eddie g.

I thought we were talking about Minolta Autocord camera. My answer was wrong unless the meter used to use PX-1 battery.

 

Eddie

QL17 G-III is a great camera, but fairly limited with its non-interchangeable lens and the PX625 mercury battery. I have the older original Canonet and it's fun to shoot with after you get used to the film advance lever.

Another vote for Canon A1, which is not much bigger than QL17. Mine has been a workhorse for the past 10 years. Very lightweight for what it does. Its basic 50mm/f1.8 lens is pretty sharp and contrasty and can compete with Leica's. Or, you can use the Zeiss/Pentacon/Pentax/Zenitar M42 lenses on it with a cheap M42/FD adapter from Adorama - camera meters in stopdown mode. I love the quality of pictures that Zenitar 16mm gives me (bought it for $100 brand new). I have also been using this camera with a laser-cut 50mm/f181 pinhole ($40 from Adorama). Canon T70 is also a very nice little camera.

 

Other option is the Voigtlander Bessa series. Or if you still want to shoot medium format, Voigtlander Perkeo II (6x6) folding camera. It's pocket sized.

John,

 

My Kiev 60 has been the backup for my Mamiya 7 and has saved the day several times when the M7's shutter didn't fire (low battery, bad contact on the dark slide, you name it). Recently I've been using it to shoot 35mm film in full panorama. It's the only MF I have (and I have about 15 different MFs: M645, Rolleiflex 2.8F3, Yashicamat, Bessa, etc. etc. etc.) that lets me do this without much effort.

 

You treat the camera well and it will reward you with good pictures. Of course, I have the flocked version with mirror lockup and reworked shutter from Kievcamera.com. Hartblei and DVDTech make good ones, too. Make sure to carry a good light meter with you.

 

Oh, and I prefer the Arsat 80mm (flocked as I had described before) over the old Zeiss 80mm. Sharper and more contrasty. If you bought an Arsat 30mm fisheye for $150 you won't believe your eyes. Huge bang for the money.

I was also thinking of getting a Velbon Max i 343E for my Olympus IS-50 or my 6x9 folding camera for backpacking - very nice tripod. But, a lighter, multi-purpose solution will be what I call a "two-legged tripod": my two hiking poles with removable screw tops which I hike with anyway (REI has a good in-house brand), a small piece of wood with proper screw holes (to bring the legs and ballhead together) and a small Bogen ballhead. For the third leg, I was thinking of using one of the aluminum poles off of my tent.

 

Yah, I know it's goofy and won't work with the bike, but if you do it right all extras that you need to carry in your backpack for this purpose should weigh in at less than a pound (ballhead being the heaviest part) which leaves you more allowance for water or beef jerkey (or even a dessert!)

A modified/flocked Kiev 60 MLU from Kievcamera.com or even better, the Hartblei's modified version of Kiev 60 (at hartblei.com - I think it's their model 66). The Arsat (or Hartblei) 30mm fisheye lens is hard to beat at about $150 (brand new, on that famous auction site). Everybody who looked thru my camera thought that I had some kind of polarizer or color enhancing filter on it. It's a pretty sharp and contrasty lens. Kievcamera also sells the 60 MLU on the same auction site. For some reason a lot of people who have not used the modified versions of this camera have bad things to say about them, but I have had mine for 2 years (the 30mm lens for over a year) and am pretty happy for what it produces despite me being rather abusive to my Kiev equipment. I do have a good collection of Mamiya and Rollei's, too, but Kiev has its own place for me!

 

If you get it, do an experiment for yourself. Go to modifiedholgas.com and see how they fit a 135 film inside the medium format Holga. Do the same with your Kiev, use the 30mm lens and take a look at what you get.

Expensive! And I am talking from my own experience with the purchase of a beautiful 124G in very nice condition in October 2002 for $140. Just remember for the meter to read correctly the battery has to be the 1.35V (fresh PX675 held in place with washer or a Wein Cell), and not the 1.5V alkaline replacements they now sell for PX625/KX13. A lot of people don't know this and think their 124G meter is bad; therefore, bringing the price down, thinking that it will cost them more to fix the problem.

