jeff_plomley1

<p>Noah, I followed carefully your adventure with the M9 and am glad to see you ended up with a Mamiya 7II and 9000ED solution. I recently made some 24" x 30" prints from the 7II and 43mm captured using Provia 100F and without a doubt, the M9 would struggle at this print dimension.</p>

Keep hiding behind your 4x5 Walt. I sold all my DSLR kit to fund an Arca Swiss and Rodenstock/Schneider glass. Best

move I ever made for my landscape photography. You won't find any 35mm wide angle lens that can compete with the

likes of the Rodenstock 55 APO Grandagon or Schneider 80 XL Aspherical. The distortion in 35mm wide angles will

truly disappoint you after you have been shooting with 4x5. I might add that even a "lowly" Imacon scan at 2040 ppi of a

4x5 chrome will smoke anything from a DSLR. Step up to a drum scan, and you are light years ahead. I assume you

are printing at least 16x20 or larger (otherwise, why would you be shooting with a 4x5). Save your money, buy more film,

and continue to evolve your vision. All the new fan-dangled toys in the world won't help you with the latter.

 

If you are insistent on buying a wide angle lens, go with a zoom. By the time you stop a prime or a zoom down to the

diffraction limiting apertures you will need because you have no control of the focus plane with swings and tilts, you

won't see a difference in quality.

Cheers Colin. Well, I guess that's a sign it is time to upgrade.

I know the specs say CS2 and CS3, but then they say afterwards any application that supports plug-ins. So has anyone had success

installing Silver Efex as a plug-in for CS?

I've got the 75/4.5 Grandagon-N and let me assure you, this lens is a razor at f/22 and still a very strong performer at f/32.

And that is comparing it against my 135 Sironar-S and Schneider 110XL. I suspect either technique or a bad sample are to

blame here.

Adam,

 

Ignore the morons in the camera shops. If they were not selling digi-toys for a living

they'd be selling DVD players and televisions. Digital is for the masses...the consumer

whores that never were "photographers" until it became easy. Once you get your 4x5

system, have done a drum scan and made a 30x40 print, take it back to the shop and

watch the idiots drool over the quality. That "digital omnipotence" attitude really pisses

me off.

The 135mm/210mm is a great combo. I can highly recommend the 210 APO Sironar-

S, my second most frequently used lens next to the 110/135.

Adam,

 

I have both the 135 Sironar-S and the 110XL. I bought the 135 Sironar-S as my first

4x5 lens. After a trip to Zion NP, I realized that on about half a dozen images I ran out

of image circle, due mainly to situations requiring extreme rise. I immediately

purchased the 110XL and have never run out of image circle (as you would expect

using this lens on 4x5), nor required the IIIb CF. Now, having said this, if I do not need

extreme movements, the Sironar-S is my choice. Resolution wise, it edges out the

110XL and I find its warmer color rendition more pleasing on the chrome films I chose

to image with. I would say the 135mm Sironar-S and 300/5.6 Sironar-S are the

sharpest lenses in my stable, followed by the 110XL.

I'm currently looking for a pro-level flatbed scanner for my 4x5 chromes and 6x7 B&W negs. I've had

scans performed on the iQSmart3, but not the iQSmart2, so I'm looking for feedback from any users of

the iQSmart2 in order to guage what, if any, hit I will take in scan quality. The scans will be purposed

for inkjet printing.

Guess I was lucky to capture this on the worst Leica ever made....

Yep. Pradovit RT-m with Supercolorplan Pro. Have yet to see anything in digital projection

even come close.

I thought I saw some in PhotoService on Rue Notre Dame last weekend.

Chris, don't be so daft. A 1DMIII is nowhere near as good as my Mamiya 7. Just make a

20x25 print and the difference is night and day. If you beleive otherwise, than you got a

lousy scan.

I'll second the Rodenstock 75/4.5 Grandagon-N. Absolutely crisp edge to edge. Diffraction

limited though past f/32.

If you want accurate manual focussing, pick up a rangefinder sometime and then try to go

back to an SLR. LOL!

George, thanks for the comparative images. Pretty convinving. I'm wondering if a Katzeye

screen would help with the focussing accuracy. Just not sure if they are available yet for

the D300. The results from the 35/2 lead me to expect similar or improved results with

the 28/2 given the legendary status of this lens.

Ilkka,

 

It was the AF version. It was all that they had available in the store.

Curious if anyone has tried this combination. I shot a few frames with the D300 and Nikkor 28/2.8 and

was not overly impressed with this lens.

Patrick,

 

I bought Phase One before Lightroom was available and am entitled to two major upgrades

as a result. I have always been more than satisfied with the PO RAW processing engine.

But I refuse to upgrade my OS just to be able to process D300 files. I will likely just buy

Nikon's RAW processing software instead.

Thinking of getting a Nikon D300 and need this latest version for RAW processing. I'm still running

OSX v. 10.3.9, but Phase One recommend 10.4.11 or later. Really do not want to have to upgrade just

for a RAW processor. Has anyone installed Capture One v4 on 10.3.9? I'm running a G5 duo pre-Intel.

Ever see a print made from a 4x5 or 8x10 drum scanned chrome? Nuff said.

Yeah, 4x5 film is dead thats why their were 9,000 transactions for view cameras last year on

ebay and 27,000 large format lens transactions. That's why Epson brought out the 700/750

scanners with 4x5 holders and why Microtek is now shipping the M1. That's why Fuji

brought back Velvia 50 and introduced 400X. Oh yeah, and of course Canon and Nikon wide

angles are much more corrected and easily outresolve the likes of a the mamiya 7 optics.

Give me a break.

Rodenstock 90/4.5 Grandagon-N. I always seem to get caught focussing when the light is

dim. It is hefty, but the IQ is stellar.

I've never run out of image circle with my Rodenstock 135mm APO Sironar-S with it's

208mm image circle. And I do some pretty extreme tilts and swings on 4x5. You will be

hard pressed to beat the resolution of this 135.

Mamiya 7 and 65/4 L Lens-the Ultimate Street Machine.