frankz

Can't think of the mod no. right now, but I've got one (not dedicated) that I use with my 30D, Hassy, RB, and occasionally the Sinar just to get a Pola shot quickly. Set the switch on a color, set the corresponding aperture on the camera and truck on.

It's been very repeatable used in that manner.

The blow appears to have knocked the 1st element a bit crooked.

Send it to Canon - it's certainly worth that.

Things aren't quite as they were years ago - go out taking pictures and someone is liable to call the cops on you suspecting you're a terrorist and planning a massive strike.

Good luck in finding a site or two.

X and M settings are only to select the type of flash you're using. Th X is for electronic flash, the M is for flashbulbs - M is a setting that fires the flash just a little before full shutter opening to let the bulbs' filaments get a good burn going.

If you didn't use any flash at all, there'll be no problem with your photos.

As for the errant switch, put it back on X and leave it - check before you use flash (unless you are using the old flashbulbs).

Take a tape measurer in one hand and the lens in the other.

Hold the lens to allow a projection of an image onto a wall and measure with the tape measurer.

While not exactly a scientific way of going about things, you'll have a fairly close idea as to the lens' coverage.

I'll second Walter's suggestion - burn a piece of film and practice.

That practice piece of film is guaranteed to save you money in the long run.

Never had a problem with any grip in the verticle orientation nor the small amount of additional weight.

Nobody should complain about weight until they've used a F1n with attached motor drive for a day or two, but that's only my opinion.

Ellis Vener:

Thanks for the correction - I took too much for granted.

Yes - a Sinar F or F2 will drive one bonkers trying to focus it. P, P2, C or X is the way to go for simplicity.

David:

I'm a Sinar fan, mainly because of the "system" approach they have taken. The on-axis movements take a lot of the nonsense out of a setup and all motion is geared; in addition, virtually anything you may care to hang on a Sinar LF at a later date probably already has an adapter available to fit the system from a source somewhere.

While there's not a thing wrong with the format, there's definitely a lack of available films as Rodrigo said.

A 5 X 7 is the photographic equivalent of a 16 gage shotgun.

I had little experience with an RZ other than I can identify one, but ...

Do the lenses work like the RB, in particular, does the rim around the socket on the lens for the cable release have to be reset to a different position to fire fro the lens or does the camera sense this by itself?

I can't help you much with your non-working prism, but I can, however too late, echo what others have said about fleaBay sellers - If the items isn't 'tested' because it 'doesn't have a battery', odds are it won't work.

The guy you were dealing with probably wouldn't have known he had a hasselblad part unless someone else had told him.

Giles -

Somehow or another those homemade widgets seem to take better photos than the off-the-shelf stuff, don't they.

I do the same. By trade, I'm a diemaker and by default I'm my own SK Grimes. Cheaper or not you've got something nobody else has.

Feed 'em a fish.

The seller, TMRPromotions, is an egotistical twit. That would have been my first clue as to the quality of whatever he/she is/was offering for sale. The second would have been this turkey's extreme shipping costs (in the case of TMR, never less that 2X actual cost). Stay away from this bozo - far away.

Don't get me wrong - there is a great deal of good stuff for sale there; one must sift and sift and ...

The seller, TMRPromotions, is an egotistical twit. That would have been my first clue as to the quality of whatever he/she is/was offering for sale. The second would have been this turkey's extreme shipping costs wants (in the case of TMR, never less that 2X actual cost). Stay away from this bozo - far away.

Don't get me wrong - there is a great deal of good stuff for sale there; one must sift and sift and ...

I'd like to throw a, perhaps, simpler version of the calculations into to soup if I may.

F "stops" are no more than a ratio of a given lens' clear-glass diameter to its focal lenth AT INFINITY. (Remember, your trig teacher probably never called that a ratio, either - the witch).

Example - conventional wisdom says your 4 X 5 has a 'normal' (I hate that word) focal length of 150 mm and clear glass measures 31mm (I'm doing this in sillymeters 'cause I don't know where you live). Anyhow - 150mm / 31mm = f4.83 in this example.

Now - with that same lens and the bellows racked out to 190mm, your (f4.83 at infinity focus) lens suddenly becomes a f6.12 lens because of the extension needed to focus closer.

Remember - this is only a ratio of lens focal length/clear diameter and so far I've only given examples of clear lens diameters and haven't brushed on the lens' aperture settings but it figures the same way and only adds one extra calculation to the mix to find out where you are re: real aperture.

This is my method for caculating 'real' aperture. It's really simple for me but all I was good at in school was math and beer drinking.

It would make sense in that the present day b&w C41 process (same as color) film acts like color in regards to exposure - that is a little extra smooths things out rather than b&w, where overexposure makes things grainier.

Is this what you were taking about?

Get a light meter and, above all, learn what the meter is telling you.

Your 35mm SLR's meter gave you a gray scale value (zone 5, if you're into that) and it's up to you to translate that to what you're trying to do. A meter (any meter) will do you no good unless you know what it's saying.

Example (I'll use zones as there's only ten) - caucasion skin metered and a reading taken. Skin is read as zone 5 (meters read everything as zone 5) but I know that's too dark so I adjust for one-two stops more light to place the subject where I want it. Black skin would be the opposite (close two stops or ...) and there are variables in-between.

Imagine a boomiing voice from above - "BUY A METER".