paulrumohr

Just out of personal curiosity, how well can you "see" the final results of your work/

photography?

I am curious if you have trouble "seeing" the real world, but somehow can enjoy it better

as a photographic print.

As much as I love their strobes, the WL softboxes are not as easy to set up as other

brands. But they are not bad, quality wise. If price is really a concern, and you're willing

to learn how to set them up, and then practice setting them up quickly, you can save

yourself a lot of money.

Magenta? Well compared to what? Once again, the need for a color meter pops up again.

In your mind's eye, can you see the Mona Lisa? Can you see Michaelangelo's David? What

about one of Ansel Adam's shots of Halfdome, or the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima?

Seeing or previsualization is the skill of being able to do what you just did now, BEFORE

you take the picture. It can be learned through practicing and lots and lots of mistakes.

In my opinion, previsualization presupposes that you have the talent, skills, and

experience to bring a look to realization. When we try and try and fail, then try again and

learn how to achieve a certain look, we are closer to becoming previsualizers.

It is said that Ansel Adams was already deciding on what kind of frame and matting to use

as he was taking his shot. This is because he probably had several thousands of failures

at all the different parts of picture taking (exposure, development, printing and toning)

and had personally overcome this through experience.

For me personally, what I have learned is this. I can previsualize quite well what my

images will look like when I am shooting something I have had experience shooting

before. If I am working with a new camera, new film, new lab or strange conditions, it gets

a lot harder.

Mike, you will become a better "see-er" as you pick up your old hobby again.

Cool compared to what reference?

Did you actually color meter your scene? And have you done film tests at a pro lab to

determine the way your film actually responds to the different color temperatures of light

it is exposed to?

What's to say the light on the day you shot was actually much cooler than a day in prior

experience? The reason there are different 81s and 82 strengths is to allow a

photographer to balance their film to a DESIRED result.

For example, a sunset may be way too red, and a color meter recommends correcting with

an 82C filter. Well, if you correct that far, your sunset shot will look like it was shot mid-

day. You may only need an 82A.

If you think your solution is an 81B or an 81C, how will you know which one to use without

a color meter? Look outside your window, right now. What is the color temperature of

light outside, and which of your filters should you use?

Without a color meter, all is in vain.

Many professionals shoot without one, but they will only feel confident shooting in

photographic situations which recur. New situations will freak them out because they

won't know how the film will turn out.

Lenses are described as warm or cool when the same exact film is exposed through two

different lenses and/or camera systems at the same target subject, processed at the same

time on the same line at a lab, and compared on the same light box. The terms warm or

cool are just relative differences- I suspect the coolness you are seeing in your film is

simply due to a "cool" color temperature scene.

If you want to stay friends, you will need the following-

1) A TTL camera you can manage hand held

2) A proper flash bracket to keep the flash directly overhead

3) Color negative film

If you are rusty on using flash, then I doubt you'll feel comfortable trying to remember

your flash is f8 at 7 feet, f 5.6 at 11 feet, etc. I seriously doubt you'll be wanting to do the

flash math in your head for every shot.

This leaves you with two choices. Automatic flash- notorious for screwing up scenes that

aren't average grey, and TTL, which usually works like a charm 90% of the time.

I think your SQ-Ai with a TTL adapter, stroboframe flash bracket for 66, and a Quantum

QFlash with turbo battery would be a workable combo.

cricket... cricket... cricket...

But seriously- I'd like to know too!

I switched to a D1X the month it was first available. I was as enamoured with the D1X as

Phil seems to be with his D100.

After shooting a few jobs, my commercial clients complained about the lack of resolution

(6 MP) when they went to repurpose the work for other projects. They asked me why their

seemed to be a lack of detail from previous work I had done for them.

Phil, I personally think selling your Hassy was a mistake and you will begin to feel it as you

realize you really have more of a computer than a camera. In addition, as you become

more and more responsible for the post processing and printing of your images, you will

realize that you are not in fact saving time.

I sold my D1X as I watched it drop to almost half its value in less than a year and a half. I

am back to shooting film and scanning, and my clients are happy again. I shot a large

budget ad job the other day on the Hassy. The only batteries I used were the AAs in

the light meters.

Shot it, ran it, edited it, paged it and delivered it. Total post time- 4 hours. If I had shot it

digital, it would have easily been two days. Client has high resolution film, client can edit

conventionally on a lightbox, commercial prepress house can make nice separations

(chromes can be used as reference) and client can store without the files sucking up

outrageous GBs on their servers.

Most importantly, photographer gets check in 30 days!

Just can't hang with the buggy software interfaces and spotty support on the Microtek

Artixscan 120tf scanner and Silverfast.

Discovered today I can't batch scan medium format in Scan Wizard which is "sort of"

working. The program doesn't realize that the spacing on medium format cameras are all

different and forces you to scan where it thinks your film is. That did it.

