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For what it's worth, the viewfinder on my Bessa-R is far superior to the one in my Leica. They feel crappy, but Reichstag is right, they are arguably more functional/reasonably priced cameras.
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Feb 26, 2012 11:44
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I need to get a new light meter. Mine half broke last night in the middle of a shoot and will be completely broken any day now. I'm looking at the Sekonic line like the L-358. They look useful because of their ability to measure ambient light but also because of their ability to measure light from studio flashes, which can be of benefit to me. However, I'm very up-in-the-air about incident metering which the Sekonics seem to rely on quite heavily. I have had no luck with this metering method in the past. It may have been because my former meter just was not very good at it, or maybe because my technique was bad. But whenever I compared the results of my incident readings to a digital photo taken with the settings the meter suggested, the picture was way off. Instead, I turned to metering off a gray card placed in the light I wanted to expose for without the diffuser dome in place. It was very successful for me in a wide range of circumstances (barring human errors), and so I'm now a little hesitant to abandon this. My impression of incident metering is that you have to be fairly close to your subject. When you see photographers using their incident meters they usually put it right up to the subject and get a reading. Well, what if your subject is far off? For instance, what if the subject is a bridge in the distance lit up with lights against a setting sun at dusk? I might want to make the bridge a silhouette against the sky. With my current metering method I can just put the gray card out into the open air, meter off of it, and get a reading for the overall light and use that as my basis for my exposure. I can use a bit of guesswork to use a slightly faster or slower shutter speed to achieve the effect I want. But usually I can get extremely close, if not spot on. So I feel some hesitation towards incident metering. Will it work in an example like this?
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Feb 28, 2012 04:07
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The 358 has a reflective meter attachment included. It's 54 degrees though so not as useful as the 758 which has a viewfinder but then that's double the price. So you know what you are paying for!
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Feb 28, 2012 04:20
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54 degrees is probably fine as I meter off a gray card and I get fairly close to it. But I'm still kind of wondering about incident metering as I feel like I am missing out on something. Is it easy enough to meter for landscapes?
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Feb 28, 2012 04:26
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My understanding is that an incident light meter does exactly what you're doing with the gray card, the only difference being that the dome is 3-d and the card is flat. I have the L-358, and with the dome up, it basically tells you how to get 18% gray at the particular spot and light direction that it's facing. There's some other neat modes, like ambient % with flash and memory settings. So if you put the dome under a model's chin and point it back at the camera, it will give you the correct settings needed to expose the model's face at 18% gray, or V in the Zone system.
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Feb 28, 2012 04:27
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It's useful if you don't want to (or can't) walk over to the subject, but if you already took a grey card there then you can just take an incident reading. It's not going to replace a good spot meter for landscapes though. You should check ebay. 758's go for not much more than a brand new 358. That's what you need for accurate landscape spot metering.
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Feb 28, 2012 04:31
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Alternatively you can consider the 558, slightly cheaper than the 758 and does close enough.
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Feb 28, 2012 05:00
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Mannequin posted:My impression of incident metering is that you have to be fairly close to your subject. You don't; you just have to have access to the same light as your subject. Let's say you have a model a mile down the road and a supertelephoto lens. That's way too far to walk—but you don't need to. You pop off a meter reading over your shoulder. Bang, perfect exposure. As someone else said, you're effectively incident metering in a very roundabout way with your gray card now. The reason you most often see people right up on the subject is because (1) a lot of people don't know how to use their meter, and (2) often if someone's whipped out a Sekonic, they're using strobes. In that case, the only way to be in the same light as the subject is to be at the subject's position.
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Feb 28, 2012 06:15
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Thanks for all your help guys. I will see how it goes with one of the Sekonics.
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Feb 29, 2012 04:14
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Cross post with SAD, but I'm loving the hell out of the new Portra 160, these are all off the same roll that was developed in a Rollei Digibase kit at room temp, shot with a Fuji GW690ii.   edit: 2nd picture is working now Spedman fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 12:51
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Spedman posted:Cross post with SAD, but I'm loving the hell out of the new Portra 160, these are all off the same roll that was developed in a Rollei Digibase kit at room temp, shot with a Fuji GW690ii. A room temperture C-41 kit? That's awesome. I really like the airplane shot, your second one isn't showing up for me though.
