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nth-ing the Chamonix. I got the 045F-1, but should've got the 045N-2 -- I never, ever use the asymmetrical tilt, so I'm carrying around an extra 200g for no reason (and I paid more for the privilege!) I'd really suggest making a shopping list before you buy anything. There's so much extra stuff involved in shooting LF that it's easy to forget something until you find out you need it. Bare minimum, you'll need the camera, lens, tripod & tripod head, some way to carry it all, cable shutter releases, changing bag (or darkroom), film holders, a loupe, and something you can use as a darkcloth. Later on you'll want to get a proper meter, colour filters for B&W, more film holders, and an actual darkcloth. Probably some film, too. I really like 150 & 210 as well. They were the two cheapest lenses I've bought and the 150 is almost comically light (the 300mm I bought off Sludge Tank is comically light). I don't think you could go wrong with the standard 150, but honestly I think the 210 is even more versatile. That said, because LF lenses are so much lighter than their MF counterparts, it's so much easier to justify carrying two or three around with you, so you'll be more likely to use different lenses.
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Nov 14, 2014 11:16
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Another happy Chamonix 045-N2 user here! It's a great lightweight setup for backpacking and your choices of lens really depends on what you want to shoot. I started with a 120 and 210 but thanks to MrBlandAverage, I grabbed a 90, 150 and 300. Now I use the 90 most of all but that's because I shoot in a lot of tight urban areas. Also the best advice MrBlandAverage ever gave me was to get a dark tent instead of a dark bag. That saved me tons of frustrations in changing film.
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Nov 14, 2014 12:50
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alkanphel posted:get a dark tent instead of a dark bag. That saved me tons of frustrations in changing film. Yep.
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Nov 14, 2014 13:07
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Sludge Tank posted:"View Camera Technique" by Leslie Stroebel is also pretty in depth but I never finished it. It might pay to read about the lf camera before using it as it can be a little confusing trying to use it without understanding the basics. I'm selling a copy of it over in the Buy/Sell thread, too!
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Nov 14, 2014 13:21
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Yeah, my standard 4x5 kit is a 135, 180, and 240mm. I own a 90 but almost never use it because it's either wider than what I want or no where near wide enough. I may pick up a 75mm in the future. I honestly don't find the darkbag too bad with 4x5 but am picking up a cheap darktent soon because 8x10 is nearly impossible. I can see a tent being necessary if you live in some blasted hell hole with humidity though.
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Nov 14, 2014 14:22
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 at the last few posts. Dat negative size!
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Nov 14, 2014 16:18
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Happy Chamonix 045N-2 owner here  I think I've had mine the longest, since March 2012. I've put hundreds of sheets through it.I started with a 150 but quickly found that I liked things just a smidge wider. My standard lens kit these days is a 90, 135, and 300mm set. I also have 65mm and 210mm lenses but rarely use them except where needed situationally.
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Nov 14, 2014 17:27
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How well would a Chamonix do with light rain?
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Nov 14, 2014 17:51
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It's just wood. I use a waterproof dark cloth to sit on top of the camera during rain and I haven't had any issues.
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Nov 14, 2014 18:21
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Yeah, it's well-sealed wood. All the same, I pull my darkcloth forward over the front standard so it covers the whole camera. Here's the water resistant (not sure it's quite waterproof) darkcloth ansel autisms and I use - worth every drat penny: http://www.viewcamerastore.com/4x5-btzs-focus-hood-dark-cloth/
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Nov 14, 2014 18:36
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That Chamonix priced at $900 is actually way way way way cheaper for a LF camera "body" than I was expecting it to be. Of course we're talking in photography bucks here. And I know there are a million other accessories required, too. Just how "cheap" are those plasmat lenses that 8th-snype mentioned?
