michael_j._kravit1

I recently got rid of my H2 with a Leaf Aptus 75 and purchased the H3D-39.

The Aptus 75 was capable of an amazingly beautiful 800ASA. Many compare it to Tri-X at

400. The problem is that Leaf has a number of issues relating to Dalsa Chip tolerances

that create all sorts of digital artifacts. Without going into technical detail I returned the

back as have at least 3 or 4 photographers I know.

The Hasselblad H3D currently incorporates 400ASA and from what I hear they will be

releasing a new firmware update extending to 1600 ASA in the next few months. The

current 400 ASA is lovely and produces an excellent file.

So answer your question, yes and no. The issues are manufacturer dependent and as with

Leaf I found dependent on the tolerances of the chip in each specific back. Kind of the luck

of the draw.

The 39mp back has surpassed the results and image quality I ever got from film up to

4x5.

I recently shot an Arca Swiss 6x9 Metric with a Phase One P45 back and Schneider Digitar lens. After processing the raw file the resulting file was 250mb. The image size was about 16x20 at 360dpi. The file was easily handled by his HP Workstation with 2Gb Ram.

Printing at 2x or about 32x40 yielded an amazing image. Detail seemed to go on forever and the image was as sharp as I have ever gotten with film. In my opinion, this combination exceeds 4x5 film and probably gives 5x7 a real run for the money.

Yes this back is $28,000, but my friend is an architectural photographer pro who can easily justify the cost.

Just some food for thought. I found the day highly informative and opened my eyes to what is being done digitally these days. Something I though was not possible.

I am not asking for anything out of the realm of reality, nothing

that technologically can not be accomplished, nothing that is so

outrageous that I an out of line.

What I want is very simple....

A digital M7, with +/-22 megapixels, OK, I will settle for 16.7mp.

Simple, elegant and easy, so let's get on with it Leica.

"A shameful proof of race division (that goes right to the top) enacted callously in front of the world's media where thousands of armed troops were on readiness to shoot days before any readiness (or will) to provide clean water, food or drugs."

That is the biggest bust of inane racist crap I have heard. The crap spewing from Al Shapton is just as bad. Not worth a response, not worth an intellectual thought, not worth the time to type this.

Give it a break. You are way off base.

-MJK

Funny how these things go. At 4PM my wife and I are watching TV and we are told that the eye will pass just south of us at Lighthouse Point and that Boca Raton will be the hardest hit.

An hour later a jog to the south, another hour later another jog to the south, and finally it hit Al Kaplan.

We had some rain, about 3-4 inches and some wind maybe 50-60 mph at most. Lost power for 10 minutes but my 15KW propane generator kicked in and the TV was once again working.

Al, get yourself a 15KW generator and you can work in the darkroom all night. ;-)

Mike

If you guys are shooting your Contax 645's in manual focus mode and like the Zeiss glass, then you will find the H1 with the V System lenses and adapter even nicer.

Personally, I had a C645 for about 2 years, I sold it for a number of reasons including that I found the Kyocera/Zeiss lenses to be not as sharp as my V System Zeiss/Hassy lenses. The autfocus was kludgy and the mirror slap was horrific.

I regularly shoot a Hassy Flexbody with CFE glass as well as an H1. In reality I find little difference between the images. But then again I shoot b/w and donlt see the color issues.

Then again my 903SWC blows them all away. Go figure.

I was wondering what type of equipment the top architectural

photographers are using today?

I suspect some may be using 4x5 with scanning backs, or perhaps the

P25 Phase One back?

Or perhaps they are still shooting Fuji Astia for its superb whites

and drum scanning?

Inquiring minds want to know?

Recently I hired an Architectural Photographer to shoot one of my

projects. Our agreement was to provide me with a file for my use at

high resolution.

I received his RAW file as well as a JPEG file. Both files contain a

fairly significant amount of color fringing at high contrast areas.

For example, the edge of a building has a red fringe line on the

right corner and a blue fringe line of the left.

My queation is; could these be abberations due to the lens optic or

are they digital artifacts of the 20D. The RAW file (23mb)seems to

have less than the JPEG (13mb) but neither file is good enough for my

purposes.

Although the photographer claims the images are tack sharp, they do

not even come close to what I am used to receiving. Zooming in on

different areas of the image show soft details and significant color

fringing.

Is this typical of the 20D, could it be the camera or the lenses?

I don;t want to hurt this guys feeling, but I really can not use his

work.

Regards,

Michael

Architect

I am looking for a 5mp or better P&S camera with Very Good image

quality. Lately I hear horrible things about the Sony offerings, ok

things about Canon and varied comments about the others.

I need a fairly compact camera to take along on business trips and

field meetings. Also, it will be used for family snaps.

I would like educated opinions based on image quality and

functionality. No just "I bought this puppy yesterday and it is the

best thing since my granfather bought his first toaster."

Thanks folks.

I had the same problem. I sent my H1 back to NY and they said it was not the back. So I sent the camera and it came back in a few days with the problem fixed.

I never did find out exactly waht caused it, but they repaired it and I ahave since shot a couple hundred rolls with no problems.

