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rory_edge1

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    What Shall I do!

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Two other comments.

     

    If you want to shoot black and white film, you may well find that the labs in Victoria will want one to two weeks to process it and that the cost is outrageous. There are three solutions. The first is to process the film yourself. It is easy to do, but you have to want to do it. The second is to use black and white chromogenic film (Kodak BW400CN) that can be processed in colour chemistry. The third is to use colour film and convert to black and white in Photoshop.

     

    Secondly, you have to decide how you are going to print. The choices are a traditional darkroom, which is a significant commitment, or digitization. If you go the digital route, you have two choices. The first is to pay for scans, which mounts up. The second is to buy a scanner and do it yourself. A good scanner for 35mm isn't particularly expensive, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that some people, myself among them, don't consider scanning a fun way to spend time.

    What Shall I do!

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Byron,

     

    As I understand it, you are trying to decide between buying a Nikon Nikon D300, which is apparently going to come on the market next month at a price of US$1800, or a Leica M for $800 or so.

     

    It's clear that you want to try a Leica and have been thinking about it for some time, so I guess that what you are looking for is encouragement to just do it :)

     

    If you want to try film, you should do it.

     

    The M3 is a wonderful camera on which to learn the ins and outs of film, and for that matter on which to get a really firm grounding in photographic principles. The fact that you will need to buy, and learn how to use, an external light meter is a plus.

     

    The price that you are prepared to pay will buy an M3 body in great condition mechanically and cosmetically. However, it will also buy you a clunker that needs expensive repairs. You need to buy either from an honest owner, or from a reputable dealer that knows, and regularly deals in, Leicas. The reputable dealers are well known, and if you want people on this forum can make suggestions. Of course, you may be completely comfortable with the local dealer whose M3 you are considering.

     

    You are right that should you decide that an M3 is not for you, you will be able to resell the camera for pretty close to what you paid for it, provided that it is in good condition mechanically and cosmetically.

     

    I think that if you buy a light meter you are likely to want to keep it regardless of whether you use digital or film cameras in the future. It is important to get one that gives incident as well as reflective readings. Good meters are readily available second-hand at very reasonable prices. If you want a new one, Sekonic and Gossen make them at several different price points.

     

    You should consider the M6 if you want to use lenses wider than 50mm or want an internal meter. The cost is not significantly greater. The trade-off is that the viewfinder on the M6, for lenses from 50mm to 135mm, gives a smaller viewing image.

     

    If you decide to buy a Nikon film camera, as some have suggested, make sure that the Nikkor lenses that you have are mechanically compatible with the camera body. Also, I don't know how easy it is to use the newer Nikkors manually. I realize that it can be done, but I don't know if there is enough travel in the barrels to make using them manually comfortable rather than a compromise.

     

    Good luck.

    Cheap skate monitor calibration for home cooking.

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    Al,

     

    Rodney's book is not exactly bedside reading, but it is well done and thorough.

     

    I had something in mind when I mentioned the monk's cell, but failed to elaborate.

     

    I am used to using my computer in a room that has lots of windows and french doors to a balcony that overlooks a park. It's a nice place to work, especially in good weather when I can open everthing up and enjoy the fresh air.

     

    With a profiled monitor, that doesn't cut it.

     

    I now do my photo stuff in a room that I've set up so that I can block out natural light, which is the enemy, and instead use artificial light that is uniform and consistent and a bit dimmer than the monitor. Just one of the many joys of colour management :)

     

    I'm not at all against this stuff, but if you're going to jump in, it's best to have your eyes open. And don't think that this is necessarily going to have a big impact on your use of paper and ink. A few months ago, I had a first rate New York digital lab do a series of 16x20 prints. They have high end everything, and they are colour managed up the ying yang. I wanted to be there when the work was done, just as a learning experience. The fact is, we had to do a number of proofs per print before everything looked right, and I have nothing but good things to say about the guy who did the work.

     

    I had some photos up but took them down because I'm starting a web site. This is another one of those things that I was told is really easy. All I can say is, thank God that my hosting company, Media Temple, has really good, patient support people :)

     

    Cheers

    Cheap skate monitor calibration for home cooking.

