andrew booth

<p>Back when I owned a 503, I bought it with the 120, then added the 50 to (I thought) complete my kit.<br>

I then found a cheap 80 on eBay and added that to the collection.<br>

I found that for travel stuff, the 50/80 became my 'go to' combination much more regularly than 50/120. I just found that 50 was too wide for very general use, and the 120 was too slow/heavy and too much lens for a general purpose lens.<br>

In my opinion the standard 80 is a must have on the 'blad - and with the addition of the 50 you have most bases covered. Remember that you can crop more on medium format - so you don't always have to compose as tightly as you would on 35.</p>

What's on your mind Ken?

Send me an email.

Dennis, PLEASE DON'T SHOUT - either in question titles here or the text itself.

Thanks!

> The Olympus looks interesting, do you think it would still produce a really good

quality image, way better than the Ricoh?

Yes, definitely. The Ricoh lens is good, but it's known to have a noisy sensor.

What do you expect a moderator to do when you complain to them Frank?

If a moderator removes a posting on your suggestion, it makes sense to remove references to it - otherwise the thread doesn't read correctly. This isn't censorship - I

suggest you look that word up in a dictionary.

Personally (as a moderator) I would have been inclined to leave all the postings be.

The original posting wasn't really offensive - but if you call for action, then it will

probably happen.

It's a case of "be careful what you wish for", Frank.

Why are you comparing digital point and shoot cameras with Medium Format? The

Ricoh was never going to do the job you want to do.

<p>

Check out the new <a

href="http://www.parkcameras.com/ProductDetails/mcs/productID/9180/groupID/8/cat

egoryID/93/v/fadbb9a3-78e3-443f-92a1-ad62b95417fe">Olympus E-420 with 25mm

pancake lens</a> combination. A very small and light digital SLR, with a much larger

sensor that the point-and-shoot you considered and much better quality.

<p>

Or just look at any of the low end digital SLRs (I'd recommend the low end Canons

over the low end Nikons as Nikon has poor support for prime lenses in their low end

cameras).

Jessops isn't a great store. I recommend Calumet in Drummond street for the best

selection of film, it's not difficult to get to (and open on Sundays now).

Jim. This may be an exciting problem, but 16 exclamation marks is excessive. Please temper

your enthusiasm!

It's a bad picture of a Hasselblad 500 series, with a 45 degree prism. It's a black, not a chrome model.

It's easy to make out the standard 'blad back, and the positioning of the shutter release.

From the length of the lens hood, I'd say it's a 65 or 80mm lens.

Why do you need to know?

<pre>Steve said:

> Andrew, whom is this forum serving? Whom is the customer here?

> It is surely the people who contribute text and gain knowledge.

> Let's ask them for their opinion.

</pre>

<p>That's what's happening in this thread, right? Is it OK with you if I give my opinion too?

<pre>

Dave said:

> I totally agree. Pentax 67 forum was a much better forum by itself.

</pre>

<p>You know, I don't myself know what happened with the P67 forum - certainly I had no involvement with its disappearance. The moderator behind it probably retired from maintaining it and it was dissolved.

<pre>

Dave said:

> If combined is better why not just one big photography

> forum for the entire photo.net? Why breaking down into two dozens?

</pre>

<p>I think we have between 4 and 10 new posts a day across the whole Medium Format forum - still a good number. I think that less would drive people away (you recognise this in your comments on P67 threads).

<p>

More than 20 new questions a day becomes difficult to follow. Take a look at the Canon forums on dpreview.com if you want to see what that's like.

It's my opinion that forums require a certain throughput / turnover of posts in order to attract discussion. Who would post a question to an unpopular forum - few people would be reading, and one would be unlikely to get a good answer.

Unfortunately I don't believe that MF postings and interest will upturn significantly. I think the posting frequency on the MF forum is OK - and I don't believe that it would be a great move to split the forum down into separate less popular ones.

What sub categories would you suggest - and what difficulty are you currently having in searching?

If current categories were further split to aid navigation of historical messages, someone would have to read each post and recategorise.

[i do have an interest in this subject, being moderator...]

Folks, I've deleted a load of responses from this thread as it seemed to have descended

into politics and name calling. I don't normally delete any postings from this forum even if

there is some disagreement - but this was unnecessarily unpleasant.

Please keep on the subject of photography, and "play nice". Remember your postings may

read disagreeably to others - even if your intention is good natured. In my experience

Medium Format digest posters are some of the friendliest and most knowledgable on the

'net - let's keep it that way.

