jmf

Their boxes are made out of fused fabric and vinyl that outgas for weeks when you open them up. The stitching pulls out or through at the least bit of stress. The speed rings are white metal castings using 4 screw clamps that sort of grip the body of your flash head but not well enough that you could point the unit down at all.

 

Other than that, they're great.

 

If you want decent knock off's of better lighting gear, check out amvona

I guess my question would be if there were (and I've never heard of any) why you'd want one? Thw whole point of putting up with that weight and size is for the bigger neg.

no. the p800d is for the 900 series heads like the 2000, 2400, and 2500

I have a 5 ft so your milage will vary. I tend to use it close to the subject with a pretty wide aperture to get a shallow DoF. I've used it at both 200 and 400ws with a P800D and a 2000 fan head. I've also pushed 2000ws into it when I needed it to be further away and to give me more DoF. Gotta love that 2000ws POP

 

You're asking the question from the wrong end of the equation.

 

What are you shooting? How big/bright/directional a light source do you need?

OR if there isn't a local shop, FlashClinic in NYC does good work and turned around my Norman pack in about a 8 days.

 

They're not rocket science inside, but that's enough joules to jumpstart 4 people (i used to build cardiac defib units as a summer job MANY moons ago). I don't know the Speedo's, but I've had my Norman 2000's open, and they're both from the same design era. Some parts are pretty generic but others are special to the mfg. If you're comfortable discharging the pack safely, the switches are easy to check and relatively easy to replace. You and most likely anyone in a 50 ft radius will know if you get the wiring wrong when you power up the pack.

 

Did I mention I like FlashClinic?

which is why a lot of portrait pro's I've seen use an INCIDENT meter and not a REFLECTIVE one to set up their lighting. Your camera functions as a reflective light meter. If you shoot a white sheet, it will tweak the exposure to try and make it approx equal a 14-18% relective surface. Same thing with a black sheet. Both grey.

 

An incident light meter measures the light falling on the meter (or subject). It's still up to you to compensate for highly reflective (or not) subjects, but generally it tends to get fooled less.

another vote for the one off fleabay by mediasonic. I bought mine raw so I could stick the drive I wanted in. Never had an issue. They're USB2 which is more than I can say for my aging notebook, but thats another story

For what it's worth, MAC told me (about 6 months ago) that they're starting to run out of Pro-S parts. Take it with a grain of salt. There are also a lot of potential "organ donors" out there.

 

I have a Pro-S body, but if I were to start over (and was using it for clients) I'd get the ProSD

Just to follow up, Columbus Camera or KEH might be interested in a swap. I'd call both first before ebay

Ebay. The film backs and rotating adapters are completely different between the RB's and RZ's

 

sorry

well, you could try MAC (what used to be Mamyia America) in NYC. It's not THAT hard (just tedious) to do them yourself and you can buy "kits" where all the seals are pre-cut. The ugly part is getting the old seals out, since they're tar like. Mike's Camera in Denver will do it, but it's not cheap.

any chance you changed what you were writing? Like going from small to large jpg or adding raw?

I'm not sure I would say easily. Getting the old trap material out of the grooves is tedious and occasionaly messy work. The original seals decompose to a tar like substance. Putting very thin strips of self adhesive foam back into the grooves can also be test of patience. I've done two film backs, a rb adapter, and a Pola back. It's not rocket science, but work slow, don't take shortcuts, use plenty of wipes, resist the temptation to use nasty solvents that will disolve the glue AND the paint AND your liver.

 

www.microtools.com has lots of the supplies you'll need. Consider some of those dental pick "like" kits and a set of those magnifier flip ups. MAC (Mamiya America) used to sell the precut foam as "kits". There are also some other sellers out there who sell the foam/felt too. RB67 service manuals show up on Ebay (on CD), but for the most part, the work is pretty obvious.

 

Having this service done is expensive for the same reasons I listed previously.

His question is a bit of a non-sequitur. Age doesn't imply wear. It could of been in heavy use for 10 years and then put in a closet for 8 more. Whats more, if it has been in professional use, the likelyhood that parts have been traded among bodies is pretty good. That being said, these cameras were built to be used day in and day out, but also serviced regularly. I guess the thing to do is lay hands on it. Are the light traps gummy or clean? Does the RB adapter rotate smoothly and lock where it should? Bellows in good shape and light tight? Focusing rack operate smoothly? Any edge seperation on the lens elements? Shutter cock and mirror return function smoothly? Timing the shutter(s) would be a good idea if you can get the lens(s) to a camera shop that does repairs.

 

If the owner is willing, you might see if (s)he will let you run a roll of film through. Be sure to include some shots of newspaper taped flat to a wall to check the lens mount is true.

