curt wiler

<p>Six years, but experience tells me it is five years.</p>

<p>The terrace around the dining room at the top of the <a href="http://www.hotelarcadiablue.com/" target="_blank">Arcadia Blue Hotel</a> is an excellent location, particularly at twilight.</p>

<p>+1 to the moist finger test (the printing side is the one that sticks).</p>

<p>I have been fortunate enough to see the <em>Genesis</em> exhibits in both Santa Monica earlier and at the ICP in New York over Thanksgiving. To my mind, the ICP exhibit is much more impressive, partly because there is far more space devoted to it, perhaps enough to include virtually all the images (I have the book, which doubles as a catalog), but the prints seemed larger and better grouped. That may explain some of the differing opinions expressed above. No one at ICP at the time could explain how the (obviously silver gelatin) prints were made, but I get the impression from another gallery on the web that they are Lightjet or equivalent, which would not require an inter-negative. It would explain both the dynamic range and the edge-to-edge sharpness. Bear in mind these were large prints, many perhaps 30x40 inches.</p>

<p>I step through as much as necessary of a three-stage process with Visible Dust tools: 1) Blower, 2) Arctic Butterfly, 3) Sensor cleaning wet process. I seldom need stage 3, but if there is oily gunk on the sensor then the best fluid is the one Visible Dust makes for oily deposits. It works best with the swabs designed for it (these are coded by color). However, the problem may be in the technique. One pass with each side of the swab is all you can do. More than that is likely to do what you describe. This has never failed, even with a D3 that was throwing oil for the first few hundred actuations. Swabs are expensive, but several of them are cheaper than a visit to the shop.</p>

<blockquote> <p>I heard a rumor that with Pocket Wizard system its possible to fire in TTL mode</p> </blockquote> <p>Yes, from the manual:<br> "When HyperSync can’t keep up, (with MiniTT1 and FlexTT5) the native Canon and Nikon system's High Speed Sync takesover for Speedlite flash photography all the way to 1/8000." I have found this useful for daylight fill, but to the point above, the flash should be near the camera. A flash bracket is good for this.</p>

<blockquote> <p>Adams fought to get the reading at 18 per cent</p> </blockquote> <p>.. because it is an easily reproduced reference standard and also the value at the mid-point of Zone V. However, the correct exposure for a given scene is almost always at another point. That's why Kodak published a table of adjustments to be made for proper exposure if only a single reading is being used.</p>

<p>Henry needs to get that erroneous paragraph on the B&H website corrected as one more step toward stamping out this 18% myth. Unfortunately it is so ingrained now that even good schools are teaching it, and professional photographers were "adjusting" the speed they shot color reversal film at to get the "best" exposure.</p>

Pressing or releasing the AF-ON button doesn't change the focus mode, only activate whatever AF mode is set. I think of it as "power-assisted manual focus" and use it 90% of the time with this camera. As said, make sure the shutter button is only set to "shutter release."

<p>Meter sensitivity is not the only issue here. The OP has an F2, which used a CdS meter as I recall. These were very non-linear in the red spectrum. I first tried metering through filters for B&W with a Nikon FE, and found that I had to draw up a correction table for the different filters. The meter in the FE is different but similar vintage. The Wratten 29 (dark red) caused the meter to misread about 2 stops, if I remember correctly. Only the K2 had no correction due to the light spectrum. Everyone seems to agree that metering without a filter is recommended, but I have found that using an EI of 3 is the best starting point for this film. It will depend a lot on development, and of course the amount of IR that is actually present in the light because this can be highly variable with the time of day, season, atmospheric conditions, and even with latitude. I always bracket, at least three shots preferably plus/minus 1-1/2 stops.</p>

<p>The key is NOT to try to measure exposure through the filter. Many older meters have trouble with the strong red color. Therefore, either use a hand-held meter or meter TTL without the filter, and use the lower EI number, which is the effective speed of the film and filter combination.</p>

<p>Another vote for Acronis TruImage.</p>

<blockquote> <p>This included shooting an 18% grey card (more or less) with no exposure compensation.</p> </blockquote> <p>If this mean you metered off the gray card, that is part of your problem. An 18% gray card needs about 1/2-stop adjustment per the instructions for the Kodak card and elsewhere. See http://www.bythom.com/graycards.htm</p>

This has been the standard size limit for most US airlines on domestic flights for years, and there can also be a weight limit, but for practical purposes the passengers should be able to lift their own bags to the overhead (flight crews are not supposed to help with this, but they often do, at the risk of being reprimanded if they are injured). The change is airlines are starting to enforce these rules, as they should, for the reasons given. Over-stuffed animals the size of large children should not be allowed to take up space required for valuable carryons which the airlines' own tariffs suggest must be carried with the passenger.

<p>With this update, "focus priority" now really is just that, presumably just the way it always was before (I need to get out and test it to be sure). I held off making this my primary body because of the problem.</p>

<p>Fuse voltage ratings are the maximum it can be used at, in this case the equipment is designed for dual voltage so the highest must be accommodated.</p>

<p>In general, DO NOT USE auto ISO with flash. You will get into trouble over-exposing the main subject if the ambient level is low. Also, for more specific advice, be careful to specify whether you are using the D300 or D300S because there are differences in handling shots like this. With this in mind, the on-camera flash or an intelligent external unit like the SB-700, 800, 900 -series should be able to handle this automatically in iTTL mode (not BL, that's another can of worms).</p>