pawel1

My issue arrived on Sat, Aug 23 in Indianapolis. Thank you. Hopefully the recent string of successful deliveries listed in this 'conversation' marks the beginning of the end of the subscription problem. Great magazine!

David indicated that the April 08 issue was sent on 8/2 and the August issue on 8/8. He expects it take a bit longer to get to the west coast..... I live in the midwest and have yet to receive an issue. I have never worked in the publishing or magazine business, but my sense is that prepaid subscriptions would be the life-blood of any magazine. You can't afford to get this wrong. My sense is that David realizes this by now, but I am not sure that his solution is working yet. Please fix it.

Let me add my name to the disgruntled list of potential subscribers listed above. I ordered a subscription (buy 2 yrs,

get one free - sound familiar?) in early Feb. Here is is late July, and multiple emails have not been answered. I tried

getting my money back via PayPal but my appeal was "too late". Lesson learned.

 

Any lawyer-photogs out there that can advise on what our options are?

I agree with both responses. However, before going to the length described in these posts, are you certain that at the selected f stop, the depth of field of the subject is within the range denoted by the marks on the lens barrel? Or do you need to stop down? At close distances with my 905, I have not had focussing issues when using the scale on the lens barrel. It did, however, take some practice to get used to the parallax effect at close distances.

When using a large format camera, images appear upside down and reversed on the ground glass, thereby making the juxtaposition of shapes and other compositional elements the driving concern. The eye naturally flows from dominant to less dominant, independently (in my opinion) from any left-to-right (or top-to-bottom) bias.

I don't have any markings on my LF camera bed for "infinity" (I use a Wisner 8x10 technical field camera) . However, recall that the focal length of any lens is given at infinity focus. When I set up my camera, I know which lens I intend on using, so I quickly adjust the bellows length (via eyeball) to what I know will be approximate infinity. Specifically,for my 150, I set up the bellows extension at 6", for my 300, 12", for my 480, approx 19". After 'eyeballing' the distance, it is only a slight turn of the focussing knob to get the image into focus.

I have to take exception to Daniel Smith's comments. In the interest of full disclosure, I have already acknowledged that I consider Ron Wisner a friend, but even if I did not know him, I would still have to beg to differ with Mr. Smith's comments. His logic just doesn't hold for me. Specifically, it is clear that the eBay seller bought a production camera from Ron, and then had it modified to certain specs that he desired. I am guessing the seller never considered ordering it from Ron to his desired final specs? With respect to the spring strength, my understanding is that in large part, it is a function of which holder the user will be putting into the camera. If one were to examine Ron's website, you will find that he even makes a springless back. I readily acknowledge the fact that Ron's deliveries sometimes (but not always) slip. In large part, it is because of the volume of his business, but even more importantly, because of his commitment to quality. I think it is unfair and unwarranted to buy a production camera when a modified one is desired, and then state that "...what too often has to be done to be done to make the Wisner camera work properly". To reiterate what I stated earlier - the fact that Ron has occasional scheduling issues and production delays does not make him unethical and dishonest as implied in this thread; one can get to the same outcome of delays via a strong customer orientation, and a genuine commitment to excellence, and too great a demand for his product.

Ron is an artist, an artisan and a perfectionist. I consider him a friend, and have commented before on his behalf on some of these threads. I have been to Ron's factory, and yes, it is very busy. Quality is sine qua non for him, and he assumes his customers demand and expect nothing less. For those of us who know him, he is NOT dishonest or unethical; perhaps at times stretched and working at over capacity. He cares deeply about his clients and their success with his cameras. I bought my 8x10 Wisner Technical Field camera from Ron while living and working in Japan, without speaking the language and therefore, unable to communicate with local LF photographers. As a result, I was self-taught, but with lots of free and willing advice from Ron via telephone. I have seen him do this for many of his customers. I would agree that at times he is stretched thin; but please don't mistake that for a lack of ethics or honesty; he is genuinely committed to his clients, his cameras, and to quality second to none.

