ken rockwell

from http://macweek.zdnet.com/2000/09/24/0925photokina.html a scanner announcement of the Polarois SprintScan 120 maybe out next year:

Polaroid scanners

Polaroid's new SprintScan 45 Ultra is a multi-format scanner that can digitize black-and-white and color film and negatives, including 35mm slides and film strips, medium-format film (6 by 6- and 6 by 7-centimeter) and 4x5-inch film. Capable of scanning images at 14

bits per color and 2,500 dpi resolution with a 3.9 Dmax, the SprintScan 45 Ultra uses a SCSI-2 interface to transfer images to the Mac.

Available now in the U.S., the scanner has a suggested retail price of $7,495 and ships with Polaroid PolaColor Insight Pro software for

the Mac.

The company also previewed the SprintScan 120, a 4,000-dpi, 14-bit scanner that handles 35mm film and most 120 formats (up to 6 by

9cm). Featuring an optical density of 3.9 Dmax, the SprintScan 120 features SCSI-2 and FireWire interfaces. It will be available in the

U.S. next year; Polaroid did not provide pricing.

Polaroid also showed a compact printer, the P-500, which produces Polaroid 500 instant color prints from images stored on Compact

Flash and Smart Media memory cards (an adapter is required for SmartMedia). Polaroid said the P-500 will be available in the U.S. at a

suggested retail price of $249.99 after the show.

The company also demonstrated several PC-only digital imaging products, including a combination digital/instant camera--the I-Zone

Digital & Instant Combo--a handheld photo scanner, and a handful of new digital cameras, including some models with built-in MP3

players.

I was really excited when I saw that the $2,550 Agfa HiD is made by

Microtek, and that I can get the same scanner as their Artix 1100 for $1,500 in the USA at discount.

Scanner manufacturer websites are awful. I see different specs in different places on the same sites.

I honestly have no idea if I'd be happy with a $300 Epson 1200, or need a $60,000 Crossfeild, Heidelberg or Howtek, until I see some of my Velvia scanned. I wish I knew people who owned these so I could try before I have to buy them and return them.

Ken R

Epson UK introduced two interesting new scanners in the UK only

http://www.epson.co.uk/whatsnew/

and

http://www.epson.co.uk/sohoprod/imaging/scanner/perf1640/index.htm

THe 1240U photo and the 1640U photo.

(THe new 1640XL we can get here in the USA.)

Has anyone of you clever UK blokes tried them, or even know what they

cost and what their DMax ratings are? I'm lookng for something less

than $7,000 US to scan 35 through 4x5 Velvia (DMax is a bugger; up to

3.9 in green channel in Velvia)

THanks,

KenRockwell.com

the Colonies

No experience, but read the data very carefully.

It's a hose job. (American slang for "Marteting Hoax" or "Fakery.")

It only scans MF at about 1,180 dpi.

You can set it to scan the middle 24mm of a MF image at the same resolution that you can scan the 24mm wide image of 35mm film, but who cares unless you want a hard crop.

You only can scan the full 56mm wide MF image at 1,180 DPI.

Good god and good luck! I'm still looking for somthing to scan 35 - 4x5 with good Dmax for less than $1,000 US

KR

I use 100% reagent-grade ACS Methyl Achohol CH3OH, FW 32.04, for multicoated lenses.

Don't use other than 100%; the other ingrediants in rubbing alchohol are lubricants you don't want to dry on your lens.

kr

I also have a Ventura 66. It cost me about $10 and my lab thought I bought a Hasselblad.

It's from the early 1950s.

usually the focus is stuck. You rotate the front and guess at the distance, unless you have a tape or a separate rangefinder.

Even if the focus ring turns, make sure the element itself is turning.

THe lens is soft in the corners at 4.5. It's very shapr iin the center. THe corners improve around f/16.

I loaded mine with 400 print film (so I could shoot at f/22) amd just guessed at the exposures (I'm very good at that) with great results.

THe lens is also very free from distortion. it's a classic triplet.

