vikireedphotography

Hi. I'm moving to film, specifically medium format vintage camera work likely using 120/220 film rolls. Mainly B&W but also color.

I'm scouring ebay and I'm wondering what basics I need to look for in a decent used enlarger.

I've read it's smarter to get a color enlarger. I'd be doing contact printing. The area where I'll work was used as a darkroom by the previous owner but it has no sink and only a single vent in the ceiling that i'm not sure even hooks up to the newer HVAC. But basically i was wondering what do i need to look for in a good used color enlarger for the purpose of medium and large format printing? I don't care if it's 30 years old, as long as it works.

<p>Has anyone else encountered this problem? NOthing I did with my pscs5 allowed me to update Camera Raw. Even an Adobe tech on the phone and another who noodled into my pc was unable to install the Camera Raw update which featured the RAW reader for the 6D files. I was crowbar'd into upgrading to pscs6, which apparently is a great thing because Adobe has a new appalling policy which they dont go out of their way to tell old time users. If you don't upgrade to cs6 by X date, you have to pay full new price for cs7 when it ships. Ouch. $200 vs $700....despite years of upgrading like a good doggie.</p>

<p>Having done that, I could read my EOS 6D raw files but noticed something really frustrating: in windows, you get ZERO thumbnail previews of the images when viewing in PSCS6. Apparently Mac users get the thumbnail previews but Windows does not. </p>

<p>Canon said their raw files do generate thumbnails so if i can't see them, Adobe hasn't created a program that will fully read those raw files. </p>

<p>I go back to Adobe techs-more than one-and they seem to think that choosing a view size for jpgs is what I'm talking about. Finally they get what I"m saying and tell me that CS6 'doesn't come with that feature' it 'doesn't do that'. Not 'it wont' do that yet but that it doesn't do that.' THey know nothing about when or if when i ask. All I get is, 'it doesn't do that, for mac users it does. sorry to the inconvenience' is what my well meaning but by the book tech says. I go on Adobe to ask and decry the problem and I have my posting moved to a fairly unrelated forum (burying it in an old category), then I get slammed by some Adobe users who say that I need to blame Canon for not releasing the date needed for Adobe to build the features in the upgrades, that poor Adobe has to buy the cameras out of pocket and reverse engineer them. <br>

That's what I know about the thumbnail previews being absent for the Canon EOS 6D and I would be so happy if anyone can update me about the future of having that option in CS6. I really need my thumbnails and it's a huge workflow clogger to have to crank open several raw shots at a time just to check where I'm at, locate something that I'm not sure about it's location, etc. You don't even get the thumbnails of the jpgs. Only the 'view size'. Sorry to sound sour but I'm just frustrated to have to spend $200 on the upgrade to cs6 just so i can read the raw files on my awesome new camera body and then find out that I can't get something as basic as thumbnail previews ...but mac users can? Clearly they've reverse engineered the problem for mac users already so why not A: do it for window users who are buying the 6D in droves and B: At least announce when we will get the previews.</p>

<p>Hey Marcus-Did try a seperate card reader. Same effect, couldn't see the images or couldn't see the folder. <br>

It's reassuring to know that you can eliminate the pc as being a problem. <br>

Do you think reinstalling the drivers for the built in card reader would be worth the effort?<br>

I'll uninstall and reinstall the zoom software. I don't use lightroom right now. I have a 3 year old version and I need to upgrade but I do it all in photoshopcs5 and a few plug ins. <br>

I only ever use SanDisk cards. I used strictly a stack of 1GB cards and then added 4, 4GB cards and never had a problem. Then I got an 8GB card.<br>

Various google results told stories of people using Canon cameras and Extreme and ExtremeIII SanDisk CF cards. One guy saying that the high capacity cards have a known issue of erasing in the process of reading them-a card processor related issue. <br>

But the same problem happened with my new and old 4GB cards-which are hardly super high speed high capacity cards. Also never had a problem with them no matter who I pulled the image files off them. <br>

I had intermittent issues with the CF card being recognized by the computer (and then would take the pix off my camera). I believe this problem was with the 8 and 4GB cards.<br>

