craig_shearman1

I have Jon Falk's book. I love his stuff and dream about being able to still get it. I'd love to have these if you still have them.

I'm looking for a case for my Calumet 4x5 monorail view camera. There used to be cases that held a monorail camera upside down -- there were dividers with a u-shaped cutout for the rail to rest on. Usually made of fiberboard or sometimes light aluminum. Ideally should have room for a few film holders and small accessories.

In the photo with the Christmas tree, the building behind it to the right of the picture is where I work. If you look at the top floor, about midway along where a shade comes down and meets a storage cabinet, that's my desk. Small world!

I have used my Vivitar 283/285 units on my F2 and FM bodies for more than 30 years with no problems whatsoever. both the cameras and the flash units just keep going and going and going. Can't speak to the F3 but if it has a mechanical switch as Rodeo says it should be no problem.

As noted, Kodachrome developing is no longer available. And IMHO there is no point in developing it as B&W unless it's a roll you shot years ago and didn't get around to developing. IMHO color film that expired in 1985 is something for the trash or at best to sit on the shelf as a knickknack.

If you're talking about the 500mm f/8 mirror lens, it's a classic. They are cheap, rugged and reliable. They do have the classic "donut hole" bokeh of a mirror lens. And they are strictly manual focus but at 500mm it's very easy to focus because the image is very clearly in focus or it isn't. I use mine with no problem on my D200and D7000.

If she's asking you to take them down and you don't have a release, there's really no debate -- take them down. There are situations where you don't need a release but this isn't one of them. When doing a formal photo shoot with a model, always get a signed release and keep it on file. If you had so in this case you would be free to keep the photos up despite her request.

Shot my first wedding in the 1970s with a Russian-made Kalimar SLR with a 50, a 28 and a 135 and a little Vivitar 102 pocket-size flash. Junk equipment but it got the job done. Later I had a Nikon FM and F2 plus 28, 50, 105 and 200 primes and Vivitar 283/285 flash. Today on the rare occasion that I shoot a wedding (and only as a second shooter) it's a Nikon D200 and D7000 with 12-24, 24-70, 70-200, SB-900. I also have a basement full of other lenses, flash, studio strobe, modifiers, backdrops, etc. if I need them. But it's far more about the photographer than the gear.

In my early days in photography I stored darkroom chemicals in everything from empty plastic milk jugs to brown glass bottles from a pharmacist friend. I don't know what actual darkroom chemical bottles cost now, but honestly it is a one-time purchase that will last a lifetime. Even if you paid $20 each, you only need a few and you will never need to buy them again. I have some that are 30 years old. I did switch to two-gallon tanks with floating lids and a spigot at the bottom for my main chemicals but those, too, have lasted for years. And the regular bottles are still in use for other chemicals. If you develop more than just occasionally, I would bite the bullet and buy the real thing.

<p>Both of those are potentially usable but essentially worthless.<br /><br />The enlarger is a no-name amateur unit. It appears to have a lens. Not clear if the metal case is the base that the metal column would attach to. If it is, you could probably still use it. But there are many better units available, professional equipment that originally cost hundreds of dollars that is now available for pennies on the dollar.<br /><br />The lighting unit is a four-light light bar of the type that was typically used on home movie cameras. The bulbs are photoflood reflector bulbs. Probably around 300 watts each. Very bright but also very harsh with no diffusion. If the bulbs are still good, you could use it. Photoflood reflector bulbs were sometimes used in individual sockets, either on light stands or with clamps, for both movie and still photography. But the multi light bars like this were rarely used for stills.<br /><br />I doubt either of these would be of interest to a school today because better and more appropriate equipment is easily available at little cost.</p>

