8 inches, 10 if erect: The Medium + Large Format Thread!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > 8 inches, 10 if erect: The Medium + Large Format Thread!

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MrBlandAverage: Jul 2, 2003; GNNAAAARRRR

Arashiyama Monkey Park by Isaac Sachs, on Flickr

# ? Dec 6, 2016 18:30

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# ? May 13, 2024 22:10

alkanphel: Mar 24, 2004

# ? Dec 6, 2016 22:59

Thoogsby: Nov 18, 2006; Very strong. Everyone likes me.

# ? Dec 6, 2016 22:59

underage at the vape shop: May 11, 2011; by Cyrano4747

MrBlandAverage posted:

Arashiyama Monkey Park by Isaac Sachs, on Flickr

I like this, do you know the dude or was it a random also visiting the park?

# ? Dec 7, 2016 08:24

MrBlandAverage: Jul 2, 2003; GNNAAAARRRR

underage at the vape shop posted:

I like this, do you know the dude or was it a random also visiting the park?

A random, like these people:

Yellow Pumpkin, Yayoi Kusama by Isaac Sachs, on Flickr

# ? Dec 7, 2016 17:53

bobmarleysghost: Mar 7, 2006

# ? Dec 7, 2016 17:57

Thoogsby: Nov 18, 2006; Very strong. Everyone likes me.

# ? Dec 8, 2016 18:06

Karl Barks: Jan 21, 1981

# ? Dec 8, 2016 19:06

Cassius Belli: May 22, 2010; horny is prohibited

Would any of you goons in the Seattle area (or visiting soon) be interested in a 5x7 project camera?

In the process of some other acquisitions, somehow I wound up with front and rear standards, plus a bellows in between, but no ground glass or rail.

I've figured out how to get it back to working condition, and it's only about $100 in parts, but I already have a 4x5 and 8x10 and really don't have the time or need for the intermediate camera.

Will trade for purely nominal considerations and a promise that it won't go to waste.

# ? Dec 9, 2016 03:39

8th-snype: Aug 28, 2005; My office is in the front room of a run-down 12 megapixel sensor but the rent suits me and the landlord doesn't ask many questions.

Dorkroom Short Fiction Champion 2012; Young Orc

Ugh if I wasnt selling my 8x10 I would.

# ? Dec 9, 2016 05:55

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I bought a new computer and finally have a permanent work station that's not my work laptop. Been organizing and centralizing all my photos and finding photos I meant to finsih/upload and never did.

California Roadtrip

Awkward Davies fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Jan 20, 2018

# ? Dec 9, 2016 14:49

alkanphel: Mar 24, 2004

# ? Dec 9, 2016 14:52

Delzuma: Dec 4, 2004

I'm thinking about pulling the pin on a Fuji Ga645zi. Anyone have any thoughts on it? I'm looking for a traveling camera with some level of exposure help and I won't sneeze at autofocus either. Looks like this is the (affordable) way to go. I'd prefer something in the 6x6 area but this seems like a good way to go.

Delzuma fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Dec 9, 2016

# ? Dec 9, 2016 17:52

Cassius Belli: May 22, 2010; horny is prohibited

8th-snype posted:

Ugh if I wasnt selling my 8x10 I would.

What are you selling, if I may ask?

# ? Dec 9, 2016 20:07

8th-snype: Aug 28, 2005; My office is in the front room of a run-down 12 megapixel sensor but the rent suits me and the landlord doesn't ask many questions.

Dorkroom Short Fiction Champion 2012; Young Orc

Yond Cassius posted:

What are you selling, if I may ask?

It's a B&J monorail with a long and a short rail, 12 inch commercial ektar, 215mm caltar, 5 holders, some xray film, a hood, and unicolor drum setup. I'm looking to sell it as a kit or keep it all though.

# ? Dec 9, 2016 22:31

SMERSH Mouth: Jun 25, 2005

Delzuma posted:

I'm thinking about pulling the pin on a Fuji Ga645zi. Anyone have any thoughts on it? I'm looking for a traveling camera with some level of exposure help and I won't sneeze at autofocus either. Looks like this is the (affordable) way to go. I'd prefer something in the 6x6 area but this seems like a good way to go.

