greg_campbell1

<p>1) If multiple spot readings are taken, how is the averaging done? Does the scale on the right indicate what decision has been made?<br>

The scale at right shows the location of the individual spot locations you have metered, relative to the central fixed bar, which represents a Middle Grey / Zone 5 exposure level. One spot reading falls on Z5. Two are 'split' and the average becomes the exposure value. The two meter dots represent the location on the exposure scale where those subjects will fall. Beyond two, you get a weighted average that again shows where each metered subject will fall on the exposure scale.</p>

<p>2) What do the shadow/highlight up/down buttons actually do? Do they just drag the determined exposure up and down by so many stops?<br>

Yes. They are no different than 'standard' Exp Comp, except that adjusting them shows you where the constellation of individual spot metered subjects will fall on the exposure scale. This is very useful when you know the limits of the film you are shooting. For example, most E6 film will blow out at +2 to +2.5 stops (Zone 7 to 7.5) If you meter a fluffy white cloud, then press 'up' 4 times, you'll move that cloud to +2 on the scale, just shy of the point where it will start to lose texture. The cloud's 'pip' (metered reading) will wind up at the 7th location on the vertical scale. <br>

<br />3) Do the up/down compensation buttons operate on each reading one at a time, or the overall average? For instance, if I meter 3 times and compensate after each, will this work out differently to just compensating once at the end of taking 3 readings?<br>

They move whatever average the individual meter readings have produced. <br>

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In practice, meter the brightest important subject, as well as the darkest. (Cloud / bark, skin / dark hair, etc.) You'll see two separated pips, centered around middle grey. If you want, use the H/S to move both of these subjects to a different place on the scale. If the spread is too great, you'll find that one or both subjects will 'fall' outside the film's response curve, becoming either white or useless med. If this is the case, you have too much contrast and will have to try something different.<br>

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See Adams' excellent book, The Negative: <br>

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/60092457/Photo/The_Negative_Ansel_Adams.pdf</p>

<p>Needless to say, your schedule is a disaster. You'd be much better off getting off the airplance in Vegas, going to the gift shop and buying a dozen random postcards, and then flying back home...<br /><br /> How did it go?</p>

Have you considered Joshua Tree NP? It's a bit closer and has another ~2000 feet of elevation for a slightly cooler experience. Driving times from downtown LA: DV - 4.25h, JT 2.5h, Anza 3h. If you really want to see DV, go for it. But do keep in mind that it is much larger than the other two options; you'll only scratch the surface and will spend still more time driving from one locale to another.

IMO, SQ-ai battery life is not a real-world concern. I've shot ~20 rolls during trips w/o depleting one set. Further, replacements are small, cheap, and widely available. I've always understood that power is required to hold the shutter open; I think this is even mentioned in the camera manual. One 'gotcha' is the battery terminals - the tips can lightly corrode or oxidize and need to be lightly sanded every few years.

Agree that Horseshoe is vastly better in the morning or evening light. Wandering out there immediately after touring Jackalope gives you the flat, harsh mid-day light. When you get there, have a think and consider hiking another few hundred yards or more along either rim. This will get you away from the herds, and will offer the chance to take a comparatively unique image of the scene.<br><br>

 

Upper Jackalope is an utter zoo. Flee for your life!<br>

Lower is not as nice as it used to be, but if you bring a tripod, they will still give you 2 hours to roam and shoot by yourself, w/o the otherwise mandatory guide herding you along. Shoot your way down, then reverse course when you get to the climb-out ladders and re-trace your path. The light will have changed and you'll have plenty of new shots waiting for you.<br>

If you're up for a few miles of fairly easy walking, I'd suggest Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch instead of either of the above...

Think in terms of total surface area of the blemishes vs the area of the lens. Tiny scratches like this will account for a small fraction of 1 percent by area. Even if the scratches scattered light like crazy, there's likely not enough stray light to be remotely noticeable.

Depending on which generation of FireWire the scanner has, running it on a FW equipped MAC may improve it's speed significantly over USB 2.0 and a Windows box. In terms of pure image quality, I suspect that the computer and OS really don't matter. If you've got the time, that old laptop will crank out all the scanner can deliver.

As if you don't have enough on your plats, this ought to give you some ideas... ;)

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http://www.americansouthwest.net/slot_canyons/map.html<br>

While some are purely technical, many of these slots have reasonably long, scenic stretches that can be reached by simply hiking upstream into the canyon. A fair number of this subgroup are accessible via a short hike from paved roads.

<br>Several of the N. Lake Powell > North Wash group are quite scenic, generally dry, and less than a mile from Hwy 95. If you watched 127 hours, you'll recognize the superb Leprechaun (Canyon 3).

Eric, are you still here?

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Doable? Sure. None of your destinations are more than an hour or so from a lodge or motel.

As suggested, elevation and weather may play a very important role in your trip. If you stay flexible, you can visit lower destinations during stormy weather, avoiding the worst conditions.

