bob fowler

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I would say that since you want to shoot environmental portraits and candids, you probably would be best off with the SQ-Ai, any of the prism finders, and the Speed Grip S. Even if you won't be printing square, it's much faster and more comfortable to shoot with a square format camera as you are not turning the camera for vertical compositions. The SQ series are fantastic handheld with a speed grip and a prism.

<i>"The way I see it, if a picture looks good because of heavy editting, then the author is not a photographer but more of a painter (only digital rather than the traditional brush and paint). Am I too old fashioned?"</i><p>Since you poasted this in the "people Photography" forum, I'll stay in that area...<p>I do a lot of B&W "Hollywood" style portraiture, so I almost always have to retouch the Hell out of images - and I'm certainly not a painter. Retouching, not to be confused with spotting, is NOTHING new. Since the first person took a pencil to a glass plate negative (or perhaps to something much earlier), portrait retouching has been considered a "normal" if not <u>mandatory</u> technique. FWIW - I'm a large format film shooter and prefer to retouch the negative, but lately I do a lot of retouching of scanned film in Photoshop.<p>Regardless of the medium, digital or film, if I were to start delivering "unedited" portraits I'd be out of business in a heartbeat...

J&C Photo (http://www.jandcphoto.com/) sells film in 620! They have 2 B&W and 2 color emulsions (the color are Fuji 100 and 400). They have a machine that cuts 120 spools so the film is never touched in the process.

 

My $.02

It's a very good flash. Recycle time depends on power supply used, from >12 seconds for AA alkalines to < 2 seconds for Quantum Turbo.

 

Also, if you're using it in an "Auto" setting, recycle will vary based on f/stop in use and flash to subject distance. The circuitry of the flash "saves" the unused power from one flash for the next flash, speeding up recycle time and saving battery power.

Take a look at the German site (http://www.gossen-photo.de/english/foto_sammler.html), yes, there is an English language version, and you'll find that you are indeed correct. You can dl the manual for the Lunasix F there and see for yourself it is identical to the Luna Pro F.

The camera is a D45M. These were the top of the Toyo line back in the early to mid 1970's. The bellows, lensboards, and backs are interchangable with the current Toyo 4X5 monorail cameras. All lateral and rise/fall movements of this camera are geared, as is focusing. There was a budget model, the D45A, which did not accept extension rails, nor did it have geared shift movements. The revolving back is of the bail type and does not have a removable focus panel. Polaroid 545 holders are no problem, but 405 holders are dificult at best. The bail type back also limits the types of roll film holders that can be used with this camera.

 

The monorail came in 2 pieces, a section about 14" long and a 6" extension. The auction listing doesn't indicate if both are provided, so if you plan to bid, that is a good question to ask. The extension rails show up every once in a while and tend to sell for over $50.00.

 

Yup, I use one of these!

Another vote for Carol. She's a great mechanic and a wonderful person with which to do business.

I for one am glad that so many have abandoned the film ship and rushed towards digital, even if just temporarily. That really made for a great drop in prices on medium format gear. Now that the pendullum has slowed (I don't know if it's really slipping back to go the other way, yet), prices are starting to creep up again. I greedily took advantage of the big drop in prices and bought a bunch of great equipment at a fraction of what it would have cost just a year earlier.

 

Do I feel guilty? Hell no. If people want to abandon their tried and true tools for the newest gadgets that won't do anything to improve their photography, and to sell those tools at bargain basement prices to finance their toys, I say "screw 'em". I shot weddings and portraits with the same Mamiya TLR bodies and lenses for over 20 years before I bought all my Bronica SLR gear. I suspect I'll be shooting these cameras for a great many years to come as well.

Thanks to Carol Miller of Flutot's Camera Repair, the problem is fixed! Indents on the face of the meter that looked to me to be moulding marks are actually little plugs that are screw covers. I popped them out with a needle and was halfway there!

Trouble is, there aren't any exposed screws! I popped off the thin metal plate that surrounds the sensor on the other side - no screws there either.