<p>Your example photo does not look at all like "spontaneous shots in natural light." Maybe you got really lucky, but it looks like a carefully posed, carefully lit workplace stock photo of a teacher at work, the kind of thing you would find on Shutterstock or from similar microstock agencies. I would look for similar photos on those sites and see what they call them. It's too nicely lit to look like editorial -- it's a little too perfect to look editorial or candidate or spontaneous. You could call it workplace stock photography or advertising, since it was shot to advertise/market the school and looks more like a shot from an ad than from a newspaper story.<br /><br />If it wasn't so much too-perfect, you could call it editorial/environmental/public relations. But editorial/environmental is usually a little rougher. News photographers don't usually have the time to get the light just right or the posing/expressions just right. <br /><br />I find "lifestyle" to be a totally meaningless term. When I worked for newspapers, that was the title used for the fluffy feature section that had everything from home gardening tips and the comic pages to restaurant reviews. It meant nothing,</p>

<p>I should have checked with back open. Just sent the camera off to have the leather replaced yesterday but will check that when it gets back.</p>

Yes, using the x sync port not the one for flashbulbs.

<p>I was (quite luckily) given a Leica M3 double stroke a couple of years ago, and just recently got the adaptor so I plug a standard PC cord into the proprietary Leica X-sync flash contact.<br /><br />After some experimenting, I've found that the flash will only fire when the shutter speed is at 1/50 or higher. When I set it at 1/25 and lower, it will not fire.<br /><br />Since this is a focal plane shutter and presumably doesn't sync any higher than 1/50, this doesn't make any sense. Flash isn't going to cover the whole frame at higher speeds. But being able to use speeds below 1/50 to drag the shutter to pick up ambient fill could be useful.<br /><br />So is this normal on an M3? Or is something wrong with my camera?</p>

<p>I agree that you definitely need to talk to an accountant. You need a good one -- someone who does taxes for businesses that operate across state lines, not just a tax preparer who files taxes for people who don't know how to do a 1040EZ. Call a place or two and let them know what your issues are before you make an appointment -- somebody who already deals with this won't have to do research.<br /><br />It sounds like you're trying to be totally honest and do the right thing. Much better to do that than not. But there are a lot of legal arguments over what constitutes nexus for tax purposes, either sales or income. In situations where you are getting a 1099 there is definitely a paper trail and an incentive to report. In cases where you are doing work for individuals (aka weddings) nobody likely ever knew you were in a given state and different accountants or lawyers might give you different opinions on what your obligations are.<br> There can also be "de minimus" standards where you have to do a certain dollar volume of business in a state before you have to report income or collect sales tax, or where your business overall has to be of a certain size before you are covered.<br /><br />Again, talk to an accountant.</p>

<p>Rodeo, always good to talk flash with you. :) I have an SB-900 (I'm not a total dinosaur) and one of the things I like about it over the Vivitar is the light-up LCD panel. It is hard to see what the power setting is on the Vivitar, especially when it's up on a stand. The SB also lets me dial the power down much lower than the 1/16th level on the Vivitar. I have one 283 and three 285HVs, so the dongle is built in (though still detachable) on the 285s, and they do let me change the angle even though they don't bounce backward like the SB can. I have recently made more use of the backward and sideways bounce on the SB, and I love the TTL when I'm doing run-and-gun shooting with the flash on camera.<br /><br />If I were buying new for off-camera use I might go for one of the manual YN's than David Hobby recommends on Strobist. Or if money were no object I'd like get the latest SB series. But for doing all-manual lighting on a budget I think the old Vivitars pack a lot of bang for the buck, especially since I already own them. If nothing else, the fact that mine range from 15 to 30 years old and still going and going and going says a lot IMHO.</p>

<p>What John recommends may be as close as you're going to come. No one is going to make a custom page for you -- these things are mass produced on an industrial basis, not hand-crafted.</p>

