richard palmer

Hi, Iv'e just purchased a Klinger hassy polarioid back off ebay and

erm well I can't follow the instructions HELP....I have some 100 Fuji

polaroid film and no idea what I am doing! Many Thanks Richard

Thanks for the offer a Kaiser looks good as it works with the Heiland but I live in London... Richard

Hi, I have purchased a second hand Hasselblad to try my hand at

medium format and I think I will need to get a new enlarger to

supplement my V35 - Can you modify this for medium format in any way

or is this simply not possible.... If not does anyone have any

recommendations for a comparable enlarger that is also compatible

with the Heiland split-grade system? Do any other enlargers also

offer the luxury of auto focus?? looking forward to your comments.

Richard

Thanks everybody for such ana mazing response, I now think I understand...the T is for Tessar and is not quite as good a lense as the S for Sonnar, but both have no rangefinder and so in practice the focus error possible is more of an issue. The E models have a LED lightmeter inside the viewfinder, where the others have it on top. Users either love them or hate them and until you actually have one for a while you're not really going to know. There are plenty of other small cameras out there that many would argue are better than the Rollei, principally in the real ergonomics of use. Well I will see if I can pick one up second hand from a frustrated user on ebay and find out if the ergonomics suit my girlfriend, who is a keen photographer. If it stays in her handbag a lot then I guess that will be the answer.....Thanks again everybody, and let me know if my summary is incorrect in any way.

Hi, some while back I recall a few of you Leica users also having a

Rollei 35 as a pocket camera, I am looking to buy one as a present,

any advice gratefully received...Thanks

I am seriously thinking of picking up one of these secondhand and was

wondering if there are any images on photonet or otherwise that are

taken with this camera, I cannot seem to find many. I am particularly

interested in the 'lack of distortion' and would love to see some

close cropped people in the corner of the frame etc to see what you

actually get. I have used a 21mm and 15mm lenses [35mm format] and

there is so much distortion that peoples heads etc change

shape.....am I expecting too much from the SWC or is this really a

magic camera?

Does anyone have any interesting location suggestions for a photo

trip this wekend. Yes i know you are all going to say What do you

want to photograph, and where bla bla but I am more interested in

hearing about 'this great location' where you have taken some nice

shots, and preferably in the UK and nearish London.

 

Cheers

Lutz,

 

<p>

 

I had a new 24mm, and tried a new 35/2 and both of these had

a 'stickier' feel to the focus movement, where it was noticably

harder to break the static friction. The 24 got better the more I

used it and the 35 I only had for an hour or so. I also had a strange

assyemteric stiffness on the aperture of my 35/2 for a while and this

was rectified by Leica, simply by relubricating. Could it be possible

that some moisture has got inside an emulsified the grease? I think I

would take it to somebody competent enough to check the lubrication

without affecting the warranty.

I have a Minolta Dimage Scanner for sale, I bought it for my mother,

but in the end she bought a digital camera. I have only used it to

see if it works. Based in the UK, make me an offer....

I have lost more lens caps than I care to admit, and at leica prices

it is like having some sort of idiot TAX. I would love to make a cap

but your description has left me slightly confused......[35/2

summicron with hood on.]

I use the HS, and whilst I am interested in the technicalities of the

subject, this only stems from an interest in understanding how to

obtain a satisfactory quality. I no longer care about zones......For

me with 'experience' with how to probe and an offset based upon my

own preferences, and the dodging and burning facility it is very easy

to get excellent prints very quickly. If you have a predominantly

white or black print, the HS will determine that you have a very poor

contrast negative and suggest a hard grade, you just get to know when

to pull rank so to speak.

I have a late german 4th version, and agree that it is an excellent

performer, I prefer it to the Asph version.

Warren,

 

<p>

 

I tried both lenses after owning a PRE for some time, I much prefer

the out of focus rendition on the PRE and have argued that the

proportion of the image that is out of focus is significant if you

are photgraphing anything but flat objects. Please have a look at the

2 comparitive images to see my point, and remember they were ONLY

taken to compare the OOF performance, the tree is in focus. You can

see the improvement in flatness of field and sharpness in the corners

you might be able to see an improivement in shaerpness of the tree I

cannot, but you will see a great deal of diffence in the OOF regions.

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation?presentation_id=109264

I recently saw one for sale in the UK for 300 GBP and they regularly

appear at bargain prices here. They are an excellent piece of

engineering and the print quality is very good. I have the heiland

unit so do not use my B/W module, if you buy one without this mail

me, maybe we can swap something....

Ken,

 

<p>

 

My advice is to NOT buy another lense at all, if you are happy with

the 35 and are still exploring its capabilities another lens will

confuse things. I started with a 35 and it took me 3 years before I

really began to get to know it. I also have a 50 and 15 and ever

since I started using other lenses my photography has got worse.... I

now tend to just take the 35 out and I think it is improving again,

but maybe this is just me!

