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Any recommendation r.e. Chamonix 4x5 camera types? N vs. F vs. H Looks like N is stripped down with fewer movements for lighter weight, F is more of a 'standard' field camera and H is for wide angle lenses? What kind of film backs can they take? I'm considering getting into large format and they're apparently the recommendation of the thread.
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Jun 14, 2019 23:12
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:34 |
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Awesome, thanks for the help. I mostly shoot things and landscapes, more so at night with colour film. I think what I'd end up wanting is something on the lighter side as I'll be walking with it and I don't think I'm going to be using movements very heavily.
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Jun 15, 2019 02:26
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Welp just dropped the hammer on a Chamonix 45n-2, also grabbed some film holders from a local auction website. Now to accumulate the million other little bits and pieces I need to make the thing work...
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Jun 17, 2019 11:17
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Helen Highwater posted:What's a good way to scan 4x5 negatives at home if I don't have a scanner that can take them? I'm planning on DSLR scanning mine when I eventually produce one, minimum requirements for that are some source of backlight (e.g. LED tracing pad), a tripod/copy stand and a macro lens for a digital camera. I do pretty much exactly that for 35mm, for 4x5 I'll have to hold the film some other way (taped to the light bed, between some glass or in a flatbed film holder I guess?)
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Jun 18, 2019 04:34
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Got my film holders today woo, camera and 135mm Fujinon lens incoming as well. I got 6 x fairly used Fidelity film holders, three plastic ones and three wooden ones. The plastic ones look fine, the wooden ones (as I expected) look a bit twisted, do they tend to flatten out when installed in the camera or not? I don't imagine being limited to 6 shots for now is really going to be a big issue...
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Jun 19, 2019 10:17
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Woo got it, going to get some fp4+ and see if I can get a good image or two over the weekend!
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Jun 28, 2019 03:09
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Love the light and composition. Just went out with 4 sheets of fp4+ for the first time.  I think the first shot I overexposed because my lightmeter hasn't arrived yet and I stuffed up using the lightmeter app on my phone. The last shot was a macro of some lichen but without thinking I set it to f32 so I'm worried that I'm not going to get any background separation and it will suck. Also I was using a black tshirt as my dark cloth but it was hardly dark and too much of a pain to use, cold and moist here this morning so my breath was fogging up the ground glass. Overall though a fun 2 or so hours taking 4 photos.
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Jun 29, 2019 22:51
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I wasn't doing extreme macro so the bellows weren't extended that far. I think the photos turned out OK, tons of detail. Not sure I love how the mid-tones came out (feels too contrasty) but that could have just been due to the lighting. Anyone have any experience with FP4+ and Ilford LC29?  
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Jun 30, 2019 07:10
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Lion Rock on Ektar 4x5. First time I've done LF colour and first time using a spotmeter. I thought I'd underexposed a bit looking at the negative but it scanned OK. My 5 month old C-41 chemicals are still going strong (I've only put the equivalent of 6 full 35mm rolls through it so it should still have some capacity left).
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Jul 7, 2019 02:40
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I like your glass plate stuff, do they come out as a direct positive image? Also you need a mobile dark room to do those right?
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Jul 8, 2019 19:48
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Yond Cassius posted:Huh. I usually don't like Ektar's tonality, but that's really, really good. I think it's the first time I've seen it live up to the promise of 'like slide film, but C41'. Cheers, I used a pentax v spot meter and took measurements from the lightest and darkest spots of the scene and the subject (the rock). Can't remember the exact values off the top of my head but it was something like a range of EV 9 to 14? I believe I exposed at EV 12, I used a 0.9 stop soft grad ND as well not that I probably needed it. Developed at home in 5 month old c41 chemicals using the taco method, the negatives looked a little thin so I was worried that I'd underexposed but it could have also just been that the scene was fairly low contrast and it scanned well anyway. DSLR scan with a sony a7rii, two shots stitched together. Negative lab pro to do the invert, some colour correction and a bit of playing with the standard lightroom sliders.
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Jul 9, 2019 02:27
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For reference I got the chamonix 45n-2 because that was the brand recommendation of the thread and I wanted something for hiking/landscape shots. It's a beautiful piece of work, very well made and finished, works perfectly and does everything it needs to do. Not the cheapest or the lightest option but I'm very happy with the results.