I have found that the cine pros take a step up ring stretch the hose over it and paint the edge with clear nail polish. When dry the hose is trimmed and you have a wonderful soft focus filter.

There is one particulat type of hose that many of the industry leading cameremen used to use. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me.

Good luck.

Approximately 2 years ago Polaroid changed T55. Since then the goo does not clear as easily as before. I find that after clearing, a 20 minute wash will remove all of the goo.

Also, a quick run through fixer will clear the edges and eliminate light areas when printed.

"in the event of any problem with late processing you can always take the film out of the packet unprocessed in the dark and process it in a tray by hand."

You can?

Please elaborate? Developer? Etc.

Al,

Where can I get a 15mm lens for my M7?

I love tha nagle of view you are getting with your Bessa/15.

I use Ilford Ortho + to make diapositives from silver negatives as the intermediate step in making an enlarged negative for palladium printing. This is a great film for this purpose.

Not the same as tech pan and not really a high contrast film. It is orthochromatic as opposed to panchromatic. You can work with it under a red safelight.

You may want to try Arista APHS which ius a very fine grain high contrast ortho-lith film. You can process it in Clayton Extend Plus 1:15 or PMK Pyro to obtain a continuous tone silver negative. It is a relatively slow film with an ISO somewhere less that 25. I think it may even be down around 10.

Freestyle sells this stuff.

An Notebook SCSI Adapter WILL NOT always run a scanner. You really need to get a desktop with an Adaptec SCSI adapter as indicated.

I had a Howtek 4500 drum scanner and tried to no avail to get it to work with my notebook. Finally got an old PC for a few bucks that I dedicated as a scanning machine. Worked fime.

I started processing film 35 years ago. Got back from a trip last summer. The first roll I processed I added fixer instead of developer. Duh!

Needless to say it was one roll that I "really" wanted.

Sometimes we just have to take a step back and inhale.

Don't fret it, live and learn.

I wish these MAC dudes would run side by side tests. In my office we use both Macs and PC's for Photoshop and CAD. The PC's are faster and crashes are almost non existent, more than I can say for the G4's and 5's running Panther or later.

The Mac mystique is just urban legend.

Both are fine cameras.

There are many well know folks who use both. Mark Klett of Arizona State uses the 7 for many of his landscapes in addition to his 4x5 work.

I sold both my 6 & 7 because I could not live with the minimum focus distance and the fact that I use my 905SWC and Flexbody when travelling more than anything else. I found the Mamiya lenses to be edgy compared to the Zeiss glass.

Good luck.

Lex;

Don't really want to get into the "pre-soak" debate. If your technique produces consistent well processed negatives without a pre-soak than of course continue.

In my experience, and I have been processing film since 1968, I find that a presoak with traditional emulsions such as Tri-X results in more even development.

Just my experience, has nothing to do with dye removal in my case. What works for me in my darkroom may not work for you in yours.

The look was not created by the film developer. The shallow DOF is a result of the exposure aperture. The color is a result of the print type. My palladium prints look like this as do my prints made on Ilford MG Warmtone FB paper and then sepia toned. The shadows stay dark and do not turn too red as long as you do not bleach to completion.

Here is one of my images in Ilford MG Warmtone, sepia toned. Of course the scan will change the color a bit.

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<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/3538814-lg.jpg">

</center>

So that's the look you want?

Try this;

400TX 120

No. 25 Red Filter

Presoak your negatives for 3-5 minutes

Process in Dektol 1:4 4 minutes.

Want a really cool look, use black lipstick and black nail polish.

I realize this is a thread on PyroCAT HD, which I have been using for a couple of months now, but have not really decided if it will be my regular developer of choice. I have a hard time migrating from Tri-X and Rodinal.

Anyway, I have also used PMK for about 7 years now and have found that the streaking problems that many folks have is due to the nature of the developer as it related to agitation and volume of developer.

I had a terrible problem with edge density streaking with 120 film in Jobo 2500 tanks. I tried faster rotation speeds and slower speeds. I tried sequestering agents, mix ratio's. pre-soaking, and and temperture changes. Nothing seemed to work.

Finally a couple of years ago I began experiemnting with volume of developer as it related to tank size. What I found was if I exceeded JOBO's recommended volume of developer I would get edge density build-up and streaks on my film. If I was careful to follow JOBO's recommendations, my film was perfect. I have found that the rotation speed influences overall stain and contrast but not streaking. I have adopted setting "P" (P=Perfect) on my CPP-2 as my standard speed for PMK just as I do for Rodinal.

For PyroCAT HD I have been using the slowest setting or "F". I have never had a roll of film streak with PyroCAT HD or Rollo Pyro.

In the past two years or so I have not had a single roll of film processed in PMK that has had streaks when I fill my tanks to the recommended volumes. Let me also say that when using the JOBO Expert tanks with 4x5, it is important to follow the developer volume recommendations of JOBO as well. I believe that Hutchings recommends increasing the volume to offset oxidation, but my experience suggests that splitting a larger volume of developer in half and changing the developer half way through development is safer.