 

Then again I bought a beautiful Rolleiflex 2.8F3 for $400 with an absolutely perfect Xenotar lens. Later, a beautiful set of Bay-III Rolleinars 1, 2 & 3, Rllei Yellow filter, Rolleigrid, 2 focusing screens, the Rolleikein (missing one of the dials - don't care, I need the 35mm takeup spool for my 6x9), a nice Rolleicord box and a Bay-III to Series 7 converter, all for $58!! If you've got the patience and are very picky you can find excellend deals out there.

 

You can also look into the 124 instead of 124G, or the latest Minolta Autocord CDS-II or III. Oh, I also got a nice Rolleicord III with Schneider Xenar lens for $120 in user condition. That's an excellent (and much lighter) alternative to 124G, but with a dimmer viewfinder and no meter. The lens on this camera, however, is difficult to beat when stopped down to f5.6-f11.

 

And yes, you will either love the square format (and TLRs) or hate it. For me, it was love at first sight.

Why don't you include Fuji NPC-160 in your tests? I have had great luck with it, both in color saturation and skin tones. Excellent film for flash photography, too.

 

I think the new generation of Reala is going to have the 4th color layer (soon).

Coating is supposed to reduce the flare and increase the contrast. Adding filters to the lens may increase flare and reduce the contrast. To get a good multi-coated B+W or Heliopan filter you pay as much as if you bought a Zeiss Jena 2.8/80 all-black lens.

 

Take a look at purchasing a recent Arsat 2.8/80 lens (about $50) and completely flock the area around its depth-of-field-preview lever (source of light leak). It's a darn good lens. I have both Arast 2.8/80 and black Jena 2.8/80. Prefer the Arsat over Zeiss!

I've shot with Mamiya 7 80mm prime lens. This is one of the hardest lenses to get flare in it, but I have!! Hood or umbrella keeps the sun out, reduces flare and increases contrast. Also, protects the front of the lens. Filter may add flare, but keeps the dust off the lens.

 

I have made a law for myself to keep the hood on my lenses. Prefer the hard plastic (or metal) over soft rubber because it protects the lens from damages and can also rest the camera on the lens without getting dirt on the lens (see how sports photographers rest the camera down on their big lenses when not using them). Went thru 4 days of shooting at the dusty Death Valley, CA with my Tamron SP 24-135 with only its hard lens hood on (and no filter); still don't know where I put the lens cap, but the front element is still nice and clean. Just needed to blow some dust off it. That's all.

Obviously you've gotten a lot of good opinions for the camera equipment. Everything mentioned here have a lot of wonderful sides and a few bad sides. That's the nature of cameras.

 

For one thing, I second Colm on his opinion of 645e vs M645 1000s. I played with the 645e (which is made in China) and couldn't put it down fast enough. It has so much plastic that I wonder how it would hold up against elements. Heck, you might as well go for Holga (have 2 of them myself and love them - see modifiedholgas.com!) On the other hand, I spent $400 on my used but recently CLA'd M645 1000s with metered prism and love its built quality and feel. I don't even have a single Mamiya lens for it, but with a little adapter I was able to mount my Zeiss Jena and Arsat lenses on it and get excellent results. I particularly love the 30mm Arsat fisheye lens which I spent $150 on it (brand new). Now I have a Hartblei 45mm super rotator tilts-shift lens ($700 brand new), and the camera has become a workhorse for me. A Mamiya 80mm/1.9 lens is on my future purchase list.

 

Mamiya 7 has one of the best and sharpest lense lineups in the business. But, you pay a lot for it. After about 10 rolls of film on the 80mm lens I am still trying to get used to the rangefinder. Works good for distance landscapes, but I always screw up the framing for nearby objects if I am not careful. That's the nature of most of the medium format rangefinders. But then again, the 6x7 slides are big enough that you really don't need a loupe to view them. With the 6x4.5, you still need a loupe. Now if you tried a good 6x9 folding camera then you won't even go back to 645 format.

 

With the folding cameras you have to be very careful about the condition of the bellows, mechanical parts, and very improtantly, the flatness of the lens plate vs. the back plate. If you are in England, then look for a good Ross Ensign 820 in excellent condition. It shoots both 6x9 and 6x6. I bought 2 of them already from so-called reputible UK sellers on ebay and both turned out to be junks. Unfortunately, there are not too many of these cameras in US so I couldn't inspect them before buying them.