Lutz,

 

<p>

 

my girlfriend relied: klenkes......hope this makes sense

Yes, I mean it gets turned on accidentally in my bag.

Lutz,

 

<p>

 

On the subject of films I guess it depends on what you use for a

developer, i send my negs off to be developed so i will find out what

the chap does for Fuji 1600, this for me makes the delta 3200 and the

Tmax 3200 look pretty pathetic, you could be mistaken that you were

looking at a 400 ASA without as much shadow and highlight detail.

Lots of soul and feel, and loads of contrast in very low light, if I

had a scanner handy I would post an image using it. Try it, at first

i thought it a little 'newspaper print' black and white, but I now

love it.

Lutz & friends,

 

<p>

 

Well to be honest I do like the FB in some ways and even got a paper

direr for a measly 10 quid some time back, but it didn't work and

er.. life is too short sometimes. I will have another go with it

though, I just need to find a really simple easy way of dealing with

the drying in my limited space. Also my girlfriend who is from Aachen

really loves these curly prints....maybe it is something cultural!!

The company who does the mounts is as follows

www.cartermounts.co.uk , sorry I can't be bothered to find the

correct way to make the link active...hangovers have a lot to answer

for..

I use one on my M6 when I want to expose from the hip in preparation

for a shot, I have compared the lightmeter in the M6 to the VC and

they follow each other so closely as to not be relevant, I had my

Leica meter checked at a Leica day 2 weeks before so it should be an

accurate measure. The VC meter picks up lower levels of light than

the M6 aswell which can be useful. I also keep it in my pocket

sometimes and play a guess the level of light in here game when

boredom gets the better of me [usually about 15 - 20 seconds of doing

nothing]and it is so small it easily goes on your pocket. For me the

only fault is that you cannot turn it off.

It is reckoned to be one of te sharpest of all of the Leica M range,

it is the only 24 mm made for an M. I had one for around a couple of

months and sold it.....why? because I did not like the images it

produced that much, the angle of view is good, and it is difficult to

fault in sharpness alone, but somehow the images lacked a quality

that I find in my 35 summicron. This is just my opinion and others

will I am sure recommend the lens.

Lutz,

 

<p>

 

If you are using FB papers tell me how you wash & dry them

satisfactorily at home without expensive and bulky kit and I will

consider them, but I use the RC warmtone and in comparison from the

FB I think it is as good, just different and sooooo much easier to

dry flat and shiny. [i just prop mine up against the skirting around

the room when finished....err that's it. For blacknening the windows

can I recommend the blackout fabric that you can buy in 2 layers and

applied with self adhesive velcro on both window surround and fabric.

This has worked fine for me for over 30 on and offs, and yes one day

you can sew it all neat and tidy but hey this is a 20 minute

solution. I have tried XP2 a number of times cos a lot of people

recommend it, yes it is quite contrasty and has plenty of highlight

and shadow detail but somehow for me it has no 'soul', I stick to

FP4, HP5 and the excellent Fuji 1600 neopan. I don't like delta 400

either so we may have different taste here. If you use the V35 then

save your money and get a heiland split grade, it will keep your

darkroom time to a minimum and make it a pleasure to experiance; this

will allow you time free to take more photos.

 

<p>

 

One final note I had some excellent mouns made recently for my 8x12

prints in a 30x40 cm frame, they were cut to exactly my size with a

black backed card that gives a black line around the print on the cut

edge without faffing around with an oversize negative carrier, and

they cost about a quid each. Let me know if anyone is interested and

I will post the companies details here.

Why don't you try the Voightlander for a short while from the shop

and take some comparitive shots before buying this will at least give

you a feel for the difference. Following this I would then buy the

Voightlander and keep for a month of using or so until I was happy

with the way it performed in comparison to the old Leica. Selling a

mint voightlander would not loose you too much money, but trying to

get your old Leica back aswell would be expensive and difficult......

Ricoh GR1: point and shoot, magnesium body, great 2.8 lens, [28mm is

very useful for from the hip shooting] and VERY pocketable. On the

subject of the sling however I have been very impressed with the

advantage that is gives in handling on the M6. I use a voightlander

VC meter sometimes and you can meter with this from the hip with one

hand, and then adjust the camera accordingly again with the same

hand. I tend to operate this as an aperture priority system and

clicking the 2 speed dials in unison to obtain correct exposure, very

simple quick and quiet. - Thanks Lutz

Just to let you know I saw the above in Amatuer Photographer magazine this month for sale for the bargain price of 300 GBP. Might be of interest to somebody.