dennis_oconnor3

I am currently shooting witht the D50 and White Lightning monolight strobes... The built in flash sensor on the strobes triggers the strobe when the camera's flash fires... Works slick as a whistle...

denny

Well Nikon is offering a D2 model optimized for astrophotography,... By simply leaving off a filter layer on the sensor chip... Making a monochrome optimized model would seem at first blush a matter simply leaving off the Bayer color filter layer on the sensor chip and laying on a filter layer for monochrome, or merely putting a filter in front of the chip... Likely this is not an expensive change, but more likely they don't see enough market to warrant even the labor cost of having an engineer write up the specs for the chip foundry...

denny

John, try a couple of rolls of 400BW ( PORTRA, C41 process)... This should do what you want...

For more info go to Kodak.com

denny

I use the Nikkor 80-200 f2.8 on the F5 and shoot 80% of frames at f2.8... What is the point of having an aperture if you cannot use it? Better you should get one good zoom, or one prime lens, that is acceptably sharp at the corners wide open, than have an entire bag of junk lenses for less money...

Yes, when I need critical corner sharpness I stop down to f5.6 (usually)and there are times that the light exceeds the shutter speed and I have to stop down... But other than that, the camera is set on aperture priority and left wide open... Great lens...

Canon glass is good stuff also... There are other makes that are good as well... I have a cheap back up camera, a Minolta X-700 with their good 50mm lens that cannot be told from the best of my Nikkor glass on the light table...

In this world you get what you pay for... Buy a cheap lens, get cheap results... So, get one good lens and shoot away with it opened up... On the VR I don't have experience... Given my age I am not steady any more and I probably should go that route... I do a lot of jamming myself into a corner, or against a fence, etc...

denny

uhhh, having now READ through the site (doh) - after looking at the photos and making my post - it seems from the photographers comments that the shots were all done in the D2X... My compliments to truth in advertising... My comments about the advantages of a shooting budget and expert assistants, stand...

denny

The D2X Flash site is well done (I don't like flash) and loads reasonably fast on a high speed line)

It is clear that Jarvis used the 8 fps for the running shots to catch the shoe sole as perfectly shown for an advertisement... The boxing picture is clearly staged with the fist held stationary and the head being flung about by it's attached body... <the sweat is likely added in PS> The car shots are produced in a large studio with pro lighting... etc.

It is also clear that all the shots on the D2X site have been heavily worked over in PS (or others) to the point of almost having been created de novo... You too can have your work look like this is you have an artistic director, a hair stylist, a make up artist, a PhotoShop expert, a van full of assistants and lighting equipment, and loads of time for each shot produced... This comment is not to run down the hard working Joe Pro photogrpahers, (and they do work hard) but to point out that my miserable little photographs will still be miserable, even with a $5K Nikon camera... Why? Well, no talent is the foremost reason - but no hair stylist, etc. certainly plays a part also...

denny

ps, it's not clear that all or most of the shots on the site were made with a D2X, btw...

Given the blow up image that is 0.05% of original image (as stated by them) is just showing the grain: My elementary math says that is a 2000 times area blow up... I know that any negative produced by me will not have any recognizable detail left at a 2000 times area enlargement...

What they have done is to obsess on the details of maintaining light ray linearity and overall focus on all parts of the negative 9" x 18" (20.15 X 40.3 cm), at ALL wave lengths... This is a major task just given the dimensional changes of the aluminum camera body with temperature change, not to mention the difficulty of bending differing lightwave lengths by the same amount...

Those who sniff that their Super Switzer lens, hinge mounted on a wooden body will do 'almost' as well either slept through physics at school, or are delusional... I would like to see B&W images made by this camera...

denny

Stay away from off brand lenses and you will be happier in the long run...

Start with a 300mm manual focus Nikkor... CHeck KEH and EBAY - under $200US... I bought one for my daughter for her D70 and she loves it... I use one on my F5... The glass is first rate... The price is right... So, you don't have the latest whiz bang auto focus - so what? You have lots of money left over for film and prints...

denny

Looking at the head portraits the original post cited, I would opt for the C330 with the 80 or 105 lens... Hand hold, move in close enough to fill the frame, rack the bellows out for focus, shoot at f8, increase exposure a half stop to correct for the bellows extension, and use the parallax indicator on the 330 to show me where the top of my frame is... No paramender needed..

You can do the same with the 220 body that doesn't have the parallax finger... Just get a test shot framed up with the camera on a tripod... Crank it up 2 inches... Use a grease pencil to mark the offset of the top of the frame onto the ground glass - and go for it...

denny

Actually, this is how I have shot tight portraits for 40+ years with my original 220 body...

The 'speed' of a BW film is dependent upon several variables, including your light meter, your shutter, your lens, filters, the light quality, developer type and dilution, etc... Rarely, if ever, will simply popping it in the camera, setting the dial indicator the the ASA shown on the film box, be the optimum exposure index for you... If shooting at ASA 25 gives you a good negative to print, then that is YOUR asa for that film, in your camera, your light meter, etc... Change to a different shutter or meter and you will likely have to run tests to find YOUR new ASA...

denny

I'm finishing off the last of a large batch of XTOL mixed for a project that fell through... The stock solution is used is a year and a half old now... Kept in full, sealed, PTFE drinking water, 750ml bottles harvested from trash cans... I just developed a 4 roll tank of TMX100 negs last night... They are perfect...

