william_baguhn1

Welcome to the problem with all graduated filters. You need a collection of different filters with different rates of gradation to use them fully with each lens/scene combination (or just suffer with moderately improved results instead of fantastically improved results).

 

Lee filters are rectangular, right? and they're in a sliding mount? wouldn't that allow you to slide it to the "right" place, so that your ND starts just above the horizon, no matter your composition or focal length?

 

Your question almost makes sense, but there is a built-in workaround with the sliding mount. If you're really worried, go into your friendly local camera shop that you're going to buy it from, ask to put it on your camera and look out the window. Play with it. Does it work?

Sure. When I've been shooting regularly (3 or so rolls a day), I find that I'm "in the groove" and can eyeball to within about a half stop (accurate enough for B&W). How? Well, it's a lot of Sunny 16, confirmed over time with a Minolta IVf at my hip.

 

You want to be freed from a meter? First thing to do is use one religiously, all the while guessing what your exposure will be before you take a reading. Eventually, your guesses get real close. Then, you stop pulling out the meter when you know what things look like.

 

Bulky, Slow handheld meters? Buy a IVf. 1 button gives me a direct speed/aperture readout in less than .25 seconds. I don't like it, I can push another button and get that shifted to whatever aperture I'm shooting with (or do the math in my head...). Meters aren't slow compared to going back to reshoot after tanking the film and realizing that nothing came out, or bracketing +-3 stops, or tripods, or whatever.

 

Sunny 16 works. The trick is in judging how much below sunny you are. Play a game with yourself: what day is it today? Is it a painful, f/16 day? is it a pleasant f/5.6 day? is it a dreary f/1 day? Check yourself with a meter. You'll get good at eyeball metering quickly.

Hmm. How about trying the mechanical "backup" shutter release and see if that clears any possible jams? Haven't GS-1'ed in a while, but I believe there's a lever on the bottom left front of the camera to allow that. Also, have a try at tripping the shutter using a cable release (that goes into a different socket than the button, right?) or the release on a speed grip (again, different connection). Best of luck. Tamron's service department is what got the GS-1 I know working again after something weird went wrong.

1) drop the numbers.

 

2) enforce valuable comments (i.e. longer than "asdf", not the same cut-and paste answer that have been posted for the last seventeen photos)

 

3) add a "I would recrop it like this". This would be more complicated to implement (java :( ), and possibly a big server hit (server side image map clicks). :( But, it should be very useful. I often find myself (when hanging out in the darkroom with friends) reprinting their last neg with a few changes that they may not have seen (and usually having them agree that it's better for it).

 

3.a) if several people recrop it similarly (suggesting a good improvement), offer an automatically generated crop of the picture to others who want to suggest a different crop. (i.e. many respected people have looked at this photo, seen potential, but wanted to enhance, and more than 10% picked a crop that was similar within 5% (of the other people selecting "enhanced crops"), so when Joe Blow looks to add his $.02, he sees that others have already said "this is how many of us think it should look", and he can either agree or disagree with them.)

 

The uploader should be able to disable various parts of this (no, don't show other people versions of the photo that aren't mine is the biggest that comes to mind).

 

4) there needs to be a way to downgrade the significance of bad advice. If someone says something that's just plain wrong, there needs to be a way for people more knowledgeable to slow the spread of this information. (i.e. "You should have used 800 speed Max film because it gives you the best pictures" could be countermanded by enough people saying "no, 100 speed film generally delivers better color and can show finer detail...". "corrections" should be emailed to the poster of the wrong/bad information. That is, comments should be rateable as "agree", "disagree" (and should be forced to say why, so that the information is actually useful...).

 

(Let me clarify there: there should be 2 types of comments, as someone else mentioned, technical and artistic; wrong technical information should be stopped and corrected; wrong artistic information should just be disagreed with but allowed to propagate. I've seen more people get 'riled up' and ready to add their insight when trying to correct something wrong than would offer advice on something that isn't interesting. Turn people's flaming instincts to good. :) )

 

I hope the situation works itself out. I'd love to post pictures, but... I just don't feel that it'll do me any good right now.

Hmm. I get about 3 stops exposure difference when i use a meter set to reflected light as an incident meter - but that wouldn't explain the good polaroids.

 

Flash output power get bumped down?

Are you running with the mercury batteries in? If not, are you using the Gossen adapter kit to allow the use of S76 batteries instead of the 625 mercury cells? Running with Alkaline 625 batteries would deliver 3 volts (instead of 2.7 volts) to the meter, possibly sending it out of whack...

<p>All my old photo books told me that if the lens is farther away from the film plane than the appropriate "infinity focus", I would have to open up my lens.

 

<p>I went to <a href="http://www.salzgeber.at/disc/index.html">the QuickDisc website</a> and stopped worrying about it consciously. Incidentally, the QuickDisc tool (I have 3, variously around the studio and camera bags) combined with my Minolta IVf seems to give very very good exposures (which I appreciate at $5 a shot).

<p>Although you've been previously warned to avoid the Russian cameras,

 

<p>I have had no trouble with my (reworked!) Kiev 60 purchased through <a href="http://www.kievcamera.com">Kiev Camera</a>. I believe it was around $350 (Kiev 60TTL kit, flocked body, 80mm f2.8). With your leftover budget, buy a good hand held light meter. (Minolta IVf) The internal meter works (as does metering with a 35mm SLR), but I find that a handheld incident meter is most convenient for what I shoot (flowers and landscapes).

 

<p>This should be a fine "experimenting" camera if you can't find a $100 TLR that takes 120 film.

