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Mate raters? What about when you go visit someone who rated you, click on their highest rated photos, and see that they are their own? I didn't even think that was allowed, but I saw it today. That serves no purpose whatsoever.

Maybe we should all apply for jobs as teachers in Romania - sounds like lucrative employment. Then we wouldn't have to sell all our camera equipment.

Well, if you just want to try out MF, and like the classics, try a Koni Omega or Rapid Omega. It's a rangefinder, and as a complete setup, comes with four lenses - 60mm, 90mm, 135mm, and 180mm. 6x7 format. Ten exposures on 120 film. Inexpensive and very sharp. Just a suggestion.

Best,

Barry

1. A slow shutter can be easily repaired by someone who knows the camera. The shutter, by the way is in the lens.

2. I suspect the back is faulty. It is possible you loaded it wrong, but if pictures came out at all, you loaded it right. It is also possible that you did not fully pull out and push in the advance lever. These backs need to be overhauled every 20 years or so.

3. Your rangefinder is out of adjustment. You could do this yourself by removing the top of the camera, focusing on something at infinity, and adjusting the reflectors, but I wouldn't chance it.

 

My recommendation. Send the camera to Greg Weber:

 

http://www.webercamera.com/

 

He has email and a toll free number, and can rebuild your whole camera if necessary. These are wonderful cameras.

 

The only tip there is for using the rangefinder in dim light is to clean the glass on a regular basis, inside and out, and use as large an aperture as possible if it's low light.

 

Best,

Barry

Well, nobody has mentioned this yet, so let me suggest that you can get a Rapid Omega MF rangefinder system pretty cheaply, if you just want to see if you like MF. It's a 6X7 system, and lenses are as good as anyone's. Do an ebay or KEH search for Koni Omega or Rapid Omega. You can get a Koni with 90mm lens for under $200, and it will blow away the competition in that price range. You can add a 58mm, 135mm (rare and pricey) and 180mm. And you can get 120 or 220 backs. Great system.

Best,

Barry

Well, I'm not sure what average means, but I must have missed something. For a while there, if you wanted to leave a rating lower than a 3, I think it was, you had to leave a comment. Now I realize it didn't have to be a meaningful comment, but you had to work a little to leave a comment lower than a three. I guess that is no longer the case, since my latest submission got all 4s, 5s, and 6s until someone gave it a 1/1 with no comment. I'm not really an egotist when it comes to photography. I've been a bad photographer for a long time and I don't have to make my living at it. But neither do I appreciate being blasted without an explanation. A critique is supposed to be a critique, I think. So maybe Mark's idea is a good one. Personally, I exercised the option Peggy suggested and deleted the photo. Why bother? hmmmm. I think I may have stumbled on something.

Bill said Koni-Omega. Let me just add to that. For $650, you can probabaly get a nice Rapid Omega or Koni-Omega, the standard 90mm lens, a 180mm lens, and the 60mm wide angle. Great lenses and great 6x7 rangefinder camera. Focusing is not the easiest, but good quality for the money.

Best,

Barry

Well, I don't think you can go too far wrong with either film, and it may depend more on whether your lab likes Kodak or Fuji. I have used NPH, but not NPZ. But I have used lots of Portra NC and VC, and it's very flexible film. You can push or pull it a couple of stops with no problem. The last wedding I did (no, scratch that - it was the one before), I used 400VC and pushed it to 800. Pictures came out great.

Best,

Barry

Sounds like a good setup for starters to me. I shoot Rapid-Omega MF equipment. It's nice and sharp and cheap. And I have an Epson 2400 scanner which does an amazingly good job for the price. So I would not hesitate to recommend the 3200.

 

Best,

Barry

There are a couple of new dark slides on ebay right now. Also, you can probably buy one from Weber Camera Repair, toll free 1-877-721-3873.

Best,

Barry

Portra pushes very well at one or even two stops. I would push it. Or you can get a clip test, but you don't have many frames to work with on a roll of 220.

