nate_ross

Keep in mind B&H sells 95% of their canon lenses at cost. You won't find many of them legitimately cheaper.

B&H sells you the high-price items at cost, knowing you'll buy a couple filters and other things at their slightly higher price, because you want to save on shipping and spend less time shopping.

Eric, the d70 will meter through a hoya r72 perfectly fine. Just remember to tripod up.

 

Also.. Why is the r72 $40 in a 55mm and over $200 in a 77mm.. I need a 77, but I have a 55mm.

Just this minute I processed my first two sheets of 4x5 film. I have a bottle of rodinal (a big one) unopened sitting in my supply closet. I was figuring it might be a while before I'd find any again, so i didn't want to use it unneccessarily. But now that there's going to be more, what the hell. As soon as I can find a graduated cylinder capable of measuring out 10ml accurately, I'll be in large format heaven.

If you specify which lens you're using when you get this error it might help.

 

Is it a sigma by any chance? It might need to be "rechipped".

the 100 and the 102 are interchangeable. the 102 just holds more ink.

I get neutral prints using the standard cartridges. I get a severe discount on the ink though, so I'll pick up a #100 and give it a go, and report back soon. I also use epson paper (premium luster), and mine come out warm by default. I just adjusted the duotone layer til it was neutral.

Call me new-fangled, but I find the best way to pass the time is to make a playlist on my mp3 player (though a tape or cd-r would work as well) where the songs are timed out to be the right amount of time for development. Pick a three minute song and a three and a half minute song, and you have hp5+ in ilfotec hc at normal development. :) Audio doesn't fog film, no matter how loud!

Thanks, Tim! I'm very interested in this, as it's a lot cheaper than the Jobo which it seems is not coming..

 

I'm a little confused where it says "To use these tubes, load a film rolled in the screen in the dark."

 

Can you elaborate a little?

I have had great luck shooting HIE rated at asa125, metering with a handheld meter, no compensation for the filter, which was a red #29, shooting under studio strobes. developed in ilfotec hc, standard dilution, I forget how long, but it was whatever digitaltruth said.. the grain was a bit much, but the exposure was dead-on. Didn't need to bracket.

 

Now if only we could get enough people together to buy a custom batch of HIE in 4x5.

thanks everyone! it seems like I'm willing to give rodinal a try. now if only my tank would arrive...

no, i got a tiny little one. with a 4x5 reel. the second smallest one here:

http://www.jobo-usa.com/products/2500.htm

so am i right in my understanding that I cannot use this jobo tank as I would a regular steel tank with spirals to develop 35mm or 120 film? I was under the impression i could use it with inversion agitation just like I do rollfilm..

 

did i miss something?

 

Also, thanks for the other great suggestions everyone! Keep them coming.

I have been using large format for about a year now, but due to the

requirements (mostly just because they supply our film) of my school,

everything has been shot on provia.

 

I traded in my super gee-whiz autofocus medium format system for a

lighting kit and a toyo field camera. I'm loving it.

 

So anyway, I have much experience with self-processing black and white

rollfilm. I know lots about different developers, and films, et cetera.

 

What I would like to know is this: Is there anything you've picked up

in the way of tricks for processing sheet film that someone coming

from rollfilm wouldn't readily know?

 

I just arranged to trade some canon fd gear for a jobo processing tank

with a 4x5 reel, so I think I'm all set there..

 

I have 125 sheets of hp5+, and I'm thinking I will probably go with

wimberly's wd2d+ developer in conjunction with tf4 fixer, because this

left me with easy-printing negs in 35mm and 120.

 

Since grain is less of a concern because of the larger film, are there

any developers out there you'd recommend that would give a sharper neg

with better tonality? I've only used id-11, ddx, d76, and wd2d+,

mainly, with a few similar developers thrown in there also.

 

Last question for tonight, are efke and fomapan decent films for b&w

portraiture work?

 

I lied, last one: Do they still make pan f+ in 4x5? I haven't been

able to find it in the US. Is it available across the pond?

Ron, while I agree that my info had absolutely no bearing on using an e-ttl flash unit (i myself use i-ttl on my nikon) I think "pay absolutely no attention" is a bit much. If you know how to do something the manual way, 9 times out of 10 you can then transfer that over to the automatic method.

 

Too much reliance on technology is never a good thing.

also, all your circular polarizer is going to do for you is to cut reflections on glass/water/(maybe metal to a degree) and darken blue skies. It won't help shadows much if at all.

the easiest way to do this is to meter your flash on 1/8 power (in manual mode) with a flashmeter. then, put it on your camera in the same mode. pay attention to the distance. you really should meter it at 5 feet, 10 feet, 20 feet..

 

meter the scene you wish to photograph. let's say the scene is 1/125th at f/8.

