sergio_ortega7

<p>I'll add a few observations. I had the M7II/65mm, a 6x7 Fuji/90mm and a Fuji 6x9/65mm. The lenses are all outstanding, but there was something really special about Velvia transparencies made with either of the Fujis. I used them for landscape/travel/hiking. The Mamiya was used handheld more than the Fujis; it's smaller, quieter, has a meter, AE and it just feels better in the hand and around your neck, sort of like a big Leica. The Fujis can also be used handheld, but they're better on a tripod with a cable release; using a separate meter slows down the process, so I used it more like a view camera.</p> <p>The Fujis are rather industrial in design and build; they're simple, well made and durable enough, but you won't mistake them for a finely-crafted piece of equipment, like a Hasselblad or a Rolleiflex. The Mamiya 7II is on another level altogether. The Fujis are purely mechanical with no battery, the Mamiya is an electronic camera. The one thing I hated about the Fujis was setting shutter speeds slower than one second, it was a real chore and image-degrading camera movement was always a possibility. Either way you won't go wrong. </p>

<p>http://www.naturfotograf.com/lens_norm.html</p>

<p>The interior surfaces of old eveready-style fitted camera cases often become musty-smelling and can transfer the musty odor to whatever is stored inside, body or lens. Bellows material will also smell musty after several years; a couple of older folding cameras I've inspected gave off that musty smell as soon as I opened up and extended the bellows. Even after removing the camera/lens from the fitted case the musty smell can linger for a long time. If there's no visible fungus on the lens, let it air out for a while...the musty odor should go away.</p>

<p>I agree with john, those lines aren't from loading/unloading or dark slide retraction/insertion; those would be oriented lengthwise, not side-to-side. To determine whether it's a manufacturing defect, and not caused by film handling or development, sacrifice an unexposed sheet from the package and inspect it carefully in bright light. If these marks are on sheets of processed film, not unexposed/undeveloped sheets directly from the box, then it's obviously a processing or handling issue.<br> It also could be some form of film reticulation. Google the term, there are several good articles on the subject, and a couple of old threads here on this site. Film reticulation defects are caused by development solution temperature differences during processing, though I'm not sure if it can affect the backing, or only the emulsion coating. </p>

<p>As already stated, the 120mm Nikkor SW barely covers 8x10 with zero movements, though it's a good choice for the panoramic 4x10 format. The 150mm Nikkor SW covers 8x10 with movements, and it's about as wide as most want to go with 8x10.</p>

Google "darkroom rentals in Florida" and you'll find a number of places where you can rent a darkroom for a few hours to develop film, enlarge negatives or make contact prints yourself. If you don't want to do the work yourself, ask them if they know anyone who does contact printing. Having lived in South Florida for years I used several commercial labs for E6 sheet film development, never B&W developing/printing, but I believe most of these labs have long since gone out of business, so I can't suggest anyone. If the rental darkroom doesn't have the necessary contact printing equipment available, all you really need is a 1/4" thick sheet of plain glass larger than the negative and printing paper you'll be using. For projection speed paper contact prints, place the heavy 1/4" sheet directly on top of the negative/paper sandwich, put it directly on the enlarger baseboard and raise the light source high enough to evenly cover the entire image. For alternative contact printing methods, like platinum or other types of hand-coated print-out papers, you'll need a hinged contact print frame and some form of UV light source.