I couldn't tell you. The one ('Like New' condition) that I just received from Japan has a hosed up viewfinder that turns to mush at every zoom level except for the widest. (And yes, the diopter works perfectly. It can make the frame lines perfectly sharp, just not the scene in the VF.)

So I'm sending it back tomorrow. One day after getting it. Amazingly, it arrived just three days after ordering from Japan. I'd imagine that it's going to take a lot longer to get back when I'm footing the shipping, and even longer to get my refund.

(If I stood a reasonable chance of being able to fix the VF, I would seriously consider taking a go at it. But I can find neither a service manual PDF or even anyone else on the English-speaking internet who has ever said anything about dealing with such an issue. It seems like there's something moving inside the VF, but something else is supposed to move, too, and it isn't.)

So watch out for that if you get one! Or don't. Because apparently it doesn't ever happen.

I swear to god I've had the worst loving luck with buying used film camera equipment. Let me recount my recent "investments":

Nikon 24/2.8 Ai: apparently 'repaired' - I was told later by a tech that some element was probably reinstalled backwards because the edges were so heavily distorted
Nikon 24/2.8 #2: decentered
Nikon 28/3.5 non-ai: even more decentered (50% of frame soft)
Kiev 60 local repair: "a good CLA should get the shutter exposure evened out" - cleaner, but no improvement in issue
Nikon FE2 local repair: fixed issue but now mirror/prism misalignment causing front-focus
Minolta 24/2.8 MD: decentered
Minolta 24/2.8 MD #2: even more decentered (50% of frame soft)
Minolta 24/2.8 #3: great, except for no infinity focus! Sent back to seller and they are fixing for free. Will probably come back decentered
Nikon F3P: bad shutter timings - uneven exposure. Out for repair
Mamiya 50/4.5 Sekor-C (KEH EX): banged to hell and floating element malfunctioning
Olympus Stylus Infinity: Stopped focusing (focus now locks at one distance) halfway through first roll.
Nikon 300/4 AF: Works great but started making a grinding noise when focusing sometimes. I pray it's just some dry bearings in the helicoid and not loose/scraping glass.
Nikon 24/2.8 #3: decentered
GA645Zi: see above

By 'decentered' I mean that there is a big mushy blob in one of the corners that doesn't go away when stopping down, or that the left or right half of a projected image is noticeably softer than the other. And I know what a non-decentered wide angle lens looks like; I have a Minolta 28/2.8MD that does just fine, and it's the bargain-basement version (the later plastic one with a simplified optical formula) with a lot of haze. The corners are balanced though.

I guess people just beat the hell out of their lenses. If they were good performers, why would they sell them? Counting the one I sent back for repair as 'returned', I'm pretty sure that I've returned 100% of the manual focus lenses that I've bought on eBay in the last 9 months. Everything else was a CL or local store purchase, and generally I've just had to eat the cost on those.

Sorry, I know this isn't the right thread, but asking about the GA645 triggered me. All I want is one gosh-dang wide angle film camera lens that works right. (The 28/2.8MD is a low-contrast ghost hunter due to internal haze, it just happens to have decent centering.)

SMERSH Mouth fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Dec 10, 2016

# ? Dec 10, 2016 07:45

alkanphel: Mar 24, 2004

SMERSH Mouth posted:

All I want is one gosh-dang wide angle film camera lens that works right. (The 28/2.8MD is a low-contrast ghost hunter due to internal haze, it just happens to have decent centering.)

Hasselblad SWC

# ? Dec 10, 2016 09:03

8th-snype: Aug 28, 2005; My office is in the front room of a run-down 12 megapixel sensor but the rent suits me and the landlord doesn't ask many questions.

Dorkroom Short Fiction Champion 2012; Young Orc

alkanphel posted:

Hasselblad SWC

or if you are into rectangles the Fuji GSW690.

# ? Dec 10, 2016 12:12

Spedman: Mar 12, 2010; Kangaroos hate Hasselblads

Delzuma posted:

I'm thinking about pulling the pin on a Fuji Ga645zi. Anyone have any thoughts on it? I'm looking for a traveling camera with some level of exposure help and I won't sneeze at autofocus either. Looks like this is the (affordable) way to go. I'd prefer something in the 6x6 area but this seems like a good way to go.