Thanks, Andrew [Moderator]

>Most of your animal photography will be from inside the truck looking out of a pop-up

roof. If you are using MF, a waist level finder will be useless

Michael, you're correct. The photo I took of the lions and the Baobab was taken with an RZ

and waist level finder - so I had to open the window of the Landie and lean out. Not the best

idea, less than 30m from a pride of lions!!

Where in Africa are you going? It's a big place, and there are lots of different conditions.

I've lived in Tanzania and been on numerous safaris there and in Kenya. I've also taken MF

gear (although this was a few years ago) - I shot using an RZ67II and a Fuji GW670III, and

it was fine (although I was using film).

A couple of things to think about:

- Power. Some of the lodges and tented camps have no/poor power supplies. If there is

power it may have poor regulation from a diesel generator.

- Dust. Much of Tanzania has a very fine red dusty soil made from coral rock. It's

fantastically abrasive, and gets everywhere. Up into the Masai Mara, there's a more black

cotton soil.

- Vibration. East african driving is proper off road stuff. Long distances on bad roads can

mean speeding at 70 down a rocky track with all your luggage being jarred for hours at a

time

- Moisture / Humidity - Can get very humid, you may get condensation when you fly

(probably have to stow heavy luggage in wings on small aircraft).

I really liked using MF on safari, for more landscape type shots - however this sort of

shooting is difficult as it's often not possible to leave the vehicle. Given the rough

conditions I'd think twice about taking such expensive and high-tech gear. 6x7 film shots

were great, as dust wasn't an issue (unlike with a digital sensor).

If it was me, I'd stick with a 35mm type digital camera, and back that up with a solid MF

camera shooting 6x7 film - like one of the Fuji rangefinders.<div></div>

Vital - please go easy on the ALL CAPS and !! exclamation marks.

Thanks

I'm not sure what anyone will learn with this exercise. Different sized scans of different objects viewed on a screen will give very little information as to the quality of the original lens.

I could post a shot from my Fuji zoom P&S camera that would equal the sharpness in your Macro-Planar example, at the file size you've posted.

Nice rant Kelly. It's a shame you've never been to a Jessops store and don't know what

you're talking about.

I'd be happy to support more local honest photo stores answering precisely the sort of

questions you state. The problem is that in the UK, Jessops bought up hundreds of that

type of store, replacing them with dumbed down identikit stores filled with low quality

own-brand products and expensive prices.

Your photographer analogy falls down, because unlike a photographer who earns their

rate through the added value they give - Jessops just isn't delivering a better experience

than online. And that's not only about prices, it's about information, choice and honesty

too.

The problem with Jessops is that they're stuck in the very worst kind of English small-mindedness when it comes to doing business.

I've bought things from them over the years under various price match schemes. Invariably Jessops would be more expensive to start out, and they'd then try and play their price match game.

'No, we won't match with the internet'

'No, we don't match with Tottenham court road'

'The shop we match with has to be within 7 miles and have stock'

Why should the customer play along with this silliness? Either Jessops are going to take the money I offer and sell at what I percieve to be the correct price - or NO DEAL. Their price-match rules aren't holy writ; either they cut the customer the deal they want or they make no sale.

They're the UK's biggest photo retailer, so they should be getting the lowest prices from manufacturers - if they're offering anything other than the lowest price to the customer then something's going wrong.

Over a period of years, their high sticker price and argumentative price match game has successfully taught the customer that they can't be trusted. Add poor salesperson training to the equation and you get a chain with poor prices and no redeeming features of customer service.

Bangkok is the only place I've ever visited which has a 'No Medium Format' rule in some of

the temples and sites. The guards will prevent you from using anything that looks too

professional (I guess they want to protect image rights).

Bear that in mind if you have Bangkok on your itinerary.

Still seems like a good deal. The two most common problems that would require an extra

part look pretty cheap (if you read on):

Roll Film Magazine Replace light traps and foils

$30.00 per film magazine

Carl Zeiss Lens Replace main spring

Additional $60.00 per lens

Note: These optional service specials are

only available at the time of a Check-to-Spec

Willem - please only post a single question to the forum - don't repeat it in different

sections.

<p>

<i>Moderator</i>

Bob - this is a moderated forum and that's pointed out in black and white when you

submit a question. On the 'ask a question' page is also a list of posting rules/guidelines,

one of which is that this forum is not for selling or buying.

The rules are about managing a discussion area that we can all enjoy without having to

pick through adverts, spams etc. There are other areas of photo.net where selling and

buying can be done, people have access to eBay etc. - so this isn't a 'freedom of speech'

issue.

There's very little moderation done on this board; I'd say that 1 or 2 posts are deleted

every week, 70% of which are buy/sell, 29% of which are duplicates/mis-posts and 1% of

which are inappropriate in some way. The poster invariably receives an email explanation.