<p>I've used lenses ranging from 250mm (10" Kodak Wide Field Ektar) to 450mm (Fujinon 450mm C) for 8x10 portraiture. For the type of portraits I like -- capturing the entire subject within his/her own environment, rather than the more traditional tight head and shoulders shot -- a lens from 12" to 14" would be ideal.</p> <p>You can always make tighter portraits of your subject with shorter focal lengths, but you'll have to focus closer than infinity, so make sure your camera's maximum bellows extension will allow that. And as already noted by others, you'll have to increase exposure accordingly with closer-than-infinity extensions. Longer lenses (like the 450 Fuji) will place you farther from your subject for anything wider than a head/shoulders portrait, so you'll need enough space in your studio. I usually find a 12" to 14" focal length provides a greater sense of intimacy with the subject without getting uncomfortably close, but not so far away you lose touch. I generally prefer the 14".</p> <p>Since you already have a wide angle for 8x10, a 14" would make more sense for general photography as well. If you want something relatively modern, and readily available within your price range, the Schneider 355mm G-Claron would be an excellent lens. It's not as big and heavy as most modern 360mm lenses (Schneider Symmars, Rodenstock Sironars and others), coverage for the 8x10 format is huge and it's a very sharp lens for general photography as well.</p>

The Kodak Dye Transfer publication was claimed yesterday by the first poster above and it's already been mailed out. I received a couple of requests today from other individuals asking for the information, but it's gone now and I didn't make any copies. I'm sorry if this wasn't clear in my original post. Had I known there would be any interest in this stuff, I would have scanned/copied the publication and provided as many copies as necessary.

It's coming your way.

Does anyone need/want a copy of Kodak Publication #E-80, "The Dye Transfer Process" for their reference library? Just indicate below you want it, email me your mailing address and I'll send it to you.

Update on the issue I was experiencing importing images directly after upgrading to IOS 8.3 on my iPad: Not being one to give up easily, I kept calling Apple hoping to find some resolution. I finally managed to speak with someone (Zina Quigley) who seemed to take an active interest in my problem. Zina promised she'd discuss the matter with "the engineers" and get back to me. Surprisingly, the next day I was contacted by someone (from Apple's engineering department?) who acknowledged they had received numerous reports of the problem. The guy claimed it was being caused by the older Camera Connection Kit 30-pin interface devices becoming dirty, worn or damaged, and somehow failing to properly make the necessary connection(s) when inserted into the 30-pin slot on certain iPads. The individual couldn't explain why this problem suddenly started happening after upgrading IOS 8.3, but he stated the engineers were busy trying to determine whether this was the cause of the problem. To determine if my older "dirty, worn or defective" Camera Connection Kit adapters were causing the problem, he immediately sent me a brand new Apple Camera Connection Kit. I received the new kit yesterday, overnight delivery and free of charge. I'm happy to report both new Camera Connection Kit adapters functioned perfectly with my 3rd generation iPad running the latest IOS 8.3. All images now import directly, using both the SD card reader and USB cord from my cameras, via the 30-pin interface, with no error messages. Problem solved! This new Camera Connection Kit sent to me by Apple does not look and feel like the older kit I had been using; I suspect they have redesigned the device somehow. This (redesigned?) camera connection kit is not available for sale at any of the local Apple stores/vendors; I had been advised the older 30-pin interface kit had been discontinued and replaced with the new lightning interface camera connection kit. Apple still sells their 30-pin interface Camera Connection Kit on their Apple store site, but it must be the newer (redesigned?) version. Just as an experiment, I tried my older (supposedly "dirty, worn or defective") 30-pin interface Camera Connection Kit devices on a friend's 3rd generation iPad, a machine that had never been updated to any of the later IOS versions (my friend's iPad is still running the original IOS 6.something). Both of my Camera Connection Kit devices functioned perfectly on my friend's iPad; images imported as usual with no error messages. This leads me to believe my older Camera Connection Kit devices' 30-pin interfaces are not the problem. I can only conclude Apple redesigned the new Camera Connection Kit devices's 30-pin interfaces to properly function with their most recent IOS 8.3 upgrade. If any of you are experiencing this same issue after upgrading to IOS 8.3, Apple will probably send you (hopefully, also free of charge) their new Apple Camera Connection Kit devices so you can continue importing images directly via the 30- pin interface. It's worth the effort.

