tales of a flaneur

August 13, 2017

Been using a Coolscan 8000 for years, but recently it's begun to die. I'm keen to try and repair it as best I can, but wonder if anyone can help with diagnosing what parts might need replacing?

The motors all seem OK, but the scans have been cutting out somewhere in the middle and then recently I've also been getting this noise when previewing/scanning (see attached).

Any ideas where I might begin the operation? I understand it's a very old machine, just wanted to see if I could get it going for a few more years if it's something like replacing the Firewire controller or similar.

Thanks in advance for help/advice.

August 30, 2012

Thank you so much for the incredibly reasoned and well-informed responses. I'm really very grateful. I suppose we've all read this site and others and have a geeky knowledge of what's out there, but the people who really did take me on a bit of a journey through trade-offs and such - thank you.

I only use film (I'm mourning the final loss of Plus-X at the moment), though one day (soon?) digital will be on the menu, too.

Since I'm a little reluctant to sink heaps of ££ so soon after losing a Pentax 645N, I think I may actually try my luck with a Fuji GA 645zi. £450-£500 isn't all that much to spend on what seems like a very capable camera. I'll have to get over holding it vertically to produce a horizontal image. And that slow lens.

I'll see how my bank balance goes over the next year. I'm still wondering if I should just get a Hasselblad H-series, but I do tend to wander around fairly sketchy places. Unsure how I'd cope with losing £2500+ of kit.

The Contax 645 and, to a lesser extent, the Mamiya 645AFD also intrigues and I shall try and find one to examine in person.

August 23, 2012

When I said price was no object ... well ... I'd prefer to spend less than £10,000. So that rules out the H4D-40.

And I do exercise regularly, perhaps the problem is the bag I've been using? If I were to double-down on a 645 SLR (Pentax, Contax or Mamiya) and had two lenses (that Pentax 35mm manual focus is a beast), what would I comfortably carry it all in?

As I said, I've used 35mm SLRs and rangefinders. My favourite, most reliable camera is my Hexar AF. I've also used a Pentax 645N for years (it's broken). And a Yashicamat 124G. So I am familiar with using different kinds of cameras.

Perhaps a Hasselblad H1 or H2? Are they actually lighter than the 645s?

August 22, 2012

Interesting. I'm fairly conversant with camera history and this was something of a last attempt to find a "perfect" medium format camera.

I've considered the GA645Zi, though the orientation is vertical rather than horizontal. That's not particularly appealing ...

An SLR appeals as I do a lot of closer portrait work, but would also prefer to retain the flexibility of going wide. I rather liked my Pentax 645N, it was just such a beast (and the prices for lenses are just silly now that Pentax have the 645D out on the market).

It's a shame that something autofocus and light was never made before the plug was pulled on film cameras.

The only other camera that meets my requirements would be the Hasselblad Hx series (I think) - though I suspect they're not really all that much lighter than the older 645's from Pentax/Contax/Mamiya, are they?

August 22, 2012

I've been through a Yashicamat 124G and a Pentax 645 and 645N over the past couple of years. Both the Yashicamat and the 645N died recently and I'm looking for the "perfect" medium-format camera.

Essentially, I'd like a single camera that is:

<ul>

<li>Lightweight - the Pentax 645N was too damn heavy, particularly after carrying the 35mm lens with the rest of the kit</li>

<li>Auto-focus</li>

<li>Medium format</li>

<li>Adept at portraits (e.g., not a fixed-lens wide-angle)</li>

</ul>

Let's assume money isn't much of an object, has there ever been a camera made that fits the above profile?

March 9, 2012

Much to my dismay, I just let my Pentax 645n take a tumble. Although the autofocus lens is reporting the correct distance to the subject, the viewfinder is blurred and I just can't get it to display things in focus.

It's always been a wee bit off (but makes tack-sharp pictures), but now it's just too much.

Is there a respectable repair shop near the British Museum or along the Tottenham Court Road (or in Feltham west of London) where, if I drop it off on Monday (or even on Sat), I could have it back by Thursday or Friday?