<p>I agree that you need to pick up the phone and call her or better yet go see her in person. Aside from possibly being a flaky, irresponsible college student, it may well be that the pictures turned out poorly and she's ashamed to admit to you that she failed. If that's the case, you need to be supportive and let her know you want to see what she has and might be able to work with the shots to make them acceptable. And also able to show her what to do next time.<br /><br />As for shooting a wedding for $180, you're insulting yourself. My ballpark is that every hour spent shooting translates into a minimum of three hours actual work by the time you factor in getting the job, preparing for the job, travel to and from the job (even if it's just down the street), shooting the job, doing to post-production work, delivering the job, collecting your money, etc. That means your approximate 8 hours spent shooting works out to 24 hours of work, or right about minimum wage. And that's before taxes, equipment costs, etc. And however much, if anything, you paid the second shooter.</p>

<p>Before you give up on it, try the Vivitar with the flash trigger directly, no SafeSync. As Rodeo points out, triggers usually don't have any issue with sync voltage and can make the SafeSync unnecessary.<br /><br />I've never tried a FlashQ. But I have four Vivitars and used them all the time with my PocketWizards with no trouble. Yes, more modern flashes have a lot of nice features. But once you start using your flashes manually, many of the fancy features become irrelevant so why pay for them.</p>

<p>I've shot many, many events in dimly lit high school gyms and similar venues to what you are describing, both in the current digital world and going back 30 years go my newspaper days with film. The answer is not the camera but rather the lens. Almost any current Nikon or Canon DSLR will let you crank the ISO up to 1600 or 3200. But you still need a fast lens on top of that, not just for the exposure but because AF works better with a fast lens than a slow lens.<br /><br />I would recommend a 70-200 2.8. The 2.8 will let you open up enough to get high enough shutter speeds and, as mentioned, will let the AF work better than a 4.0 or slower lens. And the zoom range will give you more flexibility in how close you are to the action than a fix focal length lens.<br /><br />The bad news is that a Nikon/Canon 70-200 2.8 is about $2500. You can get a used one for half that, or get a Sigma or Tamron new for about the same price as the used Nikon/Canon.</p>

<p>I have not used stop bath for film developing in at least 20 years. After dumping the developer, I fill the tank with water and dump it about three times in a minute or so, then pour in the fixer. Water temperature needs to be about the same as the developer/fixer temperature. I use running water from the tap in my darkroom sink and already have it adjusted to the right temperature before I need it.</p>

<p>For a beginner, you should not even be thinking about replenishment. Way too complicated. Just pour the developer from the tank down the sink after each roll. Do not pour anything back into the bottle. That way you are using fresh developer each time and the time (assuming the same temperature) will be the same each time. Same goes for stop bath and fixer.<br /><br />20C/68F is OK for developing but I usually develop at 75F (about 24C) since that's the room temperature at my house. 13C (55F) is way too cold to develop and you probably should not even be storing your chemicals at that temperature. For one thing, it would take them forever to warm up to a usable temperature. And if you get the temperature too low the powdered chemicals that you dissolved into the water to mix the developer can start to un-dissolve and settle at the bottom of the bottle.<br /><br />Jamie is correct that if you developed at 13C using the time for 20C the film would be very undeveloped. I'm not sure you can develop at 13C even if you extend the time. Technically doable I suppose but not very practical. The lowest temperature normally show on Kodak charts is 65F/18C.</p>

<p>"Ray my cranky old self is still cruising along just fine the a pair of D200s along with a D100 and a D1X."<br /><br />I'm still shooting with a D200 and D7000 and my clients couldn't care less. All they care about is the final product.<br /><br />As for film, I shot with my M3 the other day. It's older than me and it's still going and going and going.</p>

While not nearly as popular as it once was 16mm is still a professional format and yes film is widely available. For repairs see if Jesse Chambless in Georgia is still in business. He was a Bolex dealer. Bolex is still in business and should be able to do repairs. Whether it is cost effective is another question both for shooting 16 or for repairs.

<p>"Since the length will be more than 30+ minutes"<br /><br />Why would you be shooting continuously for 30 minutes? Even if you're documenting a school play, etc,, there are always natural break points where you can start and stop. In most video work, individual shots in an edited, final product seldom last more than a few seconds each, maybe a minute or two if it's a talking head.</p>