paul utkin

Greg,

if you did try both Epson and i900 - which one do you find to have better resolving power?

I still have 3170 Epson at the current moment. Tried 4870 and wasn`t

that impressed compared with 3170 - it shows same general softness

compared with results from Nikon 8000 and Imacon.

Does ScanMaker i900 do better job with its glassless tray? Or is it

the same deal as 4870?

I do realize I cannot expect to have Imacon Dr but it would be nice

at least to have a reasonably sharp image. Does any good scanning

solution for MF exist in $500 area?

I do realize I can get a decent scanner for $2K but it is not a

question I ask.

This problem has dual sides - first is the capture and second is printing since we speak here about the final product.

To match 6x7 tmax say let`s assume we use 16/22mp digital back. OK we got a source.

Next problem is to print it out. Here it comes into very simple problem - it is almost impossible to print good neutral B/W with any inkjet printer. It look that the only workaround is to go with quad tone inks like Lyson etc but Lyson inks do fade very fast.

If you have more money you can buy dedicated RIP for your printer but even here you are not guaranteed against bronzing and metamerism issues and slight color casts in shadows plus no inkjet print looks as chemical B/W print. Well, may be inkjet may look OK, but only until you take good gallery quality b/w and compare side by side. Partial workarounds are known - use luster paper, quad tone inks, spray it over but, well, all that is like a black witchcraft and not a known recipe.

May be the better solution could be try to print on LightJet but I never tried it. If anyone knows perfect solution how to produce great neutral b/w - I`ll be more than welcome to hear that. What printer, what inks, what paper, what RIP, what workflow.

Thanks Jack.

Just curious - what did you trade your Contax for? :)

How would you categorize 45-90 glass optically? Same superb as 45 and

55mm primes? Or worse? Or much worse?

I have 55, 80, 120 glass now but think about selling 55 for 45-90.

Will I loose much by doing this?

Mazza, it`s not a question 'IF' - questions are WHAT and WHEN.

And FOR HOW MUCH.

$4300 will not give you much options. The least I would spend on right now is any square format 16mp back. Cheapest one will be Kodak`s pro plus but here we look at $6K+. Imacon, megavision etc backs go for more.

O yeah, I totally agree.

I do realize all the disadvantages I may have.

It ideal world it would be possible just to go to the dealer and do the test but unfortunately in this case it`s not the option anymore.

I will wait until D2x will be announced and hopefully someone will post info about its DR numbers. But something tells me that highly unlikely this new Sony sensor will deliver anything better than 1Ds currently does.

Thanks anyway, I appreciate your help very much.

John, thanks again. It is very helpful to hear from you - unfortunately in such huge world some information is unbelievably difficult to find.

I looked at Rob Galbraith forum by the way and found info like 23 shots in 85 seconds. Does it correspond with your experience?

John,

If you know - does Photoshop CS raw converter understand RAW files from your 645H back?

I looked at Adobe site and they have 14n and SLR/n models listed only.

John,

thanks a lot for your answers!

the worst problem I have with outdoor work is constant overexposure of sunlit spots. My S2 simply cannot handle it well neither can meter properly for such situations so I have to underexpose entire scene and then mess with increased noise in shadows.

It is a bit frustrating to hear that this back cannot do even 1.5 fps on costant basis. Could you tell - for how long do you have to wait after 8 shots been done at maximum 1.5 fps speed? Or, better put, how many shots is it possible to take with say 80x Cf card in 2 minutes?

From other perspective I`m not overly concerned about speed - I will keep my S2 anyway so it will beused for candids and shot of bride coming down the isle etc.

I think 645C is exactly what I need at the moment, it is just a bit scary to invest into something that is not in production anymore. But hopefully if kodak support is good - everything should be fine?

Well, it`s a difficult choise. D2x or 645C. Both options do have their benefits and their disadvantages... But I`m just not sure if D2x will have any better DR than all the others DSLRs on the market.

What`s the point if DSLR is convinient and fast if it simply cannot record properly the scene you have to do?

Hi,

Please do not answer if you didn't use this product. I just need to

clarify something, of course I will find somebody nearby (hopefully)

who owns it and find out but meanwhile - if you do use this product

on regular basis for outdoor and indoor events, could you please

answer this:

1. Does it allow to use 4gb cards and microdrives?

2. Does it have auto white balance or custom white balance? How

simple is to use it? Does it allow fast set of custom WB using

expodisk or white plastic cap? How does its auto balance perform

under mixed lightning?

3. What is the current state of Kodak support? Will warranties be

extended next year? How much does it cost?

4. I plan to use it for weddings and studio work. What is the actual

rate of shoot and how many shots does it take on one battery charge?

It will be used with Contax 645.

5. Considering dynamic range - does it overexpose sun reflections

from tree leaves if you shoot a midday sunlit scene with sunny 16

rule exposure? My S2 does - meter sets exposure right but all

reflective surfaces as oily leaves and belt knobs etc will be

overexposed on red channel so I have to put it stop down to be on

safe side that leads to much more noice in shadows. Does this Kodak

back do the same thing? how many stops up can it hold?

how many stops down in shadows will have aceptable noice level (read -

fixable with Neat Image without loosing too much detail?)

6. If you do use it now - do you think it will be a wise $6K

investment at the current moment of time?

If you don't want to answer here please email me at studio(at)

upvstudio.com.

Please don`t attack me. I just collect information I may need. If you

have nothing to contribute - please just ignore this post.

Thank you.

Digital quality may be terrific if used wisely. I`ve never seen anything close to prints made on LightJet using source file from P25 PhaseOne back. It is simply gorgeous. But how many prints can you afford to do on Durst Lambda or LightJet?