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Feb 29, 2012 16:14
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I think I've convinced myself that I'd like to try out film photography. Is it a pretty sound plan to use my Powershot S95 for "Everything" and try any 'serious' shooting on a film SLR? I like the idea of developing myself and printing images that I put a lot of thought into. There are so many film SLR options out there, what does this thread recommend as a decent starter? I'm looking to keep this pretty cheap for my first film camera. Budget of ~$150-200 for body and lens. First Time Caller fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 16:39
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First Time Caller posted:I think I've convinced myself that I'd like to try out film photography. Is it a pretty sound plan to use my Powershot S95 for "Everything" and try any 'serious' shooting on a film SLR? I like the idea of developing myself and printing images that I put a lot of thought into. Honestly you're best off going to thrift stores and the like looking for older cameras, i've always had good luck at Goodwill more than other thrifts for some reason. You can get a decent film camera for under $20 because it's "antiquated" technology, although you really have to know what to look for as far as condition, working order etc and also have a bit of luck. if you're looking to buy from a more reliable source, KEH is your friend. If you're looking to stay Canon, the AE-1 is probably what's going to get recommended most.
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Feb 29, 2012 16:54
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Spedman posted:Is that King's Park? And if so where do you buy your chemicals? XTimmy fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 17:35
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whereismyshoe posted:Honestly you're best off going to thrift stores and the like looking for older cameras, i've always had good luck at Goodwill more than other thrifts for some reason. You can get a decent film camera for under $20 because it's "antiquated" technology, although you really have to know what to look for as far as condition, working order etc and also have a bit of luck. if you're looking to buy from a more reliable source, KEH is your friend. If you're looking to stay Canon, the AE-1 is probably what's going to get recommended most. I went this route. Picked up the AE-1 you linked to along with a bag, a 28mm f/2.8 wide angle, and several rolls of ilford b&w iso400. Thanks a bunch for the advice! After doing some research on the AE-1, I ended up learning more about than the 70's-80's camera market than I ever wanted to know  Edit: What is the recommended way of getting your film negatives on the computer? I'm assuming negative scanners work pretty well (is there a recommended one?) or should I be printing and then scanning with a photo scanner for the best quality? First Time Caller fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 19:33
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Q != E
First Time Caller fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Feb 29, 2012 |
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Feb 29, 2012 20:03
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First Time Caller posted:Edit: What is the recommended way of getting your film negatives on the computer? I'm assuming negative scanners work pretty well (is there a recommended one?) or should I be printing and then scanning with a photo scanner for the best quality? If you're just going to be shooting 35mm, an Epson Perfection V500 Photo works great and is around 100-150. That's what I use.
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Feb 29, 2012 20:05
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QPZIL posted:If you're just going to be shooting 35mm, an Epson Perfection V500 Photo works great and is around 100-150. That's what I use. Excellent. And last question before I venture off on my own for awhile, body and lens maintenance - what should I buy to keep my lens clean and body free of dust?
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Feb 29, 2012 20:15
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First Time Caller posted:Excellent. And last question before I venture off on my own for awhile, body and lens maintenance - what should I buy to keep my lens clean and body free of dust? not canned air. there's the "rocket blaster" i think it's called? that's made for cleaning lenses but you should be fine with the body as long as you don't leave it sitting around with the back open / lens off the front.
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Feb 29, 2012 20:30
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XTimmy posted:Is that King's Park? It is Kings Park, shot during a recent trip back to my old home town, but I do live in Melbourne these days. I ordered the c41 kit, along with a few RA4 kits and colour paper from Macodirect in Germany. The usual deal, if order enough stuff the shipping is very much worth the while, but they're not fast. I've also read that the Rollei kit will last in concentrate form for 2-3 years, which is great as you only ever mix what you need, so just order the 50 roll kit and you're set for a good while.
