greg_campbell1

I'd pass on worrying whether or not you got a killer deal and look at the overall value. You bought an excellent quality, bomb-proof camera and 3 nice lenses for the price of a fancy dinner for two. The camera will take gorgeous photographs and will, with a little maintenance and care, last for decades. Compared to a cheap, 'entry level' DSLR, the camera would be a steal at 3 times the price! Now, go out and make pretty pictures! :)

As mentioned, a 2700 DPI scanner will do a very credible job, and can be had for well under $150. The next generation 4000/ 5400 DPI hardware will be somewhat more.

 

Here's an old comparison page.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/charts/comp_filmscanners.html?cm_sp=Resource-_-Buying_Guide_Chart-_-Comparison_Chart_for_Film_Scanners

 

Preferably, look for a scanner with FARE or ICE (hardware dust removal).

Minolta, Canon and Nikon all made solid scanners.

<p>Any chance you could arrive a few days earlier? On the morning of the 17th, you can catch the moon setting over the Tetons, with dawn sunlight illuminating the mountains from behind. Weather permitting, it would make a killer shot. <br><br>

<a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=220&month=6&year=2011&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1">http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=220&month=6&year=2011&obj=moon&afl=-11&day=1</a><br>

<br><br>

With the morning Moon still in mind, I'd be tempted to hit Yellowstone first. The thermal areas can be amazingly pretty in the dawn light. The sooner you get there, the larger the moon will be, and the lower on the horizon it will occur.</p>

<p>Cool. The 7e is a good basic camera. If you find yourself liking this "film thing" you can treat yourself to a top-of-the-line camera like an EOS3 for about $200. (The multi-spot metering is killer!) </p>

<p>Best bang for the buck is likely an ETRS. You can buy a loaded kit on KEH for about $200 US. They are good little cameras!</p>

<p>Give this a look. http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2010/01/20/photographing-death-valley-part-1</p>

<p>You might also pop over to the very active Fredmiranda landscape forums. A search for DV will reveal a number of helpful threads.</p>

 

<p>Things are usually churning fairly steadily by mid July. This year's developing LaNina may delay the onset of full monsoonal flow, but may also accentuate mid-late season activity. Check http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/</p>

<p>Funny you should ask! Today we had the first thunderstorm in the area. It was massively elevated, with little or no rain reaching the ground, but did look pretty and provide some blustery winds after it collapsed.</p>

<p>Most Tucson area camping is in the Catalina mountains. There are developed sites, as well as primitive, 'disbursed,' camping in the National Forest. Chiricahua NP is about 2.5 hours from town and offers fantastic scenery, hiking, and a very pleasant creek-side campground. See also Madera Canyon, Ramsey Canyon, Cochise Stronghold, and the more distant Mt. Graham area. Madera is the lowest and can be uncomfortably warm and muggy at night.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>What sort of a baiting question is this? :(</p>

<p>All of my Canon film bodies 'work' perfectly. 2x T-90, 1x A-1, and a T-80 (Autofocus! :) ) <br>

I also have several 50's~70's era large format lenses that all 'work' perfectly too. Wow, what a shock!<br>

2x 80's Bronica SQ-A* bodies. <br>

1x 70's(?) Mamiya TLR. <br>

Yep, they 'work' great too. I shoot ALL these cameras at least a few times a year, and run many dozen rolls through the T90s and Bronica annually.<br>

Feh! :P</p>

<p>Tucson:<br>

<br />Saguaro NP East, along the Cactus Forest Drive. Several overlooks with good views.</p>

<p>Catalina Highway.</p>

<p>Gates Pass area, w. of town on Speedway.</p>

<p>Reddington Pass (dirt road)</p>

<p>If you're looking for a longer drive, try Mt. Hopkins Road. Great views to the west as you ascend, then a commanding view from the saddle just before the observatory gate.</p>

<p>Much more at http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=17573 (You may need to join ST)</p>

<p>Hum... I think the 'best' lens is the one that happens to be on your camera - the one you're USING.<br>

Seriously, if you're all going to sit around arguing about which lens is 'best' or 'sharpest,' maybe you ought to 'go digital,' since pixel peeping is all they do. </p>

<p>Andrew, don't let the retentive measurebators put you off. (Can you guys please take the pedantic arguments elsewhere!)</p>

<p>Assuming it's clean and functional, the kit is a good - if not screaming - deal at $150. If you've never seen MF chromes on a light table, you're in for a treat!<br>

Did you buy it?</p>

<p>I'm on the verge of building a home-brew 6x17 and am also interested in a DIY central filter. <br>

I suspect you could use a simple photochop gradiated-fill to produce a roughly appropriate image. One way or another, you could transfer this image to a piece of slide film, which would then be cemented onto a basic UV filter. With some experimentation, the resultant center filter would have a 'close enough' light falloff curve Stay tuned....<br>

-Greg</p>

<p>Vary aperture (and ISO) to correctly expose the lightning. F6.7 at ASA 100 is a good start. If the lightning is far away, or skies are hazy, open up to f4 and beyond. If the action is closer, stop down. </p>

<p>Vary shutter speed to achieve proper exposure of everything else in the scene. Clouds, foreground, background, cities, oceans, whatever. If it's bright enough for the camera's meter to work, you can put the camera in aperture priority and let it manage the exposure.</p>

<p>Shooting at twilight, your shutter speeds may be fractions of a second. Just machine gun away and you'll eventually catch something!</p>

<p>In general, keep the shutter open until the scene is fully exposed. If you shut it when you see lightning, you may be left with an ugly, underexposed image.</p>

<p>Crime in rural Utah is pretty much non-existent. You may find some vultures around the parks.</p>

