john_murphy1

To clarify my question: I want to know which medium format lens can be readily used in half stop increments (not by guessing), for both the aperture and shutter speed settings.

I just bought a Mamiya C220 and was surprised to find that the lens

has only whole stop increments on it. Also read in the Hasselblad

Manual that the older Hasselblad lens also were like this. So which

lens are available with the intermediate shutter speeds and apertures?

I'd like to jump in here an ask a question. I've been planning to switch to medium format for my home portrait shots, and thus far, my research led me to conclude the Hasselblad system was the way to go. I understand that the 150mm in MF corresponds to a 100mm lens in 35mm format. But I had not even considered the TLR system, and the comment someone made about squirmy children makes it sound more appealing. What do I look for? (Rollei, Mamiya?) What focal length lens? Thank you.

I agree with Lex's comments, but I would like to add that light orange filtration (e.g., Hoya's) can be used to lighten the skin tones of Caucasians when shooting indoors under artificial light.

I use the Canon Elan 7 with the 100/2.0 lens ($365 at Adorama/B&H). I own the 50mm lens but I find the perspective for portraits is not as pleasant as that of the 100mm. It is true that the fixed focal length limits your flexibility, but the speed is much better than with the zoom lens. Speed is also an issue for me, since I hate using a flash.

 

This website has some helpful postings on this topic, particularly on the issue of whether the 135mm is better than the 100mm; I suggest you find and read them.

It would be helpful if you gave us some details of what you plan to do with the filters. Film or digital? Color or black and white? Portraits or landscapes? etc.

I need to buy a background light to complete my setup, which already

consists of two 500W Lowel hot lights as main and fill lights. What

do you suggest in terms of wattage? Specific brands or models?

I have read several books on portrait photography and find the best ones to be those written by Bill Hurter, published by Amherst Media. Furthermore, I found some of the discussions here on photo.net to be very helpful, particularly when trying to decide which equipment to use. Hope this helps.

I recently purchased a Minolta Scan Elite for $300 (US) from an online auction. This was their top of the line model a few years ago. In that price range, if I wanted a new scanner, I would have had to have settled for one without the Digital ICE (the thing that cleans up the dust on the negative), so I bought the older model. The drawback was that I needed to go and buy a SCSI card for my computer in order to connect the scanner to it. That being said, I am happy with the scanner. It gives 2800 dpi which is more than adequate for my needs. Having a scanner has saved me a lot of money on prints, since now I get my film developed only, and select out only the best images to send back to the store for printing. Hope this helps.