wildestseas

<p>Thank you all for the information. I suppose I will have to just settle with the slow speeds of the Minolta software. I suppose it's better than having to manually touch-up dust and scratches on each image. Only three hundred scans to go! Woot!<br>

Mendel: you've provided a fantastic illustration of GD. Thank you - it looks like it works fairly well. I've seen that third-party diffusion plates are becoming popular for the flatbeds too, so obviously people are seeing results. </p>

<p>I recently got a Minolta Scan Elite 5400. I run Windows Server 2008 x64, and was able to make the scanner operational by installing the drivers included with Vuescan. When using Vuescan in demo mode, I am able to do a single pass 5400 dpi scan in about 90 seconds using Digital ICE. It works beautifully to remove the dust and scratches. When I enable both Digital ICE and "Grain Dissolver," (which diffuses the light source) it bumps up the scan time to around five minutes, with no worthwhile improvement in grain visibility.<br>

I'm trying to use Minolta's DiMage Scan Utility. It seems to work fine except for one annoying feature: it automatically turns on "Grain Dissolver" whenever ICE is enabled, thus making the whole process extremely slow. Is anyone aware of a workaround way to turn off Grain Dissolver while keeping ICE enabled?<br>

I would purchase Vuescan but it nearly always crashes when I have autofocus enabled on the scanner. I have tried multiple versions of Vuescan, re-installs, disabling antivirus software, etc, and I can't fix this hiccup. It crashes as the scanner tries to focus. <br>

So here I am, stuck between Minolta's DiMage software and their annoyingly slow and ineffective "Grain Dissolver," and Silverfast at its enormous price, hoping that there is a cheap workaround. </p>

<p>Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you. </p>

<p>Thanks Mark - I really appreciate it! </p>

<p>I picked up a Canon AC 75-200mm f/4.5 zoom lens used, thinking it was an EOS mount. It turns out that it is only compatible with the T80 and a few other FD bodies in manual focus mode. <br>

The lens looks like it's in great condition - but I've noticed that the aperture blades are closed down to about f/8. I can't control them by any of the levers on the back of the lens mount. This strikes me as a bit odd as most lenses stay wide open until you fire the shutter. <br>

The AC lenses do not have aperture controls on the lens. You have to control this electronically from the camera body, so there's a chance that it is normal for the lens to stop down a bit when you take it off the camera. <br>

Can any of you with AC lenses tell me if this is normal for the aperture to stay stopped-down a bit when it's off the camera? It could save me an enormous headache in the future if I try to sell it again. Thanks in advance! </p>

<p>I recently picked up a Leica Mini Zoom P&S for a whopping $1.99 from a thrift store (cheapest camera on the shelf). I've read some positive things about it here and there but can't come across any instructions, or specifications. One Ebay auction stated that the lens had a maximum aperture of f/1.4 when fully zoomed out and f/5.6 when zoomed in, but this seems fishy to me. I'd expect it to be an f/4.5-5.6 at best.<br>

The camera also has eight different modes, a few of which I'm not sure of their exact function. The first one is flash-off with an infinity symbol, the second is flash-off with a B. I'm assuming that the first is probably infinity focus lock, but the second is a bit of a mystery. I don't see how the camera could have a bulb function unless the camera can take a remote control. <br>

I'm also curious of some of the specs: maximum and minimum shutter speeds, and especially how the programmed metering is weighted. I love using point-and-shoots, but only when I can predict their behavior.<br>

Any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. </p>

<p>Thank you guys for your responses. I really appreciate it. I'll get a hold of some Tiger Cloth and Photoflo first and then try the software. I'll post my results here later.</p>

<p>I have a bunch of negatives that are unfortunately rather beat up from water damage and subsequent handling. Mostly it just looks like rather severe dust. For my color negatives it is no problem: Digital Ice does a beautiful job with the Nikon Coolscan 5000. Being that silver reflects infrared light, Digital Ice can't work its Fourier wonders on black and white silver emulsion film, so I'm left with lots of work to do with the spot remover in Photoshop CS4. The dust and scratches filter built in to Photoshop hardly does a thing with the 24 megapixel scans. There must be some third party application out there that fills this niche.<br /> Google searches don't bring up a whole lot besides scanners and tutorials for manual dust and scratches removal.<br /> Does anyone know of serious plug-ins to automate this otherwise arduous task?</p>

<p><img src="http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3932/image31h.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Thank you for all of your thoughts. I've decided that it's hard to beat the Olympus OM-1. I just picked one up for $35. It was mechanically sound but the exterior was caked with dust - hence the low price. Turns out the dust was protective: fifteen minutes with an old toothbrush, a rag and some acetone and it suddenly looks like a gem. For another $20 I picked up a Tamron 28mm F/2.5 lens. I can't believe the engineering that went into these things. </p><div></div>