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    Edward,

     

    A few observations...

     

    Some people, possibly Mr. Durer among them given the work that he has on this site, are not concerned about getting the work "out the door and billed".

     

    The whole point of monitor profiling is that it is an atempt to deal with situations where an image is being dealt with outside a closed loop. Within a closed loop, it is far from obvious to me that the human mind, given the many imperfections of colour management in its current state, does an inferior job of making adjustments.

     

    One of the statements that gets trotted out whenever this subject comes up is that working with a profiled monitor saves paper and ink. I really question whether this is true in a closed system. More generally, I question whether it is true in any situation where the end product is a fine art print, where there are so many proofs and tinkering done anyway for other reasons.

     

    I guess that my main reason for speaking up in this thread is that I think that a couple of people have been working within a colour managed system so long that they are suffering from amnesia about what is involved in starting to go down this road :)

     

    My second reason is that before I went with the Eizo monitor and Eye-One system, I was doing essentially what Mr. Durer is doing now, and on a laptop computer to boot, and my experience with that was simply more satisfactory than what you and some others are suggesting. It's still an open question whether the time and money that I'm putting into colour management is worth it. And yes, I don't think much of this monk's cell business.

     

    Maybe the objectives of people who want the work out the door and billed, and people like me, just aren't the same.

     

    I'm also a bit surprised that nobody is drawing a distinction between colour and black and white, the latter representing a significant part of Mr. Durer's porfolio on this site.

    Cheap skate monitor calibration for home cooking.

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    The fundamental fact about this discussion is that Mr. Durer is an accomplished photographer who is happy with the prints that he is getting.

     

    I say that as someone who, like Mr. Durer, uses CS3 and an Epson R2400 printer, but who also uses a fairly pricey Eizo monitor, Eizo software to calibrate and profile the monitor (not the video card), and Eye-One Display 2 hardware (the so-called hockey puck), also not inexpensive, to help calibrate.

     

    To make this work, I had to do three things.

     

    First, I had to read and absorb a 50 page manual about the monitor and a 24 page manual about the software.

     

    Secondly, I had to wade through a number of tutorials about how to use Eye-One Display 2.

     

    Thirdly, I had to decide on values to inpur for brightness, gamma and white point. This took some research, starting with finding out what these terms mean, and including reading endless debates on what the values ought to be.

     

    This is the point where I discovered that I was dealing with an iceberg, and that only the tip was visible.

     

    The iceberg is colour management, and what soon becomes apparent is that monitor calibration and profiling is pretty much a waste of time unless one understands, and is prepared to act on, the whole colour management philosphy.

     

    So the next step was to find out about colour management, which involves reading books that run several hundred pages. In my case, it was Andrew Rodney's Color Management book, which in addition to 465 pages of text, includes a DVD and a bunch of tutorials.

     

    What is the objective of the expense, time, tackling a significant learning curve and having to go off to one's monk cell? The objective is to produce prints that one is happy with.

     

    Cheers.

     

    P.S. On the upside, on my monitor at least, one can revert to the factory defaults with the press of a button. It is explained in page 19 of the manual :)

    Commercial Fishing

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    I said that I wasn't happy with the photograph, which was tantamount to inviting criticism, and I got some. Perfectly cool, and what Karim says pretty much reinforces my own feelings.

     

    Regarding Karim's general comment about the forum...

     

    I keep 10-15 photographs a year. The rest go in the trash, except for some that I hold onto as a reference for the future. This shot is going to fall into the latter category.

     

    I started posting here recently to see whether it might assist my editing process. I haven't decided yet whether it does or not. In addition, I like the idea of seeing a variety of approaches to whatever the subject of the thread is. I don't much care whether everything posted is up to gallery standards, or even up to the standard of any given person's best work. Indeed, I think that it would be unfortunate if people posted only their best work. I learn something from looking at photographs that don't cut it, and thinking about why.

     

    However, if the rule around here is that people are only supposed to post great photographs, then in my case there will certainly be a lot fewer postings.

     

    Cheers.

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