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Feb 29, 2012 20:51
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Spedman posted:It is Kings Park, shot during a recent trip back to my old home town, but I do live in Melbourne these days. Whoah! I just looked and the Rollei kit in 10 or 20 roll form is available from Freestyle at a very reasonable cost and affordable shipping (for those in the US), http://www.freestylephoto.biz/66015-Rollei-Compard-Digibase-C-41-Midi-Color-Processing-Kit-20-roll
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Feb 29, 2012 22:28
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Spedman posted:I ordered the c41 kit, along with a few RA4 kits and colour paper from Macodirect in Germany. The usual deal, if order enough stuff the shipping is very much worth the while, but they're not fast. I've also read that the Rollei kit will last in concentrate form for 2-3 years, which is great as you only ever mix what you need, so just order the 50 roll kit and you're set for a good while. Freestyle won't ship liquids to Canada, and their shipping costs are stupid anyways. * drat, I reminded myself I promised this thread a write-up on my experience with a Unicolor powder c-41 kit. I'll get on that. Any recommendations on film or other supplies I could add to the order from Macodirect? EDIT: As promised, some words about the Unicolor c-41 kit. Sorry for the wall of text, today especially I don't feel much like being brief.  C-41 developing 1 by Execudork, on Flickr The Unicolor C-41 kit is available at Freestylephoto.biz, for a price of $17.99 for a 1-litre kit like mine. Shipping to Canada was about the same cost as the chemicals, but with a capacity of 12 rolls, the ~$35 I spent works out to slightly cheaper than the $4/roll my local camera shop charges for develop-only. Mainly I wanted to be able to say I'd done it myself, because when I tell people I shoot and develop film the reaction is often a disbelieving "you mean colour?!?"; then I have to say, no, just black & white and it's really not that hard and film isn't dead and yes I heard about Kodak and... it's annoying. Now I can be all  and say "yup!"The instructions in the kit say the 1L is good for 8 rolls of either 35mm 36 exp. or 120, but the chemicals are time sensitive, so if they're used within a few days of mixing, 50% more can be achieved. I assembled 12 rolls (6 in each size, though a couple of the 35mm rolls were 24 exp, oh well) and brought everything into the lab on a Saturday afternoon. The reason I went into school (I'm a PhD student, studying soil microbiology) is for the equipment I have access to there, most importantly a waterbath that can be set to 37 Celsius and is large enough to hold all of the solutions and my developing tank. Plus, my labcoat (both developer and blix, the mixture of bleach and fixative, are mildly nasty), gloves, fumehoods, good glassware, etc. Mixing up the chemicals was pretty straightforward, and once I figured out the inaccuracy in the waterbath's thermostat (you need to set it to 41 to get an actual water temperature of 37) keeping temperature wasn't difficult. The procedure isn't very different from normal Black & White. I did everything just on the benchtop at room temperature, but kept the chemicals in the waterbath when they weren't in the developing tank. A litre of water takes a while to shed enough heat to make a difference. 1. Pre-soak. Fill the tank with warm water, let sit 1 minute 2. Dump the water, fill with developer, for 3.5 minutes. Agitate every 30s. My tank's lid leaks, so I just stood there and rotated the stirring thing for 5 seconds every 30. 3. Pour the developer BACK INTO ITS BOTTLE, then fill with Blix, for 6.5 min, agitating as for developer. 4. Pour the Blix BACK INTO ITS BOTTLE, then continously run warm water into the tank, for 3 min. Remove the tank's lid. 5. Dump the water, fill with Stabilizer, for 1 min. Agitate gently to dislodge bubbles. 6. Pour the Stabilizer BACK INTO ITS BOTTLE, hang the film to dry. Parts 2 and 3 should be at 37 C, the other parts are apparently a bit less sensitive to temperature. Figuring out how to get the solutions back into their bottles took some thinking; I rather foolishly used narrow-necked opaque brown Nalgene bottles, and a large beaker as a transfer vessel, but it seems to have worked. The instructions warn against getting even a drop of Blix in the developer, so I just made sure to rinse everything all the time. Overall, the process was interesting and mildly fun (aside from the inevitable struggles with wet plastic reels inside my changing bag), but probably not worth it to save a few cents per roll. For $18, it's reasonable but for the total costs involved when dealing with Freestyle's inability to comprehend international postal rates, it's probably not. If I had been pushing / pulling my film, or cross-processing E-6, which both cost extra at the camera shop, then I'd have to reconsider again. As far as the actual procedure is concerned, the relative speed - 15 minutes from loaded on reels to hanging on line - is nice, and all films are handled the same way in c-41, regardless of ISO or brand. The strips tended to curl severely while drying, especially the 120, but mostly smoothed out after a day of hanging. I split the work into two days, because I only put enough money in the parking meter on Saturday afternoon for 4 hours; it took me about 7 hours total, but the first hour or hour and a half was mostly wasted doing the decapitated-chicken dance figuring things out in the lab and waiting for the waterbath to reach temperature. One weird thing I noticed was the colour of the water when I dumped it after the Pre-Soak - Kodak Gold is apparently named for that, as the water was bright urine-yellow. The one roll of Portra 160T turned the pre-soak water bright, lime-jello green, while the various Fuji films had only a subdued-brown effect; I had several rolls from minor film manufacturers that I assume were actually made by one of the majors (Kodak, Agfa, or Fuji - with my money on Fuji) that produced slightly brown water like the Fuji rolls. There are more (misfocused, poorly-composed) pictures of me fumbling about in the lab on my Flickr.  Fujicolor 100 1 004 by Execudork, on Flickr ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Mar 1, 2012 |
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Mar 1, 2012 03:22
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I looked at your photostream, is this: C-41 developing 2 by Execudork, on Flickr A hot plate sort of thing? If so how much does it cost and where can I buy one? Good write up by the way. I tried C-41 once and made a huge mess because evidently you have to burp the tank during the blix as it releases gas and either the instructions didn't mention that or I missed it.