<p>As suggested, inflating your tires to 4~5PSI over the owner's manual suggestion will gain you freeway-speed stability, as well as a fraction of a MPG.</p>

<p>You're really going to have to limit the places you see. One week in Utah is nothing. You could spend a week in Zion alone. I fear you'll fall into the "I've got to see that too!" trap and will wind up with crappy pics of everything, rather than aesthetic photographs of a few select locations. When you get back to Florida, the only memories you'll have will be of driving the @$%$@# car! </p>

<p>North Rim of GC will be CLOSED 'till mid May.</p>

<p>Echoing what the others say. Two weeks (minus a rather long 'commute') leaves just about enough time to see a respectable amount of Utah. Wyo and Mt. will be cold and will require several more days on the road. I suppose you could blast up to the Tetons for a day or two. Highway 89 is a pretty route from the Logan area. Stop in Afton for a Rulon Burger, and to see the Periodic Spring a few miles east of town. (If the road up Swift Creek is even open this early.)</p>

<p>Sure, camping is always trade-off of between car space and setup time and cost. With motel rooms running $40 at the least, it doesn't take long to pay back the cost of a tent and air bed.</p>

<p>The lower elevations in Southern Utah can get into the low 40's this time of year. Bryce, at 8000 ft., is probably still freezing each night. Just be sure to bring plenty of blankets! One below and two above is usually sufficient. If you lay them on the floor of the trunk, they compress substantially when you place the tent, stove, etc. on top. </p>

<p>Yea, National Forest. 'Distributed camping' is almost universally free. The only thing I miss is a long hot shower. 'Bathing' with a gallon of warm water has a certain charm, but soon wears thin.</p>

<p>Enjoy the trip!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Here's my gob of southern Utah placemarks. http://tinyurl.com/yl6bcge There's no shortage of things to do!</p>

<p>IMO, the whole Rubys touron trap is best avoided. It's expensive and tacky! Stay in Tropic or Cannonville, or pitch a tent in the beautiful valley just west of Bryce.</p>

<p>Any chance of bringing a tent and sleeping bag? You can do the primitive camping thing (free!) on most National Forest Service land. Many NPs have a NF nearby, often on the border. This will save you enough $ to at least double your vacation's duration!</p>

<p>Wyoming and Montana will be COLD this time of year. Expect closed roads and snow at every turn.</p>

 

<p>You can find dedicated ~2700 dpi scanners on ebay for well under $200. They will extract most of the information on the average negative, and are generally quite a bit better than any non-professional flatbed. As mentioned, some form of Infrared dust cleaning (NEAT, FARE) is very handy when digitizing color neg and e6 slide films.<br>

Here's an fairly useful comparison http://www.bhphotovideo.com/FrameWork/charts/comp_filmscanners.html?cm_sp=Resource-_-Buying_Guide_Chart-_-Comparison_Chart_for_Film_Scanners<br>

FWIW, I've got a Canon FS4000 and am fairly happy with it (although it's hardly perfect!) AFAIK, it's pretty close to the other 4000dpi scanners on the market. Minolta's 5400dpi unit can squeeze a hair more detail out of a very sharp image. If you'd like to compare vs. your flatbed, I'd be happy to scan a few frames.<br>

-Greg</p>

<p>North Rim stores, lodging, and many services generally close on Oct 15. Basic access, roads, camp sites, and some other services remain active until the main access road is snowed up for the year. Last year, this didn't occur 'till late November. The National Forest bounding the N. Rim is full of aspens and is quite colorful. There are also numerous primitive campsites spread out on the network of dirt roads in the area. It's not hard to pitch a tent beneath a grove of blazing orange and white trees. If Splendid Isolation is on the agenda, you can't do much better.<br>

As mentioned, Flagstaff is another Fall Colors hotspot. More pleasant and free (if primitive) NF camping can be found near Sunset Crater. Take the SC exit, but turn west instead.<br>

Enjoy!</p>

<p>IMO, there's little chance of truly deep snow that late in the year. Even up in Bryce, elevation 8000+ ft, the monthly average is only 7 inches. OTOH, it's a good idea to keep an eye on the road conditions, some of the mountain passes might be closed or require chains following a storm.</p>

<p>p.s.<br>

If you do wind up in Az/Ut, keep in mind the substantial elevation range. <br>

April weather is usually very changeable. You'll see everything from snow to mid 80's. When the weather's cold, head for the lower country between Zion and Page. If it starts to get hot, visit Bryce and other elevated locations.</p>

<p>Southern Utah and Northern Az are AWESOME in April.<br>

Here are a few places to check out. http://tinyurl.com/yl6bcge</p>

<p>Yea, the 700DX is cheap, rigid, reasonably sturdy, big, and somewhat heavy. You can buy the legs for ~$100 or a complete kit, with a well built-but-MASSIVE tilt/pan head, for another ~30$ or so. The combination will easily support a medium format camera, and even my 4x5 is comfortable. As such, it's probably overkill for most 35mm/DSLR setups. What sort of camera(s) will you be shooting? I think (?) the entire Slik Pro series features metal heads and reasonably sturdy legs. The 3xx and 5xx models are lighter, and may be more in line with your needs. Specs at http://www.thkphoto.com/products/slik/slik-07.html</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Your example images is, for the most part, so far out of focus that it's hard to say anything about the scan. The grain and noise are about what I'd expect from an 'average' scanning system. Can you post something with more detail?</p>

<p>It's working normally. The interlock is designed to prevent shutter activity unless the back signals that all is ready. The camera also checks that the dark slide has been removed.</p>

<p>I think all the 'gotchas' are listed in the manual, which can be downloaded from...<br>

http://www.tamron.com/assets/pdfs/SQ-Ai.pdf</p>