Completely wiping all stored content and settings from the iPad, and setting it up as a "new" iPad to free up all available memory, had no effect whatsoever; the 30-pin camera connection kit devices are still not supported. It seems there's no way to directly import images to my iPad after upgrading to IOS 8.3. I realize every operating system upgrade changes a few things, but to prevent the direct importation of images to previous generation iPads after upgrading to the latest IOS is absurd. Apple should publish these major changes when they offer upgrades, or make it possible to easily restore the previous IOS version. I've been told jailbreaking my iPad is the only way to restore the previous IOS version. I'll try that.

I don't believe it's a camera settings issue; every file, from the most basic jpeg made with some cheap digicams all the way to RAW files from my D300/700/800 and Fuji Xs, will not import now using the camera connection kit adapters, either with a direct connection via a USB cord to the camera(s), or when using the SD card reader. They will import/transfer to my iPad with no problem when syncing to my desktop/laptop after downloading the files to those devices. And I never had this issue before "upgrading" to 8.3, no matter what the cameras' settings. I have been advised (by a couple of very cynical people at the local Apple store) that IOS 8.3 has some sort of bug (or a feature?) that will not allow the 30-pin interfaces on the iPad camera connection kit to be recognized by the latest IOS. The latest iPads only have lightning ports, so 8.3 may not support the older 30-pin interface devices. Perhaps Apple wants us all to buy new iPads. I've done a few resets of all the iPad's settings to see if that would restore the machine's importing capability. I've explored and tinkered with all the available settings on the machine; so far, nothing seems to work. I always get the same "device not supported" error message. The available memory on my iPad with IOS 8.3 could be the problem. I have a lot of stuff on there just taking up space, things I never use, and there's not much memory available right now. I'll sync and back up the entire iPad contents to my laptop and perform a complete wipe of all the settings and stored data; I can restore whatever data I choose after the complete wipe. Perhaps freeing up most of the available memory will do the trick. One can only hope. IOS 8.4/6/or 8 may solve this particular problem, but I'm not holding my breath. Who knows what other problems will arise when those "upgrades" are made available. It seems every time I upgrade the IOS on this iPad, I discover a bunch of changes I didn't really want...after the fact. I'm thinking the cynics are correct: 30-pin interface support will be phased out with all future IOS "upgrades." I've been using my iPad mainly as a portfolio display device, only importing images directly from my cameras/SD cards when I want to review them in greater detail on the retina display out in the field and do some basic editing. If IOS 8.3 prevents me from doing that now, I'll just have to stop importing images directly. Thanks, Apple.

I recently Upgraded to IOS 8.3 on my 3rd generation iPad. Now I cannot download any images using either of the two 30-pin interface adapters in the Apple iPad Camera Connection kit (http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC531ZM/A/apple-ipad-camera-connection-kit? fnode=3a). The camera connection kit is the only way to directly import images to an iPad, other than first downloading from the camera to a desktop/laptop then syncing the iPad to the computer to transfer the images. After "upgrading" to IOS 8.3, and trying to import images using the camera connection kit adapters, I get an error message advising the "device is not supported" by my iPad. Apple Tech Support was no help whatsoever; they denied the problem exists, even though several others have posted the same complaint on Apple's own troubleshooting forum. I'm told I cannot restore the previous IOS version after installing 8.3. And now there's no way to directly import images to the iPad. Any suggestions?

Lots of good info on this great camera, just google "Horseman LE". I used the geared version of this model years ago...the LX, I believe. It's a very well-made, sturdy and precise studio view camera, but rather heavy for field work. A couple of links to get you started: http://www.mediajoy.com/en/camera_review/horseman/index.html http://www.largeformatphotography.info/mono-field.html

How about something like this? The excellent image quality of the Sony QX zoom lens units, displayed on the ipad's large retina display, could be what you're looking for. Some kind of app to apply LF camera movements to the image on the screen might be interesting.

Have you considered attaching a centre filter to the rear element? http://www.largeformatphotography.info/filters.html