robin_barnes

<p>Many thanks for your reply Douglas. I was aware of most of the limitations you mention and would prefer to use Sony lenses but unfortunately there are very few FE lenses available. In particular there is no 28-105mm. My Pentax 28-105mm was my favourite lens and about 95% of my shots were taken with it. Like you I found it to be very good. <br>

If I decide to buy a Sony A7 my plan would be to buy it without the 28-70mm kit lens and then use my Pentax 28-105mm with an adaptor most of the time until Sony, or perhaps Sigma, make something similar.<br>

.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I have each of the three lenses listed above from the time when I shot film with a Pentax MZ-5n. When I moved to digital I opted to get a Nikon D3100.<br>

I would like to have a full frame digital camera but they are all too big and heavy except, that is, for the Sony A7. This looks like an attractive proposition especially now that the price has dropped and I have been thinking about buying the body and a lens adaptor and using my Pentax zooms again (they all have aperture rings so using an adaptor should be relatively easy).<br>

I was wondering if anyone here has used any of these lenses with an A7 and if so what you think of the results? Also which adaptor did you use?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Charles - the RX100 has really impressed me (it goes everywhere with me which means I am taking many more photographs than I used to) such that after more than 30 years as a Nikon user I am thinking about trading in my relatively heavy DSLR gear for an interchangeable lens Sony mirrorless system. The A7 is rather tempting now that the price has dropped but I think I will wait and see what the rumoured A7000 has to offer before making a move. <br>

Thanks again,<br>

Robin</p>

 

<p>Thanks very much Charles - works on my MK1 exactly as you described.</p>

<p>I have had a Sony RX100 for a few months and am amazed at the quality of the images I get from it - as good as my Nikon D3100 as far as I can tell. However I find the amount of information displayed on screen distracting when I am composing a shot. Is there any way of turning this off or reducing it? I have searched the menus and can't find one.</p>

 

<p>Many thanks Pete that's just what I needed to know.</p>

<p>Thank you for replying Shiang. That was the impression I had gained but I was hoping there might be someone here who is using such an adaptor and could confirm it.</p>

<p>I am a long standing Nikon user having owned a pair of FE2s for thirty years and more recently a D3100. I have a number of old AIS manual lenses - 50mm, 85mm and 105mm plus two E series zooms 36-73mm and 75-150mm together with a DX 35mm and 16-85mm zoom.<br>

I am thinking about buying a Fuji X E-1 and was very interested to learn that Novoflex make an adaptor which would enable me to use my nikon lenses on this camera. <br>

It would appear that I would be able to use the manual lenses in aperture priority mode and the camera will meter and set the appropriate shutter speed - just like my FE2s. Is this correct? Also what would be possible with this adaptor and the DX lenses as neither has an aperture ring? </p>

<p>Thanks Bob that's what I wanted to know.</p>

<p>I look forward to your test Shun. As this is a feature on some other Nikon cameras do you have to put in the lens data each time you attach a non-CPU lens or just once and the camera memorises it? </p>

<p>Shun - the post is on the thread started by Ellis Vener "Hands on preview.....". It is by Frank Skomial and on page 4 of the thread. I see that Dieter has posted to that thread pointing out that this information is wrong but at the time I read it he had not done so.</p>

<p>I have been looking forward to the D600 announcement in the hope that it would be both lightweight enough so as not to cripple me (currently I use a D3100) and also allow me to use my collection of non-CPU lenses from my film days again. I was pleased when I saw the weight but very disappointed to read a number of posts, here and elsewhere, stating that it does not meter with these lenses.<br>

However this would appear to be wrong. Below is a quote from the technical specification on Nikon UK's website.<br>

"Metering Method ........... colour matrix metering available with non-CPU lenses if user provides lens data<br>

Centre-weighted .......... non-CPU lenses use 12mm circle or average of entire frame<br>

Spot: 4mm circle ..........centred on centre focus point when non-CPU lens is used" </p>

<p>It does not say whether you have to "provide the lens data" each time you attach a non-CPU lens or if you only have to do it once and the camera memorises it. </p>

 

<p>The UK recommended price of £1955 is unrealistic. Cameraworld in London is currently selling the D800 for £2099! </p>

<p>Glad to hear it Michel. I have now scanned about 100 slides. The mounts have varied in thickness but the scans have all turned equally sharp!</p>

<p>How do you delete the whole of a post you've accidently submitted twice? I've deleted the text but can't get rid of the top line</p>

<p>This proving to be a very helpful thread for me - my thanks to you all. The V500 is different from some other scanners in that the area for scanning film is limited to four 35mm slides, two 35mm film strips or a two 6 x6 frames so I cut out a piece of card the same size as the film holders (which only cover about two thirds of the area of the glass) and then, using the MF holder as a guide, cut a square out of the card the size of a 6 x 6 mount. <br>

I then put the card in the scanner in the same place as the holder goes, placed a slide into the square hole and selected Prescan. This didn't work! I got a message saying " Please remove the document mat and/or the document cover".<br>