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Road conditions will be a real concern. Most / all of the unpaved roads in the area turn to owl poo when mixed with significant rain. Hole-in-the-Rock, House Rock, Shutumpah, Cathedral Rd, etc. are all reasonably likely (IMO, 50%-50% or so) to be completely impassable. Do you have a back-up destination list?

Give this site a read: http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/SLRs/index.htm

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As suggested, an A1 or T90 are the most likely options. The T-90 is a superb camera - the multi-spot metering alone is worth the purchase price. Frequent use tends to forestall the shutter issue. As mentioned, it will do long exposures forever w/o draining the battery. The T-90 does lack mirror lock-up.

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The A-1's typical problem is 'shutter squeal' which can be fixed fairly easily. (A drop of oil does the job - the trick is getting it on target.) The metering system isn't nearly as fancy as the T90's, but works well enough, particularly for print or B/W film.

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Although a bit homely, the T-70 is actually a rather capable camera. It lacks aperture priority AE, but adds zero-battery-drain long exposure. They tend to be real cheap...

The Mojave National Preserve is worth considering. http://www.nps.gov/moja/index.htm

Not too many birds, but plenty of lovely, remote desert scenery.

With two days in Page, you really need to go hike Buckskin Gulch. Any 8 year old will greatly enjoy the descent into the narrows of Wire Pass, and Buckskin is sublime. There are quite a few other neat, photogenic places in the immediate area west of town. Search for Toadstool Hoodoos, Whaweap Hoodoos, Nautilus, Pariah Townsite, etc. A half-day tour of Cottonwood Canyon Road is also time well spent. Hike to Yellow Rock, Cottonwood Narrows, Hackberry Canyon, Round Valley Draw, and more.

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If you're loaded, http://www.overlandcanyontours.com/xphoto offers nice (spendy!) tours to a third segment of Antelope Creek that is not clogged with busloads of drooling touron zombies.

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Waterholes Canyon is the budget alternative, located just s. of Horseshoe Bend and costing something like 8$ a person for the Navajo permit. (This may be included in a Jackalope or 'X' visit, so the hike may be free!)

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As for Jackalope itself, IMO Lower is the better bang for the buck vs. Upper. Bring a camera and tripod and they'll let you off the leash for 2 hours. They may or may not allow the family members w/o equipment the same two hour tour. Wife and kid may need to join one of the faster paced guided tours.

Let me ask this, what sort of temperament do you and your family have?<br>

Are you looking for somewhat out-of-the-way destinations, or are you content to 'hit' the major tourist spots? Does the possibility of encountering a rattlesnake cause anyone to freak out? Camping or motels? Hiking? (As little as possible? A few easy KM? Several KM, with hundreds of meters of elevation gain/loss?) Etc. In short, what sort of activities do you folks have in mind???

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Two weeks is a fair amount of time, but there is SO much to consider. If you're the outdoorsy types, you could easily spend a week or more in Southern Utah alone. There's no reason you can't see any of the NP in the area, but you will have to pare down the list to keep the in-car time at a minimum. Don't fall into the Bucket List trap that has you driving frantically from one 'must see!' destination to the next. Wherever you go, there will be zillions of of interesting, photogenic destinations along the way. You'll never see them all, so you may as well take the time to thoroughly enjoy a few.

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A few climatic notes:

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Death Valley is already starting to get hot. Do a drive-through if you're in the neighborhood but don't devote more than half a day or so, visiting the 'standard' hot spots. Leave from Vegas before dawn, arriving in time for sunrise.

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The eastern entrance of Yosemite will almost certainly be closed. Going through California's Central Valley, it's a ~8+ hour drive from Vegas to Yosemite Valley. Pleasant camping en-route just east of Lake Isabella, if you're game.

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Southern Utah is just about ideal this time of year. Nights will still be chilly, but generally above freezing, with usually sunny days around 20~25C. As mentioned, Zion, etc. will be much warmer than Bryce, Grand Canyon, and other high altitude destinations. If cold weather is predicted, head for lower elevations.

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Elevation of various Points of Interest.

Cedar Breaks 10,000ft<br>

Bryce 8000+<br>

North Rim GC 8000<br>

Flagstaff area. 7000+<br>

South Rim 7000<br>

Natural Bridges / Anasazi Canyons 6500<br>

Kodachrome Basin 5800<br>

Calf Creek 5350<br>

Hole in Rock area ~5200<br>

Goblin Valley 4950<br>

Coyote Buttes 5000<br>

Paria Canyon 4400<br>

Arches 4400<br>

Zion 4000<br>

Lake Powell area 3800<br>

Snow Canyon S.P. 3200<br>

I have a number of fairly small regions I'd like to explore, but really try to avoid the site-by-site bucket list mentality. I have ZERO interest in shooting Mesa Arch at dawn, or the classic Zion Watchtower shot from the touron infested bridge. Photography should be more about the trip, and exploring cool places, than 'bagging' some stupid 'Icon' that has already been machine-gunned to death.

Chip, what sort of photography do you have in mind?