<p>Have any of you ever heard of a device that attaches to a cable release and allows the timing of long exposures - that is - several hour exposures? I am going to be working on a little astrophotography project over the next few months and was wondering if something exists that could trip the shutter closed on an all-mechanical camera after a specified period of time. In other words, I don't want to have to wake up before sunrise to close the shutter. I'm lazy, and furthermore, I don't want to condition my s.o. to associate me and my camping trips with alarm clocks going off in the middle of the night - there's got to be a solution. A shutter trigger/timer is such a simple idea - I'd be surprised if nobody has made such an apparatus, but my internet searches haven't turned up anything.</p>

<p>This year I hope to do some star trail photography while on some backpacking trips. I've got a digital kit that I'll be taking for daytime use, but I still need to find a manual 35mm camera for the long, night-time exposures. I've used an Olympus OM-1n in the past for this type of photography and it worked great - but back then digital was a novelty and the OM-1n was my main camera. This year some of my backpacking trips will be over 100 miles and I plan to saw the handle off of my toothbrush to cut down on weight. Carrying the overbuilt lump of plastic that is my digital kit (in addition to a tripod) is going to be a pain in the ass as it is, and I groan at the thought of lugging an extra SLR along for two weeks just to take a dozen or so exposures with it. I don't need any features beyond a mechanical shutter that can be locked open. I have a little Olympus XA rangefinder that is beautifully small and would be perfect for star trails if it had a mechanical shutter with a bulb mode. Do any of you know of any relatively cheap old cameras (rangefinders or point-and-shoots) with wide-angle lenses that have mechanical shutters that can be locked open? Something as simple as a pinhole camera would work if I didn't need a wider aperture (and prefer a sharper lens).</p>

<p>I've never thought about cleaning a sensor with a shop vac. It seems like as long as you were very careful not to apply too much suction, it would probably be fine. That canned air is pretty high pressure so I don't see how it would really be any different. Let me know how it turns out for you.</p>

<p>I've really been enjoying the Olympus XA rangefinder. It's from 1979 has has got a little 30mm f/2.8 lens and is pretty sharp. It goes just about everywhere with me which means it's always there during those magic moments of light that don't come very often. It only has one mode - aperture priority metering, but it's always spot-on. What's fun about this camera? Besides being just about the smallest 35mm full-frame camera out there, people who have gotten used to me with a DSLR always in hand start laughing when they see it - especially when I work the film winding wheel. I hate to say it, but my large pile of digital gear has been collecting dust due to the XA.</p>

<p>After years of shooting digital I recently rediscovered the joys of shooting with film due to a little Olympus XA-1 rangefinder that I scored off of Ebay for $40. I've decided that I want to pick up a "modern classic" SLR for high ISO, infrared, and long exposure work. I owned an Olympus OM4 about ten years ago and it was just about the nicest, most intuitive camera I've ever held. The thing was lightweight, sized perfectly, built like a tank, had spot metering that could average seven samples, in addition to excellent aperture priority metering. My inclination is to pick up another OM4, but here's the thing: I've only ever owned Olympus cameras. I've had two OM-1n's, the OM4, a modern Olympus digital kit, and now the XA-1. It really seems like I should try something new - perhaps the Nikon FM2. Have any of you had direct experience with both an Olympus OM3/4 and a Nikon FM2? How do they compare? Is there another modern classic SLR in the same price range that has ever triggered admiration every time you pulled it from the bag? I'm going for sex appeal - I've got a serious digital kit and don't need to replace it - I just want a classic for technical special occasions.</p>

I've had an upscale spa and massage practice ask to consign some of my work but have never done anything like

this before. Do people really buy fine-art prints off the walls of businesses? How much can I get away with

asking for an 11x14 print? The work is nice, but it's not quite National Geographic picture of the month

material. Is it better to sell the prints framed or should I supply framed versions to be displayed in addition

to mounted prints that the business actually sells to customers?

Does this all sound like a poor investment?

Thank you all for your responses. This has all been extremely helpful.

Hello all,

 

I recently acquired a Kiev 60 medium format system from Hartblei to give medium

format a try. It came with a TTL metering system that for lack of better words,

is a worthless, overpriced, piece of crap. This is a really fun camera to shoot

with, I have some beautiful glass for it (30mm Arsat fish eye) but I hardly ever

use it as I need to also carry my digital kit in order to accurately meter for

it. The only simple answer is to pick up a hand-held light meter.

Now before someone tells me I need the newest Sennheiser Ferarri to plug into

the studio strobes that I don't have (or care to have for that matter), let me

tell you, I am a starving college student who cannot afford bells and whistles.

I would be plenty happy with an ambient light meter or a simple spot meter.

Everywhere I look I only find references to the lobster meters - when I go on

Ebay, I have a hard time distinguishing practical, simple meters from dinosaurs

that are probably best treated as bookshelf relics. If I need to do anything

technical, I have a comprehensive digital kit that I will always use.

Yes, I simply need a solid, basic light meter - spot or ambient that fits nicely

in my pocket and most importantly, in my meager budget.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks and

cheers,

 

Jonathan

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