dave_powell2

Hi Red,

Also, search this site and the Web for "hyperfocal focusing." It's a great technique for (in many cases) quickly setting focus when doing street photography. I used it (day and night) with an old Rollei 35TE that I took to Florence last month...and out of 9 rolls of images, none were out of focus. And many were shot "on the run," so to speak (my wife doen't like to stop).

Whether you can use it depends on whether your M3 lenses are properly marked to enable this technique. But I'd guess that they are. Even my Leica CLE's Summicron lens has suitable marks on it.

Good luck!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Lauren,

To add to Gina's response, the Wall Street Journal's 12/6 "Gadgets" section was a comparative review of MyPublisher, Apple's iPhoto, and Kodak's EasyShare Gallery. For Apple users, they preferred iPhoto. But for PC users, they preferred MyPublisher...both for ease/speed of use and quality of results.

I just checked into www.mypublisher.com for my own use, and here's what I see about their pricing: A 20-page 11.25x8.75 hardbound (with from 1 to 12 images per page) costs about $30, a 20-page 15x11.5 hardbound costs about $60, and a 20-page 7.75x5.75 paperback (also with up to 12 images per page) costs about $10. Additonal pages cost from $.50 to $3 each, depending on the book size.

One of the other perks of MyPublisher was their option to allow one photo show through a cutout in the front cover. The interior photos can be "autoloaded" into the selected page formats...or placed and moved manually. Is SOUNDS fairly simple, anyway!

I'm working on some photo books for Christmas now...hope I can get them done in time!

Sincerely,

Dave

A "real man" related story...I was at a formal Historical Society dedication in town, and was taking some interior shots using a Bessa II with Color Heliar. The camera was extended and hanging around my neck, and I was metering a stained-glass-window shot with a Gossen Luna Pro. A couple of "historical types," who were old enough to have used cameras like the Bessa, saw me, froze in their tracks, and said, "Now THERE's a REAL photographer!"

And the photos came out great to boot!

Dave

Micheal Ging's portrait shows just what can be done with one of these simple screw-on filters! I have a nice set of Hoyas that I've used for closeups...but never for portraits. The filter let Michael focus on the eye...for a very nice "look." I'll have to try that!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Jeannie,

A lot of folks will caution about depending on CDs alone as archives. The "gold" CDs from various manufacturers are reputed to have a longer life, but we don't have a lot of history to go on. CDs are plastic, though...and potentially prone to scratching, wear, and environmental hazards. So while CDs are probably OK...I also use a 200G external USB disk drive. It's amazing how inexpensive a nice big backup disk can be!

Sincerely,

Dave

I like Rob Bernhard's cough...It may be due to the fact that (if you scan "ghost hunter" web sites, you'll see a TON of supposed "ghost orbs" that look exactly like this. Funny how excited so many of them get about dust and flies!

Dave

Hi Janine,

I can't comment specifically on lighting equipment, but whan an artist friend of mine asked me to shoot her wall-hung paintings for a grant application, I did one thing to ensure that the colors in my captures were as accurate as possible. I hung a sheet of white paper beside each painting and used the paper to set the camera's custom white balance. Since the lighting was slightly different for each painting, I did this separately for each, before shooting it. Hope this helps!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Nuno,

If my memory serves, Ronsonol (and other types of lighter fluid) are probably OK, once they evaporate. Generally, shutters are best left dry after they are cleaned, but I don't believe that the Ronsonol will damage or slow the shutter. Others who know more may want to correct me though!

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Terrell,

Googling will bring up quite a few pinhole diameter calculators on the Web. But there is usually one "optimum" diameter, which is generally based on the distance between pinhole and film. (There are other wavelength considerations, but those are often ignored.) A pinhole larger than the optimum diameter will create softer images because its light cone isn't as well defined as it could be. And a pinhole smaller than the optimum will create softer images due to diffraction effects. Eric Renner's great book "Pinhole Photography: Rediscovering a Historic Technique" shows a pin-sharp example taken by a scientist in downtown Boston. Amazing sharpness for a pinhole image...but only attained by computing an exact optimum hole diameter for his specific camera and (I believe) cutting it with a laser. But it still shows how sharp a pinhole image can be!

Sincerely,

Dave

One of my favorites for street photography is the Rollei 35. But its f/3.5 Tessar lens is almost too slow for doing much night shooting. So for that, I like my Ansco Super Memar or Kodak Retina II (both with f/2 lenses). All are almost completely silent. (The Rollei seems to have the loudest "shutter click" though.)

Dave

Hi Kerry,

I'm a Camo-Holic too. Only one Nikon so far (an FE)...but that's the GOOD news!

Dave

My HiMatic G takes great photos using the PX13 battery (which I believe is the same as the PX 675). Radio Shack is a good place to look for a wide variety of batteries.

Sincerely,

Dave

Hi Patrick,

Definitely odd! I downloaded the second image and enlarged it in Photoshop, and it looks like there are smaller swirly areas all over the image...more than just a few drops on the lens would create, and more than would appear due to eddies in the water. If this wasn't done using a Photoshop filter (which it sounds like it wasn't), then I'd suspect a processing glitch in the camera. I know they can happen...have seen them in my Dimage A1, though not like this!

Dave

Another point of difference that (I believe) applies to all versions of Elements from 3 on, is that Elements only partially supports 16-bit processing, while full Photoshop provides full 16-bit capabilities. 16-bit processing is especially useful when doing operations that manipulate colors and tones or when upscaling an image in size. The 16-bit depth gives Photoshop more than 60,000 levels of tone to work with in each channel (as opposed to 8-bit's 256). One of the biggest areas where Elements falls short in this area (as far as I know) is that Elements still can't actually convert a camera's 8-bit file to 16 bits. You still have to go through a RAW processing window or through full Photoshop to do that.

Just an added thought!

Dave

Also not digital...but with exactly the lens speed you want is the Yashica Lynx, discussed in this recent thread:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00IokB&tag=

Sincerely,

Dave

Thanks for posting this, Gene! I've always been very curious about the two Beacons that I inherited...and agree that the flash attachment only adds to their slick deco look. (But the optional "shower cap" that covers the flash reflector when not in use contributes way less to the overall look!)

Beacon also made a larger 225 model that took 620 film. And based on your results here (and in your earlier 225 post), I think I'll have to give my Beacons a run!

Thanks Again!

Dave

Next Halloween, look in Wallgreen's, CVS, or some other drug/grocery store, and see if they have any of the "weird dorky glasses" in their costume section. Often, their plastic lenses have a flat central portion, with a wide bevel around the edge. One of these can create some great effects, when held in front of a regular lens!

Dave

Yes, David, it is amazing what these old cameras can do! A while back, a friend gave me his dad's old Argus C-3, and when I ran a test roll through it, the "pro shoppe" that developed it asked what the *#$% kind of camera I had used. (They said that the prints "were better than many that their Leica customers had taken.")

When I checked them, I could see individual branches in the trees on the horizon. Not bad for a Brick!

Dave

And...if the lens is stored in close proximity to other camera equipment, the spores can spread, depending on where the fungus is located in/on the lens, and on how tightly it is sealed in!

Dave

To add to the above, both children and adults should also be careful to not touch the shutter curtain, when they load film in 35mm film SLRs. A friend of mine lost his AE-1 when his wife accidentally pushed her finger into the shutter curtain. It would have been a $150 repair at the time (7 years ago)!

Sincerely,

Dave