toby1

<p>Yes, so I got it back from the shop a while back, the previous poster had it on the nose. The capacitors blew (hence the popping sound). Apparently, I was extremely lucky because often when the CAPs go, the explosion / whatever often takes out some other stuff with it ("I think he said the 'logic board', and maybe the 'control board'?). In my case however, the boards were ok, and only a few of the caps went out. It was I think about 300 dollars for repair. The scariest part is that the repair man didn't replace all the caps, just the blown ones. Further, the repair person just sort of eyeballed the non-blown caps to see if they were ok (as opposed to some sort of test involving futuristic electronics equipment), so now I am a bit nervous that the non-replaced caps will go out at an inoportune time, but still, beats having to buy a new one.<br>

Word to the wise though, if you pop a CAP while shooting, immediately stop shooting and turn the box off (why Profoto wouldn't make it impossible to shoot with a blown cap is beyond me), if the other parts are destroyed, it seems likely you'll have to purchase an entirely new unit.<br>

As for insurance and catastrophic equipment failure. I am not sure actually. I have pretty amazing insurance through the Hartford on my equipment, and I know if it were lost / stolen I would be ok, but I have no idea about just broken...</p>

 

<p>Hey guys,<br /> So i took the pack to the shop (which is a profoto authorized repair center: Silvino's Pro Flash RX, in Hollywood) and the owner (whom I might add was literally ensconced in walls of broken profoto packs) said that after 5 or 6 years the capacitors on Profoto 7b packs tended to go out (presumably the popping sound), and that if you continued to shoot with them after that, even for a few frames, it tended to "fry the control board", as well as damage other circuit boards in the unit. He didn't give me a specific estimate, but suggested that the repair cost could easily be in the multiple thousands of dollars. My question is, why does Profoto make their boxes so that if the capacitor blows (which seems to be relatively easy to fix) you are then able to fry the rest of the unit by taking a few more frames (before you are even sure there is a problem)...<br /> Ugh. Standby for my next post, which will be titled "The Estimate" (and you know, wish me luck...)</p>

<p>Hey guys,<br>

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. To answer your question, it is a profoto 7b, and I was using the older style PB batteries.<br>

I'm not sure (I looked for a schematic, but couldn't find one) how they caps are set up in paralle or in series. I was sort of wondering that myself.<br>

I suppose there is nothing to do but see what the repair man says, as I am not thrilled at the idea of having a charged capacitor discharge onto my soldering iron.<br>

<br />Finally, as for humidity; I don't believe it was excessively humid, probably about 60-70 percent I would guess.</p>

<p>Anywho, thanks again, wish me luck with the repair folks.</p>

<p>So, on Saturday I flew to Minnesota for an assignment, and brought along my trusty (and aging) 7b. In the middle of the shoot, the strobe fires, and there is an extremely loud popping sound that caused some amount of panic to my assistant (aka the voice activated light stand). Not quite gun shot loud, but loud enough that several people came out of offices from along the hallway we were shooting in to see if everything was ok.<br>

At first I thought I blew the bulb, but I shot a few more frames, and it seemed to work fine. I then noticed that there was now a strange, and much less loud, popping sound coming from the pack itself (not unlike the sound the bulb makes when it is on full power). After 5 or 10 more frames, i also heard a sorth of frankenstein'esq / short circuity kind of sound, at which point I figured that this was not a problem that was going to fix itself, and turned the thing off.<br>

So, it is the weekend, and I haven't had a chance to call mac yet, but has anything like this happened to anyone else? I've googled about a bit, and haven't really been able to find any similar stories.<br>

Further, does anyone have any experience with associated repair costs?<br>

Thanks!</p>

<p>So, here is the thing. Often I like to shoot video in situations (NBA games) where I sort of need to crank up the ISO and open up the aperture for shooting video, concurrently, I also have the area wired with strobes fired remotely by pocket wizards on camera, which obviously, needs much different settings. I am totally comfortable with chopping up the video in bits, so shooting the images while in live view mode is no problem,<br>

My problem is that I just have to totally change the exposures settings everytime i snap a frame, which, as you can imagine, is quite time consuming.<br>

(for instance, shooting at iso 1600 in video at f2 with a 200mm, but with the strobes, the photo exposure is 200iso at f5.6)<br>

Is there anyway to automate this that anyone knows of? So that when ever I hit the shutter release, it automatically just changed back the settings momentarily for the proper strobe exposure.</p>

<p>I don't think there is, but I thought I would run it up the flagpole.<br>

thanks!</p>

Thanks for your thoughts.

I am scanning Medium Format film. I don't have the document insert in place (i, like probably every other epson owner, have been down that road and gotten past it) and also, I have checked the cable numerous times on the lid.