Good luck!

kenrockwell.com

I prefer the Pentax Spot meters, either analog or digital.

You need to know the zone system to use them properly. Read Ansel Adams, book two, "The Negative."

Zone System applies for color, and even if you just drop off your slides at a lab as I do. It's all explained by Ansel.

If you can't understand the zone system then avoid spot meters; they require skill to use since many scenes have no "average" value at which to point the spot.

Hope this helps,

kenrockwell.com

san diego Calif.

Pentax' USA office s at

(800) 877-0155, (303) 799-8000, Colorado 7-5 PM MST

35 Iverness Dr E Englewood CO

I use the 43 for the M7 and also shoot 4x5.

Yes, the 43 has the same fall-off that a large format lens has, and also the fantastic sharpness and complete lack of flare, ghosts and distortion, too. Jeez, there is no distortion of straight lines at any distance. Try THAT with an SLR lens!

THe lens is the same design as the 38 Biogon also used on the Hass SWC, and has the same fall-off. Hass (or was it Zeiss) has published the falloff of this lens.

I can see this shooting tests of walls or empty sky, but it is invisible to me with real subjects. In fact, it gives me free "edge burning" (read Ansel Adams, "The Print" for emphasis.)

If I had a problem with this I'd buy Schneider's 67mm threaded centrer fiter for my 75/5.6 super angulon and also use it on the Mamiya.

For my work (mostly nature and landscape) the effort involved with having to carry another big filter around is greater than the potential advantage of eliminating fall-off.

Again, eliminating fall-off is of interest to engineers, but to artists it has certain advantages used creatively.

Feel free to ask me ditrectly if I can clarify any more.

Ken Rockwell

San Diego California USA

I weighed mine, a model 67, for you. It weighs 3 pounds, 2 ounces.

Yes, like just about any non-TTL viewing camera it only focusses to 1M.

It's sharp at 2.8 corner - to - corner, and has much less than usual fall-off. Your biggest concern is not the lens, but it's alignment and the adjustment of your rangefinder.

Shutter is like any Copal view camera lens shutter. Mechanisn inside the camera adds a little more noise, so it's noisier than a Mamiya 7.

Unfold? Push the button and pull. Yip, real quick. Darn thing fits in a (large man-sized) pocket.

I don't know about the 670. Rumor had it that the lens on the 67 is only single-coated, however mine on my 67 is certainly fully multi-coated.

Ken R

Overlap? What is overlapping?

If someone means frames overlapping on film, I have not ever seen that with my camera. Like most 120 cameras you may see this if you load the film incorrectly. A freind had this happen on her Hassy because she opened the back after the film had been advanced, so the camera got confused.

KR

Eh? Never believe salesmen. The P67 is like every other modern mechanical camera.

I've used my Plaubel for years. I adjust things as I see fit.

Just make sure only to set full-stop speeds on the shutter. Search the archives for my suggesitons on how to add calculator dials to the P67 for zone system and Pentax spot meter direct compatibilty.

Never change shutter speeds too rapidly, because all sorts of gizmos inside are moving around as you change the speeds, and avoid really stupid things like only charging the shutter halfway and then adjusting it, but otherwise, it's like all modern shutters that may be adjusted charged or uncharged.

The aperture is also just like a mechanical view camera shutter: the diaphragm adjusts anytime you twiddle the ring. You also may set any intermediate (half, third, quarter, sixth, etc.) stop you like, unlike with the shutter.

Maybe what the boneheads meant to say was to be sure to set the shutter only at a detented full stop and THEN make the fine, fractional stop adjustments for perfect "0" meter indication with the diaphragm.

Caveat: The Plaubel meter is a spot reading through the RF window. Know the zone system or you may get screwy results if the center of your image just happens to be a dark doorway (you'll get overexposure) or a bright window (you'll get underexposure. It also reads off the light that doesn't go the VF. You see a yellow spot in the VF, and it's the blue light that goes to the meter. THerefore if you have a scene with a lot of blue the meter may read high and you may under expose. This only happens to me just after dusk, and since I know about it I work around it. The great news is that for the careful zone worker you can leave your spot meter at home and get awesome results easily since you can draw zones right on the lens ring!