Now, if only the photographer were that good <sigh>...

denny

Or, put the liquid in large trays, or other containers, set out in the sun and allow the water to evaporate... Scoop the powder/sludge into gallon milk jugs and take to the paint, etc. disposal drop for your community...

denny

It's simple mechanics... THe Rollei guy has a pot belly to rest the camera on, so he designed a waist level camera... The Hassy guy doesn't have a pot so he designed an eye level finder... And now you know the rest of the story...

denny

Long ago and far away I spent a winter at the Traverse City State

Hospital... The gates were in better shape then... Oh, the stories I

can tell...

denny

Borrow a flash that desn't need the hotshoe adapter and see if the lenses are triggering the flash head... If so, you have an adapter problem.. If not, you have a lens(es) problem... Being it's both lenses I suspect the adapter is being Lucy Fussbudget...

denny

I haven't an idea why anyone would want several C220/330 bodies and one each of the available focal length lenses... Unless it was to have interchangeable lenses, interchangeable bodies preloaded with different films, and built like a rock dependability...

My original C220 body has been in continuous use since the 1960's (the camera shop and the shop keeper who sold it to me are both long gone into the ground, but the camera lives on)

Would I do it all over again from scratch? Who knows... Certainly Zeiss glass for the Hassy has better LPM, etc... The Bronica MF systems have more attachments, etc.. The Pentax MF system is classy (and expensive)... But I do know that bang for the buck the Mamiya TLR has been the clear winner for me for over 40 years...

denny

Ivory soap is made with <gasp> LYE ! Yes, Sodium Hydroxide, Red Devil (can you say Rodinal)...

And the other ingredient is animal fat - tallow, scooped out from under the skin of dead animals and rendered... So run screaming for the the exit...

Of course it is 99 and 44/100% pure, tallow and lye... So, that's a comfort...

cheers ... denny

35MM - Reala and Ektachrome

120 Tmax 100, Tri-X 400

4X5 Tri-X 320

Developer has standardized on XTOL - with forays into Pat Gainer's soups, just for fun..

denny

The only valid comparison is the best possible 8"x10" inkjet print from the digi camera versus the best possible 8"x10" silver print from the Mamiya 7, (or whatever) hung side by side on a wall... This is where the rubber meets the road..

Trying to see subtle differences between two images on a 72 dpi computer screen is futile... And scanning the silver negative/positive puts you a generation apart from the digi image... Scanning a print puts you two generations apart... Apples and oranges...

It is clear to me that a 12 meg sensor is capable of an acceptable 8X10 color print to hang on the wall... 18 meg is better, etc... But 12 meg is getting there and is acceptable to my eye (old BW photographer)...

But, those who have never actually seen good silver images need to go to a gallery and look...

A lady who is an active digi camera user (Kodak with Nikkor glass) who makes calendars and greeting cards for sale, etc. was giving me the poo poo routine one day at the office, about out moded film photography... Since she was good natured about it, and it was clear to me that she did not know the difference, I went to the basement and randomly grabbed some prints I had made during a series of 6X6 film/developer tests... These were straight 8X10 prints, no dodging, no spotting, etc., of a table top scene, shot with a strobe and umbrella.. Camera was Mamiya C-220 TLR, 105MM (reasonable glass, certainly not in the same league with Pentax, Zeiss, etc., or with the Mamiya 7 lenses) These were not exhibition quality prints ( I ain't that good)... I flopped them on the table... She took a look.. "Oh my, they are sharp!", she said, then got real quiet... I spent a few minutes showing her what I look for in accutance, texture reproduction, and tonality...

She is an artist and is still shooting the DCN and selling her cards... Her digi images are perfect for what she does... I'm still making sharp prints of boring photos that go onto the pile...

denny

The 750 Ml and 1L (and other sizes) bottles that they sell fancy drinking water in, those with the pop up nipples, make top notch jugs for storing stock developer... They are oxygen impermeable right along with the fancy developer jugs.. They can be found in the nearest public trash bin... Fill them right up to the top so that the liquid is standing proud of the opening, put a small square of Saran Wrap over the mouth and screw the top on...

denny

Many variables... However, I tend towards the old hot rodders anthem, "There's no replacement for displacement." 6X7 is 42 square centimeters of negative... A 645 is 23.24 square centimeter... That is a factor of 1.8 times more negative area for the 6X7... The tonality of a print from 6X7 will be definitely visible even at 8X10.... Go for the most square inches is where I would lean for studio shooting... For field shooting, you have to work that out... I have carried a Mamiya TLR for 4 decades and don't even think about it... ymmv...

denny

There actually was an XTOL problem in the past, but it was the small packets not the 5L size... Anyway, that has long ago been cured... There will still be failures for the unfortunate photographer who has bad water, or who overheats his water when dissolving the powder (problems for any powder developer)... Use distilled water for mixing the stock solution, use your thermometer for the heating process, and you will not have a problem...

denny - who has the worlds worst tap water - it will gag you just running in the sink...

The Mamiya TLR is the winner in this race, hands down...

denny

If 5L offends thee, fill a gallon jug and dump the remainder...

denny

Pour the D76 powder into a plastic garbage bag... Tie and duct tape the top closed leaving lots of air space above the powder... Weigh the whole mess - later, deduct from the gross weight the weight of the garbage bag and tape, after emptying it.... Put the bag in a cardboard box and tape the lid shut... Then vigorously, but carefully, roll the box over and over to mix the powders... Good project for kids...

Then open box, cut off one bottom corner of the bag, and decant the powder into air tight containers (tupperware from the home ec room?)...

When ready to mix up a gallon of developer weigh out 1/10 of the original powder weight and mix...

denny