Initially no problem then swithin a month of getting the 8GB card, I get the 'cannot create folder' error on the card , suggesting to reformat, couldn't see the pix via card reader, via usb cord and camera connection, couldn't see them at all when clicking on the H drive, etc. <br>

THought it was that card then got two new 4GB thinking happy days are here again. Then I do two shoots this week and used only 4GB cards (new and older ones) and same problem again. </p>

<p>I haven't tried pulling them off via a diff computer. <br />This is something I will also try today. I recently did a big scrub of the pc using spybot search and destroy and another security program my husband uses at work. He also ratcheted the pc back to a date before I got clobbered by a date so that all settings should be safely untainted. I supposed it's possible that damage still could be done even with those efforts. <br>

But, I think I'm hearing that the initial raw file corruption issue which was solved by zoombrowser/reader software and the subsequent problem I'm writing about are likely connected and I had no issues with a virus or performance when that first weird issue sprung up and zoom resolved it. <br>

*What windows files would relate to the process I'm trying to make happen so I know what to check?<br>

I definitely check 'all files' when i can but in this case I can't even see the DCIM folder and when I can, the computer says there's nothing there and to reformat. The camera will also say at that time, 'cannot create folder' and to reformat. Even though I saw the shots appear in the display when i worked, I'd scroll back and forth to make cuts during the shoot, etc. <br>

*When you mention full restore are you talking about the kind of roll back to a previously pristine state? I don't use a portable card reader, mine is part of the pc. <br>

I only format my CF cards in camera and I do it right before I shoot as well as the night before when I prep.<br>

If you can tell me if the 'full restore' is more or less what we already tried and if you know what type of windows files that relate to reading canon that I shoudl look at. <br />Should i reinstall zoombrowser in addition to updating camera firmware?</p>

<p>by the way, i'm sooooo grateful for the earnest time you guys are offering to me. I think we all have to be trained in the technical aspects so much more than we're prepared to. I really try and my husband is an applications manager so often he helps me navigate the way apps work and troubleshooting but he has no training into dslr's, camera file handling, post production work and plug ins so it's hard for me to self help with him often because we're both at a bit of a deficit sometimes. </p>

<p>Marcus-what do you do when itunes, windows op systems, and a media player mess with your photo importing? I can't get rid of windows, i rarely use itunes at all. There was no extra funky software or new software on my pc when the original issues with corrupted raw files started. <br />I did install a trial version of Nik Sharpener Pro (which is now deactiviated) before the recent 'cannot create folder', 'reformat the drive there's nothing in it' problems. ZOombrowser saved my life when the initial random corruption problems started and now i can't even use it because even if I could see the files in my camera and grab them by connecting the camera via usb to pc, Zoombrowser doesn't seem to have options to take them off the camera, only 'from your pc' and the drives that are permanently connected to the pc. Of course it could be that the pc isn't seeing the camera so zoombrowser wouldn't see the drive represented by the camera....</p>

<p>I'm inclined to agree it's not a bent pin otherwise how could the recovery software read the card. </p>

<p>Hi William. I have to say that I haven't played with the jpg factor in the last 2 weeks because when I do professional sessions I rarely use jpg quality settings and the problem actually began by not always recognizing CF card in the drive and then some gentle 2nd and 3rd and sometimes 4th attempts seemed to work. Not until I hit the wall and the entire 8GB card was 'gone' did it become impossible to get the files even with further attempts. <br>

In reading dpreview forums and other google searches some folks were saying that SanDisk has a known issue with extreme cards (where something in the card's processors would erase the files in the transfer/copying process-but they're still there, just like if you 'deleted' the photos yourself, they're still there unless you overwrite them with new shots). But many of these folks were talking about the big cards-20 and 30GB. Still it hadn't happened with anything smaller than the 8GB and the 8GB said 'extreme' on the card. SO I mailed it back to SanDisk and bought two new 4GB cards thinking I was safe. <br>

Then I shot pix on friday and yesterday, tried grabbing them via Zoombrowser and found all to be 'gone'. Got the error msgs about 'cannot create folder' on the camera when trying to view the images that way (this was after putting them in the drive, before putting them in the drive I could see one of the card's contents in the display). Nothing I did could reverse my situation so out came the recovery software. <br>

