tomas_telensky

I did not observed this behaviour, my 50/1.4 just works perfectly! Best glass I've ever seen. I did some shots on slides with F1.4 and I didn't observe it (but note that I did not examine for it.

Tomas

Hi!

I have a problem with Minolta data saver DS-100. It worked normally until I put

the card in the USB card reader - "7 in 1-G2S" is written on its back. Now when

I put the card back to DS-100, the access led blinks red and the data full led

blinks yellow, very quickly. Pressing both buttons for formatting doesn't help

either, it still blinks!

The card is 16MB Olympus SmartMedia.

Please give me some ideas! What type of card readers did you use? Had you any

problems?

Thanks,

Tomas

Hi!

I have a problem with Minolta data saver DS-100. It worked normally until I put

the card in the USB card reader - "7 in 1-G2S" is written on its back. Now when

I put the card back to DS-100, the access led blinks red and the data full led

blinks yellow, very quickly. Pressing both buttons for formatting doesn't help

either, it still blinks!

The card is 16MB Olympus SmartMedia.

Please give me some ideas! What type of card readers did you use? Had you any

problems?

Thanks,

Tomas

Hi Marco!

I was mistaken, sorry! I know where bee-eaters are! I said no because I confused bee-eaters with honey buzzard, because in czech language "bee-eater" literaly translated is honey buzzard ;-). I actually know where bee-eaters nest! In the last year I discovered one their colony to the north-east from Neusiedlersee, out of the protected land, seemingly without problems with any laws/people.

I can send you more detailed description of the place to your e-mail if you wish!

I made some photos there, there was one quite good picture, but as I just came with lens and tripod, took some photos (1 roll) and got out, I didn't get close enough to them. They just could see me.

Regarding visiting Czech, I would be glad that you see our beautiful country. I would give you tips where to go if you love nature.

BTW, there is a perfect photo of the week - also bee-eater! I think this photo pretty much raised the demands on photos like this! ;-)

Have a nice vacation in that beautiful area,

Tomas

Hi Marco!

It is really a beautiful land, I love it! I was there in 2004 and in 2005, always in may. It is a beautiful wild prairie landscape, full of rare birds. The most perfect is the Seewinkel area around Lange Lacke. There is a lot of rare birds living in the salty wetlands (like recurvirostra avosetta for example). I use the camp in Podersdorf and then going by bike. Austria is the best in the world with its net of bycicle paths - it is pretty apparent there.

Be careful because austrians are very sensitive to adherence to rules. There are many tables prohibiting to leave marked paths. They protect the land very carefully, which is very good.

Unfortunatelly I don't know about bee-eaters, I haven't heared about them being there. But this land is definitely worth visiting!

BTW, where are you from? I'm just from the neighbouring country, Czech Republic, so I took train to Bratislava, taking my bike with me. Perfect trip.

Good luck!

Tomas

Hi!

<p>

I wonder which RA-4 kit to use. AFAIK there are two:<br>

1) AGFA hobby set (10 litres)<br>

2) Tetenal Print Kit (2.5 litres)<br>

<p>

Do you have any experiences, which one is better, which one gives

better results with Kodak Supra Endura, and also they are comfortable

for use:<br>

- can the concentrate be stored at room temperature?<br>

- can the used solution from the basins be stored in bottle for next

use?<br>

- do I need to use distilled water for solutions?<br>

<p>

Originally I wanted to buy Agfa hobby kit because of better

price/amount ratio, and I also heard a good things about it, but now

I've heard about AGFA bankruptcy, so I wonder if it pays off to get

used to an ending product now...

<p>

Please let me know your experiences/thoughts. Thanks.

<p>

Tomas

Hi Tom,

Regarding flash compensation - that's a good news to me.

I had a feeling that I read somewhere that something won't

work with the external flash, that it must be set directly on the flash. I don't remember what it was...

The custom fuction is known to me, thanks. Actually I read the manuals and still have questions. I can't remember where was the mysterious remark I was confused with.

Thanks for the answer!

Tomas

Hi!

I have some questions about these Minolta flashes (3600HS/5600HS):

1) How do I make flash compensation (+/- EV) with these flashes? I

have Minolta Dynax 7 and I use flash compensation on the body for the

built-in flash, but it won't work with these flashes. I haven't found

a note about that in the flashes' manuals.

I guess it is very useful for fill flash for example (I set -2EV

usualy on the body). It would be quite strange if the compensation

would be possible with the built-in flash and not with the external.