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Nov 14, 2014 18:45
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Helicity posted:How well would a Chamonix do with light rain? I use mine no problem in Seattle, without a real darkcloth (black tee shirt crew represent). I just avoid heavy down pours. BANME.sh posted:That Chamonix priced at $900 is actually way way way way cheaper for a LF camera "body" than I was expecting it to be. Of course we're talking in photography bucks here. And I know there are a million other accessories required, too. My 150mm was under a hundred bucks on ebay, it has a filter ring dent but I only wanted the shutter anyway. My 215mm was $68 on ebay, someone at KEH done hosed up on a "best offer". Those were good deals, generally a 135mm or 150mm will run you between $100 and $150 unless you want some crazy cult lens. Not counting film (or the v700) I think I have less than 3k into Lf which is pretty good when you consider I have a 4x5, 8x10, poo poo ton of holders, and like 7 lenses.
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Nov 14, 2014 18:56
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8th-snype posted:Not counting film
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Nov 14, 2014 19:25
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Saint Fu posted:Ding ding ding! On this note, I consider buying Fomapan to be false economy. The emulsion is fragile as hell and you need a full stop of reciprocity correction at 1s metered  Just get some Ilford stuff for $1.30/sheet, seriously (US prices).
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Nov 14, 2014 19:39
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I got one of those waterproof Black Jacket dark cloths from Quietworks.com. It even doubles as a fashionable rain coat and has the bitches crawling.
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Nov 14, 2014 19:58
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In the spirit of lightweight, i have a manfrotto 190cx pro4 tripod and 460mg tripod head. Very lightweight combo and stand plenty tall enough.
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Nov 14, 2014 20:37
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You know, I think we should have a definitive list of items required/recommended for LF, since we talk about it abstractly pretty often, but never very specifically as a whole... here's my first stab at it. Tell me what I'm forgetting or what recommended items should be different.
I'm assuming here that you already have a way of metering, B&W development equipment/chems, and a worthwhile tripod. That's a minimum of $750 or so, or $500 if you already have a LF-capable scanner, going up to $2000 or so if you want to splash out; in other words, actually pretty comparable to digital or smaller-format film. MrBlandAverage fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 22:41
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^ This is awesome, thanks Is the V600 a poo poo scanner for $200? I'd like to start scanning my own negatives, but can't justify the V700 at this point.
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Nov 14, 2014 22:48
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V600 won't scan 4x5
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Nov 14, 2014 23:00
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I wish I could get HP5+ for $35 
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Nov 14, 2014 23:22
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MrBlandAverage posted:You know, I think we should have a definitive list of items required/recommended for LF, since we talk about it abstractly pretty often, but never very specifically as a whole... here's my first stab at it. Tell me what I'm forgetting or what recommended items should be different. So what you're saying is that as a 35mm photographer, I should skip MF entirely and go LF? 
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Nov 14, 2014 23:25
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Depends on how much of a disposable income you have. The film and processing costs can be prohibitive, especially outside of the US. It also depends on how methodically you want to work. A Mamiya 7 and a Chamonix 45n will both yield (potentially) fantastic results, but it's apples and oranges. A 6x7 shot of Portra 400 costs about $1.35CAD for me whereas a 4x5 shot would be around $8. The cost to entry advantage of LF quickly melts away once you start doing a decent amount of shooting. burzum karaoke fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 14, 2014 23:55
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lime's right, and it's the reason I've only shot B&W in 4x5. That said, I'd still recommend 4x5 over MF if you think it'll suit your style of shooting more. It's a much slower process and you'll be taking far fewer photos than you would shooting MF, which helps mitigate the extra cost per shot.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:08
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There isn't much of a cost of entry disadvantage to MF; going with the above setup, you're looking at about $450-500 for the camera, lens, lens board, and a couple filmholders. That's medium format money; you could get a Pentax 6x7, unmetered prism, and a lens for that, or maybe a mamiya rb67, 120 back, waistlevel viewfinder, and a lens. Looking at keh right now, a 6x7 body is $200, a ~50mm equivalent lens is about $175, and a metered-but-meter-is-broken prism is $33, for a total of $408. Then there are also savings from not needing such a beastly tripod, a darkbag to load your film, etc. That's only looking at it from the money point of view of course.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:13
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Some other small stuff that might be needed: Lens shutter wrench is highly recommended. Cable releases, preferably one for each shutter.
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Nov 15, 2014 00:14
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alkanphel posted:Cable releases, preferably one for each shutter. I forgot to bring mine on a trip to Vancouver 4 years ago, got soaked for $45 at a local camera shop there  Also forgot to zip my changing bag unloading holders right at the end of the trip. Whoops, sorry every color 4x5 shot I took!  Aside from that it was a very nice trip though.