I always assume the problems with the need to use zoombrowser then the current problem had to be connected. But I can say that when I connected the camera to the pc itself i wasn't able to view the files either. I believe that was after attempts to read in the card reader, though. It was the second line of defense because my preference is to extract the files with Zoombrowser because I never had a corrupted RAW file after I started using it. <br>

I'll see if i can get the card reader opened up to look for bent pins . I'm just not sure that would be the answer because I'm really careful about how I insert those things because I need to extract via zoom and the zoom software doesn't seem to be able to extract from the camera.<br>

Also the recovery software can 'see' the images when the card is plugged into the card drive so it can't be a malfunctioning pin.<br>

I'm also going to dbl check on my firmware today, I don't think I have the most recent and perhaps that would deal with the problem? <br>

WHen I open the DCIM folder it's empty (when the card reader 'recognizes' the card-I'm sorry to say I'm unsure of my language because I'm unclear about what's going on. I don't think it's a bent pin issue though because the problem went from not being able to </p>

 

<p><strong>Someone has to have the answer.</strong><br>

<strong>Out of the blue, I take photos, which I can see via camera display, I get home, put the card into my PC's card reader and then BOOM-the photos are wiped without my commanding it. <br /><br />Luckily they are there, for the most part. I found this out because i had to buy recovery software and pull my RAW files off that way. I still have image loss and the recovered files come off the card out of shooting order as well. </strong><br>

<strong>I have to take my files off the camera via cardreader becuase I have to use ZoomBrowser. This is because a few months ago, when taking my pix off the card via windows copy and paste or dragging, I'd find 1-5 corrupted images (not permanently corrupted but hit or miss if i could pull them off the card another way with success), then the number of corrupted files increased.</strong><br>

<strong><br />A smart group of facebook canon page people referred me to using ZoomBrowser since it's tailor made to handle Canon files. This ended teh corrupted file problem. </strong><br>

<strong>THEN out of the blue (I've had this same 50D for 3</strong><strong> years) the camera started displaying errors. It happens whether I'm using my 24-70mm or my 50mm or 85mm lenses. </strong><br>

<strong> </strong><strong>It happens when i do everything right (Format in camera before shooting, good batteries, etc). </strong><br>

<strong>It doesn't happen everytime.</strong><br>

<strong>It happened at first when using the SanDisk 8GB card. After reading answers on your forum I flipped out on SanDisk because i had to buy a recovery application to save my photo session because the only thing my PC wanted to do was to format the CF Card and I couldn't even take them direct from the 50D because of the error. </strong><br>

<strong>THe in camera error on display is "Cannot create folder" which happens after I've removed the card from teh camera and put it in my PC's card reader. THe card reader either doesn't see or recognize the card at all , or if it sees it windows suggests formatting it or tells me that there's no files for Zoombrowser to take off the CF Card. When I dbl click my H drive icon (The card reader is drive H) I see nothing or an empty folder. <br /><br />When I run recovery software from this point, it pulls all of the files off, mostly all, and jumbled. </strong><br>

<strong>After reading some forums I was led to believe it was the SanDisk card (the first time it happened I was using an 8GB SanDisk CF Card.</strong><br>

<strong>I returned the 8GB card I had to SanDisk and demanded two new 4GB cards in replacement because I thought the issue was the speed and size of the CF cards. Well guess what, I was using a new 4GB SanDisk CF Card when again, 'cannot create folder', 'card may be corrupted or damaged', 'no files to read on this card', 'please insert card , no card in drive', "format this card"....</strong><br>

<strong> </strong><strong>What is the real answer? Is it my PC's card reader damaging the CF Card's images? I can see them in the camera, then i stick them in the drive and suddenly they're 'not there', 'corrupted' etc. THen i put them back in teh camera and i get "Cannot create folder'. It doesn't seem to be the 8GB card because I used a 4GB card (NEW) today and it still happened.</strong><br>

