2life_photography

I have come into possession of a bunch of WWII-era B&W negatives

(airplanes, mostly, froma test pilot at Freeman Field) and they are

all rolled up very, very tightly. This makes it difficult to print

them or scan them. Is there any way to flatten them so they stay

flat?

Thanks for the info on the aperture. I did not know that� maybe I could deal with a little increase of grain if I went to a high-quality 400/800 speed film, got a monopod and then shot at f/22. I�ve been looking at prime 300 or 500mm lenses on eBay, as well� they�re not too expensive and I might be able to swing one. Would I have similar vignetting problems with a prime lens at the same aperture, say f/11 or 16?

 

Hmmmm� (musing) I wonder if the wife would notice if I sold the car and bought a 300-600 f/2.8 lens� Hmmmm. :-)

The vignetting problem is most evident at the longest zoom range, 300mm. I don�t really see it much (if at all) in short focal lengths, but when I shoot airshows and events like that I see it very strongly. It�s not a physical blocking of the lens; I get that when I put the modular hood on and shoot at 28-35mm or so. Rather, the corners get really dark and the center is much lighter. I have been told this is typical of the high-range zooms.

 

I don�t have any screw-in filters except the skylight for this lens. I�m using the Cokin P series, and so far the only filter I have for this is the polarizer, but as I�ve said already I don�t think it can be the filter itself blocking the lens. I ran into that problem when I bought my first prime 28mm lens, and only had a 49mm polarizer for it.

 

Usually I shoot 100-200 speed film at airshows, since this is not a fast lens and I can definitely use the extra stop or two. Check out my portfolio to see the A-10 and F-15 pictures for what I�m talking about. If I remember correctly, these were shot at about 1/250 at f11 or 16, something like that, on Kodak or Fuji 200 film, I forget which. I�d have to look at the negatives to remember; I don�t think that matters much.

 

I�ve been trying to play a little with this in Photoshop to try to fix it but figuring out a center gradient adjustment layer is proving to be very time-consuming and difficult.

I have been using the Cokin A and Cokin P systems for quite some time now, and I can�t say I�ve ever had distortion problems at all. I do get vignetting, but I suspect it�s my lens (28-300 Sigma) rather than the filter. The modular lens hoods that the OTHER Jim mentioned annoy the heck out of me, though; you�ll always get vignetting with them if you use it with a relatively wide angle lens. At least, I do, so I have to be careful to use it only when I�m shooting in the longer focal lengths. The filters are extremely convenient and quick, and stackable.

 

My personal recommendation (as always, �good advice� costs nothing and is worth the price) is to go with the Cokin P. You can get a 52mm adapter for it, and while it might look a little odd on the front of a smaller lens, should you decide to upgrade to a larger filter size lens later you won�t have to change systems as I have. I bought the A system when I was working exclusively with 52mm filter size lenses and then went a bought a 67mm filter size lens, and that screwed everything up. So now I have to go out and buy all the P filters that I�ve already bought in A, if that makes any sense.

I'm having serious trouble with vignetting in my long zoom lens, and

I have heard that Hoya makes an ND filter that is designed to counter

this. Does anyone out there know about this and can steer me towards

something like this? Or, conversely, is there any way to eliminate

vignetting?

 

I'm using a Sigma 28-300 zoom. I have a Cokin P polarizer and I use

the polarizer a lot. I bought the thing not realizing how bad the

vignetting problem is... and lens replacement is not an option on my

budget at this time. So I'm stuck with it, at least for a couple

more years.

Agree on the 28-300. I have a Sigma 28-300, and while it's sharp enough, if you're heading off to Africa you might want to pick up a 100-300 zoom. There's fewer elements in there (or there should be) which results in less diffusion and a sharper image. Or, better yet, pick up a prime 500mm lens. The fewer the lens elements the better. I am a Pentax user, too (PZ-70), and I find that the Pentaxes are darn near indestructible. I've carted mine everywhere from submarine trips to mountain-climbing in Hawaii and the only time I have ever had one go bad on me is after I dropped it in the ocean in Oarai, Japan. Which probably wouldn't be so good for a Canon, either. :-)

I bought one of those Cokin P "modular hoods" when I upgraded to Cokin P from Cokin A. Don't go there. They're square, and if you rotate it diagonally (like say you're working with a polarizer) you're going to cut off large chunks of your photo, even at moderately wide angles (40mm and below for a 35mm SLR). I don't even carry the thing any more; I'm glad it was only five bucks.

Anything with a Pentax bayonet K mount will fit that camera. As far as name brands, pretty much anything goes; so many manufacturers build lenses compatible with the K mount that it's hard to quantify.

 

The K mount has become standard in many of the off-brand (or smaller brand) cameras: Cosina, Ricoh, Sigma, and so on, have all made cameras with K mounts, so you should have absolutely no trouble finding lenses for it.

 

Hope this helps...

I also use the Cokin-P system. My only gripe with it is the modular hood - that square monstrosity they market as a lens hood. At 28mm I'm guaranteed this nasty oddly-shaped vignetting on almost all my pictures. So while I highly recommend the Cokin-P do NOT get that silly hood - that's one for the "What were they thinking?" dept.

And then there was the time when my brother and I took off in a Luscombe 8A (for non-plane nuts, this is a VERY SMALL airplane) out of Farmington, New Mexico, to fly around Shiprock to take pictures of the rock and the desert. He was flying, I was shooting, and the throttle cable anchor that holds the cable to the throttle snapped... the engine went straight to full power and we ended up landing at Aztec, slowing down by blipping the magnetos much the same as they did in World War I.

 

Eeks.

 

And then there was the time I was out in the mountains on Oahu photographing things that weren't green (which is hard to do on Oahu) and accidentally wandered into a guarded marijuana farm. It was only when the tree behind me dissolved in automatic weapons fire that I beat it out of there BIG time.

 

The stupid thing about that was I then reported it to the cops; if whoever it was hadn't pulled the trigger they'd probably still have their Maui Wowie.

Longs Drugs won't have 120 film. My favorite supplier there is Snap Shot Camera at 629 Pohukaina Street in Honolulu. Let's see -- go out Kapiolani towards Pearl City and turn towards the ocean on Queen Street, go down to Puhokaina St. and take a right. Snap Shot should be on the right. At least, that's where it was the last time I was there -- places move around in Hawaii. Try calling (808) 593-8345 -- they should be able to help you out with whatever film you want.