I feel an overwhelming sense of relief that I have returned the scanner. I was feeling some

serious buyer's remorse the last two days.

My IT8 calibration software issue is still unresolved with Silverfast. I am tired of emailing

instead of talking to a human being. These companies don't need my money.

In retrospect, I should have tested the scanner thoroughly at Calumet LA before I

purchased it. After all, I've rented all my cameras or borrowed them before I purchased

them.

But all the stats on the scanner looked good, and the software bundle seemed top notch,

so I just went for it. Last time I do that.

Microtek Artixscan 120tf Mini Review

I am feeling very negative towards my new purchase. I have had the scanner for only a

week and have been plagued by numerous problems.

I purchased the scanner originally because it seemed like the value priced champion for

scanning my medium format transparencies. I purchased it because of my familiarity with

the awesome Silverfast software I use with my Epson 3200 Pro, the inclusion of a 6X7 IT8

transparency target, and of course the price.

I am using a Powermac G4, OSX (latest), PS7 and have spent some time downloading all

the updates from the various manufacturer�s websites and doing careful installs and

reinstalls (which have been a pain in themselves).

This is what I planned. Since my transparencies are generally well exposed (my clients

would fire me if otherwise), I would simply would need to create a scanner profile using

Silverfast (which I�ve done before on the Epson with no problem) set the scanner software

to embed the scanner software I created, open in Photoshop Adobe RGB 1998 and be

stunned with 4000dpi resolution and 4.2 Dmax.

The main problem with the scanner is that the software support for the scanner is still

amazingly buggy. I am having many problems getting the scanner to calibrate using

Silverfast- it took a recent update for it to read the target patches properly. Even with the

update, the generated ICC profile is terrible. All my images are coming out dark when

opened in Photoshop, and the IT8 calibration process should have them opeing gloriously

with the correct color management settings.

I should also mention that I noticed these problems the day I purchased the scanner. I

also found out that if you want technical support from Silverfast, it�s going to be slow

email or $1.99 per minute with a 900 number, even if you�ve just bought the product!

And this isn�t just the price they�re charging some doofus wasting customer supports

time- it includes all professional users who are calling in to report the bugs!

Since Silverfast is not working for me with this scanner, I have been relegated to using

Microteks�s Scan Wizard 7. This software also isn�t up to speed for the new scanner.

Neither is the tech support. The tech I spoke to didn�t even have the manual when I asked

him why the monitor compensation in the color settings control panel wasn�t working. I

wanted to direct him to a visual example in the manual, and I couldn�t because he just

didn�t have it.

Forget medium format for a minute and let�s talk 35mm mounted slides. In it�s current

state, Scan Wizard is unable to accurately detect during prescan, the orientation of the

slide. It may prescan your slide properly, or it may scan your verticals as horizontals, and

vice versa. If ScanWizard can�t figure out your landscape goes from left to right instead of

up and down, you�re screwed. Currently there is no way in the software to reorient the

prescan window.

Personally, I think the Microtek Scan Wizard 7 software interface is horrible. With Silverfast

not working properly, it is the environment I�m being forved to work with this week. It is

an incomplete development, full of critical pro features that are not currently working.

Hardware issues. The scanner is pretty slow. It�s also pretty noisy. In order to get the

things going you have to �shove� the neg carriers into the throat of the machine. The

action is very rough, you can hear grinding and a �crunch� as the carrier roughly bites into

the connecting transport gears. It would never be confused for a precision device despite

the advertisements for the Micro step drive or whatever it is.

I have not tried to scan negatives yet. Why should I? I�m having enough god-damned

trouble scanning the positive artwork through the crappily ill conceived, underdeveloped,

under supported software packages bundled with the scanner.

My advice is to stay away from the scanner until they fix the interface software. And don't

expect a Hasselblad or Leica styly product- try cheap Yashica point and shoot.

Had a bug crawling on the focusing screen of my hassy during a commercial shoot last

week. While the Art Director was looking through it! Trying to find the "door" he crawled

through...

Anyone know the homepage of the Zeiss Camera Lens News? Searching the Zeiss site I

find links to particular issues, but I can't find the root directory or an archive list.

Thanks!

I don't even know where to start with this one.

If I read this right Diego is trying to scan medium format slides on a flat bed scanner on an

older IBM thinkpad with Photoshop 5.

Anyone heroic enough to make this stuff work nicely?

As much as I love my hassy, I would feel like a complete dork walking around with it

around my neck.

But in answer to your first question, it is handholdable. Incidentally, that's one of the

things Mr. Hasselblad had in mind when he designed it, a long long time ago.

If you do walk around with it in public in Paris, do not forget to tape the "Mug Me- I am a

Tourist with an Expensive Camera" sign to you somewhere.