The lid attachment scans, it just returns junk and also take forever.

Frankly it is the weirdest thing ever.

For no apparent reason my epson 750 will no longer scan film.

It takes forever to even prescan (maybe 5 minutes). and when it does, it returns

the gibberish visible in the attached file.

I've gotten dozens of good scans out of the thing, didn't change anything in the

settings, didnt add any new software or mess with my computer in anyway. I have

tried both USB and firewire, I have also tried it on my two laptops with the

same results. Epson told me it was busted and to return it, I did, they shipped

me a new one, and it is doing the exact same thing.

I have also (of course) tried reinstalling the drivers, and even rolling back

the drivers to the pre 3.01 ones. And well, I just have no idea what else to do.

It must be a software problem somehow (or two busted new epson 750s), but I

cannot for the life of me figure out a work around.

thoughts anyone?<div></div>

wait. what? I don't understand your test?

Sorry, I'm sure its obvious, but would you mind walking me through your + spacing legend? The last map image is pretty freaking great looking, could you explain your settings?

Sorry to bug ya.

My guess is that your film is not being held in the carrier flat, or you scanner needs a bit of a height adjustment on the film holder (or the frame you shot is out of focus, or your scanner is broken).

I have had some serious issues with the epson film holder with my V750, (and am at present waiting for the arrival of the same MF film holder which was used for your test, and for which I have high hopes) but I still get much much better results with MF film (Although I have to fiddle with it and rescan it sometimes to get it to sit in the stupid epson carrier properly... stupid epson)than you did in your post.

For instance, this is from a 645 color neg shot at f2. I scanned it at 2400 dpi, no modifcations (such as USM) applied. It doesn't look great at 100%, but it doesn't look terrible either. I'll let you be the judge though. I just put it in the carrier and into the scanner, I didn't really fiddle with it too much. I could probably get it to look a bit better.

 

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1875529

(click on "o" to see orig.)

Hi, I forget what the first one was at, but the ones I scanned for the multipass test were scanned at 1200 dpi at original size. I think the maximum resolution is much higher, but the file size for a 4x5 would have been way too large for my sad computer.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

Marek, I made another post in this thread about the multi scan passes, or you can just look at the same image gallery

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1850213

 

Julio, Thanks for your words of advice on fluid mounting. Generally my sandwhiches do not involve highly toxic and flammable liquids in a small office, but I appreciate the advice. If I absolutely cannot find another solution, I may eventually resort to that, but I suspect first I will end up with a glass carrier, and second, I would just buy an Imacon before going to fluid mounting as an abosolut last resort (at which point I would be a countdown until I managed to burn down my studio).

 

John, I think I am leaning towards one of the third party film trays you suggest. Is it your feeling that the "t-locks" of the MF holder keep the film reasonably flat, or would you suggest the glass model. The description on the website implies that you only really need the glass if you are a scanning mangled or oddly shaped film, but it would be swell if someone had first hand experience.

 

Thanks again all

Hello all.

Someone asked about the Silverfast multiscan options, so I thought I would post

the results from a quick little test. If someone has something else they would

like to see tested, or would like to see a different part of the frame at 100%

etc. let me know.

 

Now for the test.

 

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1850213

 

The first two images are straight scans. The rest are pertaining to this link. I

scanned once with 1 pass, once with 8, and once with 16 (read the image captions

for specifics).

I had to search for it a bit, but the 16 passes really seems to do a nice job at

taking out noise in the shadows.

Now if I could just get the MF film to lay flat, I would be ready to go.

Seriously, the nikon 85mm f1.4 is pure awesomeness. I have the canon 1.2 now and it is just not the same. There is something a bit less sharp / contrasty / pretty about the canon. But in my opinion, that pretty much sums up just about all canon lenses over nikon (except for maybe the 200 f2, but how many times in your life have you even seen that lense).

I digress, the 1.2 will treat you right, I couldn't live without it, but it doesnt quite stack up. Maybe the new version does though.

Hi all. First time caller, long time listener.

I recently purchased an Epson v750 for scanning medium and large format.

Firstly, the thing is amazing: here is a link to a full frame 4x5 chrome and a

100% crop of the eye. I didn't scan at highest resolution, but I did use the

multi-scan option in silverfast (which blows) to build up the shadow detail a bit.

No sharpening or any photoshopifying at all.

 

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/1850213

 

Here is my problem/question. Has anyone figured out a way to keep medium format

film more or less flat in the carrier? I am not interested in using the fluid

mount thing, what a pain in the neck that must be. I just need to get it

relatively flat (I can see the film strips bowing in the holder, but there is

nothing I can do about it) and I will be good to go.

I know there are some third party film holders.Any advice?

Thanks