I have to echo Bruce, that set up is SWEEEET!

Here is a scan of the meter showing the loose piece of plastic.<div></div>

(I posted this on the Yahoo camera-fix list, but thus far there have

been no responses)

 

I have one of these meters that works just fine (or as well as these

EVER worked). One little problem - there is a small piece of plastic

that has come loose inside and is flopping around. The couple of

times I've seen it, it looks like excess flash from the moulding

process that wasn't cleaned correctly and now has broken off. It does

get into the mechanism once in a while, requiring a bit of an

inverted shake to free it up again.

 

My question: How in the world does one open these little buggers up?

I must be missing something here...

Wow! That's a tough choice to make...

 

I'd say that it's a toss up between my Eastman View #2 and my Retina IIa. No... hold on... I'll have to juggle a third, my Zeiss Ikonta 520/16 has to be there as well!

Hi Nathan, I don't have the Bowens (mine is the DCA1 from the old Natcam course), but I would try using a reflector type desk lamp with a 60 watt bulb and run a couple of shutters of known accuracy at various speeds to get an idea of how the tester is working. Start with the lamp about a foot away from the shutter/camera body being tested. If you don't get repeatable results, you may have to adjust the distance in or out (probably in), or possibly move to a higher wattage lamp. Regardless, as much as those trim pots are a temptation, don't mess with them yet. Without a circuit diagram, it's difficult to say what they're for, but my guess is that they may be for some sort of linearity adjustment.

I'm probably going to be a lone voice on this choice, but I'm rather fond of the Gossen Ultra-Pro with the Multibeam 1/5/10? attachment.

A 49mm Series VI adapter shouldn't be too hard to locate. They pop up on ebay quite often.

Most that I have dealt with should be taken outside and shot - and I don't mean photographed. I've had experiences similar to what Kari described, and worse - much, much worse. Imagine having an "X-Acto Knife art director" hanging over your shoulder while you're shooting formals...

 

Needless to say, I try very hard to avoid them, even to the point of turning down jobs when I know a certain person will be the "consultant".

The absolute best ground glass I've ever used is the Satin Snow glass <a href="http://www.satinsnow.com"> www.satinsnow.com</a>. The issue of a fresnel is another story though. IMO, you really only need one when using wide angle lenses, <i><b>but</b></i> your focus <i>panel</i> may be set up for a fresnel, so you may have to either buy a proper fresnel kit (B&H sells them) or make some measurements and shim the ground glass. Regardless, the Satin Snow glass would be my first choice.

I'm in the "get a view camera" camp. When shooting tabletops, a full movement monorail view camera is your best friend!

There are 3 flavors of Polaroid backs that will fit the SQ series cameras that I'm aware of: the original Bronica SQ back that has a switch for 75/3000 film speed, the NPC brand back that has the same 75/3000 switch, and the SQ-Ai back that has a full range ISO film speed dial. I have the original SQ style back and see no reason to upgrade to the SQ-Ai type as I pretty much always use a hand-held meter when shooting Polaroid/Fujiroid, so the film speed to meter connection is meaningless to me anyway.

 

FWIW, I like the Fuji FP100C and FP100B films more than the Polaroid stuff. The FP100C is great for proofing when shooting E100.

I'm a firm believer in the Unicolor Unidrum on a motor base. You're limited to 4 sheets at a time, but it could NOT be easier and results are uniform. I tried the Yankee tank about 15 years ago and while it was a good option at the time for odd ball sizes such as 3 1/3x 4 1/4, it's horrible for 4X5.

First of all, while your calculation of 5.88ml is technically correct, it's a heck of a lot easier to just use 6ml of Rodinal and 300ml of water and not worry about having 6ml "extra" solution in the tank. A 10ml disposable plastic syringe from the pharmacy is all you need to extract/measure the Rodinal from the bottle.

Oliver, that is an outstanding deal. If it were my money, that system would be in my house right now with my other Bronica gear! If the lenses are the PS rather than the S versions, it's an even better deal...