My CF cards are legit from Staples, not Chinese ebay knockoffs. <br>

<strong>Is it the camera, is it the CF card's compatibility issues with lenses, is it the card reader? Please if any of you out there know!</strong></p>

 

 

<p>Is anyone else having issues writing/copying their RAW files from their CF cards to their PC's?<br>

I'm on a windows 7 , 32 bit system.<br>

I use photoshop cs5 and all adobe updates are current.<br>

I have had an issue with the most recent windows update patch being unable to complete but my husband who's an applications manager and former helpdesk slave seems to think that the update problem is more of an obstacle to the true source of the problem and not the real cause .</p>

<p>What happens , whether I copy/write my RAW files from my CF reader installed in my PC (to a folder in my C: drive that is backed up regularly) or if i take them direct from my Canon EOS 50D, is that random image files are totally corrupted.<br /><br />I can then go through every blessed image that's corrupted, take it off the card and copy/write it to a new temp folder on my desktop, mostly the files come up fine when i do that. The images are fine on the card, it's something in the writing/copying process , going to the C drive mainly.<br /><br />Please please any ideas, anyone else going through this? <br>

IT is way too ridiculous to adopt this as a way of working . There has GOT to be a solution. </p>

I know that taking the bulbs out and photographing them would help. Yes, I did google SL 300. Nothing led me to a type of bulb which I can then continue to hunt down.

 

But I came to you folks in addition to everything else I've been attacking, hoping someone can refer me to solid reputable company-then I could send shots of the bulbs to their sales person and get the appropriate replacements.

 

I didn't want to touch ANYTHING without having a recommendation in the event that I break something because I have a few shoots coming.

 

YES I really do know that it would've been way smarter to buy a brand name lighting set up, used or not, but I had just moved here and hadn't worked at all and my funds for starting up were limited.

 

 

I was living in California where I used natural light for EVERYTHING (set up my backdrops in the back yard and had a blast). But now I'm in NJ where it's gray cold and wet and sunshine is unpredictable if m mostly unavailable most of the year. I did the best I could with the money I had at the time. I even considered doing a strictly speedlight set up to bide my time and a most excellent dotphoto.net member pro who's not remotely obnoxious or self satisfied with knowing everything under the sun and disdainful of anyone not as great kindly very very kindly suggested I take the hit and get real studio lights.

 

The lights have worked but I've pushed it as far as finding replacement bulbs. I would LOVE to go on ebay and buy a super set of used but classic studio lights, even piece by piece; I've come close but I have a family and I have to balance expenses and priorities.

 

SO I'm trying to keep this set up going. Cheap and no name as it is, it's allowed me to work without taking out of the money I've invested in good glass and computer power and software and printer ink and other things I need to buy all year long.

 

The make and model of the strobe is so mysterious that I wasn't sure where to go for a replacement or if there was anything I needed to know like, 'hey stupid, all strobes that are X watts are universal' or something like that.

 

 

I scoured the sheet of paper the light kit came with and nothing on it led me to any manufacturer. I'm more worried about a kid or client knocking a light over my 'burning it out'

 

I shoot once or twice a week. I'm not too worried about the modeling light becuase it's easily removed and photographed. I just wanted to know any expert old hand info before attempting to remove the strobe light bulb (which is a circular tube). Not even sure where the fuse is. This IS new to me but I don't have the luxury of learning about it by breaking it so I came to experts. Can you put your ego in your pants and not be so hard on someone who's trying to ask for help, not a handout.

 

I've never had to use lights before so other than the end product which so far has been excellent; I am a beginner with lighting.

 

I'm also asking people to email directly so I get the answer right away. I have the main digital camera forum on my RSS feed and read it all daily but I also have 3 kids and a husband who works all day in the city and life can be chaotic. I forget important things all the time becuase sleep deprivation is DEADLY. Give me a break and get over yourself.

I bought a no name brand studio lighting kit from an ebay store

(studios4less$.com). THe system works well enough and when I have enough money

to get a fabulous lighting set up (used) I will. For now this kit is okay

EXCEPT that the ONLY literature that came is a single sheet of paper with

english and japanese writings). There is no contact info or brand name info or

bulb or fuse reorder info. I have been really lucky not to need a back up

model light or strobes or a fuse of any kind. I'm not even sure how to repace

anything other than the modeling light which easily unscrews.

