have room for that in the bag anyway. i only have the one filter (ND grad)so spending more money on the holder than the filter seems really stupid. i see many photogs hand holding these filter in front of tripod mounted cameras.

the best part is not the savings but to be able to carry the thing around and have ppl ask where to buy it and who makes it!

i shoot sunrises and sunsets from mountains with the 150 2.8 IF lens. flare is only visible if your lookin for it if the sun is not in the frame. it is clearly visible if teh sun is in the frame but doesn't detract from the picture in my opinion. i did try a nutrual density grad once and it ruined all the pictures of that sunrise. the flare was about as bright as the sun itself and right next to it. earlier, there was mention of a 400 dollar MC ND-grad but that price is plain un absorbable for me.

my limited experience (about 15-20 rolls) says not to go longer then 11 min. in ID-11 1:1. grain gets really ugly really fast. the results weren't pretty when i tried D-76 either. sticking with ID-11 1-1 9 to 9.5 min. superb film for portraits. great for outdoor/nature photos exept for "actuall landscapes so to speak" i find that it works great for getting nice tones on trees and wood grain.

if the filters i use are non directional (not grads or stars.....) you will get less blocking if the filters slide in horizontally and not vert because the way the frame runs

i got into the 645n system after considering the mamiya and contax equivelents as well. no regrets! if i had got one of the others, there is no way i could have built up a three lens system so fast. if you want the MLU, it shouldn't be long before the 645nII is available. there are 16 exposures per roll of 120 film. i think this makes the need for mid roll interchangability sketchy unless you are walking around shooting the same pictures on two different films, moving on and doing it again. for me, just shoot the rest of the roll. i have heard of pro 645n shooters just using two bodies though. they justify it by saying it doesn't cost too much more than a few H-blad backs and they get a backup body. i have done portraits with the camera in and out of doors but not yet outdoors with flash. i also never complained about the 1/60th sync of my 35mm camera system.

you can always scan the film

printing a tranny is a little more difficult.

if you open the back and open the shutter on "B", can you see anything that might be causing the problem?

careful!

newer cameras use a polarized half mirror as part of the reflex mirror so some light can go through to the camera's metering system. AF is not the only affected function. how do i know? i used an old linear polarizer on my 645n when i first got it and less than a third of the pictures were metered properly. Oddly enough, the AF seemed to work fine!

 

i don't know if a linear is ok on the original 645 or not.

when i first purchased this camera, i had this problem on every roll, sometimes in the middle, sometimes on the first frame. i immediatly brought the camera back to the store and it was replaced as soon as they could get another one in. no problems since...

do consider the f/stop in conjuction with the availibility of 120 high speed films. (provia 400 is expensive!)

how does the optical performance of 120macro compare to a reversed

75mm or close up lenses on the 75 or 150? how about an extention tube

on the 75 or 150? and if i get the 120 macro,how does this lens

perform at infinity focus if it does at all?

for some background, i do outdoor photography and i'm looking to add a

longer lens to my setup that includes the 75 and 45 as well as some

macro capability without the weight of two lenses.