r.s. adams

Two comments that don't seem to have been covered in an otherwise pretty extensive set of responses:

 

1. Proper exposure w/ a standard gray card is 1/2 stop more than what you meter on the card. I finally read the instructions. (GRIN)

 

2. I took my gray card to the fabric store.... comparison metered various gray fabrics until I found one that was exactly the same as the gray card. Bought a hunk of it... had it sewn to my camera bag. And, I carry a hunk of it folded up in my back pocket. Voila!

 

Cheers,

Scott

Hello all... I recently tried some Ilford HP5 for the first time in

my Fuji 6x9 rangefinder cameras. When I processed the film there was

fogging along the edge of the film in places. Not enough to cause

damage to images themselves, thankfully, but it got my attention.

 

Here's the rub. I'm very careful about maintaining tension as I load

the film. I've never had this happen with any other film. Is this

common with Ilford? BTW, this was 120 film. The rolls felt nice and

snug going in and coming out of the cameras, and never were loose

looking or feeling before or after exposure. Not stored, or

loaded/unloaded in bright light or anything either. All my

ususal "suspected reasons" for such a thing were controlled.

Anyone else ever have this experience?

While sophisticated "studio strobes" and the like, are convenient (and essential to a working pro), it is they who are the 'cheats' IMO.

 

Try a local art store for some large white poster board material, and the local hardware vendor for some inexpensive spring clamps to hold them in place on anything you have about to clamp them to (old step ladders or whatever). Also try taking the alum. foil (as suggested elsewhere) and wad it up, then flatten it out, use the "dull side" out and attach to large hunk of card board for a "bright" reflector.

 

Don't forget to think about black stock also for subtractive lighting. Very effective in some circumstances.

 

Finally, it is the 'look and feel ' of the light that is important, not the equipment used to obtain it. Have fun. You'll probably learn more about good light this way than if you had 10k worth of studio stuff "in your way" while learning!

I just received my new 67mm Hoya "Super Quality Cir-Polaraizer" and

though I'd comment about how well it looks like it will work as the

solution to the question of rotating polarizers being almost

impossible to get on and off the Fuji's recessed mount.

 

First let me say that I know that a Circular polarizer is

unnecessary ... for obvious reasons. BUT, here's the cool part...

on this filter the rotating ring "grip" is on the "face" of the

filter, not "stacked" (as it were) on the "barrel" of the filter ring

as all other polarizers I've seen are. This gives two advantages for

the Fuji rangefinder user: 1. You can grip the filter's "put on /

take off" ring w/o the rotation ring spinning -- so no danger of the

filter being hard to get on and off; 2. Since the rotating part of

the filter is "set into" the face of the filter ring, the

total "height" of the filter is only 5 mm when "screwed in" and the

total height of the filter including the male threads is only about

7.5 mm. This means that there is much less chance of vignetting when

stacked on a Uva, as some perfer to do.

 

Finally it has a nice little reference hash mark on the rotation ring

for easy realignment of the polarizer to what was visualized manually.

 

I'll do tests with both the GW690III and the GSW690III with this

polarizer stacked on top of a Uva and post the results re any

vignetting. I'm optimistic that this will be a good solution for

this problem with the Fujis. And for those that don't like to stack

filters at all, I'm sure this will be a great filter for use with the

recessed Fuji rangefinder lens threads. I can put my hack saw down

now! LOL

I concur with the previous response regarding the relative ease of eliminating vignetting in Photoshop, with one caveat. If the vignetting is severe enough that there isn't "information" in the area then getting rid of it could be problematic, without creating an equally distracting are in the image that is just "lighter." Depending on what is "in" the obscured area you may be able to clone other parts of the image, or you may not. All in all it would certainly be worth the attempt.

Been playing with my new (to me) Fuji rangefinder and now see first

hand why some of you have sawed off the hood! I didn't want to do

that though... and was puzzling about how to get polarizer on there,

and then back "off" since the glass rotates freely once installed...

 

So, here goes... (sounds dumb, works great): I first very carefully

superglued the rotating ring on the polarizer in several spots so it

no longer rotates at all. Then used nail polish to put a

colored "dot" on the ring of the polarizer just as a reference mark.

Found that there are enough threads to allow a 180 rotation of the

filter while just screwing it in. So using my handy reference mark I

do visual of effect by eyeball, make note of reference mark

orientation, screw filter into lens to a point that is

secrure "enough" and has the reference mark in same relative

postion. Voila. Crude to be sure, but functional.

 

I've read through the Fuji Rangefinder section on the site here, but

would also be intersted in any other pearls of wisdom from long time

users!

 

One other thing as long as I'm rambling on here. The manual says I

can close the shutter while on T by using the winding lever w/o

hurting the camera, but advises against this because of movement...

so had another idea... make a cover for lens out of spray painted

black large foam cup... easy to put over lens w/o bumping camera...

then move winder lever to close shutter. Seems like a good

compromise over attempting to change shutter speed ring w/o moving

camera, or putting on the tight-fitting lens cap w/o moving the

camera. Thoughts? Other solutions?

 

Oh, by the way, am having a ball with the return to completely manual

phototgraphy, and the huge, and amazingly sharp and contrasty images!

 

Reminds me of my early days with Leica M4, a 50mm dual range

Sumicron, and hand held light meter... took some of my favorite

photos with that set up...

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

The latest version of the Stroboframe flash bracket should work well. It not only allows rotation of the camera, but has a lock to hold it in either the vertical or horizontal position. It also allows varying the height of the strobe above the camera lens.

 

My stroboframe is an earlier model that did not have this locking mechanism, and it is almost worthless "in use"... the new one is lighter and stronger. I was very impressed with it when I saw it at a local pro shop. Sorry I didn't get the model number. Take a look, I think it might suit your need just fine.

Keep the Olympus gear and add a few lenses for the same money. I sold an extensive Oly kit in order to purchase a new ETRSi kit, with lots of lenses and film backs etc. All brand new lastest and greatest and I'll tell you what... the results up to 11x14 with print film and up to 20x30 with good quality drum scan to digi print are disappointing compared with the Olympus. The OM4T and OM3Ti with the modern Oly prime lenses are amazing.... wish I could go back.

 

One man's opinion . . . anyone out there want a brand new ETRSi "extensive" kit for about 10K?

Acutally there are three things I want to do:

 

1. Say thank you to all of you who provided such excellent advice

and recommendations on a good stable light weight tripod and ball

head. Really excellent, thanks.

 

2. I want to produce some really top notch images and have been "out

of it" long enough to be out of touch with the latest technology (I

used to have great cibachromes made from trasparencies). So, what's

the best way to go? Negative to scan to digital print? Transparency

to something? Cost is not an object because the quantity will be

limited and the clients can afford, and want, the best.

 

3. Given your response to the above, can you recommend a lab that

has internet presence, and/or a good catalog and phone service

personnel where I could send my material to have such prints made?

 

I know it is asking a lot, but I'm at a loss at where to go for

really first rate prints.

 

Thanks again,

 

Scott Adams

Uncle Sam is giving me (how nice of him) more of my money back than

anticipated, and I'm in the enviable position of researching the

purchase of a very stable platform for field work with my ETRSi

system. Requirments in order of priority: STABILITY, lightweight,

ease of use, compactness. TIA for the feeback, recommendations.