bill_palmer2

No, the frame rate stays at about 2 frames/sec whatever the sync or exposure settings. I

think this is just a function of how much data can be shoved down the wire.

Live Video is a useful feature in a number of ways. It gives me a higher magnification view

than either of my viewfinders. It makes it much easier to make adjustments in a

collaborative environment because we can all see the image at once. There's no issue with

seeing the exact borders of the image, unlike the crop lines on the focusing screen.

Finally, the genesis of the feature was for people using the earlier Imacon digital backs on

view cameras.

I wonder about the suitability of the CFV for IR work. There's an IR filter in front of the

sensor, but the spec sheet is silent on the spectral range available. If you want to send me

a UV-Sonnar and Schott UG11 filter, I'd be happy to report back :-)

Edward,

Live Video works fine with the CFV if you lock up the mirror and open the shutter (Bulb

setting and a locking cable release is my approach). Of course, by "works fine" I mean that

you get something workable; the frame rate is annoyingly low, though maybe a machine

with a FW800 port would do better than my Macbook.

The ability to drag an overlay image into the Live Video window is something that I find

quite cool, even though I've never had a use for it! The focus checker does get some use,

although it reminds me how stiff the focus action on even a brand-new CFE lens is

compared to any AF lens I've handled.

Any reason you don't want to try the experiment again with FlexColor 4.8.4, which is the

current version? I haven't had any problems using Live Video with the CFV with 4.8.4 (or

4.8.1 that I can recall). You did remember to open the shutter first, right? :-) Or are you

saying that you don't even get the Live Video window?

Bill

"When you break down the number hours that go into shooting a wedding and processing

the images I'm lucky to get $13-$15 an hour."

Ah, yes, but you work all those extra hours, which evens things up :-)

"We lose $5 on every shirt we sell, but we make up for it in volume!"

I'll join the chorus of those reporting that the CF handle is at best a mixed blessing, at

least on the 80 mm. I put one on my brand-new 80 mm lens shortly after I bought it back

in 1991, and quickly abandoned all thoughts of buying them for subsequent lens

purchases. Either the handle or the clamping bolt area is usually in the way when I want to

put the camera on or off the Hasselblad quick-release tripod mount. I'm right handed and

use the camera handheld as well as on the tripod, so having the handle pointing to the

right is the most useful place for me, but then it frequently interferes with the cable

release. When I use the camera handheld and have my finger on the shutter release, the

base of the handle scrapes against my finger. When you leave the thing folded in, it

interferes with use of the EV lock button when focused in the distance range I most often

use for my shots with the 80 mm lens. It also makes the lens more difficult to insert or

extract from its pouch. It's a nuisance, and I'll take it off if ever I figure out where I put

the knurled ring all those years ago. I understand the old C lenses had a stiffer focus

action, and there the extra leverage might be more welcome; I didn't really find it to be

much of an aid to quick focusing. Inconvenient, unhelpful, and expensive; what's not to

like? :-)

For those on the edge of their seats wondering how this all turned out, it appears Julianna's

ex may have been, uh, not a mensch, but also was not very effective at wiping out her stuff.

Fortunately, DiskWarrior's scavenging abilities were up to repairing the HD damage caused by

Norton's disk repair tools. When your disk is messed up, the last thing you want to do is to

run a program that mucks around changing the disk before you have a chance to review the

results!

Q.G. is quite right about using the darkslide to prevent accidental exposures, and I had to

stop and think for a moment why that didn't occur to me as I was writing my earlier posting.

Often when going for a walk with the camera, I'll put the darkslide in my shirt pocket when I

take the first picture, and not replace it until needed (changing backs, for example). My

backs were made before those darkslide holders were added by Hasselblad, and while I was

aware of the aftermarket holders, they just didn't look right to me. In any case, using the

gear mostly for landscapes, I always keep the gear ready to fire, you never know when a tree

or a mountain is going to suddenly appear :-)

I've had good results from DataRescue's PhotoRescue for retrieving images from memory

cards when they've been inadvertently deleted, camera hiccups, etc.

I'll second the recommendation not to use your computer until you've done the data

recovery process. Once you do get the files back, you'll want to start doing some sort of

organized backups, preferably keeping a copy somewhere else where it won't be lost if

there's a fire, loser boyfriend, or other disaster. External disks are cheap, and so is the

SuperDuper! program.

