steve_teale

Yes Charles...hence my tongue in cheek smiley at the end of the post.

 

A (relatively) clean signal at a very high ISO is worth its weight in gold - it gives you extra stops on ALL your lenses :) The megapixel thing is impressive but really, I rarely use all 8 megapixels I've got at the moment. I'm more interested in the trend towards better handling of dynamic range - I think that coupled with noise handling is the true value proposition for future DSLRs. I dream of the day I can capture the light (and consequently the image) that I see.

If you're using Firefox the Canon Japan link may not work - keeps flipping between web1.canon.jp and web.canon.jp - try it in IE (or chrome ?) or just amend the URL in your locator bar to web1.canon.jp instead of web.canon.jp.

 

They're not real good images to make a call from. My Canon Powershot A80 can produce good web images...

Well it didn't take long for reality to set in...thanks Kaa ;)

 

In all seriousness though - that's not a horrific price, just a bit pricey (similar to the mkI when it first came out ?)

Yay - easy print !

 

Tell you what would be good - if, when you pressed the shutter button you got a print there and then - now that would be easy print ! Wonder why no one's thought of that before... ;)

Canon Australia don't even have the EOS 50D listed yet... :)

Jack - that's great - maybe I'll get three ! ;)

Is that a microphone at the back near the viewfinder window ? (at the back ?)

Fantastic...I'll have a couple please ;)

 

Price anyone ?

 

Those specs are pretty special.

I'm not really big on 'street photography' per se myself although I do really

like Cartier Bressons' work - and that of pnets' own Tony Dummett. The article

was very thought provoking.

 

http://blogs.smh.com.au/photographers/archives/2007/02/photography_is_not_a_crime.html

 

Have a great weekend.

 

Steve

Still have my EOS 30 (Elan 7E) - just love the way it feels and always in awe of the eye-controlled AF. Have a 28mm prime I used with it that is unlikely to be used with my EOS D350. Also have an EOS 1000f that I used to use for IR photography. (have two 1000f bodies actually - family members kept offloading them when the mirror foam started leaking out onto the shutter curtain...;)

 

Also have OM10, Exakta and Rolleiflex - not rushing to sell any of them even though I haven't used any of them for a while. The OM10 still has a roll of AGFA Ultra 50 in it - those colours will be even freakier by now :)

I've used Sandisk basic CF cards - the Canon 32MB supplied with my old Powershot is actually marked as a Sandisk also. I've also used a Dick Smith branded (Australian) one with no probs. My Sandisk Ultra II 1GB though has died after about 4 mths - looks like it got half-way through writing a jpg then died. Cannot format in the camera, cannot erase shots or erase all, cannot take more shots, cannot format through the computer. Could upload shots to the computer though but if I tried to do various of the activities listed above, the camera would freeze and I'd have to take the battery out to reset it ! I think the Sandisks are lifetime guaranteed though so I'll be swapping it for a new one. It certainly pays to dump the contents regularly...

Pippa,

 

I bought a digimate plus II for 250 Australian dollars (abt 180 USD give or take) and for the price it included a 40GB hard drive. It bristles with card readers and has a USB 2.0 connection for when I make it 'back to base' - I don't like taking my laptop on holiday with me (the wife also doesn't like me taking the laptop on holiday...!;) It also doubles as a hard drive on a string for doing data backups and transfers. Battery life is excellent and you can swap out the 2.5" hard drive for a larger capacity one when the prices come down. It's small enough to fit in my camera bag. Best piece of 'camera gear' I've bought in a long while.

Fuertaventura is often a very windy place (that's why it's one of THE premiere wind-surfing destinations in the world) so I would personally be a little wary of taking the 5D near the beach.

This might sound a bit obvious but how do you have your filenaming set - are you using a format like IMG_n.jpg e.g. where the n is a sequential integer. That way you can figure out how many shots your camera has taken.

...but don't be too specific with the name dropping - i.e. saying that you were discussing the merits of open source with Charles Babbage at the last Oracle Openworld is likely to loose you a little credibility. Claiming you have an old PDP as a wardrobe though will help restore that cred.

Don't get bogged down in details Meng.

 

Any keyboard is fine as long as it has biscuit and muesli bar crumbs in between and under the keys - in fact the detritous from any other substantial lunchtime meal will do equally. Coffee spills add an air of unpredictability also - you never know what serendipitous breakthrough you'll make as the sugar starts to crystalise on the PCBs.

 

All real programmers claim they run linux but in reality they all have dual boot machines to keep their options open.

 

Don't feel hemmed in by your run of the mill processor configurations either - overclocking not only keeps you on the edge but keeps you warm into the bargain.

 

Conventional wisdom, e.g. actually reading the books is a bit try-hard. Just name drop a few people like Ted Codd, C.S. Date, Peter Checkland etc - no one's read the books since college anyway and you'll sound like you've been around the block.

Mani,

 

My first roll with my TLR was a little disappointing also but showed some promise in a couple of the shots. I've since been very happy with it. My problem (coming from 35mm) was in the way I held the camera and pressed the shutter release I've come to conclude.

 

I would kind of cup the camera bottom in my left hand and press the shutter from the front with no support behind the camera - this pulled the bottom right corner of the camera toward me - it's what felt natural at the time (I was having a handful panning backwards !).

 

Camera shake is the likely cuplrit if none of the shot is in focus as mentioned. Try it on a tripod to make sure.

