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lezec

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Posts posted by lezec

    End of year W/NW

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    <p><a href="D:\Foto%20F\Film%202010\10-19%20Adélka%20návrat%20z%20tábora\10-19-22%2010x15.jpg"><img src="D:\Foto%20F\Film%202010\10-19%20Adélka%20návrat%20z%20tábora\10-19-22%2010x15.jpg" alt="" /></a><img src="D:\Foto%20F\Film%202010\10-19%20Adélka%20návrat%20z%20tábora\10-19-22%2010x15.jpg" alt="" /></p>

    leica summarit 50/2.5 - is it a good lens? how sharp is it?

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Richard,

     

    I do not have this lens, but I would like to have one. I will explain why. What I have is an earlier model of 50mm Elmar f/2.8 and the latest 50mm Summicron f/2. Both are optically great lenses and I trust that the Summarit will be great too. I do not think that any of them has limitations that are more important than limitations of my talent and skills.

     

    Let’s, for this purpose, assume that they are all on par, because of the above. Then the ergonomics and price are the factors that come in play. I will refrain from comments on price as I find this subject less important.

     

    The Elmar is small when collapsed and OK when extended. It is light too. Extending requires attention. Handling the aperture ring is more difficult than with other lenses, at lest for me. Perhaps the most important for me is the fact that there is no hood to protect the filter/glass. The latest model has kind of a hood, which looks OKish.

     

    The Summicron is a beauty. I got the silver version and I really like it. It is nice piece of metal well crafted. Both aperture and focusing rings are easy to operate. At the same time the aperture ring is firm enough to resist undesired accidental adjustment (I had bad bad experience with the Voigtlander Color Skopar 35mm f/2.5). The summicron is much bigger and heavier than my 35mm Summicron, to which I will refer later too. Lastly the hood, though made out of metal, does not provide the mechanical protection I would ideally like to get from a hood. You cannot lock it in position. I do not like the earlier circular hood for the looks, though functionally it was good.

     

    The 35mm Summicron is small, light and has this hopper style hood, which in my mind ideally protects the front of the lens. Finally to the point, the 50mm Summarit is very much like the 35mm Cron; small, light and has the lovely hood.

     

    Bottom line, I would swap it for the Elmar. I would definitelly not give up the Summicron, but would get it as addition when going out light.

     

    Regards, Pavel

    Prague...request for information

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Just to add to the fairly extensive info above. Foto Skoda (Skoda is name of the owner BTW) is good if you want to

    buy film. They will have almost everything you want. Many locals including many those living outside Prague buy

    their gear there. But it is more expensive than in the US. Films are about 35% more expensive than at Adorama and

    cheaper than on Broadway. TriX sells at CZK119, which is about $6. Everything will be more expensive in Czech

    Republic (and Europe) than in the US including Leica so no benefit of buying it here. The selection of Leica gear will

    be very limited too.

     

    There is a shop not far from Foto Skoda named Foto Pazdera (guess what, Pazdera is name of the owner) and they

    do only second hand gear. You can buy all sort of stuff related to picture and film taking. I have not seen any Leica

    gear there for a while. The shop is basically in the sight from Skoda, but on the other side of the street past the KFC

    restaurant.

     

    I live about 80 miles away from Prague, but I bring all my C-41 films to Foto Skoda and I print all my B&W scans

    there too. They are hopeless processing B&W. In fact they do not develop B&W themselves, but they send them

    god knows where, and those guys will screw your negatives.

     

    Enjoy Praha and 'Na zdraví'

     

    Pavel

    Small white spots remain, help needed

    in Black & White Practice

    Posted

    Ron, thank you for your answers.

     

    The most obvious and easiest to apply is removing the film from the reel. I do it certainly wrong. I hang it right from the tank. I will also try fresh stop and fixer for a few films together with washing with distilled water only. Lastly I need to check my distilled water. I might not be steam distilled. Can't wait to see the next negative. All the best. P.

    Small white spots remain, help needed

    in Black & White Practice

    Posted

    I do process films myself for about a year and till I bought a scanner a month ago, I though that I was doing fine. First

    scans disclosed large stains and a lot of scratches. I did the due diligence and spoke to friends, checked this site for

    threads on scratched and water stains and then I corrected my workflow. I have no scratches anymore and I have

    very few large stains. The small spots remain.

     

    Before I took my negs to a professional lab (not sure what the correct word is in English, we call these "minilabs"

    here), ask them to produce a large index to select a few pics to print. Takes long to see the results, it costs time

    and money and there is no chance to correct the images.

