toni_nikkanen

Thank you for all the good suggestions. I'll start checking "the usual sources" for what is available right now and for what price :)

 

How much more powerful do I need? well, that depends on practicability and price. I don't want to carry huge battery packs (would rather use AA batteries) and would like the flash to sit on the hot shoe. I understand I can't get the most powerful flash in the world that way, but I think I can get more power and flexibility than I currently have. One thing I don't have too much need for, is fast recycle times. If I can get rid of large battery packs by sacrificing fast recycling, it's all right.

I use a Vivitar 285HV flash with the automatic exposure feature on various

old-ish cameras with hot shoe brackets and like it a lot. However sometimes I

would need even more power, and the ability to tilt the flash head sideways (for

roof-bounce flash in portrait orientation). Is there another flash unit with the

same kind of automatic capabilities but with more power and a more flexible

flash head? It seems the Sunpak 383 model would be more flexible, but not more

powerful. What else should I consider?

Well, I have found the ultimate answer. A friend is making a long-overdue comeback to

photography. He's restarting from scratch, so I'm going to find a Mamiya 645 body and

80/1.9 lens (among other things, such as enlargers etc.) for him. We'll see what impact, if

any, this will have on my own equipment :)

 

Took some more photographs with my Pentax 6x7 and 645 equipment today. Some tripod

landscape stuff using EFKE R25 film with 6x7 and some snapshots using Tmax400 film

with the 645 and flash. Both systems are a joy to use, to be sure. But sometimes you end

up being somewhat of a doofus; I took my Pentax 6x7 55mm with me. When I had the

camera on a tripod, ready to accept the 55mm wide-angle lens, I noticed something is not

right. The lens just wouldn't fit. What's worse, the lens rear cap of the 55mm just wouldn't

fit the 105/2.4 I just removed from the 6x7 body. After a moment of being a total doofus,

I finally realized the 55/4 was equipped with the Pentax 6x7 to 645 adapter. Happily the

on-lookers didn't understand I was going through some serious incompetence at the time

and I got my shots at last. Too bad the location wasn't all I tought it would be, a nice hill

with good sunshine and so on, but the view was just simply boring and I lacked the

creativity to make it interesting.

You can still get Agfa Scala 200 b/w slide film from lumiere-shop.de and some other shops, and you can get it developed at Arka Laboratoire in France, among others. It's going to cost more than getting colour E-6 slide film developed, of course.

Yes, I'm beginning to think that's exactly what I need to do. However like I said, camera

systems have a bad habit of growing... I'll need to think about this until my balances become

positive enough to actually do something or other :)

Thank you for the suggestions. I wasn't aware of the lens for Contax 645. I've been trying to find the flange distance information for the Contax 645 mount and haven't been able to find it, but I found mention that Mamiya 645 lenses are adaptable to Contax 645, which would suggest the Contax flange distance is even shorter, therefore making infinity focus impossible when used on a Pentax 645. But I am not sure. Otherwise it would be the perfect solution as far as I could afford it, though; the lens seems to be getting unreserved rave reviews.

 

I would like to clarify my needs a bit more. I am looking for:

a) hand-held shooting

b) available light shooting (with the ability to get more than just the head and shoulders of one person into the shot, indoors, with limited ability to move backwards)

c) shallow depth of field

d) focal length close to 75mm

e) totally awesome viewfinder image :)

 

I do have the Pentax 6x7 105/2.4 lens but I find it's a bit too tight for my intended use on the 645. Also the minimum focusing distance of 1 meter is sometimes too far.

 

Now I found the flange distance for the Norita 66 system as well: 68.2mm, somewhat shorter than Pentax 645 (70.87mm).

 

 

It seems I just might have to contend with my current lens setup; it would be totally crazy to switch systems now. Admittedly I'm doing great as it is so I guess I'll manage :)

 

 

(One option would be to purchase a very old Norita 66 or Mamiya 645 body and lens for cheap. But camera systems have a habit of growing and soon I would own three complete medium format systems, which would be totally crazy.)

I love my Pentax 645 system, even though it was a hard decision between the

Mamiya 645 (manual focus) and Pentax 645 systems. But in the end the deciding

factors were my existing Pentax 6x7 system and lenses that are useable on the

645, and my general good experiences with Pentax equipment in the past (I have

no first-hand experience on Mamiya equipment). The 75, 45 and 120 macro for

Pentax 645 are great lenses (except for the 45mm flaring) and the body works

wonderfully.

 

However there's one thing the Mamiya system has that I'd like: The 80mm/1.9

lens. I was wondering if anyone knew of a similarly fast lens that could be used

on the Pentax 645 with an adapter? I understand the Mamiya lens can't be used

due to the Mamiya flange distance being shorter than the Pentax. There's the

Norita 80/2.0 lens but I've not found out if it's adaptable and where I could

find an adapter. Are there any other options to consider?

 

Thanks!

I've bought some 35mm rolls of Agfapan APX 100 in Finland that has an expiration date sometime in the year 2011.

Several times using different scanners (canoscan 8400F, K-M Elite 5400 II, Epson V700 - gotta get rid of the Canoscan now!) I've tried if I would get better or more convenient results from using Silverfast or VueScan instead of the vendor-supplied software. The answer is I well might get better results at least on the flatbeds (actually I am highly pleased with the K-M scanning software usability and result quality). However I never seem to find enough energy to really learn how to use them!

Let's put it this way: With the vendor supplied K-M, Epson and even Canon (easily the worst of the three) scanning software, getting film scanned is pretty easy in my usual scenario: put as many strips of film in as the scanner can handle. Press the preview button (or with the K-M no need even for this). After a while I have the pre-scan frames visible on my display. I can individually alter scanning options for each frame and finally press the scan button and go out for lunch.

 

The initial user experience with Silverfast and VueScan is that I have a whole lot of all kinds of small buttons and fields with no idea what they do. I am presented with a pre-view of the scanner's entire scan area and it seems I have to manually select the frame to be scanned from that. While that might not actually be true, it feels confusing at first. Moreover, with a dedicated film scanner, a more "general" program like Silverfast or VueScan actually feels like it doesn't really fit very well.

 

I'll probably keep trying to get to grips with either program, though, and maybe finally I will "get it"..