Good luck and just ask if I can offer any other info or my camera,

Ken Rockwell

Yip, my Mamiya 7 was way off out of the box. It looked pretty close, but on film with the 150, mis-focus really wasted the sharpness of this great lens.

One stop to my local (good) repairman and $140 dollars later it works fine.

Mamiya USA does clean, responsible and precise work, but not accurate. They had my M6 several times and cheerfully and at no extra charge kept getting it precisely wrong. A few tries with a butterknife and I got it perfect.

A further question was asked about how long it takes to make a 1/15 second exposure.

It takes a few seconds for the drum to rotate all the way from one side to the other!

The film only gets exposed to a small slit on the drum. Faster shutter speeds on the Noblex spin the drum faster. That's why the shutter speed range is so limited: the drum can only spin so fast for fast speeds, and can't spin too slow or mechanical unevenness in the speed of rotation would lead to light and dark vertical streaks in the image.

Some cameras provide different slit widths to expand the speed range. A wider slit would allow longer times, but it also could have the effect of lowering the resolution caused by any separation of the front lens nodal point, rear nodal point and rotational axis.

Since Frank is photographing moving people and not buildings he may be better off with a $400 Russian 35mm Horizon. It has two ranges and goes down to about 1/2 second. It takes 35mm film and makes extra wide negs that require an MF enlarger asthey are about 60mm long.

Both take filters for b/w.

One can do all sorts of fun things with moving subjects if you want to. Things moving with the drum (left to right) will get LONGER then natural.

Moving from right to left will get shorter.

A subject running around the back of the camera from the left while the drum rotates can run into the right end of the photo and be there TWICE.

Wiggling the camera up and down during exposure warps horizontal lines into wiggles!

Rotating the camera left or right during exposure squeezes or expands the image horizontally.

After some more thought let me be a little more descriptive about the optical quality.

To use a word coined buy the great 20th century American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, the Tessar/Noblex combination is "absofuckinglutely" magnificent.

I just pulled a 40" Supergloss print from it, and you still need a magnifier to see the details in the print.

If you are concerned about time exposures, the Noblex is probably the only rotating pan camera that can do it. Forget about widelux or horizon, they are limited to about 1/2 second and can't multiple expose as I understand them.

The way to make long noblex exposures is to keep making multiple exposures until they add up to the time you need. I susupect that any long exposure modules are not really getting you anywhere.

One needs to realize that any peice of film is only exposed about 1% of the time as the lens drum rotates. Slower speeds simply rotate the drum more slowly. Making thirty 1/30 second exposures for an equivelent 1 second exposure takes about one minute. If the camera offered a super slow drum speed, it would still take one minute to scan. In each case you are standing around watching the camera for that time.

Becaue of the noblex' time exposure capability you can stop down the lens for night shooting.

There is a link to a couple of low-rez shots made with this noblex at www.kenrockwell.com. THey are the four skinny ones. The night Chicago shot required a few minutes of spinning at f/11 on ASA 400 Fuji neg film. Too bad you can't see the print, you can see what's going on in each office window!

Ken R

I have an original pro 150E . Optically it's magnificent (tessar lens). It's as sharp as anything, even wide open. An advantage of slit expousre us that the lens does not have to cover much.

Mechanically it can be a little funky. It's made in Dresden, the former EAST Germany.

It's the only rotating pan camera I have used. I've owned it abot 7 years. From what i read its' the least funky of rotating pan cameras.

I dunno squat about compatibiltuy with oddball meters. Call the factory and ask them

Alex -

See my post. Just point a Sony Mavica digital camera at your transparency on a light table, and AHA! you have a "scan" that looks a lot better than it ought to. Email me at ken.rockwell@tek.com and I'll send you examples.

KR

This sounded too stupid to try, and I know a zillion technical reasons

it can't possibly work.

I tried it anyway, and it works fine for informal use.