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Mar 1, 2012 05:12
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eggsovereasy posted:I looked at your photostream, is this: They are not cheap, starting at about $450: Cole-Parmer (that one I photographed came from VWR, but all of the scientific-supply places - Fisher, VWR, Cole-Parmer, there are others - are pretty similar). But! The second-hand-science auction site LabX carries a wide range of cut-rate, "gently used" equipment including hotplate/stirrers. And yeah, the Blix produced a fair number of bubbles while everything was dissolving, in a closed container that would cause problems. \/\/\/ It heats up, and there's a magnet on an electric motor that spins around just under the top. You drop a plastic-coated stick-shaped magnet into your solution, turn the stirrer up slowly, and get mixing. It's not a particularly complicated machine, it's just the scientific markup - all sciencey equipment costs way more than it should. $120 is probably about what they should cost. Get some of the plastic-coated stirring magnets while you're at it. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 05:59 on Mar 1, 2012 |
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Mar 1, 2012 05:25
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Interesting, there are some on ebay for $120, but maybe they're just lovely.
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Mar 1, 2012 05:40
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Rumors abound that Kodak is discontinuing their slide film. But they said Kodak removed slide film from their website and I still see it there so who knows.
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Mar 1, 2012 20:53
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Not rumors: http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/news/2156493/kodak-discontinues-colour-reversal-films
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Mar 1, 2012 20:54
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No surprises there, Fuji has been king of E-6 for ages now.
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Mar 1, 2012 20:58
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Reichstag posted:No surprises there, Fuji has been king of E-6 for ages now. Yep, I don't like to see the selection of film narrow, but everyone I know who shoots slides shoots Fuji. Conversely most people I know who shoot color negative shoots Kodak products these days (except for maybe Reala).
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Mar 1, 2012 21:01
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I must admit to not shooting E6 these days, it's no fun to scan and making a wet print with it is near impossible. looks like Velvia will be the fallback for landscape slides for me, But I'm so glad I shot around 15-20 rolls of Ektachrome when I went to Iceland. Manniquin will not be happy.
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Mar 1, 2012 21:07
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ExecuDork posted:Any recommendations on film or other supplies I could add to the order from Macodirect? Nice c41 write up, you're gonna like working with liquids rather than powders, so much easier. As for what to get, if you do any printing, get some Kodak RA4 paper, as those guys are one of the only places that do cut sheets of Endura which can be processed at room temp too. Plus the Rollei RA4 chemicals are dirt cheap too. Other than that I'd just load up on supplies that are cheaper than Freestyle to make the most of the shipping costs.
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Mar 1, 2012 21:18
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Spedman posted:Manniquin will not be happy.
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Mar 1, 2012 21:25
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You know, I don't think I'll miss the Ektachrome series. I could never find it and when I did my photos were lackluster at best.evil_bunnY posted:Doesn't mannequin shoot portra? Pretty sure he shoots Portra and Fuji slides.
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Mar 1, 2012 21:41
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Kodak to discontinue all slide film. http://fstoppers.com/news-kodak-to-...%28fstoppers%29 And proof. http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/ContentTheme/pbPage.35mm_slide_film
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Mar 1, 2012 23:47
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dukeku posted:Not rumors: echobucket posted:Kodak to discontinue all slide film. Wow, its like there is an echo in here.
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Mar 2, 2012 00:22
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That's too bad. I liked E100G quite a bit.
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Mar 2, 2012 00:54
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Can't say I'm really bothered about Kodak stopping slide film but Fuji better not stop making Velvia! They already stopped Astia which is a pity.
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Mar 2, 2012 01:18
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Well, to put it bluntly, it will be the next thing to go. E6 has experienced a much, much faster death cycle than C-41. It is more expensive to manufacture, more expensive to process, and sees far less consumer use. Now that there's no need for editors to have chromes to work with in making layouts and such there is essentially no commercial need for it, and thanks to the expense and scarcity of labs that will handle it, almost no happy-snappers using it. It is firmly the province of the well-heeled amateur as far as I can tell.
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Mar 2, 2012 01:22
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i've never used ektachrome, the only slide film i've shot with is velvia. was it really good - like portra good?
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Mar 2, 2012 01:27
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| # ? May 8, 2024 09:31 |
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Reichstag posted:Well, to put it bluntly, it will be the next thing to go. E6 has experienced a much, much faster death cycle than C-41. It is more expensive to manufacture, more expensive to process, and sees far less consumer use. Now that there's no need for editors to have chromes to work with in making layouts and such there is essentially no commercial need for it, and thanks to the expense and scarcity of labs that will handle it, almost no happy-snappers using it. It is firmly the province of the well-heeled amateur as far as I can tell. I don't use slide film because no one processes it locally and I'm Nashville which is a decent sized city. No one does black and white either, but it's easy to do at home. Plenty of places to do C-41 though.
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Mar 2, 2012 02:28
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