 

If you like the square format, there are tons of TLRs out there. Rolleicords III or newer can be had for around $100 to $200 in almost perfect condition. I have a Rolleiflex 2.8F3 which I bought used last year for $400 and spent another $135 to CLA it, added a Kiev 88 prism on the top of it, and now it is one of my most favorite 6x6 cameras. Images are very sharp, and you can find tele/wide/macro converters for them. The 'flex 3.8-series are more affordable.

 

Best of luck....

Well, the new Provia 400F is twice as expensive as is the Provia 100F. I wonder how the Velvia 100F will compare pricewise to the present Velvia 50. I guess I better not complain too much since the Kodak prices are even worst than the Provia 400F's.

You can spend weeks over there shooting photos and still don't cover enough area! It also has the #2 most photographed waterfall in California, after Yosemite. For that, make sure to bring a nice telephoto with you as the hike is only 1 mile on paved walkway. If you can somehow get a tour of Pt. Sur Lighthouse at near the sunset time you could get some nice pictures there depending on the clouds. Dress warm for that (it's darn windy and cold there).

 

Carol Leigh has a pretty nice CD on the Northern California. I think it's about $25 or so. Do a google.com search for her website.

 

Perpare yourself for all kinds of weather. It can be warm at daytime and cold in the evening. Or it can be cold both ways. The weather is a bit unpredictable.

I had a hard time getting the camera to respond properly to aperture priority, so I used the green mode. I am concerned about having overexposed the faces.

Hi All,

 

After I shot a bunch of normal (and hard to replace) portrait/night

shots with the built-in flash on my EOS 5 I noticed that I had

accidentally turned the daylight exposure compensation to +1 (the

wheel underneath the thumb). I know shooting a normal thyristor flash

at night with camera set at 1/60 or 1/125 seconds will give almost

the same results. But, how does the +1 compensation affect the built-

in flash output of the EOS 5? Do I need to have the developer pull my

slide by +1 stop or will I be ok developing it at normal? It's a

Provia 100F, so should be able to handle +1 push/pull if necessary.

 

Thanx...

I just bought an old "Minolta Auto Meter Professional" meter. It's

the kind that has a Hi/Lo setting with rotatable dome, nd analog

reading from 1/8000 to 2 hours, Cine readings and f-stop of 1 thru

90. Does anybody know what type of battery this meter may take? There

are no notes on it, but the comparment size looks like a 4LR44. I

hate to be wrong and stick a 6V battery instead of 3V in there and

damage the meter.

 

Also, can anyone tell me what's the coverage angle of its spotmeter?

No notes on that one, either.

 

Btw, how reliable are these meters anyway?

 

Many thanx...

The price of Canon and Nikon 35mm scanners are pretty good there. But, the Canon model FS4000 tells me that it's not a US version (vs FS4000US); and therefore, you are at 645af's mercy for warranty services. Better ask about the US warranty before buying camera equipment which look to be too good to pass on.

According to this web page it should be Rolleiflex T.

 

http://www.rolleirepairs.com/models.htm

 

And according to this page, if you have a Xenar lens (not Xenotar) you've got yourself a very rare (ie. collectible) Model T.

 

http://www.stutterheim.nl/rollei/text_pages/rolleiflex_compare.html

 

Why don't you contact Harry Fleenor and ask him:

 

http://www.rolleirepairs.com/

Thank you all for your input. I found a good Luna Lux SBC that Robert had recommended for $75 in used market and bought it. Hoping to receive it soon. Would have loved to go for Digisix, but lack of optional variable-angle metering attachment didn't sit with me well.

 

Having done a lot of research since my original posting, the Quantum Calcu-Light XP seemed to have been an excellent performer with SBC photo diode, LED/Direct-Dial readout, a huge EV metering range and an f-stop setting of up to f-181 (excellent for pinhole 35mm photography), but unfortunately the only source who had it listed ($112 at tristatecamera.com) does not have it in stock and may never carry it again since it's been discontinued. I wish Quantum would have started making these meters again.

 

Btw, if anybody is interested, tristatecamera.com has the cheapest prices on Digisix at $99 (at the time of this posting). Do a search for Digisix on their web site.