Simon,

 

I used a CUL1 lens (filter) for the watch shot http://www.photo.net/photo/1507203 in my portfolio. It was with the 75mm lens for which it is optimised (and it focuses a lot closer than the watch shot suggests) but I've also used it with the 150mm MC 3.5 lens I had for my shot of Otto http://www.photo.net/photo/1117013

 

It's a cheap way of achieving 'close-up' work and doesn't degrade the image to the point where I noticed it.

 

Given the choice I think the macro lens would be the way to go. I've not used tubes with the Bronica but have with an 85mm lens on my Canon EOS and it's a bit of a pain connecting and disconnecting the tubes in various combinations to get the right magnification factor and/or working distance.

 

For still life indoors the bellows would get my vote for it's flexibility. For outdoors insects and flowers I'd try a macro if I were you. Perhaps you could find one for rent - that would be ideal.

 

The magnification you get with the CUL1 would be great with the 40mm which focusses quite close as well, something like my dog shot for the 180 although the 180 I think focusses closer than the 150s (5.5 feet) and the 250 with CUL1 I couldn't say but you're likely to get a decent working distance with it but not much in the way of magnification.

Nicholas,

 

I've cleaned a 1000F in the way mentioned, also cleaned a 750 in the same way. With my 1000F I (from memory) just set the camera to 'bulb' and held the shutter button down for as long as I needed to work away with my cotton tip and some lighter fluid. There's a chance that the lighter fluid will eat the curtains I guess but the camera I inherited was about to be thrown out for a new 3000 anyway.

 

Works fine now - it's nice to have an EOS body kicking around that you can take where you might not want to take a camera otherwise. I've used this one for shooting with Kodak HIE IR film because my EOS 30 would maybe fog the film from what I've read.

Stefan,

 

I'm posting a reply I got from George Hager because it addressed the DOF issue in LF - I had assumed that there was more - and certainly more when camera movements are used...

 

"Steven,

 

Actually you get a lot less depth with a 4x5. The normal lens for 4x5 is around 180 mm. It has the same depth of field as a 180 on a 35 mm. It doesn't matter which format camera it is on, the depth on a given focal length is the same. Yes, the tilts and swings help, but many times you can't use them. The bottom line is you need all of the ajustments just to get back to where you started with 35 mm.

 

There are distinct advantages to 4x5 (which I shoot 90% of the time) but most folks don't understand the depth of field problems. It's a real problem when I use a 360 mm lens (equivalent to a 105 mm on your 35 mm system). The depth of field is the same as a 360 on the 35 mm system and the coverage of the lens is minimal so I can't use the tilts and swings much.

 

Another problem you can run into that is interesting is because of the matematics of depth of field. You can lay a piece of newspaper flat on a table, focus on the paper, have the foreground and background in focus and still have the middle of the page out of focus. Sometimes on large format scenics you will see this same thing.

 

Stuff like that drives us 4x5 users nuts."

Chris, As Frank alluded unless your ETRS has an 'i' on the end of it as well then it doesn't have on board TTL capability. I have an ETRSi and the SCA 386 module (plugs in on the left of the body as Frank says - socket looks a little like an s-video socket if you have those where you are).

 

Good news is that the in-built thyristors on flashes such as the Metz potato mashers are accurate enough to not worry about using the TTL module anyway, provided you remember to dial in the aperture setting. TTL will give you an advantage when you're using filters of course because it will measure the light actually hitting (reflecting off) the film and not the light hitting the flash sensor.

 

I'd go with a good generic flash like a 45 CT1 or CL1 - together with a bracket and the speedgrip will give you a camera capable of doing great candid portrait work.

Peeter,

 

No mate. Those old Rollei wides and planars - you can't give 'em away !

 

Only kidding of course. The irony here is that while technology gallops ahead it has become apparent that these older cameras often have good optics and use a lot of film surface so can still produce impressive images - indeed, with modern emulsions and cheap scanners you can use your old manual gear to participate in the digital revolution along with everyone else.

 

The cameras that are in the biggest demand are those that broadly speaking fulfill the following criteria:

 

relative Rarity

prestige (e.g. badge snobery)

quality of optics

robustness or build quality

and to some extent - flexibility of system

 

There is also a law of diminishing returns at work here - i.e. a similar model of camera with a slightly better lens can more than double the price while you may have trouble spotting the difference in the image quality at normal enlargement sizes (whatever normal is !). - subtext = there are some bargains out there.

 

The advent of the internet has made people aware of the options and of the likely prices so there are less hidden gems out there.

 

The two cameras you mentioned are both well respected and sought after cameras, even in the current market which is as soft as it's been - and will get probably even softer when more affordable DSLRs become available. But let's not get started on that one !!!

 

I'm hoping someone else will be able to answer the locations question. There are some pretty big camera fairs in London I've heard of - don't know exactly where they are though.

 

All the best,

 

Steve

Just for the record...there are at least 3 or 4 digital back systems available for the ETR system. There are of course a few digital back systems which don't have a mounting for the Bronica. Blads and Mamiya 67 systems are pretty much universally catered for in this regard.

Chris,

 

There's a compatibility matrix of SCA adapter to flash (for current models) on the Metz homepage - www.metz.de

 

Steve

I've heard good things about the Pentax but I think you've hit on the two weaknesses you're likely to strike i.e. non-interchangeable backs (but inserts available separately) and flash sync speed. The latter is likely to be the limiting factor for portraiture work - especially when you're hand holding.

 

For this reason I'd be tempted to look at a Bronica ETRSi or perhaps an rb/rz67 if you don't think the weight will be an issue. Perhaps even a 'blad if you get a good example. Some good used prices on these (esp the Bron/Mamiya options) at the moment.