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photojim

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Everything posted by photojim

  1. "Film-era" lenses often don't perform well on digital sensors, even if they perform well on film. Most digital capture is much more sensitive than film is to chromatic aberration. This can cause lack of sharpness, especially in the corners, that wouldn't be particularly bothersome in a film capture. The reason? Film is sensitive to all three capture colours throughout its area. In other words, a given spot of film can capture all colours in a vertical stack. Most digital sensors have the three different colour-sensitive pixels adjacent to one another, not stacked. It works very well for most purposes, but it magnifies chromatic aberration. (I understand there are a few sensors that are designed differently and aren't sensitive to this, but they are relatively uncommon.) You can see the consequences of this in the rise of ED/LD glass in what were, in the film days, relatively simply designs. You can even find ED glass in 50mm full-frame lenses. And to be sure, this has some benefits for film photographers - the aberrations were there when shooting film, too; the effect was just smaller. There was an interesting thread on Photrio recently about the opposite effect. Digital is, in effect, much less subject to issues from distortion than film is. It can be corrected in post-production in digital photography, but in straight film photography (without a hybrid workflow), there is no way to remove distortion. Some systems are now seeing very sharp, low-chromatic-aberration lenses where distortion is sacrificed to keep prices, size and construction reasonable, because on digital, it's not a problem. These lenses may not perform terribly well on film, though.
  2. Interesting how much prices have changed. I paid $35 US for my F801s (the model # used for the N8008s everywhere outside the US). Looks like $57 for an EX-rated one from keh.com today. The only issue with this body (and the F-601/N6006 has the same issue) is incompatibility with AF-S and VR. The F90/F90x (N90/N90s) support AF-S but not VR.
  3. Try removing the battery, leaving the camera overnight, then reinstalling the battery. Also, how fresh is your battery? New old-stock batteries can often act strangely; even lithium batteries don't last forever in storage, and it's possible to get one that's over a decade old if you buy from a less reputable source. Also, it's not at all obvious, but the battery kind of clicks into place more surely than you might think, and the camera manual clearly states that this will improve battery function. I'm guessing it makes a fuller electrical connection which allows better amperage to the camera. Make sure you've done this - check out the manual for clearer instructions, but once done it's fairly obvious.
  4. The MC-30 is the common release, but if you want the fancy one with the built-in timer to run bulb mode, the MC-20 is the one to get. I bought mine new in 1994 and it's still humming along fine.
  5. By the way, to any potential buyers, that 200/4 is a sweet, sweet lens.
  6. It's helpful, by the way, if you put things like "US only" in the thread topic so that non-Americans don't click on links that can't be of interest to them. Good luck with your sale!
  7. photojim

    Nikon N6000

    Everything about photography has changed in the last 15-20 years. Most of the good printed magazines have disappeared (Outdoor Photographer in the US and Photo Life in Canada still publish, but all the other ones I used to subscribe to have disappeared). I even used to hang out at my local camera store on Saturdays a lot of weekends. I spent quite a bit of money there buying film and photographic paper and chemistry, and dropping off and picking up colour film for processing. Digital changed a lot of that because once you got the gear, you really didn't need to go anywhere to do anything with the images. But film is still here. And there are still darkrooms. And while I shot a lot of film there, my D800 got a lot of use on a trip to a national park week before last. Strangely, though, the camera I had the most fun with there wasn't my D800 or either of my F4 bodies - it was my Olympus Stylus Epic! We've drifted dangerously off topic... this might warrant a new thread if people feel so inclined.
  8. photojim

    Nikon N6000

    This forum long predates mainstream digital photography. I don't see why talking about film bodies, gear, chemistry, processes, etc. is in the least bit off-topic.
  9. photojim

    Nikon N6000

    It was the F-601M outside the US. Weird duck.
  10. I can live with a sticky covering, but the delicate back latches on my F100 and N80 (F80) have made these cameras unusable. It's a real shame.
  11. I would like to point out, additionally, that wash water is part of the process, so a wash at a temperature significantly different from the processing temperature can also cause reticulation, particularly if a non-hardening fixer is used.
  12. Weirdly, I literally just pulled up a few rolls of this film from my basement freezer, planning to shoot it soon. It's in Kodak-style film canisters, with the thick grey lids with a slight overhang (as most Kodak films are), which is another giveaway. The fact that this is coded at EI 100 is handy since I have a camera (Olympus Stylus Epic) that only reads ISO 100, 200, 400, and 800.
  13. I just use warmer tap water. I mix in some hot water to increase the temperature. If the stock solution is 13 degrees and I want a working solution of 20, and I'm diluting 1+1, I use water at 27 degrees (which results in an average temperature of 20 once stirred). It's slightly trickier if you're not diluting 1+1 but it can still be done with a bit of math.
  14. I mixed up a 3.8-litre pack of D-76 yesterday that had expired in summer 2010. Tested it today, and it developed the film as I would have expected from in-date developer. Plastic package; no evidence of tearing or breach. The powder was free-flowing and white, and there was no discernible brown in the resulting stock solution.
  15. <p>Two other things come to mind:<br> - how old was the film? Fast film tends to develop base fog with age. T-Max 3200 and Delta 3200 are among the worst offenders in this regard. It's not a defect in the film; it's the accumulation of damage from cosmic rays. No joke.<br> - was the film heat-abused? Film hates heat and can degrade quickly if it gets hot. An afternoon inside a car in the hot summer sun can do noticeable damage.</p> <p>I don't think either of these fully explains your issues, but they might have contributed. (I don't know how experienced a film shooter you are so don't know if these issues occurred to you.)</p>
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