stratvio

<p>There's no real "should"... just what's more convenient or appropriate for the situation. For landscape photography you often may be using reflective mode, using the spot to evaluate parts of the scene and deciding on an exposure to set areas in the zones you'd like. On the other hand, if the landscape is in sun, and you're also in sun, then you have the same amount of light hitting you as your subject, and you could use the incident reading where you are to make an exposure decision. The rotating head is especially useful for things like flash exposure... you can have the head pointed at the flashes, and the display pointed at you, as may be convenient depending on the situation. As far as aperture/shutter/ev modes, that's really just preference... I prefer to use aperture priority myself, as I find the varying shutter speeds easier to think about... e.g. if I meter a scene at f/16, and one area reads 1/45 s, another reads 1/90, and another reads 1/180, it's really easy for me to think about how many stops of dynamic range there is, compared to fixing at ~1/90 and reading off f/11, f/16, or f/22.</p>

<p>I process c41 at home as well and have had good results... I just bought a ~$15 crockpot from target and use that to warm a water bath with the chemicals in it. I'm not setup to print color (I scan and print via inkjet), so it's possible that my process isn't controlled enough for traditional printing and produces color shifts that would be impossible to correct, but if there are such shifts, my scanning software and lightroom take care of them pretty much automatically.</p>

<p>I think I'd differ on the dynamic range question... as far as the comparative ranges of film vs. digital, it seems the best digital sensors have ranges on the order of <9 stops. Plus, this is a linear capture where anything brighter just gets lost, in contrast to film which has the "shoulder" which gradually adjusts the response with increasing intensity. As far as the dynamic range of the scanner, I've been amazed at what I've been able to pull out of film - e.g. landscapes where I retained detail in bright clouds and hill shadows, which I may have needed to use HDR for with digital. In the worst-case example, I shot a roll on an RB67 with a lens with a stuck shutter that I didn't find until the next day - all the shots were taken at ~3-4 second exposures in full sun, and the negatives came out pure black. I put them on the scanner just to see what would happen, and low and behold - images! Noisy as all get-out, but some quite useable and interesting. For printing, I generally prefer to use wet darkroom when possible, but I've had lots of situations when the negative just wasn't suitable for wet darkroom prints, but digital gave good results (that over-exposed situation being one).<br>

http://www.photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00Rb8S<br>

http://shutterclick.smugmug.com/gallery/6616619_YJEwK#424020444_n2LsD-O-LB<br>

http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Canon-EOS-5D-Mark-II-Digital-Camera-Review-19948/Resolution.htm</p>

<p>I think Ray is right that the dynamic range (brightest highlight minus darkest shadow) is equal between film sizes - I think you might be confusing this with tonality, which is one of the benefits of moving up in film size - the finer gradation from dark to bright.</p>

<p>I had the same problem a few weeks ago:<br>

http://www.photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/00VEq3<br>

I ended up finding a good price on a set with a 38mm slip-on series VI adaptor, a a series VI polarizer, red, yellow, and orange filter, and that works great. I also ordered a 44mm -> 55mm step up ring and a 55mm cokin adaptor to let me use my cokin p-series filters, although that hasn't arrive yet so I can't say for sure how that works.</p>

<p>That was my entry into MF as well... I got a great deal on a c330 pro f with a 65mm blue-dot lens. I later picked up a 135mm lens, a prism, and a trigger grip. I've loved the system, although currently my main camera is an rb67... I laughed when I read that the c330 was heavy- compared to the rb67, it's my light weight travel companion :o). I think the 80mm will be a fine lens for it, and I think you'll love the setup for what you're talking about. The only caveat would be the "found objects"... depending on how close you want to get, framing can be very challenging. You'll definitely learn to error on the side of standing back and cropping later, rather then trying to get framing perfect in-camera and clipping your subject. Those are reasons I went for the rb67 - I was drawn more to the macro side of things too often, and the rb67 keeps the wonderful bellows focusing of the c330. Also, it's tricky to use anything like nd-grads or polarizers, although there are tricks to make that work. I think you'll find that it's a great camera for portraits - the waist level finder is something people aren't used to, and it's so quiet with the leaf shutter that sometimes people don't realize you're photographing. Of the accessories, I think you'll find the handle would help with ergonomics (esp the trigger) and holding steady, and if you use flash at all it gives you a cold shoe. I don't use the prism much, but as much as I like the waist level finder, it does make it challenging to take any photos from anywhere close to eye level. One thing I'd recommend is to look at the differences between the models... I'm having trouble finding it now, but I think the pro-f may add bellows factor compensation indicator and parallex estimation to the c330, but you may want to check. Have fun shooting!<br>