2) Can the 3600HS be triggered manually? I need it for creative

photography with long times (several seconds) when you are running

around the scene and trigger the flash manually several times. Is it

possible with 3600HS? And is it possible with the 5600HS using the

"Test flash button"?

Thanks,

Tomas

"... you don't have to. You simply adjust the friction ..." ... yes but when the friction is appropriate for the 2kg setup I can still move the locked ball. And hen I set the friction so that the locked ball is absolutely tight, I can hardly move the unlocked ball...

Regarding lens, I have Sigma APO 170-500mm F5-6.3 ASPHERICAL RF. Weights only 1345g. Pretty good optical quality and not expensive!

http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3276&navigator=3

Regards, Tomas

Hi Niels,

I also observed that when you tight the friction control enough and also the ball lock, the ball cannot be moved. But the friction must have be so much tightened that you could not move camera smoothly when unlocked. However I refuse to lock the ball head with 2 knobs ;-)

I wish you were right that it is an issue with heavier equipment only, when the ball moves just by the weight of it. In that case the friction would be tightened more so it would be OK. Maybe I'm too perfectionist with my 2kg equipment (camera + 500mm lens)...

(little note: 58FT did not seem tighter than 38F when locked)

I'm unhappy to discover little bug on allmost perfect product. This is my general problem. Maybe I should work in QC...

... I would be curious if heads like Markins, Arca Swiss, Kirk... have these problems.

Thank you for helping me with your thorough testing!

Tomas

Hi!

This is not actually to flame these tripods' owners. I'm really

interested in the owners' experience because I'm about to buy one

also. I recently posted a question about stability comparison of

3021N/055CL (and maybe also 3221 models - they seem to have the same

centre column fixation - but I'm not sure) and 021PRO/055PRO tripods.

I wondered if the extra universal horizontal-capable) clamp of PRO

models doesn't make the centre column less stable. All opinions were:

yes, it does.

But I tried both tripods and realized surprising thing. The centre

column fixation of 3021N/CL model seems not good designed to be firm

enough. Just try to fix the centre column in its lowest position.

Tighten the knob as you can. Then hold the tripod with one hand and

the low end of the center column with other hand and try to wobble

with the column. It can be wobbled quite easily!

You may argue that this is not an issue but if you have a big camera

or big lens and the gravity centre is not exactly above the centre

column then I think it can cause extra vibrations (even when the

column is just in its very lowest position).

The PRO models has much tighter fixation of the centre column, despite

the first impression! The wobble test was successful.

BTW, the PRO model is about 5cm higher (despite Bogen & Manfrotto

denying this in their specs!). BTW it would be nonsense if the PRO is

5cm larger when collapsed but of the same height when fully extended ;-)).

I'm quite close to choose the PRO model.

I'm especially curious about your opinions. Please let me know what

you think. Did anyone made the laser test? ;-)

Tomas

Douglas, try Provia 400F :-) I also tried Kodak E200 but was not satisfied with colors. (I think I will rather try push Provia 100F one stop next time).

Anyway, Kate, depends. I think I would not use ISO400 because it seems to me that the colors are not so good. I rather use pushed 100/200 films - it saturates colors and increases contrast. ISO400 films have lower contrast and not so saturated colors. The grain will be more apparent anyway.

On the other way, you may not want increased contrast.

Pushing is also actually invaluable if you run out of film of certain ISO. But as you are new you may have to read something about pushing films. You will find it in almost every book about photography. Or google is your friend ;-)

Hi Kate!

Good question! I solved it a month ago.

I'm shooting with Sigma 170-500/4.5-6.3 and at the 500mm focal length the 1/60s is safely sharp (with the lens on a tripod, ball head not tightened, holding the camera body and shooting), and 1/15s was almost always blurred.

I recommend to sacrifice one roll before you go shoot bears. Switch your camera to S mode and try various shutter speeds (but shoot more frames with each shutter speed to avoid random shaking). I recommend to shoot some table with some small letters so that you can easily recognize the sharpness on the negative. Then you can easily evaluate the sharpness yourself by a magnifying glass on the negative without spending money on developing photos. (However you shoud have a lightbox and the magnifier glass ;-)).

I think in your case ISO100/200 should be enough, but try. In one very overcast day I had to push provia 400F @ ISO 1600.

If you don't mind little grain you can also push ISO100/200 films - colors will be more saturated. It is necessary if you don't have more sensitive films.