I think the rangefinder is the camera you'll be reaching for the most anyway.

The view through the prisms on the Contax 645, Hasselblad H1, Pentax 645, Mamiya 645,

& Bronica ETRSi seem fine to me. The non-meter Pentax 67 prism is AWESOME, like

looking through a bay window at your subject- and it's physical size is teenie relative to

the Pentax body. I haven't tried Rollei prisms, but I'm sure they're great.

The PM90 doesn't compare. It is an embarassment.

After having briefly purchasing and returning a PM90 recently, I have to ask- What were

they thinking?

You figure that someone wanting to purchase a 90 degree straight through viewing prism

is seeking an experience similar to that enjoyed by 35mm shooters. I intended to shoot

some action and high view/angle set ups with the prism, only to discover that while I

could get the point of view desired, I might as well have had a monkey on my shoulder

focussing for me. His guess would have been as good or better than mine.

So there I am looking into the prism at this tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny itsy bitsy image. It's blurry.

I turn the lens, its still blurry. Wait a minute. Did it get sharp there for a second? I think

so. I go back. It's still blurry. F#@k.

OK, in all fairness, I could focus if I carefully concentrated on the split image. But forget

about focusing off center subjects with low or moderate contrast. Forget focus accuracy in

low light. This prism is dark!

And all that concentrating on hunting for focus removed a lot of the advantage of the

direct unreversed view. I think I actually shoot more descisively with the WL tracking my

subject laterally reversed!

I have 20/20 vision. Not better, not worse. My eyes are 32 years old (so is the rest of me)

and the prism made me want to tear my hair out!

Is this some insidious plot between Hasselblad engineering and marketing to get us to

dump our 503CWs and 555ELDs for Hasselblad H1s which have a 2.7X prism

magnification?

What is the problem? Why did Hasselblad engineer a measely 2X prism? Who did they

think could actually use it? Is it some kind of hideous photographic JOKE?

Just some friendly advice-

Don't freak out the first time you get the lens stuck on the body and can't get it off.

Everyone's got to do it once. It's kind of like joining the club!

This may not be as much of a question as a posting about something I discovered about

my Shenhao.

A description of the Wista Cherrywood field camera on the B&H site says that it can

accomodate a 120 or 150 lens while it is collapsed for travelling (backwards of course).

Well I thought- that's very clever, so I decided to try it with my Shenhao and my

Rodenstock 150 ApoSironar S (with caps on).

It works just fine. I'm not sure if this is a feature common to ALL field cameras, but I'm

certainly happy about it! It really only saves about 10 seconds when I set up, but I think

it's very cool.

I'd be interested to know what other fields can transport a normal lens while closed.

The blocked up shadows in the Fuji Polaroid are just because the material is contrasty, and

you've set up one of the contrastiest photographic lighting situations I can think of.

In studio, it would be difficult to create a contrastier situation than someting side lit by the

setting sun!

If you were to have shot film, there may not have been very much detail (in the same

blocked up areas of the polaroid), but there may have been some. You had no chance with

the polaroid.

Can I use any cable release with a Hassy? The answer to this question is yes. Will every

cable release work just as good with a Hassy? The answer to this question is

surprisingly NO! I use to think the answer to this question was "you can use any cable

shutter release and it will work fine".

And now for some Hasselblad arcana:

Some cable releases have an extremely thin tip that pushes into the release button on the

camera. I am not sure exactly how the mechanics in the hassy release button work, but I

DO KNOW that using a thin tipped cable release sometimes makes it difficult to reliably

fire the camera.

With a thin tipped release, sometimes you push and nothing happens. It's almost as if the

tip has slid past it's target and missed. Or as if there is some kind of resistance

preventing the camera from tripping.

Robert, a friend of mine who manages PRS (Photographic Rental Service) in Los Angeles,

tipped (pardon the pun) me off to this. He said that he use to purchase thin tipped

releases for rentals (i.e. cheapies) and they would unreliably fire the camera. He also

mentioned that there is some kind of threading inside the release button that can get

stripped with thin tipped cable releases, that can eventually cause it to be impossible to

fire the camera with any release!

My solution has been to use a cable release with a broader tip (the pin part that pushes

in). I went to Calumet, inspected a bunch of releases, and lo and behold, there are

releases that have thinner and broader tips!

So don't buy a Hassy cable release (er, actually there isn't one!)- look for one with a fat tip!

Thanks for asking- I really don't have anyone to share these photographic trivial pursuit

thingies- my girlfriend seems very uninterested when I try!

I learned a lot about medium format from my Yashicamat 124G. If you're a beginner, and

don't want to spend $$$$ for a complete MF kit, I think the TLR is a great way to take the

plunge!