     

    On some of the scans the white spots are present very little if at all, on some they are quite significant and on some

    of them they are combined with large water stains. I have downloaded a typical portfolio on the following link.

    Unfortunately the spots are not obvious at first glance at this link on some of the images, so if anyone is keen to look

    at the jpegs directly from the scanner, I will mail them on request.

     

    http://leica.rajce.idnes.cz/Scsamples/

     

    I suspect that the small spots are also some sort of water stains, but I am not sure.

     

    My workflow:

     

    - Developer D76 1:1, 10,5 minutes at 20 deg.C / Stop FomaCitro for one minute / Fomafix (just tried Ilford rapid fix on

    2 rolls with no obvious change in result) for 8 minutes

     

    - All chemicals in distilled water

     

    - Wash for 8 minutes using Jobo force washer.

     

    - Twice rinse with just distilled water (I fill the tank up and shake it for about 30 sec each time)

     

    - The third time I add soaking agent - 1,5ml of Fotonal, which I believe does the same as Photoflo

     

    - At the start of developing I run the shower with hot water for about 5 minutes to generate steam to get rid of dust

     

    - Then I hang the film (in past I used squeegee, but don't use it anymore because of the scratches)

     

    - At the same time I start increasing the temperature in the room by a fan heater, open window slightly to let the

    water out (once I did not use the fan, which extended the drying time and there we a lot of stains).

     

    - Run just the fan of the fan heater for about 10 minutes after I run the hot shower to make sure that no dust is

    settled in it.

     

    - I tent to develop on rainy days so that there is minimum dust getting into the room

     

    - Use Nikon LS-50 scanner / One pass of scanning, no adjustments, scan as Color prints / Use Vuescan (which

    BTW keeps crashing a lot in Windows)

     

     

     

     

    May I ask you for your opinion on the following:

     

    1. Are these problems from developing or from scanning?

     

    2. Are these very small water stains?

     

    3. Is there a fix and if so, what is it?

     

    4. If these are stains, do they likely come from the 8 minutes wash?

     

    5. Any other suggestion except for moving back to digital :-)

     

     

     

    Best Regards, Pavel

     

     

     

    P.S.: Some other observations:

     

    - They seem to be more at the beginning of the film, which is the part at the top, when the film hangs for drying.

     

    - I have some old scans made by the minilab, when the films were also developed by the lab and none of them to

    seem to have this issue. Not a single spot on about 25 scans. Unfortunately the minilabs lost their skills in B&W

    developing and the negs are good only for bin.

     

    - Our water is very hard, but I am afraid that for the 8 minutes wash there is no other option. Normally I use cold

    water, but few times also tried warmer because I felt it would purge the film better. I did not check if this has any

    impact on the spots.

     

    - There were couple of negs which I had to fix (and consequently was and dry) once more and the spots on those

    seem to be more significant.

     

    - Most of the spots can be fixed with a 12px stamp in PS, but I burn tooooo much time on some of the pics.

     

    - Small prints made by the minilab 10x15cm (4"x6") look ok although the scan is full of the spots and stains

     

    - Scratches from squeegee do not show on the prints either. Even not on 20x30cm (8"x12") prints

     

     

    Small white spots remain, help needed

    in Black & White Practice

    Posted

    I do process films myself for about a year and till I bought a scanner a month ago, I though that I was doing fine. First

    scans disclosed large stains and a lot of scratches. I did the due diligence and spoke to friends, checked this site for

    threads on scratched and water stains and then I corrected my workflow. I have no scratches anymore and I have

    very few large stains. The small spots remain.

     

    Before I took my negs to a professional lab (not sure what the correct word is in English, we call these "minilabs"

    here), ask them to produce a large index to select a few pics to print. Takes long to see the results, it costs time

    and money and there is no chance to correct the images.

     

    On some of the scans the white spots are present very little if at all, on some they are quite significant and on some

    of them they are combined with large water stains. I have downloaded a typical portfolio on the following link.

    Unfortunately the spots are not obvious at first glance at this link on some of the images, so if anyone is keen to look

    at the jpegs directly from the scanner, I will mail them on request.

     

    http://leica.rajce.idnes.cz/Scsamples/

     

    I suspect that the small spots are also some sort of water stains, but I am not sure.

     

    My workflow:

     

    - Developer D76 1:1, 10,5 minutes at 20 deg.C / Stop FomaCitro for one minute / Fomafix (just tried Ilford rapid fix on

    2 rolls with no obvious change in result) for 8 minutes

     

    - All chemicals in distilled water

     

    - Wash for 8 minutes using Jobo force washer.