Note that In my case the tripod was Manfrotto 055PROB and 486RC2 ball head (you probably won't have worse ball head).

Good luck with bears, Tomas

Niels, regarding your problem with the panning base. Was the whole ball too loose (as I experienced) or only the panning base?

Thanks, Tomas

Hi Niels!

Thank you very much for your extensive review and test! It helps me a lot. It seems that you are pretty enthusiastic with your ball head. Lucky you... but I'm a little bit confused now and don't know what to think.

I was very happy that we have a dealer here in Prague (although FLM is

generaly unknown here) who allowed me to try the head! So I ran there and tried CB38F and CB58FT. Both were very very fine and smooth at the first sight! I was also stunned by the low weight of quite huge 58FT. Drop after lock, which is common problem of Manfrotto heads (486 and 488) was minimal (with my 500mm glass). BUT ... here comes my disappointment ... BOTH heads suffered from this: when I locked the ball tighty, I was able pushed the camera forth down. It was not tight enough! I was not using much force. Nevertheless more force than my camera & 500mm lens weight (2kgs), and more than is usual to use on the camera. However, the head should lock properly so that the ball can't be moved. Because when the camera is not tight enough, will it resist vibrations? (Well, you did a test about this, so I'm quite curious if your head has this problem).

Manfrotto 486RC2 (ungreased) did not suffer from this. Surprisingly. It was not as smooth (there were actually jumps, exactly as you observed), but it did lock properly. 488RC2 (greased little bit) was smoother but with little less locking power than 486RC2 (maybe because the knob of 486 is bigger).

I've also tried Gitzo 1278M which suffered with this issue also! Surprisingly!

Does your FLM-32 have this problem too?

I've also read many good reviews (e.g. from Richard S. here at PN - when you were asking about FLM heads in May) so I'm quite surprised by this.

You wrote: "When panning the FLM is much better and smoother....

When I stop panning to lock the head the view is shifted about a 1/4 of a degreedegree on the Manfrotto." - as you don't have panning lock with your 32F-0, so you actually meant all-direction rotation and ball locking, didn't you? And with the shift you mean the unpopular drop? If yes, I also observed a big difference here.

Thank you again for your time.

Tomas

P.S.: greetings to Denmark. Lovely country... :-)

Mark, you were right! It is also a problem of prime lenses. At home I examined my excellent Minolta 50/1.4 prime. It is new and I tried to treat it nicely (I need not to clean it yet). But I noticed a liiitle dust in the lens, which had not been there before my last rough outdoor trip (where I've been changing the lens very often).

Jonas, one thing I would add to my "Physics comment". To be complete & correct, I forgot to mention that the dust particle will not be visible on the photo as long as it is also far from the film/chip plane. But that's always true because there is always a space for mirror between the rear lens element and the sensor/film plane.

dSLR is still a baby... when the full frame sensor will be a standard, then it will be little better ;-) I will develop film at least until that...

Bob! "... If you were shooting slides it would be a different matter, but if you're shooting digital files you can correct a lot of lens "sins" with a mouse click or two...."

I find this one of the biggest digital myth.

This worsens the resolution a lot! Just try to get a tack sharp image and rotate it 5 degrees (e.g. for leveling the horizon). The not-good-enough (at least for me) resolution of 6-8M dSLR will be even worse!

Thanks you all!

Niels, the FLM looks good! Thanks for comparison with 486RC2!!! I actually need something better than that! Lightweight, that's true! I'm especially interested in larger than you have, the FLM CB 38 F or FT (with tilt function).

I have a question on you. How does the friction control works on your head? It seems CB 32 and CB 38 have only 2 controls - for ball and for panning? But where is the friction control?

(I was looking at http://www.flm-gmbh.de/englisch/photo-kugelkopf.htm)

BTW, where did you find diameters of Manfrotto 486/488? It has seemed to be company's top secret... I like FLM for introducing the ball dimensions. Not common.

Do you have problems with drop after lock with your head? Did you use any longer glass (>= 300mm) on it?

Thanks you all again!

Tomas

I was so unfortunate to have the same problem with almost all my lenses. My Sigma 170-500, Tamron 28-300. It's mainly problem of zoom lenses, because when you zoom at the long end, then there is usually a open hole through which the dust can go from the camera to the lens. You can see it when you unmount the lens.

It is strange that it happened to you when you did not change the lens at all!

It happens to me because I'm often on trips where there is a lot of dust and I'm also frequently changing lens while being outdoor. Also the home storage seems to be important.