 

if your flash reading was 1/125th at f/16, your flash is two stops over the ambient light of the scene. take your flash from 1/8 power down three stops to 1/64. now your flash is 1 stop under the ambient light of the scene. 1 stop under keeps it from looking overly flashed, but still fills in the harsh shadows in the eye sockets nicely.

 

Once you have metered your flash like this, it will be consistent, but you should do this once every six months or so at average usage, just to take into account the electronics of your flash, in case your flash's capacitor is growing old.

 

I hope this helps you. It's nice to see you want to get it right in-camera rather than photoshop. Almost everything you do in photoshop will degrade the original image quality, even if just a little.

but assuming this is abnormal behavior for your lights, be careful to discharge your lights when you turn them off.

 

being lifted by a large capacitor like that can kill you. having worked with some old dynalites, i can tell you the first time you get zapped like this, you'll be VERY careful in the future. it's not pleasant.

 

turn them off and hit the test button immediately after. then they're safe to unplug.

try discharging your strobe a split second after you turn it off...

 

then, if it doesn't do it when you fire it up, it's probably the capacitor in the power supply discharging before recharging.

 

I can't even begin to guess why it's only one of your lights doing it, unless they're pack lights, and the one doing it is plugged into the first plugin on your pack. then it makes sense that your pack is discharging when you turn it on. this means it's holding a full charge when you power it down, and resetting itself when you fire it up.

Flash meter definitely. If you shoot clients, you're not going to want them to think that you have to guess at your exposure. It IS, in fact, a science, and the flash meter will enable you to get it right on the first (or second) try, and exude an atmosphere of professionalism.

sync speed has nothing to do with it if it's not firing at all...

 

clean your contacts with a gum eraser and try again.

I have a 3047 and I like it. I would only trade it for a ballhead with a grip trigger for quick adjustments.

but you can't make a full-frame froma 35mm on an 8x10 no matter WHAT you do, without leaving a border. it's not just ritz's service. it's the way the ratio works.

why not look at the 20x24 polaroid instant imaging system? there's like 7 of them in existence, four in massachusetts, and it's only about $100 a pop. a 20x24 image is pretty realistic, plus they're one of a kind, like the subject (if you're shooting portraits).

well, there's at least 200 at my school, and god knows how many at brooks. I know my school got ME hooked on large format. I just bought a field camera and about $400 worth of film last week. should be here THIS week. I'm excited to get it. I ordered a lighting kit, and it's been a while since i was this excited to shoot film. now if only i could find the quick-release plate for my tripod...

calm down! let me clear a few things up, and then i'm probably not going to say another thing until after graduation due to the shitstorm i apparently started with my last post here.

 

as you can see by my previous post, stress levels heat up here at hallmark towards the end of portfolio phase. this applies to students as much as faculty and staff.

 

i'm not going to tell you what happened, because that is between the other individual and I, and I believe we've come to an concensus that we both were in horrible moods and clashed as a result of it. this happens. here, everywhere.

 

it's a fact of life. this is just one more example of my previous statement, that at some point you will hate it here, and will regret spending loads of cash to come here. however, now that i'm somewhat more calm about the matter, i'd like to say that my opinions on this place have not changed. there's some bullshit, but where ISN'T there? the positives still outweigh the negatives, the equipment is still top-notch (aside from a few view cameras/commercial studio tripods in need of some routine tightening *wink*)

 

Am I still mad? Yes. But that's MY problem. This place gives you much more than a photographic education. As I said before, you get out what you put in. You'll meet some incredible people here. Fellow students, amazing (and famous) guest speakers, faculty members.. You'll also meet some people you don't see eye-to-eye with. You'll have critiques that infuriate you. You'll have assignment deadlines that seem very draconian. You'll also be forced to sit through business comm as "another warm body" while all you want to do is sneak off into the commercial studio and work on some shot you just dreamt up.

 

to those of you who were questioning the motives of the school employees reading this and remaining silent, here are my thoughts on that:

 

If you had a business, wouldn't you want to know what peoples' opinions of your business were? would you jump into the fray and say "yeah, we're effing AWESOME! the best at what we do!"? probably not. if they started posting here, it would instantly cease to be (relatively) unbiased. I know of four or five people at the school who are subscribing to this thread, some of them since september.

Only one of those individuals had an adverse reaction to what I've said here, and then I followed up by venting my frustrations here, probably in hopes that this person would read it and understand how furious I was/am. However unprofessional the outburst was that prompted my reaction, the reaction was probably at least equally so...

 

All I'm saying is that I'd be worried if they DIDN'T care enough to find out what people thought about our school.

 

Now if you'll pardon me, I need to go to school to do my last portfolio shot, a studio still-life. A couple tennis balls hanging from a clothesline in the middle of a grassy field. Might as well put your balls out on the line during portfolio phase, huh? ;)

 

As I said previously, I've been keeping a sort of journal about day-to-day life at hallmark. I'll be finishing that up on june 24th, and I'll post it if anyone wants..