Any help - and particularly firsthand experience - much appreciated.

Thanks!

July 16, 2011

Over the past three of years I have lugged my Pentax 645 (and for the past year a Pentax 645N) with the standard 75mm lens and the manual focus 35mm lens around the world - America, Italy, Slovenia, around England - and can confirm that it's ... heavy.

As has been mentioned, it's shaped and feels like an old video camera. In fact, I've been asked more than once if I'm rolling tape ...

It also sounds like I'm firing a gun, which both impresses people (who then usually ask me to take a family photo) and startles them. I don't usually feel comfortable using it in cathedrals (though it does depend - I usually switch to a silent Hexar AF).

But the pictures are exquisite and the autofocus compensates for my general lack of ability to manually focus.

It is a wee bit heavy with a couple of lenses, though ...

July 4, 2011

So what are my options to drive my Nikon Coolscan 8000 under OS X 10.8 Lion? Buy Silverfast for ... £512? That's insane. Truly, sincerely insane. I suspect I may keep an old G4 Mac Mini around with Leopard on it to drive the scanner.

But what a shame ... I suppose the only other option would be VueScan?

April 25, 2011

Oh goodness, no ... no no ... no. Seriously, no. Plus-X (particularly Arista Premium 100) has been so good to me for several years ago. It's my film of choice for my Hexar AF and I've been so happy with the images we've made.

Just the other weekend I made some really lovely pictures with the stuff and thanked my lucky stars it existed.

I'm gutted at this news (doubly so as I live in London and I need to ship these things to family in the USA).

I'm so sad ... where's the vino?! Where's my credit card?! It seems they have 24 exposure rolls left in stock ...

April 10, 2011

I've run a couple of hundred rolls of film through my black Hexar AF over the last couple of years and taken it from the London Underground, across Britain, to Italy, Spain, Slovenia, America ... my preferred way of working is to load a Pentax 645N with Kodak Portra 400NC or Fuji Velvia 50 and keep the Hexar AF loaded with black and white film. Even as I find myself increasingly using the medium format camera, the Hexar is a perfect safety camera and for those times when one doesn't want to wield a massive chunk of metal like the Pentax.

The silent mode is amazing for:

<ul>

<li>Churches and cathedrals</li>

<li>Museums</li>

<li>Candid snapshots</li>

<li>Undergroud/subway</li>

<li>Low-light scenes - that f2 lens makes a world of difference</li>

<li>Anywhere one would like to make a discreet image</li>

</ul>

I'm not sure it's overly complex, either. It's a wee bit fiddly to turn the silent mode on/off, but otherwise fairly straightforward. The AF always seems spot-on, but I find the metre to be too sensitive to light sources in the frame.

May 15, 2010

The Pentax 645 is a rather simple beast, and I'm sure I'm just being a bit dim.

After processing a bit more film today, I see that the issue must be the wide-angle and my lack of awareness.

I'm used to manually-metreing older cameras, but in the past I've shot anything with a wide-angle lens on a modern, matrix-metred camera. It seems the centre-weighted 645 is verrry sensitive to pretty much any directional light source in the frame.

Live and learn! Time to remind myself to fiddle with the ISO for exposure compensation - or just break down and get a 645n ;-)

Thanks for the advice, as ever much appreciated!

May 13, 2010

I don't have a lot of experience with wide-angle lenses. I suppose I'm a child of the 1970's and love that flap 'Scope look from films like The Parallax View, Midnight Cowboy and Three Days of the Condor. The widest lens I've ever used with any regularity has been a 35mm lens on my Hexar AF.

I've been using a 75mm and a 150mm lens on my Pentax 645 for about a year now. I recently purchased a 35mm lens to better investigate the world through a wide lens and have had some really strange results to date.

I thought the built-in meter on the 645 with 75mm lens was pretty accurate. I would bump the film rating up or down now and again, but it mostly got the exposure right.