Many factors to consider as you consider the transition to MF. First and foremost, I found that when I made the move to MF, it forced a deliberateness of action (especially with my completely manual Hasselblad 503cw) that was very beneficial to both my understanding of photography as well as to my compositions. With MF, you need to consider (a) film size - 6x4.5; 6x6; 6x7; or 6x9?; personally, I really like the creativity of the square 6x6; (b) you also need to consider 'heft' - 6x7 (the RZ system) is 'massive' compared to the 6x6 - does that matter to you? ©what kind of viewfinder do you want? the classic waist level? or prism finder? 45 or 90 degree? with our without metering?

 

It all depends on what you want to shoot, and what your shooting style will be - ranging from a completely manual camera on a tripod (me), to fully automated camera with fabulous fps, autofocus and auto metering? (Rollei comes to mind).

 

Whatever you do, do take the plunge to MF... there is no going back once you see those larger chromes!

I use a Billingham L2 (Alice) shoulder bag for my 905swc... the camera, one extra back, and a meter fit into this bag very nicely. Not much room for anything else, but it works well for this configuration of equipment. If you think about it, most bags about this size are relatively deep; the L2 was my first choice with respect to a nice width/length/depth to conveniently carry the 905.

I suggest you post the print as a "No Words" entry!

Bailey Seals = Kaiser Sosa

Bailey Seals = Kasier Sosa

Its a great camera - I call it my medium format point-and-shoot....

Emre, Thanks - I have bookmarked it, and it works just fine. I guess I was looking for a convenient menu-driven option, but in fact, the bookmark is faster! Thank you.

If I go to "My workplace", there is a section entitled "Photo

Ratings", which if selected, will take me to a listing of all of my

numerical ratings. However, I am much more interested in getting to

a listing of all my comments, in order to track whether or not there

have been responses to my comments. At present, the only way I know

to get to the comments I have left is the following multi-step

procedure: a) view my numerical ratings from "Photo Ratings"; b)

select any image, and go to my comment under that image; c) then

click on my name attached to my comment to gain access to all my

comments. Is there an easier way to do this? Thanks!

Congratulations! At the same time, I am surprised that the number is so low, given the high number of participants in photo.net .... what percentage of participants are actually members? and what should it be?

Depends on the subject... having said that, I am 70/30 H/V with my 8x10 Wisner Technical Field Camera.

Tom,

I use a gridded split microprism (for my Hasselblad). The split microprism definitely helps with focussing; the grid is "a must" (IMHO) for any kind of architectural work. The split image does exactly as it describes - it "splits the image". For example, if you have a straight line (tree trunk, building edge, etc)in the prism, you focus until the image is no longer split, i.e. the straight line is no longer broken. Try one at your local camera store. I find the grid helps tremendously with framing, alignment, etc. for architectural as well as landscape shots. The grid helps insures that verticals are indeed vertical, or horizontals horizontal. For example, shooting a beach scene in the last few days (yes, I was on vacation!), the grid definitely helped me make sure my distant horizon was horizontal.

I have a 503cw - I have lost the little rubber cover for the flash

connector plug. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? It

is not listed on the B&H site (or at least I can't find it). Many

thanks.

Eric,

Thanks for your explanation... I have been to the Leica forum and I agree with you, the W/NW threads are often interesting. Good suggestion.

The Wisner Freedom 45R....Ron Wisner had one at a recent workshop, and it is a very nice camera. YOu can see it at:

 

http://www.wisner.com/freedom.htm

I see it too...

Maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet.... what does W/NW stand for?

Once you see an 8x10 contact sheet or transparency, you will never want to shoot anything smaller. To your question - why not consider the jump from MF to 8x10 (instead of 4x5 sa you suggest)? That is the jump I made 6-7 years ago, with absolutely no regrets.