Btw, I don't know if you've seen this yet: http://www.photo.net/equipment/mamiya/tlr</p>

<p>I had the same problem... I bought a vintage self-timer off ebay but it was very difficult to use - it has a tiny wheel you're supposed to turn to set it, but the spring attached is so strong it actually scrapes your skin off to turn it. Being a EE I thought it'd be a fun weekend project to rig up a little electronic version, and I'm almost done with the prototype. It's completely overkill, but if anyone else is interested I'll post the schematics when I'm done. The features I'm building in are an input for a pocket wizard/ebay trigger (which I already have) so you can trigger it with a remote, as well as a 10-second self timer. I'm attaching it via a little hobby motor to a standard cable release, so it'll work with any manual camera. Honestly, though, I think a bulb release would do the job just fine... just get one of those 20' versions and you can just step on the bulb to trigger it and grab your self-portrait, although maybe you'd miss the fun poses you can capture of yourself trying to get in position before the timer goes off... ;)<br>

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/91946-REG/Samigon_BSA871_Air_Bulb_Release_.html</p>

<p>Thanks for those links, Ernest! I just bid, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed...</p>

<p>That looks interesting... it doesn't seem like it can cock the shutter, do you know? I suppose with the dslr hybrid, since you'd be using the body's shutter you could just lock dof preview to close down to the selected aperture. With Erie's setup, I'll be curious when he gives more details... I'm wondering how he focuses, and whether he was able to fashion a ground glass to swap with the rb back - I wonder if you can just use a gg from something like a crown graphic 23? With your dslr hybrid, have you found dust on the sensor to be a problem at all? It seems like exposing to the relative cavern of the 4x5 body for any kind of long exposure would necessitate frequent cleaning?</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for the quick responses. After reading comments and learning more keywords (I'd never heard of the series filter system) I discovered this topic has been covered before, sorry about the repeat. I think the 38mm slip-on->series vi/44mm ->55mm->cokin route sounds best to be for how I want to use them (as convoluted as it is!) so I'm trying to track down sources for those parts. So far no luck on ebay, but it looks like filterfind.net may be a good source for these kinds of things if others are looking.<br>

Thanks again,<br>

Eric</p>

<p>A few months ago I purchased my first LF camera, a 1941 crown graphic with a 135mm/4.7 graphlex optar lens. I've been having a great time with it and have gotten addicted to the negative size compared to 6x7/6x6/35mm. One thing I haven't found a great solution for, though, is how to use my polarizer, color filters, or nd/nd-grads with it... I have a lot of cokin filters that I'd like to use, but the lens is smaller than 37mm thread size, and there are no adaptors that small. Right now I just hold the filters up to the lens while I take the shot, but that makes use of the polarizer and grads trial-and-error. I'd like to get a step-up ring up to 49mm, which would let me use the cokin 49mm P-series ring. Does anyone have a better solution? If this sounds right, does anyone know the thread size of this lens? The smallest filter the local camera shop had was 37mm and that was just a bit too big, so I'm guessing 36-36.5, but have no way to determine exactly.<br>

Thanks in advance,<br>

Eric</p>

<p><a href="http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/member.php?u=2897" >Erie Patsellis</a> has done this, and has a photo of his setup in this thread:<br>

http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5757<br>

Unfortunately, he references his website which seems to be down and I've been unsuccessful at finding any more information. I think he took the front of a broken rb67 and mounted it to a toyo lensboard, but I'm not sure how he got cocking the shutter to work. Please post any results you find - I think this would be a fun project, so I'll be looking forward to seeing if you're any more successful at finding this info that I've been.</p>

<p>I've got a 65 blue-dot that has click-stops, but my 135mm black barrel lens is just a friction slider</p>

<p>That flash will work fine - the EX II has a standard pc sync port on the side, so you'll just need a normal male-to-male pc sync cable. I use that flash with my rb67 and c330 all the time and it's good - either full manual, or using the auto flash (thyristor mode) custom function</p>

<p>When you're scanning, you have brightness/contrast/sharpness controls provided by the program (epson scan, silver fast, vuescan, ...) Also, the v700 is supported by silver fast's multi-exposure feature, where they take multiple scans at different exposures and combines them together for a higher dynamic range image with details in highlights and shadows. Even with the epson scan software, though, I've found that the dynamic range is pretty good, and if the detail is in my negs, it's generally in the scan. On one roll it even saved me from a broken lens - shutter was stuck open, so each frame was exposed ~2 seconds (time it takes me to take the photo and reset mirror on my rb67)... negatives were completely black and seemed a lost cause, but I actually got some good images out of them. As far as software, epson scan is generally good and is very convenient to use, but silver fast offers more control. For focus, once you set it the first time you'll never have to change it. You can either use the provided negative holders that have a few different length legs, or purchase a better scanning holder that is infinitely adjustable via screws.</p>