Well, I would also appreciate an advice how to prevent this/ what to do with this. But I see this problem as very frequent.

And it bother's me despite that I know that it won't be directly visible. And I also wonder why lens producers have not solved it yet.

Joans,

don't be afraid, you won't see the dust even on the finest print. Pure physics. The dust particles inside the lens are PRETTY FAR from plane of focus and as they are VERY near to chip/film plane, they are always safely far from DOF (even with extreme aperture like 32 I'd guess). Macro shooters could tell you stories about DOF of subjects near the camera - it's their BIG issue ;-). But of course, everything between the object and chip/film is on the photo - the dust will be uniformly spreaded all over the photo.

Hi,

Please help me to find a good ball head available on european market .

I'm going to buy a ball head for my Sigma 170-500 & Minolta Dynax 7

(and future Manfrotto 055 tripod which I don't have yet). With a

budget like $220 equivalent. Weight is also a concern (when it comes

near to 1kg = 2 pounds).

Is there any good brand making ball heads which is on the market at

Europe? I'd like to go to the shop, try it etc. I know you U.S. folks

are a lot recommending like Kirk BH-1, Acratech Ultimate, Arca Swiss,

Wimberley... but it all seems to be unknown here. I saw only Manfrotto

and Gitzo (and Velbon, which was not recommended to me). Are you aware

of other brands which could be available in EU?

I tried following heads:

Manfrotto/Bogen 486RC2

Manfrotto/Bogen 488RC2

Gitzo 1278M

I already tried a borrowed 486RC2 but it is not as good as I would

like it to be. Tension control with main lock was almost impossible -

it was either too loose or it was so tight that the movement was not

smooth but consisted of skips. And the drop after locking with 500mm

end was really bothering. Fortunatelly, I shot mostly wildlife with

unlocked knob. I realized that 1/60s is always safe, 1/15s can be

blurred with this shooting style and 486RC2 (at 500mm). Any experiences?

488RC2 seems to go more smoothly but still, when trying to use the

ball lock as tension control, there are small skips. But better than

486RC2. But maybe it was caused by the fact that 488RC2 they had in

the shop was good greased but 486RC2 was dry. But maybe the surface

off the ball of 488 was also smoother.

Surprisingly, the ball is of the same size for both 486 and 488! And

488 weights 200 grams more. Any experience with difference between

these heads??

Gitzo 1278M (equivalent of 1277M but with QR) is little on the top

what I could afford. It seems to be the best of these heads. It has

permanent tension even when the knob is all unlocked, while the

movement is still smooth. The ball they had was not greased at all but

still smooth.

Gitzo 1278M is rated to hold 6kg while 488RC2 should hold 8kg. But

I've head a rumour that Manfrotto/Bogen overrates the hold capacity

related to Gitzo - is that true?

Oh did I mention I want QR.

Thanks, any help appreciated. Looking forward to have this terrible

technical issue solved and started to finally take photos ;-)

Tomas

Thanks Ralf. Well, let alone price, which is also a little concern, but

anyway: aren't the carbon tripods less sturdy than the heavier ones? You are

right with the vibrations, at least it is said. But... regarding carbon

MAGFIBERs series (055MF3, 055MF4, 190MF3, 190MF4) manfrotto (for the

customer to be more satisfied, which is nice), <b>admits that MAGFIBERs are

not as sturdy as the aluminium (PRO & CL) versions</b>! Citing the

catalougue from 2004:

<p>

"... usually choose very light MAGFIBERS ... (bla bla) ... The PRO & CL are

more solid but heavier because of their all aluminium construction."

<p>

It's true that 441 are different models and more expensive. But the low weight also plays role in sturdiness, doesn't it?

Thanks Diego for your very witty experiment! That wouldn't even come to my mind :-)) ... "just pushed down" ... you must be very strong to push the columns down when tightened!!!

You confirmed what other's say in practice :-)

Thanks Matthew for analysis! I think you are right with the rocking in the hub. And it could be visible on 500mm.

Regarding 3001, I'm little confused about Manfrotto/Bogen duality. It seems that 3001 corresponds to 190 series, which are smaller.

1) Lens cleaning is sometimes based on spreading the dirt into a uniform film. Don't you think :-)

2) regarding towelettes - they are from paper, aren't they. Aren't they letting there small pieces of paper? (I wouldn't like to experience "infinite cleaning" again :-))