 

The seller won't answer any emails and ebay and paypal haven't come up with any

contact info other than the ebay seller's store email. All unanswered even

though he still is selling the same kit and other cheap products.

 

I need to get replacement bulbs.

 

What dealer can anyone recommend I turn to?

 

I'm hoping I can take photos of the light and it's bulbs and someone can help

me at the right store but I don't know where to begin.

 

The ONLY thing printed on the side of the lights is "SL-300 studio flash".

 

HELP! Please answer me at viki.reed@comcast.net because I'm afraid I'll miss

an answer just posted on the forum. HELP!

 

Thank you so much.

Hey Frank

 

I am so glad you suggested that the incorrect hood was even possible. I dont think I can shorten the thing-it's a solid piece of plastic-so I'll look for a shorter one on ebay maybe.

 

Thank you

The hoods came with the lenses (one kit lens 14-45 mm and one macro lens; bought new for Evolt E300). I've taken them off and put them back on so many times and they aren't interchangable so I know I'm using the hoods that came with the lenses.

 

It didn't make much sense to me but I'd never used a 3/4's system before this camera and I've been getting aggravated lately to not be able to use the hoods because I do need glare protection.

 

I have no filters on at all.

 

One of hoods has small cut-outs/divets, 4 of them-I assumed that was to prevent the kind of vignetting I was seeing. The other hood is just a pure solid tube shape all around.

 

All things being shared from you guys, the only thing I can think of is that Im' installing the hoods incorrectly every single time which is hard to imagine since they're just a twist and a half to get on. I don't get it.

I got lens hoods for each of my Olympus Zuiko (I have an Evolt).

 

I understand the purpose of the lens hood, and every photographer I've ever

seen has their hood glued on permanently. But when I use the lens hoods that

came with the lenses...my shots are vignetted by the black edge of the hood-

unless it's a straight ahead and level flat shot.

 

Is this because I have a 4/3rds system and that vignetted area is image space

that I wouldn't have with a non 4/3rds system?

 

Should I just adjust the framing of my subjects from now to compensate for the

knowledge that I won't have the outside edge of the viewfinder when using the

lens hoods, or am I misusing the things?

Hi Meghan

 

I wanted to add another note to being an Olympus Digital owner: Every single accessory and tool related to the camera costs a near fortune. If you own one of the pro-series cameras and can join their professional club you get discounts on some things, but for the most part everything-even the small remote control or a simple power cord-are not reasonably priced. Also to consider, talk to people who own the Nikons and the Canons (systems that I am going to switch to when I can afford to swap out and replace everything I'm using with my E Series kit); ask them about customer service and their tech repair department.

 

I have a $450 High Voltage Kit (to power my flash when I go on location or need to trigger my simple studio lights kit). I had it for 13 months and only used it 3 times. Of course my maintenance was by the book. (In southern calif. I used natural light outdoors all year long and rarely had a need for flash, now I'm on the east coast and I have to use artificial lighting).

 

On use number four the High VOltage Kit stopped working and gave error signals that weren't even described in the book.

 

I paid extra to ship the unit to the Olympus tech team in NY state before the holiday break because I had a few jobs coming up and their literature states an 7-10 biz day turn over. Fill out a long form you get online, send your stuff in as per their instructions at your cost, and then they're supposed to call you with an estimate and get your approval. I felt that something that was only a month out of warranty and barely used should be on their dime but they didn't care, they had no room for thinking outside their standards.

 

No one called to say, 'This is the problem with your kit, we can fix it and it will cost X dollars.' Instead I got nervous 5 days after sending it and waited on hold 25 mins or so and someone said, 'it'll be $46 to get it up to factory standard.' No, sorry, too bad it's only 13 months old....sorry you barely used it and it shouldn't be collapsing after such little time. " Fine, $46 and please rush it.

 

They were actually nice about saying they'd rush it. I called back 3 or 4 days later to see what was up. They said they were shipping it the next day but there was no log, history or accounting of what the repair and what the issue was.