I've threatened to get a GA645 for a long time as a travel cam, I'd rather get a fixed focus rather than a zoom for the faster/sharper lens, and less parts equals less opportunity for cam failure:

https://www.filmshooterscollective.com/analog-film-photography-blog/fujifilm-ga645-long-term-review-5-19

# ? Dec 10, 2016 16:29

alkanphel: Mar 24, 2004

# ? Dec 12, 2016 15:30

MrBlandAverage: Jul 2, 2003; GNNAAAARRRR

Tenryu-ji by Isaac Sachs, on Flickr

Miyajima by Isaac Sachs, on Flickr

# ? Dec 13, 2016 23:49

bellows lugosi: Aug 9, 2003

# ? Dec 14, 2016 06:52

fastbilly1: May 11, 2016

ianskate posted:

Question for any of you who are more into TLR shooting... which would you search out and consider "affordable"? I've been looking to expand my MF shooting, already own a Mamiya RZ67II but it's huge, so I've been looking towards a Yashica Mat 124 or something along those lines of size and weight, but there are too many models to choose from. Reviews are all over the place, so I'm putting my trust in goons. What TLR would you get and why?

Take some time and think really hard about what you want to shoot with it. As you are properly aware, most TLRs are fixed lens so you need to figure out your future workload before you buy. So if you want to shoot portraits, something like a Yashica Mat 124, Rolleicord II or V, Minolta Autocord, or a Graflex 22-200, would be perfect. They all have 75mm or 85mm lenses, at either f2.8 or 3.5. But if you want to do epic landscapes, youll want something with a 55mm or the like, and that gets expensive fast - Rollie Wide starts at around 3k. Thats not to say you cant shoot landscapes with a 75mm lens. You will move

In the past the easy answer would be a Rolleiflex Automat, but they skyrocketed in value over the last decade - I bought two on ebay in 2003 for $150 shipped.

That said, I am a hardcore Mamiya C220 fan. My father used one for twenty years for fieldwork and I have used one on and off for the last ten for studio (I am hopefully buying a new one this week). They are one of the few interchangeable lens TLRs. They average about $300 used with an 80mm f2.8, they have a 55mm f4.5 which is about $200, and are easy enough that you can repair most parts at home. They wont really work for your purposes since they are heavier than the Yashica. There is a big brother to the C220, the C330. But it introduced a shutter cock on film advance which I am not a fan of.

# ? Dec 19, 2016 17:41

Helen Highwater: Feb 19, 2014; And furthermore; Grimey Drawer

Also if you are looking for a smaller-bodied MF camera but you aren't specifically stuck on a TLR, check out folding rangefinders like the Super Ikonta or the Moskva (which was the Soviet copy of the Super Ikonta). They are fairly cheap these days but the Ikontas were well made (not so much the Moskvas) so they are probably still working. Maybe you'll need to cover up worn seams on the bellows with some liquid latex but that's likely to be all that's wrong with them.

# ? Dec 19, 2016 17:58

alkanphel: Mar 24, 2004

# ? Dec 19, 2016 22:59

Paul MaudDib: May 3, 2006; TEAM NVIDIA:
FORUM POLICE

Helen Highwater posted:

Also if you are looking for a smaller-bodied MF camera but you aren't specifically stuck on a TLR, check out folding rangefinders like the Super Ikonta or the Moskva (which was the Soviet copy of the Super Ikonta). They are fairly cheap these days but the Ikontas were well made (not so much the Moskvas) so they are probably still working. Maybe you'll need to cover up worn seams on the bellows with some liquid latex but that's likely to be all that's wrong with them.

I really like my GS645 but my first one had a weird shutter problem (it would trip when closing the shutter, and then become "desynced" and refuse to wind back up properly). KEH had a terrible time trying to get parts and eventually just offered me a different unit. The original bellows were known to develop pinholes pretty badly too.

I realize that's not a glowing endorsement, but now that I have one that works it's really nice, and you can't beat a multicoated Planar type lens with a CdS light meter.

# ? Dec 19, 2016 23:26