Well, my medium format cameras take square pictures instead of rectangular. I think that square looks better for some things.

 

What makes a medium format camera different is that the film is bigger - somewhere between 2.7 and 6 times bigger, usually. And that means that enlargements (as well as small prints) look better.

 

Other fine things to worry about: 120 film (a very common medium format length) is between 16 and 8 exposures in the camera (instead of 36), the cameras can be easier (or harder) to use than 35mm, the darkroom work (if you do your own) will be different (may require a different enlarger), generally photofinishing is more expensive for medium format (although it can be the same price if you do some shopping).

If the 12th frame is overlapping the 11th, that means that the film isn't getting advanced far enough past the 11th frame. The alignment marks should be right. Try instead advancing to frame 12, then advancing a 1/4 or 1/6 turn farther on the advance knob.

 

Is the film on the takeup spool tight?

Had a friend who shot his entire vacation (Hawaii) on Kodak 160NC. He loved the results. Given that Konica 160 is better yet, you should be fine.

It looks clumsy (but possibly necessary for any filter not listed at

<a href="http://www.camera-depot.com/TLR.htm">http://www.camera-depot.com/TLR.htm</a>,unless you want to pay B&W prices).

 

 

Also, it looks like the Yashica hood is about $10 cheaper than the adapter + rubber hood route.

If the film isn't winding tightly, that means that when you take out an exposed roll, the paper is bigger in diameter than the 120 spool edge. Usually, it's (about) .125" farther in from the edge.

 

I have encountered this several times with my camera (not Hassy). The fog pattern tends to be a triangular shape, or a heavy band with no visible image.

 

I don't think it's loose film winding.

Well, Here's my creative answer.

 

I bought a MF camera (TLR) because it was smaller than the 35mm camera, easier to use for snapshots, film was cheaper (per roll), processing was cheaper (per roll), and because square pictures look better than rectangular pictures.

 

To continue:

 

I bought a 4x5 because the camera (speed graphic) handles more easily than the smaller roll-film cameras, the dark room work is easier yet (I can be extremely sloppy and still get a 35mm quality 4x5 print), and because it looks cool. However, the cost of film is killing me ($1 a pop for B&W, $4 for E6).

 

Of the cameras, I usually grab a 6x6 for prints and a Nikon for slides. This may change when I get a MF projector.

Mamiya 645 Pro with a motor drive handles very 35'ishly.

 

The Pentax 645 is an odd animal to me, but then I don't much care for Pentax in general, regard 35mm as a necessary evil, and am in love with square cameras and waist level finders.

 

So, buy a Bronica SQ-Ai or SQ-B (if no automation is OK), or if you really are attached to a rectangular format, a Bronica ETRsi. Any of these last three will be available with the speed grip (thumb winder lever that handles vaguely like a 35mm manual advance).

 

As far as pain in the butt cameras, my experience has been that only the really lousy and truly excellent cameras are pain in the butt. (examples that will get me scolded: lousy - Kiev anything (yes I own one), excellent - Bronica, Hasselblad, Rollei TLR) Everything else is moderately easy to use, and of moderate quality. (more examples: pentax, mamiya)

 

I'm bigoted, so ignore my advice. (but buy a bronica anyway)

The sun is bright.

 

ISO 100 would be fine. My rule of film is "use the slowest you can get away with". Usually, I want to be able to hand-hold, so ISO 100 is usually what's in the camera. Don't point the camera into the sun for too long, and expect your picture to come out a bit dark. This will be a great effect (usually), especially if there are a few clouds that get silhouetted with an orange halo.

 

If you've got exposure compensation and can use that (I know that the IS-3 can...) then bracket (+-0 (snap, +1 (snap), +2 (snap)) using exposure compensation. Aim for f11 or so.

 

Enjoy.

The Bronica has lens shutter, the others are focal plane. Lens shutters are great.

 

I'm not a big fan of either the Mamiya or Pentax lenses.

 

Bronicas handle a little odd at first, but then they feel quite natural. It will probably take some "getting used to" that the viewfinder stays dark until you wind with the Bronica.

 

I recommend the Bronica (especially with the Speed Grip).

 

Consider if you would be better served getting either the Bronica SQ or GS cameras and using a 645 back on them most of the time. If you ever think you will need a larger camera (i.e. 6x6 or 6x7), then now would be a great time to spend twice as much money on a camera, rather than buying a little camera now and a big camera later (for a total of three times more money). Lenses for the bigger cameras are more expensive. That's the price of excellence, I suppose.

Last I checked, Mamiya would allow you to finance a camera purchase through them. 12 month lease plan with $1 buyout in month 13.

 

try <a href="http://www.mamiya.com/purchasinginfo.asp?id=2&id2=90">http://www.mamiya.com/purchasinginfo.asp?id=2&id2=90</a>

Is that a CC10R?

That's a great solution, BUT EOS (and Maxxum) users beware: you lose control of your diaphragm (aperture) with a cheap reversing ring. No problem for Canon FD/FL, Nikon, Pentax, and Minolta MD/MC users, because these lenses all have aperture controls on them, rather than relying on electronics to control the stop-down.

 

Reversing rings still work in theory, but they're more expensive than $10-$15 that other reversing rings are, because to work properly, you need to run wires from the reversing ring to the "front" of the lens.

 

The other problem with reversing rings is that your filters don't protect the front surface of the glass anymore. Apparently, most people around here don't care, but it's something to be aware of.

 

Cheap reversing rings may be available for Maxxum and EOS mounts, and if they are, pick up a manual focus lens to go with them (as the manual lens will have an aperture ring).