jimdesu

>If you use a 35 mm you have always a distortion on your images.

 

I should certainly hope so!

 

Generally, distortion less than 2% won't be noticed by a viewer, and casual viewers generally don't notice until you get to 3%. Distortion is very much part of the flavor of a lens, and has good things to be said about it. Primarily, a little bit of barrel distortion (increasing distortion curve) helps to counteract vignetting. Also, a bit of barrel distortion near the edges of a wide-angle lens can help to alter the perspective so that you don't get very "realistic" elongation of objects. Likewise, having some pincushion distortion (falling slope) in the center of a wide-angle lens can help keep the lens from shoving things "out into the distance".

 

Don't regard distortion as a flaw when you're picking glass -- it's part and parcel of each len design's flavor.

The web-links are cool, but does anyone know of any English-speaking folks doing this kind of work?

2-inch Taylor & Hobson Anastigmat =)

Because that's what the props folks had laying around. Any more valuable cameras would probably have "grown legs".

As you say, every tools is better for some jobs than others, but, if you only have the cash for one tool, then understanding what the trade-offs are is important if one is going to make an optimal purchase. For instance, I just bought an M5 -- but I would have never done that if I didn't already have a Medalist for landscapes.

 

When you finally not only have enough gear, but when you have the right gear for your subject material & shooting style, only then does gear-headedness become boring. Until then, the tools still get in the way enough that you can't help but be concerned over them. You & I are lucky that we can have multiple cameras -- many people have to settle for just one and , as the saying goes, hammer nails with their screwdriver.

Hi y'all,

 

I just bought a beautiful chrome 2-lug M5, which's just what I've

wanted for a while, but have noticed something about its functionality

that I thought I'd check on: the photocell flips up when the film is

wound. This is fine, and makes a lot of sense, but how do you turn it

off? I don't want it to burn out my battery as it happily meters the

the inside of my bag, and leaving the shutter un-cocked is bound to

lose me some shots. Any advice?

If any of that L glass is image-stabilizing, I'd go with that. You'll benefit from that for your prints more than minor contrast differences.

I just paid an extra $400 for a chrome M5 instead of a black one; give poor old chrome a chance! =)

Thanks Nee! If you do find it, would you mind sending me an email?

Regarding PhotoShop, if anyone knows of a way to simulate a uniform zone-2 pre-exposure(yay expodisc) followed by a five-stop under-exposure and a five-stop push, I'd be delighted to hear of it. :)

Hi y'all,

 

I've been searching to see if you can do double-exposures with leica M

cameras, and all I've been able to find were a few references to

accidental double-exposure, not to doubly exposing on purpose. Do

these cameras support this technique? I'm a big user of zone-2

pre-exposure, so this is an important consideration for shelling out

the dollars on such an expensive camera.

 

Thanks in advance!

Ken did the conversion for my Medalist (fantastic job BTW); I'll contact him.

I don't know if this will work well for modern emulsions, but Mortensen use to underexpose his film and then overdevelop it to increase the contrast sufficiently to straighten up data from the toe of the H&D curve, aiming for a thin neg, which he claimed was less grainy. I haven't tried this out yet, but it may be worth a shot.

The cam moves smoothly, but the rangefinder behavior makes no sense: if you try to focus on a close object starting from infinity, it shows being worse out of focus than one started!

 

I've watched the cam mechanism, though, and it looks like it's behaving correctly, the spring is strong, etc.

Hi there,

 

I bought myself an old Canon 85/1.5 lense for my Bessa T (dreaming of

an M7...), and the rangefinder is malfunctioning something serious.

I've checked the mechanism, and it seems to be ok, so I've a stupid

question. I'm mounting it to the Bessa with a 50mm LTM->M adapter,

which I presumed would be ok, since the Bessa T has no framelines to

select; am I wrong: does the adapter matter in terms of rangefinder

function?

 

If not, is there a good place near San Francisco where I can get the

lens looked at?

The big question is what does the size buy you: subject-matter-wise. Are these landscapes that will show more subtlety large, or edgy portraits where a smaller is better? It really boils down to the subject matter and how you want the viewer to look at them.

Well.... I guess that would be ok. You could always get a real bike, though! =)

 

All Kawasaki (mine's a ZRX) versus Harley kidding aside, your only problem's likely to be scaring away the critters you want to shoot -- the camera will be fine. Just make sure there's something soft between it and the frame.

 

=)

Part of this is also the economy -- not a lot of people have a lot of money to drop on top-name equipment right now (hence my bessa-t instead of leica 7)....

well, "reduced frame" then. I'm just looking for a still camera with an interchangeable C-mount to it...

Zeiss lenses tend to run "hot", which is a feature that I actually prefer, but I've found a lot of folks that shoot chromes prefer a less contrasty lens. I shoot very low-contrast print film, so it's not as much of an issue for me, and I prefer the look.

I don't have a Kiev to give, but I'd gladly cough up cash for a reasonably priced one.

Hi there,

 

Does anyone know of any still cameras for 35mm (reduced frame) film

that take C or CS-mount lenses?

 

thanks,

 

James

Hi there,

 

I know this pro'lly sounds crazy, but are there any color print films

out there with lower contrast than Agfa portrait 160?

Hi there,

 

I'm in no position to answer his question, given my only leica experience is with LSM lenses made by other people (love my Reid anastigmat), but there's an aspect to his question that hasn't been answered: the system, not just the lenses. We all know that Leica glass is great, but how do the bodies compare?

Either is really practical; just set it on AE Lock, and when you shoot, choose your medium-gray w/ the rangefinder-spot, adjust if necessary, reframe and go. Wonderful to use.