I have had excellent results with A&I photo in Los Angeles. Their Santa Monica branch has always been nice to me, and extremely friendly, too. Their turnaround time for slides is about 2 hours, and they are open from 7:30 in the morning till 10:00 pm on weekdays -- how could you beat that convenience?! You can send your pictures to them thru B&H or directly by ordering mailers from www.aandi.com. All of the prices for A&I processing are on their web page, too.

I presume the 55mm Kowa lens has a filter size of about 72-77mm. Right? Cokin can accept up to 77mm unless you go to XP. You most definitely have to worry about vignetting on both lenses with this holder. You may get by with cutting the front part of the holder off (ie. hold max 2 filters on the holder), but have to experiment.

 

A Cokin polarizer at about $25-$35 does not have nearly as good a glass as does a Heliopan, B+W or Singhray. You're shooting with Kowa because you want excellent outputs, so why degrade the picture with a low-grade filter? The 3" square filter and the holder (and hood, if you elect to buy one) is a lot harder to carry than is a single screw-on filter. My Cokins tend to always stay back in the car.

Another vote for Epson 2450. I've found that if you put the film directly on the scanner's bed and put the 4x5 film holder on the top of it, it will give you far better and sharper scans than if you inserted the film inside the 6x9 mount. The $40 Vuescan works great with this scanner and improves it quality as long as you don't overkill on the grain reduction.

 

These are some of the scan results I got with very little post scan modifications to match the originals - auto contrast and unsharp mask in Paintshop Pro 7:

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1248380&size=lg

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1273620&size=lg

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1276764&size=lg

 

At 24-bits color and 2400dpi a 6x6 .tif scan is about 75Megs. The actual optical output of this scanner peaks out at 1800dpi, which is still pretty good for a $300 medium format scanner.

 

Btw, the last two pictures were shot with Holga and are supposed to look like that. For scan sharpness check the writings on the edges of the film.

I have both Bay-III ('flex 2.8F) and Bay-I (Rolleicord, Autocord, Yashicamat). My solution was a Bay-I to 49mm and a Bay-III to 49mm adapter. Now I have the freedom of mounting any 49mm filter I want on these cameras, carry only 1 set of filters (which fit on my Pentax Spotmeter IV as well), and pay a lot less than if I bought Bay-x filters. I can also stack them, too (not that I want to!) Most of my 49mm filters are B+W or Heliopan.

 

I think the Bay-II to 49mm goes for about $15 to $20 on ebay (made in India by Sonia - not a bad construction, either). You can even consider the smaller Bay-II to 46mm.

Even if you get it to work, the flash will not meter by itself as would a thyristor flash. So it only fires at full power. Try the Vivitar or Metz lineup. Have to get one with the guidenumber and functions that best fit into your needs. For example the 540EZ has a rather high guide number which makes it great for bounce flash as well as daylight fill-flash photography (ex. animal shots using telephot lenses), but it is fairly heavy and big. Having a PC-cord capability is a nice option for a good flash when you want to move the flash further away from the camera. I have a Nissin flash with half the guide number of 540, but about same weight and same head movements. Paid $25 for it in used condition and has worked great on my M645/1000s, Yashicamat and Rolleiflex to cover indoor social events with bounce flash using the Omnibounce head (same bounce head I use on my 540EZ). It even has a wideangle diffuser.

Even if you get it to work, the flash will not meter by itself as would a thyristor flash. So it only fires at full power. Try the Vivitar or Metz lineup. Have to get one with the guidenumber and functions that best fit into your needs. For example the 540EZ has a rather high guide number which makes it great for bounce flash as well as daylight fill-flash photography (animal shots), but it is fairly heavy and big. Having a PC-cord capability is a nice option for a good flash when you want to move the flash further away from the camera. I have a Nissin flash with half the guide number of 540, but about same weight and same head movements. Paid $25 for it in used condition and has worked great on my M645/1000s, Yashicamat and Rolleiflex to cover indoor social events with bounce flash using the Omnibounce head (same bounce head I use on my 540EZ). It even has a wideangle diffuser.

Thank you all for your replies. That Digisix seems to be a good choice. Too bad they don't make spot attachment for it as they do/did for the Luna lineup.

 

How is the original Luna Pro with Cds diode and the optional vario angle attachement which makes it a 15/7.5-degree spot meter as well? Besides it needing PX13 mercury batteries, is the meter still up to standard for giving accurate light readings?