Depending on how savvy your ex was, they might just be sitting in the iPhoto Trash folder,

wouldn't that be a nice surprise :-)

Juliana, if you're in the SF Bay area and are willing to bring your computer to the Stanford/

Palo Alto area, send me email and I'll try to help you recover your stuff.

You can leave it in either state without concern for the equipment, according to Hasselblad.

There's an advantage to leaving it cocked; you can see through the camera and change lenses

without having to wind it first. I suppose a possible advantage to leaving it in the fired

position is that you won't accidentally waste a frame if the shutter release gets bumped.

Yeah, but the Mamiya 6 and 7 forum is a subset of the Medium Format forum, and so the

questions show up for everyone who reads the Medium Format forum. Admittedly, if you've

only ever read the Mamiya 6 and 7 forum you might not necessarily realize that... I was

wondering why you were posting a Leica question here, myself, what with the M7 ref :-)

As Edward said, there's a slide switch on the left side of the lens (as viewed from the

normal operating position for the camera). It's possible that even if you operate the switch

as he describes that the lens won't go back into automatic stop-down mode if it is in need

of a CLA. I've got a 250 CF which has apparently accumulated some debris in the

mechanism such that it won't pop the switch into the auto position when the end of the

switch is pressed, only if I actually move it myself. Hasn't been enough of an issue to send

the lens for service (everything else works fine), but I can imagine if someone who had

never handled a CF lens got it, there would be some confusion about how to get it to

work. On all my other CF lenses, simply brushing my thumb downward along the bottom

end of that switch is enough. In my opinion, the operation of this feature isn't quite as

nice on the CFi lenses as on the CF lenses, though for the most things I like the CFi lenses

a bit more.

If you can completely darken your studio, you could test the shutter speed variation by

setting the shutter speed to Bulb, and exposing in complete darkness. Trigger the flash

manually after opening the shutter, and be sure to hold the shutter release down until after

the flash goes off, as the auxiliary shutter in the body won't stay open otherwise. Assuming

your shutters all open completely , no ambient light contribution to the exposure, consistent

processing of the whole strip of film, if you now get consistent exposures, that pretty

strongly suggests at least some of the shutters may need a CLA.

While I generally agree with what has been posted here so far, there are cases where "the

light here" isn't the same as "the light over there" even though both spots are outside lit by

that handy overhead lightbox in the sky. A landscape photo featuring some changing

weather (storm moving in) is one obvious example, or a photograph of a building that is

shaded by adjacent buildings while you are not (or vice versa). With some practice and

common sense, you'll learn how you might need to adjust an incident reading for such

cases.

A place where incident metering doesn't offer much help (at least for me) is where you

have a backlit subject, especially if the subject is translucent.

A spot meter can be your friend if you want to make a more detailed examination of the

various subject brightness levels, especially if you are planning to control development

and exposure with the aim of altering the relationships between those values. A spot

meter can also be used to get incident readings by taking a reading off a standard gray

card held in the target light, though you need to be careful to fill the field of view with only

the card and hold it at the right angle to get comparable illumination. I think that while a

spot meter can provide more detailed information about a scene than an incident meter,

it's probably also easier to make a mistake with a spot meter.

With either type of meter, understanding what the meter is measuring and recognizing the

situations in which it can be led astray will help considerably in getting a better percentage

of suitably exposed shots. I think it is a useful drill to spend some time practicing the skill

of eyeballing exposures without a meter using the sunny f/16 rule. See http://

www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm for one writeup on the topic.

I've got a Pentax Digital Spot meter, not sure if they are still available. There's no question

about it, you're going to look like a geek when you pull one out and start squinting

through it at your subject :-) Other than that, it seems to work fine for me.

A slightly out of the box idea is to carry a digital camera that shows what exposure it

used. See http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/meters-digicam.htm for details.

I think Lawrence's point is that there are no B&W films in 220 except Tri-X 320. My

understanding is that wedding photographers were the usual purchasers of 220, so perhaps

it isn't too surprising that what's left is a handful of color films.

Might be worth finding someone who shoots color who would be interested in trading backs,

or selling the back while there is still something of a market and buying a 120 back to

replace it.

Kevin, you ARE using the sync outlet on the lens and not one on the body (such as you might find with an old 500C or pre-1976 500EL), and this is not a focal plane shutter body, correct? Another thought is that the sync cord (or the connector or socket on the lens) is failing, and being used with the tubes is pulling it into a position where it doesn't provide electrical continuity. Did the flash fire at all when you used extension tubes?

Bill