Best,

Barry

All comments have been great. I would just say that, from personal experience, if your subjects are going to wear red, you might be better to go with NPH. NC, depending on the lighting, may dull the color somewhat, but it may make up for it with the nice skin tones. And I have to second or third the lab factor. Make sure that, if you use Portra, your lab is used to dealing with it. Otherwise, your nice portraits may have a decidedly yellow cast.

Best,

Barry

Just a word about Portra VC, NC, etc. First, I don't think any casual observer can tell the difference between 160 and 400, so shoot the 400 and give yourself some latitude. If you expose it at 800, it will still come out nicely. The NC is better for portraits and for instances where there is a lot of black and white, which there usually is at weddings. VC (I have not used UC) has its place, and gives nice renditions if you need the color. If the attendants are wearing rose-colored taffeta gowns, VC will bring out the color better. NC will look flat and antiquey (is that a word?), which is not to say that is bad. I shot a wedding with NC in a light oak-panelled church. Colors were black and white. Results were old-timey looking, but very nice.

In my personal experience of over forty years as a bad photographer, I have found that it depends on a lot of factors you can't control, such as your age. When I was 25, I could shoot an 80mm lens on a 35mm camera at 1/30 hand-held and get nice results. Now, if I want to be able to tell what the subject was, I need a tripod for that 80mm at anything less than 1/125. When shooting medium format, because of the weight more than anything, it's nice to have a shutter speed of 1/250 or faster. Makes a big difference. And coffee doesn't help. So take a test roll as you reduce the shutter speed and see how good you are. Then you'll know what to do.

First, I believe you were too close to your subject for a nice bounce-flash effect. You can see that the top of her head is lighted by the flash nicely. Second, if you use bounce flash, it is advisable in these types of close situations to use a wink light (fill flash) or a white card on the top of the flash to direct some of the light toward the face. Thirdly, if you were using an auto flash, the sensor decides when to cut off the light, so it depends what the sensor was pointed at. In this close situation, the sensor may have picked up enough light from the hair to cut out. Try stepping back a little, putting the flash on auto at f8, setting the lens at f8, using a wink light, and bouncing the flash so some light hits the forehead. Good luck.

I have a 45CT-5, which I think is right on in manual mode, but is a little low in auto mode. I think all the posters agree that normally the GN is overstated. That's better than understating, though, and washing out your fill-flash prints. I am really pleased with the 45CT-5. Always works a little better with a flash meter so you can set the actual correct aperture and not have to worry about the GN quite as much. My Sunpak 444D seems to be right on.

Well, let me just add a couple of cents worth. Probably nothing new. I took a look through your stuff. 99% of what you have in your portfolio can all be shot with (and should be shot with) a standard focal length lens. So there you have it. I tend to agree with a couple of posters who have said to skip the equipment for a while and concentrate on composition, light, etc. Then decide what you want to do. For the record, my most used focal length is 28mm, but I do a lot of scenery stuff. Anything over 24mm, and you normally start to get some distortion, which is OK if that's what you want. I notice you take some portraits, so perhaps you might want to see about a nice 135mm instead of concentrating on WA's. Get a couple of standard focal length lenses, and learn to use them really well. Now if I would just take my own advice. Thank you.

Best,

Barry

I think you made a wise decision. You may find that you will keep the 28-105 on the camera most of the time. That's a great practical range, and you don't have to worry about zooming out so far you can't hand-hold the lens. I shoot with vintage Konica stuff, but for years my standard lens on one of my bodies was a Kiron 28-105. Great lens, and useful for most anything. But don't get rid of the prime. It's always nice to be able to slide something on the camera that is tack sharp and has a large aperture.

Best,

Barry

You can expose Portra 400 at 1600 with no problem, but to get decent prints, you should take it to a pro lab and tell them to push it. If you do that, you probably won't be able to tell the difference in the proofs with the naked eye. I wouldn't trust it to a mini-lab.

Best,

Barry