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Nov 15, 2014 01:43
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try it with a lime posted:A 6x7 shot of Portra 400 costs about $1.35CAD for me whereas a 4x5 shot would be around $8. The cost to entry advantage of LF quickly melts away once you start doing a decent amount of shooting. A 4x5 shot of Provia 100F costs $16 for me in total. Really makes my wallet weep.
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Nov 15, 2014 02:44
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try it with a lime posted:A 6x7 shot of Portra 400 costs about $1.35CAD for me
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Nov 15, 2014 02:58
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Helicity posted:^ This is awesome, thanks I got my V600 for $65 dollars on craigslist. It's totally worth that much.
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Nov 15, 2014 03:32
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BANME.sh posted:Are you factoring in dev costs in this? Yeah, although I meant to type $1.45. It's about $7 for a roll of Portra if I order in bulk through B&H, local lab is $7.50 for processing 120. Sooo... 6x6=$1.20, 6x7=$1.45, 6x9=$1.80 roughly (+tax). alkanphel posted:A 4x5 shot of Provia 100F costs $16 for me in total. Really makes my wallet weep. 
burzum karaoke fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 15, 2014 04:07
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Hey lime why haven't you been posting many pictures lately? Are you busy or are you waiting to unload a shitload of rad?
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Nov 15, 2014 04:16
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I've been working on a couple of photo series over the past year. One's shaping up really well, aaaaand the other one needs an enema. Apart from that, I have some old crap from the past two years that I've been neglecting to upload, but I'm not really sure how to feel about those. v v
burzum karaoke fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Nov 15, 2014 |
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Nov 15, 2014 04:45
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try it with a lime posted:I've been working on a couple of photo series over the past year. One's shaping up really well, aaaaand the other one needs an enema. Apart from that, I have some old crap from the past two years that I've been neglecting to upload, but I'm not really sure how to feel about those. v folks curious to see what you got goin on if that's any consolation  SHOP by voodoorootbeer, on Flickr
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Nov 15, 2014 05:25
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alkanphel posted:A 4x5 shot of Provia 100F costs $16 for me in total. Really makes my wallet weep. drat. Although at the rate I shoot MF, it probably wouldn't matter much. After physically holding a 4x5 negative and comparing it to my puny 6x9 (and stressing over how to use grads on a rangefinder) I'm seriously considering grabbing something non-Chamonix and taking the plunge.
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Nov 15, 2014 16:23
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Helicity posted:drat. Although at the rate I shoot MF, it probably wouldn't matter much. After physically holding a 4x5 negative and comparing it to my puny 6x9 (and stressing over how to use grads on a rangefinder) I'm seriously considering grabbing something non-Chamonix and taking the plunge. If you are in the US and shooting negative film the price drops considerably. It basically costs me $8 a shot for Portra 4x5, including developing and postage.
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Nov 15, 2014 16:42
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Helicity posted:^ This is awesome, thanks Get a used 4990 for the same $200. alkanphel posted:Some other small stuff that might be needed: You're right, I'll add those.
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Nov 15, 2014 17:28
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 Bukit Merah by alkanphel, on Flickr
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Nov 16, 2014 08:29
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I already have a V700 and have access to a darkroom (with chemicals!) for free. So that part definitely helps a lot. I think I definitely might go towards a Chamonix setup
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Nov 16, 2014 08:34
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Is that Kickstarter large format camera ever coming out? That thing sounded amazing for the price, but last I heard, it was mired in delays and poor communication.
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Nov 16, 2014 13:42
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Helicity posted:Is that Kickstarter large format camera ever coming out? That thing sounded amazing for the price, but last I heard, it was mired in delays and poor communication. The travel wide? It's uuuuuhhh complicated. We have been told we should get them soon, but they have said that for like a year now. I'm not mad, I'd rather have a working camera in the future than a paperweight right now. Plus it's not a great 1st LF camera, there's no movements or anything. You need movements, you don't know that you need them right now but once you have them you will understand.
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Nov 16, 2014 16:41
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