I guessed that the scanner was being awkward because the holder wasn't present so I tried taking the card out and placing the MF holder on top of the slide. Closing the lid wasn't a problem - it appears to have feet which lift it high enough not to rest on the holder. This, very crude, arrangement worked.<br>

However this morning having read the posts by Jack and Michael L and the post on Flickr I now have a better method.<br>

I "unchecked" the Thumbnail box, put my piece of card on the scanner as a guide to where the slide should go and placed a slide in the square cut out. Then I removed the card and selected Prescan (I tried prescanning with the card in place but got the above error message again). This time the Prescan worked and came up with a marque to select the area I wished to scan. </p>

 

<p>Thank you for your replies. Glad to know that a solution like this works<br>

I notice Michael (Elenco) that your son has incorporated a lip on the template for the slide mounts to rest on. With the V500 35mm slides sit directly on the glass - the holder just locates them on the correct part of it - so I am planning to make a simpler template which does the same for medium format. I hadn't thought of taping the template to the platen to keep it in the same place - I was planning to have it pressed against the lip round the platen edge to do that but clearly taping it would be better - thanks<br>

Incidentally I know that many people have experimented with their scanner to find the best height above the glass to position the film. I have to say that with my V500 the results I have got with 35mm slides resting on the glass seem to be very sharp. </p>

<p>I have scanned medium format film strips on my V500 but, unlike 35mm slides, there is no part of the film holders dedicated medium format slides. Unfortunately taking the pieces of film out of the mounts and putting them into the film strip section of the holder won't work because when I put them into mounts (many years ago so that I could project them) I trimmed them so that they would fit in the mounts thereby making them too narrow to fit in the holder. <br>

I am thinking of making a template out of card to locate the slides in the right place on the scanning glass (I am assuming that the software won't "object" to me not using one of the Epson holders) but was wondered if anyone had any other ideas? </p>

<p>Thank you Lorne that's just what I wanted to hear.</p>

<p>I recently bought a Plustek scanner with Silverfast Ai Studio software and am currently learning to use these. It had been my intention to produce the best quality unadjusted scans with Silverfast and then use Photoshop Elements (version 8 for Mac) for the any adjustments. However I have just found out that if the scans are 16 bit, rather than 8 bit, many of the features of PSE become unavailable.<br>

It has occurred to me that one answer would be to use NX2 instead of PSE. So far as I am aware NX2 is able to cope with 16 bit files without any restrictions on the tools that can be used. Is this right or will I still run into problems? </p>

 

<p>I thought that would be the case so I'll play around with 48 bit HDR and see if it suits me. No! - don't laugh I am still using Tiger! So I can't use software like Silverfast 8, Lightroom 3 or Aperture 3. My iMac is now 5 years old so I will probably get a current model later this year and get up to date on the software front. However I don't envisage moving up to Silverfast 8 as I just bought my Plustek to digitize my slides and that shouldn't take more than about 3 months after which I will be fully digital. <br /> Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>I may have got a better Kodachrome target than you but it caused me a few problems as discussed in the thread I started in this forum earlier in the week. The software kept reading the target barcode incorrectly and then, consequently, searched for a reference file that didn't exist! I am very grateful to Tom River for telling me how to get round this problem (details in my previous thread).<br>

Going back to your workflow - is using 48 bit HDR Color rather than just 48 bit Color analogous to, in digital, shooting raw instead of jpeg and if, I use it, will Silverfast, after I have finished making adjustments, let me save as a Tiff that can be read by other software? </p>

<p>Somehow managed to post the above twice! Deleted the second one as best I can but can't get rid of the title line!</p>

<p>Thanks for your response Benny. I will give your workflow a try but I can't scan at 64 bit HDRi. The 7600i just offers me 48>24 Color (default setting), 48 bit Color and 48 bit HDR Color (not HDRi) plus corresponding 16 bit Greyscale settings which I assume are for black and white film. I had been thinking of using 48>24 Color because, as I understand it, Elements can't do much with 48 bit files so I would have to convert them to 24 bit anyway but this setting will allow me to use 48 bit for anything I do within Silverfast but the output will be 24 bit. <br>

I admit to not being clear as to what the differences between 48 bit Color and 48 bit HDR Color are. It would nice if there was some decent documentation for Silverfast or better still a "Missing Manual" book.<br>

Interesting that you found the preloaded Kodachrome profile gave you better results than the one generated using your IT8 target. I did a comparative test which showed of that of the two it is my "Target" profile which produces the more accurate colours. I will have a look at CaptureOne.</p>

 

<p>I have recently bought a Plustek 7600i with Silverfast Ai Studio 6.6. I also have Photoshop Elements 8 (for Mac) and am currently learning to use both pieces of software. I would appreciate any advice on workflow and the Silverfast settings to use. I will be scanning Kodachrome slides and have calibrated the scanner with an IT8 target for that film. <br>

My first thoughts are to use Silverfast just for scanning and do all the adjustments in Elements but it may be that there are things that are best done with Silverfast before transferring the files to Elements. <br>

Also I am not entirely clear as to how I should configure the software in order to produce completely unadjusted scans so would be very grateful for some guidance on that. </p>