<p>I hike with mine and love it... to make it possible, I second the people recommending the left hand grip, as well as getting a nice comfy shoulder strap for it. As far as the bellows focusing system being a negative, for me that's one of the things I love most about the camera - great for close focusing with any lens!</p>

<p>Both X and M are for flash sync... X is xenon sync, used for modern electronic flashes, and M is for medium sync, which is used for older flashes that need to warm up (that setting will trip the flash ~20ms before the shutter). I have a voigtlander vitomatic ii w/ the v-x-m, and the v is for a 7 second self timer (not sure why it's on the option ring with the flash syncs, though)</p>

<p>Regarding Guido's response, the fact that other programs support the scanner doesn't mean that Nikon has made the protocols available for open source. Often, companies will arrange license deals that allow one company (Vuescan) to use another company's protocols (Nikon) for a large fee or a percent of the sales. Companies like Nikon claim that if they released the protocols without non-disclosure agreements, it would give away company secrets to their competitors. A lot of programmers feel that this is nonsense, as they're all likely doing similar things anyway, and it's trivial to reverse engineer the code even without actual access. The benefit to consumers if companies released more of their protocols would be that their devices that they paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for would no longer become obsolete when they update their computers (e.g. to vista 64). Of course, the downside for companies is that consumers would no longer be forced to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to replace their "obsolete" devices...</p>

<p>I was in nearly the same situation last year as well - I had lots of canon glass, but only digital bodies. I started with a EOS 3, and liked that a lot at the time - it's a great camera, good metering (w/ multi-point metering), fast shooting for action, and coming from digital it has a fantastic viewfinder. A few weeks into the course I bought a C330 and started to see the medium format advantage - I loved the waist-level viewfinder, that I could view with 2 eyes, and that the image was nearly as large as a print. As someone said, close-ups are a bit tough with a TLR, but the C330 has a line that indicates where the actual top of the photo will be, and with practice you can get pretty good at framing even close-up shots. I recently got a RB67 pro-s, and now that's my go-to camera. If I need to travel lighter I take the C330, but otherwise I'm carrying the RB67 - I love the 6x7 negs, and especially the fact that you can have several backs and swap film out quickly and in mid roll, to change speeds, bw-color, etc. One issue I had with the RB67 was in printing - my lab didn't have a 6x7 neg carrier, and while the 6x6's are common on ebay and elsewhere, it took me a few weeks to find a carrier on ebay. The other thing I wasn't crazy about was the 10-shot limit with 120 film... 12 was already tough to get used to shooting 6x6. I've since switched to 220, and the 20-shots/roll is nice, but film cost does add up. As for costs of my kit - I got the C330 w/ a 65mm lens for $200 on ebay, and the RB67 pro-s with a prism and 127mm c lens for $300 from a local shop. I later got a 135mm lens for the C330 for $80, a 65mm for the RB67 for $125, and a 140mm macro for the RB67 for $80 - if you're persistent and patient, you can get great deals. I think I'd suggest getting a cheaper canon for now (it is great for action and portability, and you can use all your lenses), and keep your eyes open for great deals on nice equipment once you figure out what you want. A couple of other points - I use a canon 580 ex ii w/ the RB67 and it works great, but you'll need a bracket to hold it since the cold shoe is in an awkward spot on the side of the camera. Also, you'll want a meter of some kind - I started just carrying my slr with me to meter with the C330, then later bought a sekonic, but with practice (and thanks to the latitude of film), I've gotten to the point that in a lot of situations you can make a pretty good guestimate, and be close enough to correct.</p>

<p>I haven't used my 580exii flash w/ my rb67, but have with my c330 - the 580 ii has a pc port, so all you need is the pc sync cable, and some way to attach it to the camera. You could use the cold shoe on the side, although it's pretty awkward, or get a handle/grip/bracket.</p>

<p>By adding a rotating back adapter, won't you be moving the film plane away from the lens? It seems that this will make the lens-film distance greater than the lens-ground glass distance, which will cause focusing issues, no? i.e., if you focus so that the image looks right in the view finder, it will be out of focus on the film? If this isn't an issue, perhaps you could make a rotating adapter by modifying an rb67 adapter? You can find those on ebay for not too much, and they already solved the problem of rotating and keeping light tight, you'd just have to attach to the body and back.<br>

-Eric</p>