With the 35mm lens on, I'm finding it's a lot more sensitive to any strongish light source in the frame. I've only just processed the first rolls, but it looks like it's about two stops. Everything in remotely mixed lighting comes out underexposed. Rating everything a third down (e.g., 320 for Tri-X) helps a lot, but even then it's occasionally not enough.

Can anyone speak about the metering characteristics of the Pentax 645 (or is it really time to buy that spot meter)?

Thanks!

December 7, 2009

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October 8, 2009

Quite right, all. Thanks for the reassurance. I was just feeling wobbly about having everything done at one shop, but again Peak sent me 50 splendid 8x10s in record time (and not via Royal Mail, either).

I also had a couple of test prints done on metallic paper. Interesting effect. Not great for everything, but quite striking in contrasty scenes.

If you're in London on Saturday, come have a look at the results at Photofair in Spitalfields!

October 4, 2009

I wish I had read this thread before updating to Snow Leopard - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2137715

This past weekend I thought I would be churning out 17 or so prints for Photofair at Spitalfields next Saturday. Instead I spent countless hours fiddling around downloading Epson drivers for my R2880 and producing mini test prints that appear magenta rather than monochrome. And I ran out of ink and couldn't find any in London! Mishaps galore.

The consensus in the Apple Support Thread is to roll back to Leopard and live with it until Epson / Apple sort this insanity out. Of course, I can't partition my one and only external drive, so it looks like I need to duck out at lunch tomorrow and buy a new Firewire drive and spend three hours installing Leopard, the updates and then of course Photoshop onto it.

And then I should be able to print away! What a mess of an upgrade. I thought my Coolscan 8000 would be the tricky device to coax to life with the upgrade, but it and NikonScan work really quite well (ignoring the error message when I load Nikonscan - it works just fine).

Harumph.

September 24, 2009

I need to generate about 30 high-quality minilab prints this week from scanned images. I usually use Peak Imaging for all the developing I don't already do myself and their quality is terrific.

I'm just wondering if I could obtain the same level of quality for what is essentially a minilap print from, say, Snapfish, Kodak, QOOP. Quick thoughts or experiences?

Thanks!

September 16, 2009

I've just returned from a holiday in Italy and tried a roll of Ektar in 135 and several more in 120.

Although I think Portra 400NC (3) will continue to be my main film of choice, the Ektar colours are dreamy and very classic Kodak-esque.

I'll post them slowly but steadily on Flickr if you fancy a peek:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nevermore/tags/ektar100/

September 9, 2009

When Royal Mail isn't on strike, the return from Peak is nothing short of remarkable. I've been using them for years (just sent off 28 rolls of 120 / 135 films from a recent holiday in Italy) and haven't yet been disappointed.

July 27, 2009

I'm considering renting a table at the Photofair at Spitalfields in October and I've been looking through the posts here trying to get a feel for the various challenges involved in participating as well as taking full advantage of the opportunity to present as much work to sell as is sensible.

I already have quite a lot of framed and unframed stock (mostly A3 prints, some smaller sizes) from some exhibitions I held in my flat last year and the year prior. From a glance at some other London street markets, a good think and a review of the advice here on Photo.net, I'm creating some images in and around Spitalfields and Brick Lane/Bethnal Green as well as pulling out some characteristic views of London - to augment my usual portfolio of mysterious pictures made in the fog on Hampstead Heath and along the Thames, candid pictures on the London Underground and a smattering of moody pictures from around the world. I also imagine it's important to set a range of price points for all budgets.

Has anyone else here attended Photofair in previous years? I always forgot about it until too close to the actual event to attend!

About presentation: I'm also looking for the UK equivalent of clearbags.com and ezmats.com - both get mentioned quite often here and look like the perfect resource for creating lower-cost items. Perhaps someone from the UK have ordered from them - just wondering what the shipping charges are like?

Thanks for any and all thoughts/feedback!

March 9, 2009

Try Fixation - http://www.fixationuk.com/

They repaired an N80 and a Coolscan for me and did a brilliant job of both.