     

    - Twice rinse with just distilled water (I fill the tank up and shake it for about 30 sec each time)

     

    - The third time I add soaking agent - 1,5ml of Fotonal, which I believe does the same as Photoflo

     

    - At the start of developing I run the shower with hot water for about 5 minutes to generate steam to get rid of dust

     

    - Then I hang the film (in past I used squeegee, but don't use it anymore because of the scratches)

     

    - At the same time I start increasing the temperature in the room by a fan heater, open window slightly to let the

    water out (once I did not use the fan, which extended the drying time and there we a lot of stains).

     

    - Run just the fan of the fan heater for about 10 minutes after I run the hot shower to make sure that no dust is

    settled in it.

     

    - I tent to develop on rainy days so that there is minimum dust getting into the room

     

    - Use Nikon LS-50 scanner / One pass of scanning, no adjustments, scan as Color prints / Use Vuescan (which

    BTW keeps crashing a lot in Windows)

     

     

     

     

    May I ask you for your opinion on the following:

     

    1. Are these problems from developing or from scanning?

     

    2. Are these very small water stains?

     

    3. Is there a fix and if so, what is it?

     

    4. If these are stains, do they likely come from the 8 minutes wash?

     

    5. Any other suggestion except for moving back to digital :-)

     

     

     

    Best Regards, Pavel

     

     

     

    P.S.: Some other observations:

     

    - They seem to be more at the beginning of the film, which is the part at the top, when the film hangs for drying.

     

    - I have some old scans made by the minilab, when the films were also developed by the lab and none of them to

    seem to have this issue. Not a single spot on about 25 scans. Unfortunately the minilabs lost their skills in B&W

    developing and the negs are good only for bin.

     

    - Our water is very hard, but I am afraid that for the 8 minutes wash there is no other option. Normally I use cold

    water, but few times also tried warmer because I felt it would purge the film better. I did not check if this has any

    impact on the spots.

     

    - There were couple of negs which I had to fix (and consequently was and dry) once more and the spots on those

    seem to be more significant.

     

    - Most of the spots can be fixed with a 12px stamp in PS, but I burn tooooo much time on some of the pics.

     

    - Small prints made by the minilab 10x15cm (4"x6") look ok although the scan is full of the spots and stains

     

    - Scratches from squeegee do not show on the prints either. Even not on 20x30cm (8"x12") prints

     

     

    w/nw Shape, Tone & Texture

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    OK, thank you for your reply.

     

    This is scary. Of course I try avoiding any scans, even the frame and the tunnel for hand baggage, but sometimes its unavoidable.

     

    I flew from JFK in January with 40 rolls of 400TX. Asked the lady if these could be individually checked! Sure she did not like it and told me that they would have to open all the boxed. I agreed but after all they returned them back in original packing and it took about 1 minute.

     

    I only wonder as Digital is dominating more and more if they will still produce "film safe" scanners.

     

    Good light, Pavel

    w/nw Shape, Tone & Texture

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Christian,

     

    I have read on your pages that your films were damaged on the way from Japan. This is a bit surprise for me. From many forums here I got the impression that airport security checks are safe to film.

     

    Can you let me know, what happened to you?

     

    Best Regards,

     

    Pavel

    Should I Sell

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    A few years ago I bought a used Nikon FA on ebay. Not that I needed it, just read how fantactic the camera was so I wanted tested myself. The second I put my hands on it, I fell in love with it.

     

    Later when I bought an FM3a and an FM2 I felt I did not need the FA anymore and since Nikon no longer serviced them in Prague, I sold it.

     

    Now I really regret. As someone wrote above, the gear (and I trust I am more stuck to the cameras than to the lenses although it is the lens that makes the image) is part of the process of creating the image. The camera was around when my daugter went to school first time, when we went to the coast, when ....

     

    I have couple of Leicas today, a Canonet QL17, D200, F100, FM3a and others and I still miss my FA ;-( Anyone seen my silver FA? :-)

     

    Don't sell.

     

    Pavel

    Is this a flaw of my M3 rangefinder?

    in Leica and Rangefinders

    Posted

    Paul,

     

    I did try to contact the seller a couple of times, but no reply. I filed at PayPal as you suggested.

     

    I also took the camera to a friend of mine, who uses Leicas for a long time, and he thought that the camera is usable. He also tested the times and checked the shutter and said it is in nice shape. He could not explain the two colors of the viewfinder when looking the other direction.

     

    As to focusing he did not thing it is much worse than on his cameras.

     

    I will wait for the reply of the seller and then make a decision.

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