Inkjet prints may be affordable if you get cheal inks and spent a lot of time building custom profiles but it still will be just an inkjet poster. Simple Noritsu minilab will print much better on Fuji Crystal paper.

Nothing is perfect but the final result depends of the workflow you use. Better workflow leads to better results. One story is to work considering double page spread printed on pro grade CMYK press, other story is to consider art gallery as a buyer for your 50" panorama.

As of future predictions - technology goes forward. 22mp probably will exist in 35mm format at least I bet Canon will do it.

If Sony will build full frame Nikon sensor using D2x technology it will be 22mp. So 22mp source translates into a gorgeuos 16x20" print.

Probably 645 format will see 40mp backs.

If one can afford that - why not. Currently P25 is a very very nice tool. If one can afford it - why not? If one takes only 3-5 shots per quarter that will be converted into 20x24 prints on lightjet - why not to drum scan them spending $100 on each and get 100mp source image to work with? Everything is possible.

I am in the same situation rigt now and do have same dilemma - to invest into D2x and use it for 99% of my business and hobby applications or try to invest into 645C back and start using it for 40% of applications it can handle together with Fuji S2.

What is worst, what is better - only life will show.

Ellis,

this is exactly my point. I use my Contax on quite rare occasions now and future of this system worries me a lot.

I hate the idea of dumping it. But I do not see what else to wait for.

From one perspective I do agree, from other perspective Mamiya ZD concept is still more a vaporwave than a camera (plus no guarantee that this back will ever fit Contax) and there is no any other 645 digital solution below or about of $10K price tag.

Plus 16mp out of 1Ds mk2 gives 16x10" at about of 260dpi. I think it will be quite OK quality for most magazines.

If any of you still use MF commercially - do you think it still has

some sense to wait for an affordable digital back or is it finally a

good time to dump it all for 1Ds mk2?

I spoke yesterday to a guy who works in LA, he just sold his 645

Contax system with 645C back on Ebay hoping to get 1Ds mk2 as soon as

it will hit the shelves.

This is a test shot I like to show.

http://photo.upvstudio.com/images/photos/wild_nature/april_2004//crop0057.jpg

It is Hartblei superrotator, maximum tilt, vertical shot focused at center. Pay attention to vignetting in left corners. Scan was done with Epson 3170.

You can tilt and shift it up to 50% of its max abilities without vignetting. Since nothing else exists for such a solution anyway I can live with it. The only other Russian lens I would look at is Arsat 30mm.

http://photo.upvstudio.com/images/photos/wild_nature/shaw//img008.jpg

Well, I use Contax system but generally Mamiya has a choice of almost same lenses.

For portraiture you will need 80 for full and 120 macro for h&s and close-ups.

55 is ideal for groups and landscapes - it has almost no barrel distortions.

to go or not to go with 45mm is up to you - I find it too wide for general landscape but Hartblei makes quite good tilt and shift lens called superrotator - you may want to try it. Other interesting Russian lens is Arsat 30mm fish eye.

210mm is OK to have but not overly critical - if you feel an urge for telephoto lenses you probably should use 35mm gear.

Same here about 45CL4. Metz is pretty consistent in AUTO mode for sure.

One only exception is a fill flash if your subject is in shadow and you are on sunlit spot but it`s not that hard to learn to avoid such situations.

you need to know your flash guide number - it will be in your flash manual in both meters and feets. lets say it`s 180ft. This number will depend of your current ISO. Shutter speed is irrelevant.

you have your subject in 10 ft away. you set your camera to appropriate exposure - if it`s outdoors your shutter speed should not exceed your max sync speed, if indoors you may set shutter as low as you can handle it, usually I would not go lower than 1/30 handheld.

so subject is 10 ft away. your guide number is 180. 180/10=18 so you may shoot with aperture 16 if your flash is set to full output in manual mode. Usually to do fill flash you should have your flash to be 1/2-1 stop less than your aperture was set.

That was manual mode work

If I got you right you were speaking about AUTO mode shooting - that if your flash uses its own sensor to decide if exposure was correct or not. In this mode you have to set 2 settings on flash - ISO and aperture, flash should do all the rest. Some flashes are quite consistent in this mode, others are not that good.

Metz is still alive and there is a chance to see some SCA 3000 series modules that will know iTTL.

Meanwhile you can use 3402 module for Nikon with pretty consistent results, or AUTO mode. I would recommend 2 Metz models - 40mz2/3i for compactness and 45CL4 for power. 60ct4 is a bit more expensive plus you`ll need an external battery pack to feed it.

Newest 54mz models are nice but I`m not sure if they are that better than old good 45CL4 that may recycle up to 0.3sec. Its AUTO mode is pretty consistent indoors, but to shoot against the sun outdoors you`ll need SCA 3000c cord and 3401/3402 SCA adapter. 40mz2 may be used as a master unit and will be able to control remote flash with TTL support if you have 3080/3082 SCA module.

It`s an easy one.

Will 45CL-4 with SCA 3080 module support TTL if used as a slave with

40mz2 with 3401 module as a primary flash?

All I want from 45cl4 in this scenario is to hang outside in auto

mode and accept working aperture from 40mz2 flash mounted on the

camera.

40mz2 manual says that such remote TTL operation is supported

with 'some flashes'. They do not state with 'what flashes' will it

work.

Right now I have CL4 on radio slave but it's in manual mode so it

takes a little bit more time to adjust the working aperture.

I just would like to know if it works at all and how it works prior

to spending time and money on sca 3080 that is not that easy to find.

Thanks everybody. I`ll look at Custom Brackets solutions. This is probably the right way to go.

I tried a couple of Stroboframe brackets for 45CL and they were quite awkward to handle so I gave up.

Quantum is an interesting choice but it`s quite above of my budget. J By the way, does it really offer something more than 60ct$ or 45CL can deliver? Is QTTL that good?