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I've got a square Bronica that is a fine camera, but using it hand-held is not always such an easy thing. Shooting through the waist-level viewfinder is natural enough, once you adapt to the reversed image, but any attempt to raise and operate the camera above gut-level immediately becomes problematic. Shooting through a prism is more flexible, but I find the square box shape awkward to grip and handle in this position. Adding a grip/winder fixes the issue, but adds weight and cost. If you're thinking landscape or street shooting, a brick like the Pentax SLR might be preferable to the Hassy/Bronica box system. Or consider a rangefinder (they do tend to be more $$)

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Suggest you have a long think about the film format. While there's not a lot of size difference between a 6x6 and 6x7 camera, there will be some weight penalty. FWIW, I find shooting a 6x6 to be quite different from the standard rectangular format. As such, it's a refreshing change.

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Here's a handy rundown of many MF systems:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/Product_Resources/SourceBookProPhoto/Section01MediumFormat.pdf

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I have a bunch of Bronica catalogs and user's guides that I can post to if you're interested.

One good sunset option closer to Kanab is the old Paria Townsite and the wildly colored hills surrounding it. http://goo.gl/maps/G4PSz

If you're up for a short to moderate hike, there are a number of pretty slot canyons in the area within reach of the weekend warrior. http://www.americansouthwest.net/slot_canyons/zion_national_park/index.html

No blob on my ancient CRT. I can even do an extreme curve stretch and not see any banding or blocky shapes.

 

Try assigning a different color profile to your monitor.

What's your budget?

I see people talking about blowing $1200, which seems vastly too much for a competent PP box. <br><br>

 

There is nothing remotely 'unreliable' about AMD's chips. For the money they still represent a reasonable option, particularly when running heavily threaded applications. That said, much of PS and LR are not particularly well written; single-thread code still abounds, and AMD's single-thread performance is moderately slower than Intel's. An 8 core FX will go great running one of the fully threaded PS filters or many stand-alone programs (Neatimage, etc. enjot nearly linear gains as you add cores.), but then bog when a critical single-thread operation comes along. Overall, 8 core AMD will do PP very, very well, and will save you ~100 in the meantime. Even a dirt-cheap 6 core will go well. Throw in a mild overclock of the the 'turbo' mode (where only a few cores are active), and the single-thread deficit will become less noticeable. <br><br>

 

IMO, one fast SSD should suffice. Stick the OS, Apps, swap files, and WIP images on it. Adding another small SSD, dedicated exclusively for the temporary/swap files might eek out a hair more performance. <br><br>

 

Agree that the video card doesn't much matter - yet. OpenCL utilization is still very sporadic. I'd buy a $50 place holder (or get a mobo with onboard) and wait until one of your apps 'needs' strong OpenCL power, then buy whichever card is best suited. <br><br>

 

Building your own allows you to avoid the lowest-bidder OEM hardware. IMO, buying a mid-level (or even a budget) components from known, decent brands gets you the best quality/reliability/price combination. It's also kinda 'fun' (some here may need to look that one up!) to see your creation beep to life! And if you are into the whole 'buying experience' thing, you get to open and obsess over not one but half a dozen items! :)

T90 lets you take multiple readings, displaying each/all on a +/- 4 stop exposure scale. This offers quick, intuitive information regarding the difference between metered subjects. The camera averages them as you go, but you can then move the entire constellation up or down on the scale with the Highlight / Shadow buttons, placing any given subject where you like and observing the resultant 'fall' of the other metered areas. If in aperture or shutter priority, you can then tweak A or V as desired, using your adjusted exposure as the target. http://t90.tripod.com/viewfinder.html<br><br>

 

This mode of metering is handy, and very accurate when shooting E6 either in the Tank or on my 6x6.

(The T90 is a "little bit" large for a light meter, but it does the job well.)

When?<br>

For how long?<br>

How much actual photography will you want to do?<br>

How much hiking, and how long for each walk?<br>

...

One more tip. Be careful with your metering and always chimp the RED histogram!

On many cameras, the histogram shown is either the green channel or an average of all three.

Saturating the red channel will result in funky color shifts and blocked tonalities.

I'm not convinced the emergency ladders will help much. A lot of people are going to struggle climbing one of these... <br>

 

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/60092457/misc/_MG_9426.jpg

While it's nearly impossible to find a 100% new composition anywhere, avoiding Antelope and heading off for one of the other zillion slots in the area will at least expose you to unique scenery. You won't be muttering, "It looks just like it does in the pictures" every time you look up.

"Any thoughts on getting the colors you sometimes see in some of the photos?"<br>

 

Joe, If the bright sun happens to hit at just the right angle, in just the right location, you can indeed get the nice rich colors depicted in the Wiki article. Be sure to err on the side of underexposure.<br>

 

IMO, many of the images you've seen are the result of an overactive saturation slider. ("This one goes to ELEVEN!") I think many photographers have a pre-conceived idea of how Jackalope should look, and often wind up leaning on the color controls in an attempt to match this unrealistic ideal. It's a big feedback loop that eventually leads everyone to Lik-like levels of surreality. ;)