February 28, 2009

I recently completed a rather mad enterprise - take 1100 slides and some negatives made from the mid 1960s to 1991 and scan them at full res with a Nikon Coolscan 8000. My comments aren't particularly scientific, merely anecdotal after six months of continual scanning and processing in Photoshop and Lightroom.

I had the opportunity to observe how time and careless keeping affected:

<ul>

<li>Kodachrome in 35mm - most of our family pictures were made with a Pentax K1000 on Kodachrome. When Mum and/or Dad nailed the exposure, the results were stunning and feel as though they were shot yesterday. Gorgeous, timeless images.</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>Kodachrome in 126 - the rest of the pictures were made on a brown Instamatic. Lovely colours, though oddly these seem to have faded more. The exposures can be a bit wonky and the focus dodgy (to be expected), but these also have a vibrancy that belies the passage of thirty years since they were made. I also have a couple of 126 negatives, but unsure what emulsion. They've survived nicely as well.</li>

<li>Kodachrome in 110 - I was in love with my little 110 camera - and the slides scan surprisingly well. The focus is madly soft, but the colours generally have survived with very little fading.</li>

<li>Ektachrome - these occur mostly from the early to mid 1980s and I can't detect much (if any) fading of the images. </li>

<li>Kodacolor X - although the negatives scan a bit green, there's nothing a little colour correction in Photoshop can't wipe away.</li>

<li>Kodak Gold 100/400 - these generally look rather good for their age (vintage 1980-1988), not a lot of fading or colour-shifting as far as I can determine.</li>

<li>Kodacolor VR 1000 - For some reason, we used this film on a family holiday to Boston and New England. Grainy as is possible, but the colours are appropriately autumnal and elegiac.</li>

<li>Some Kodak 120 negatives from the 1960s - these have been much abused and they still scan beautifully. Really gorgeous, retro colours with a vibrancy that summoned up so many fond memories of my grandparents.</li>

</ul>

Now, the real problematic images are found on slides in white mounts with the words "Color Slide Film" printed on them. I've been loathe to rip apart of the mounts to see what sort of devil-film this is - but goodness how it has aged. Mum and Dad seem to have used it in 1979 - 1981. Any thoughts as to what this hellish film could be?

It's ugly. Really ugly. The entire cyan layer seems to be missing. Whatever it is, the original manufacturer should be drawn and quartered. I've spent far too long trying to tweak what should be gorgeous images back toward some semblance of normalcy.

Then again, I have a batch of slides from 1972 whose predominant colour is blue. The whole rolls looks like it was shot with a deep blue filter. Bizarre. No idea what sort of slide film it is, either ...

So I suppose, the 35mm Kodachome wins hands-down as the archival film of choice based on my family's collection of photographs.

December 17, 2008

I picked up a used Nikon Coolscan 8000 and have been extremely impressed with its ability to scan old Kodachromes, damaged cheap slide films, B&W of any kind in 120 and 135 size. The Firewire interface is a bit wonky, but I did pick it up for £630.

The 120 film holder is really quite crap at keeping the film flat, though.

December 17, 2008

I recently revisited Fuji Acros in 135 for some casual portraits of my Mum and her husband. The film is absolute magic. Crisp, sans grain with a suppleness in the tones that somehow feels as though I should be able to reach out and feel texture on the print.

I scanned it quite easily with my Nikon Coolscan 8000.

December 13, 2008

Yes, I'm running Safari 3.2.1 on Mac OS 10.5.5 and it's been giving me a malware warning when the "Warn when visiting fraudulent websites" option is ticked in the Security preferences pane.

Strange.

December 20, 2007

@ Robert: I only shoot film - colour / bw in 135 and 120 - so I'm wondering as well about

the costs for printing digital files on silver papers for the BW.

@ Godfrey - So you find professional inkjet output superior to traditional silver prints?

Hard for me to say ... I find my monochrome work looks lovely when output on the Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, but I'm not particularly convinced by the colour output. I dunno. It

was fine for the colour images I printed as well - grainy, nearly monochromatic pictures of

trees and such in a heavy fog - but I can't imagine going the glicee route for anything that

needs to "pop" on the page. Hmmm.

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