 

Two days later I got my kit back.

 

Somehow the rechargeable battery was recharged but the kit itself did not work. AND it was giving a different error than it was before. Now it was giving a temperature error and the AC supply was getting warm fast.

 

I found I could use the unit if it was untethered from the AC unit but that meant it's unusable come time to RECHARGE THE BATTERY which powers the kit. They could not have tested the unit before sending it out because they would've seen the same problems I did.

 

Then when I called back they said they'd only cover $12 of my shipping. Now I have to send back the AC adapter. My husband is searching high and low for an adapter that will work with the system but I'm afraid to use anything but the olympus adapter because I can't afford to short out (replace!) a $450 out of warranty overpriced power supply.

 

The olympus store site didn't have the item in question listed (probably because it's part of a kit), British web sites had the cord listed at 44 pounds. I'm not sure if I'm going to buy another cable in addition to sending back this bum one, which Olympus insists they can't replace on my word. They need another 8-10 days, ANOTHER form and a whole new set of tests without documentation or history before they replace it. They should've caught it after $46 and nearly two weeks. But I have to eat the problem. I don't have enough money to have a redundancy plan (another high voltage kit). I still do not know what caused the malfunction in the first place. No one would or could tell me and so I have no idea if something I did or did not do caused it.

 

I can only compare this to my friend's experience with his small but amazing consumer end compact digi camera from MINOLTA of all places. Talk about a company that has no motivation to help you fix their product at this point. Yet that's what they did. They took my friend's 6 year old camera and fixed it free of charge in the same time frame that I filled out forms, waited, followed up, paid, waited , followed up, expressed frustration to unsympathetic tech supervisors and then got back a broken in a new way product.

 

I also notice no matter what I try-and I have tried everything I found on photo.net-that there is a distinct lack of sharpness to the E System camera I have...AND the focusing screen is not split so in in low light conditions it's incredibly easy to screw up and wind up with a blurry image even a few feet from your subject. I can't afford the Katz Eye replacement focus screen right now. I already got the adapter and I'm finding it hard to win the OM Series lenses I want on Ebay. I always lose out. THe one lens I did win was sold to me without front or back covers despite not listing that as part of the condition> Yes it's a nice lens for sure, prime and everything. But I'm beginning to wonder if having that hard ext body was worth getting the Evolt. My brother has a Nikon and it takes crazy good pictures. The sharpness, color and availability of affordable lenses is pretty appealing. Not to mention everyone here being so gung ho on Nikon.

 

Anyway, I'm just saying that there's more to having the olympus series than the great but hugely expensive 4/3rds lenses and the OM lenses....their customer service stinks and that's important. Their gear is soooo expensive it's impossible for a normal person like me to buy two of certain things to cover my butt and you can't even rent replacement items. I live 90 mins by train from NY too and I don't know anyone so far that can rent a high voltage kit.

 

Hope it works out for you and I hope someone at Olympus feels the heat of all the pro nikon and canon users out there and changes their ways.

Please forgive me if I'm not technically clear in my question. I've spent a

few hours on the site looking at postings, tutorials, essays, Q&A because I

need to get a small in home portrait light set-up.

 

I agree with the pros who stated that a stopless slider intensity on the flash

is impt and that it be a strobe not a continuous light set up with a generator

ideally but a monolight system is okay for now.

 

Okay hope that made sense as I understand it.

 

BUT I did read a posting by someone who created a good workable home studio set

up using a few Nikon Speedlights set up on light stands, with Lightboxes on a

wireless trigger set up-using reflectors, etc., too.

 

I can afford to cobble a home studio lighting set-up for now with some used

speedlights and pocket wizard and then invest in a wonderful more complete

system later.

 

My big dumb question is this:

 

Can I even use a non olympus flash , a pocket wizard, and an olympus flash on a

bracket on my Evolt E300 system? Or am I really confused and is a Speedlight

nothing more than a generic term for any external flash unit? In which case

then would I just buy used Olympus 'speedlights' in the manner described above?

 

Thanks for your patience and any clarity would be REALLY APPRECIATED.