Point your digital camera at your light table with a chrome on it!

I had a hard time justifying $5,000 for a real scanner or $15 for a

scan just to send freinds copies of my vacation.

Tips: Remember to white balance for the flourescent tube, and I

presume you have a camera with TTL macro capability like the Sony

Mavica. Traditional film camera brands like Nikon, Olympus, Minolta

etc. are more primitive and may not have TTL macro focussing (making

it impossible to fill the frame with a 120 format image) and the

ability to get rid of the green cast of the flourescent tube. I have

not tried them. If they can't balance for a light table, just kludge

together something for the sun to shine on.

Want closer? Stupider still is to point the camera through a loupe.

With the Mavica I can make a spot a few millimeters across go full

screen. Hey, anything goes and you can just erase your boners! Try

different loupes, they all work differently. This does work better

than I thought it would.

Most flouresent tubes change colors (flicker) 120 times a second, or

100 times in 50 cycle countires. There may be a "beat" with the

sampling of the camera such that you get different color balence each

time, if you do, try a different, longer shutter speed. This has not

been a problem for me.

If worried about linear distortion, try a mid-point of the zoom range

and standing back a bit.

Unlike a real scanner, you can correct for keystoning by tilting the

digital camera position!

Note that contrast will pick up, since slide film has a higher

contrast than the original subject (gamma 1.5). Only real problem

with that were subjects that were too contrasty to begin with anyway,

and for them I laid another ND grad on the light table over the

chrome!

I have not tried "scanning" negs. The Mavica also has a one-button

setting for negatives, and again I can't speak for the more primitive

camera brands. Since the neg has a lower contrast than the subject

(gamma of only 0.65) you may want to pump it up in photoshop.

An advantage is potentially ample ability to burn and dodge.

Hey, if you don't like this idea remember I didn't trust it either, an

it is FREE presuming you already have a dinky digital camera. Email

me and I can sent you an example of these "scans." The art on my

puny website at www.kenrockwell.com were all scanned properly, not by

this cockamamie scheme.

print-File part number 225-12HB stores 12 slides per clear plastic page. THree ring punched, too.

Print file is at PO Box 607638, Orlando, FL 32860-7638, USA

phone (407) 886-3100

I use both the Mamiya 7 (43, 80 and 150) and Plaubel 67 (80/2.8).

For most use (4x lupe on Velvia) you'll see no differences in sharpness. The Plaubel is faster and has less light falloff at large apertures.

At 8x and above on Velvia my Mamiya lenses are sharper than my Plaubel.

Both systems have no visible distortion, and no problem with ghosts if you have the sun in the frame.

Only reason I don't get rid of the Plaubel is the very important fact that it folds to (big) pocket size.

Good luck!

The M7 meter is a spot meter, about the same size as the RF spot and concentrated sort of down and to the right of the spot.

The M6 meter is an averagiong meter. It looks at the entire viewfinder area, even what's out of the picture. More recet M6s baffeled the sensor somewhat to attempt to concentrate the sensitivity towards the middle.

Therefor the M7, just like any other spot meter, is very difficult to

use quickly, but great for careful work if and only if you are good at the zone system.

Ignore what Mamiya says about angles of sensitivity changing with lens. The meter's angles of sensitivity remain the same for all lenses; but because the lens's angle of view changes the percentage of what the meter sees vs. what the lens sees changes.

Works great. If you want to push things like I do, you sometimes can get away with TWO filters screwed into that lens. Darned if I can fiind my own post on the forum with my results.

Also Hoya MC filters are top notch. B&W are also OK, just watch out for their ND grads: they are PLASTIC! Tiffen makes screw-in uncoated GLASS grads.

Live it up!

65/6.8 angulon: 80 deg., 109mm image circle, not good enough

65/8 Super Angulon: 100 deg, 155mm image circle, plenty

65/5.6 super angulon: 105 deg, 169mm image circle, more still.

forget the primitive angulon. Any of the Supers is fine.

If you are in Calif buy my 65 super; it's even in a focussing mount.