 

Expect to pay for a Clean, lube and Adjust unless one has been done recently. Pro-S's aren't commanding big bucks anymore, at least not on flea bay.

Tony, for the setup you have, let me make this recomendation: TMAX400 and XTOL developer. It will happily push to 800, and given your 6x7 format neg, you'll probably be fairly happy with male protraits (that may stand a little grain) made at 1600. At least I was. B&W won't care (for the most part) about the color temp of the light.

 

I think shooting color portraits with this setup is like teaching a pig to sing. (as in it will frustrate you and annoy the pig)

 

AND you'll bake your subjects. An incandecent light bulb is actualy a resistance heater whose by-product is some visible light. Mostly what they throw is infra-red. You can block some of that with special "gels" from Roscoe.

 

Just MHO and worth what you paid for it.

Another thing to consider is that the non-C types are the oldest and likely highest milage lenses out there (in addition to the potential flare/contrast issues). Since the shutter is in the lens, thats another mark against them. I've twice run into element separation on very old RB lenses (a 127 and a 65), but there's no way to know what conditions they were subject to.

My apoligies for the formating, the forum won't let me use the <pre> tag

 

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HI Jim

 

Most inverter do not have enough current for the packs. The packs can work on a modified wave but will work better on a true sine wave. The inverter will have to be able to put out more than 20 amps.

 

Scott

 

 

-----Original Message-----

 

From: jim feldman

Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 3:37 PM

To: PCC-Info

Subject: dc power inverter for Norman Packs

 

I've got some Norman packs (P800D, P2000D, P2020) that I may occasionally want to run off of DC power by way of a power inverter. Do the packs (and heads) need pure sine wave output or can they handle modified sine wave?

 

thanks

jim feldman

The question I asked (specificly) was what it would take to power a P2000D or P2000XT (I have both packs). So the answer from Norman is a specific answer to the original question. If you think you're smarter than the manufacturer so be it. Perhaps you'll grace us with your own line of pack lighting in the near future.

Ditto the 622.

let me just put a plug in for Calumetphoto. Great service, although their prices tend to be a few percent higher than B&H's.

 

There's a lot of collective knowledge behind the recomendations you've seen so far and you won't go wrong with any of the names I've seen mentioned. It's a LOT of money (at least it is for most of us), and there's no reason to gamble.

Canon outsources the USA rebates to a company called Global Fulfillment (www.gfsinc.com). SanDisk uses the same people. Not much more than an on-shore sweat shop staffed by the same people who bug you to change long distance carriers. It's important that HS dropouts and stoners have a place to work, I just wish it didn't have anything to do with me and money.

While everybody speculates, I just wrote Norman and one of their techs replied about this (about a month ago). 20a*120v=2400w

 

"

HI Jim

 

Most inverter do not have enough current for the packs. The packs can work on a modified wave but will work better on a true sine wave. The inverter will have to be able to put out more than 20 amps.

 

Scott Osada

"

High CRI lamps using multiple phosphors are in common use in video production (Kino Flo) and have been for awhile as are HMI lamps. Neither are continuous spectrum. Both can be pretty accurate. Xenon isn't continuous either for that matter, and tends to have a fairly intense UV component.

 

Philips and GE have both come out with high CRI tubes (92-98) http://www.truesun.com/Phillips_950/phillips950.htm . Their main drawback (to me at least) is that they just don't put out that much light, even in 6 tube banks. The spiral top/CFL bulbs sold on ebay for cheap product shoot kit, are probably anybody's guess as to CRI (in the 80's most likely). Part of the problem is that there's no good feedback to the user when the color starts to shift unless they are very attentive to checking it. They're certainly usable, depending on your needs. Shooting tiny shots for ebay sales are one thing, shooting NeedlessMarcups catalogue is (I would guess) another.

 

I'm not sure I buy the whole Ott light mumble, but flourescent banks are commonly used for SAD therapy to good effect.

www.flashclinic.com

When it comes to fluorescents there are two characteristics you need to watch. The first is color temp. This is an approximation of the color a blackbody radiator (like a bar of iron) would glow when raised to that temp in degrees kelvin. The other is Color Rendition Index (or CRI) which is supposed to tell you how closely that light source mimics a true blackbody radiator. Fuorescents can be made so that they have color temp like daylight (5000-5500K), but may have a poor CRI. There are tubes available that have a high CRI (above 94 or so) and a good color temp, but you need to do your research. The way this is achived is a mix of phosphors that emit different spectra of light which together gives a high CRI. Those phosphors age at different rates, and the tube will change color ourput over time.

 

Why yours suddenly changed, I don't know. You might want to get a grey card. This can be used as a reference "color" to adjust the whole picture. Google grey card and color balance.