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Jul 9, 2019 08:33
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My local camera shop didn't have a loupe so they sold me a little slide viewer doodad at a big discount (because it wasn't what I was really after and I'd have to dick with it). I took it home, popped the opaque white cap off and ground off some plastic bits and basically turned it into a loupe. It's not fancy, kinda clunky and doesn't have a way of attaching a neck strap but it works perfectly fine for getting accurate focus. I attempted to use a black t-shirt as a dark cloth which worked OK but was kinda lovely because A) it wasn't totally opaque, B) it was awkward to use, C) it got in the way of the ground glass even in light wind and D) it caused the ground glass to fog up a ton from my breath on a cold morning. I got a proper dark cloth second-hand and it was a lot better to use. I used my phone as an average lightmeter for my first B&W shots and that worked fine, you can also try to use a digital camera to get the exposure you want if you have one and don't want to buy a dedicated lightmeter (which I eventually did because LF is heavy and slow and expensive and I wanted to get the best possible shots for the effort). I got 6 second-hand film holders, 3 plastic which are fine, 3 wood which are warped and poo poo, get the plastic ones. Also clean them before you use them, my first negatives were all covered in dust during exposure from the film holders (something I never had to worry about shooting 35mm). I carry an ipad mini with an app for calculating exposure (including reciprocity failure) and as a viewfinder so I can check composition with my focal length quickly before having to go to the effort of setting the camera up. When you all add it up I pretty well fill up a small hiking backpack just with my 4x5 camera, some film holders and all of the various gubbins needed to take a photo, which kinda surprised me but I do enjoy the technical nature of the process and how deliberate it makes you.
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Jul 10, 2019 11:33
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The thing that I've liked the most about large format so far is that you really feel like a craftsman working with a tool much more so than I've felt with digital or 35mm. You're physically doing every aspect of taking the image, you've got complete control over it, I connect a lot more with the scene through the camera than I do through a viewfinder or rangefinder.
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Jul 11, 2019 04:29
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Some more Ektar, wasn't really feeling it this morning though so I took two shots and it felt like I wasted $10. This one was directly into the sun so all things considered I think it turned out OK.
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Jul 21, 2019 07:17
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Spent about 2 hours getting 6 shots on the 4x5 yesterday. Haven't developed the colour ones but they should be a ton better than this. I took two B&W shots after the sun set and I probably shouldn't have bothered because the light wasn't really there for it but uhhh, I'm going to post one anyway??
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Jul 27, 2019 23:11
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I use a fujinon 135mm f5.6 lens, seems fine to me, I like 40mm focal length in 35mm and it seems close to that. Also still loving the Chamonix 45n-2, not as light as an intrepid for example but man it's so solid. I've seen some video reviews of the intrepid and I know they're extremely cheap and light but they really don't look nice to use. Also just tried out an SP-445 dev tank for some C-41 and although I wouldn't say it's easier than the taco method I think it definitely produces better negatives. I've only done ~10 4x5 neggies using the taco method but most had some scratches and one or two had uneven banding in the sky which really sucked.
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Jul 30, 2019 10:11
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As a side note I got a price back from the only place that I'm aware of in my country (New Zealand) that does E-6 process slide film. $17 NZD per sheet of 4x5 to process, about $7 NZD per piece of velvia 100, so total ~$16 USD per shot if I want to shoot slide film,not including scanning but I would do that myself anyway. I think I'll probably keep shooting Ektar and home processing for the time being...
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Jul 30, 2019 20:27
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Some more Ektar in my Chamonix, loving it so far. 
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Jul 31, 2019 11:12
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I use a cheap slide viewer where I popped the bottom piece of diffuse plastic off and ground it flat but uhhhh you should probably not do that. I have really good eyesight so I don't find the loupe is absolutely critical but it may be different for you. Also nice choice, that's what I have except 135mm instead of 150. Do you have a lightmeter? (a DSLR or phone with a lightmeter app can work in a pinch). Also I fond that a proper dark cloth was much nicer to use than a black t-shirt, especially outdoors.
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Aug 1, 2019 20:08
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Google Butt posted:Pulled the trigger on the 45n-2! I have a Chinese carbon tripod, Zomei z818c, with whatever ball head it came with and a Chamonix 45n-2 and I haven't had any issues so far. Granted I haven't had to use it in extremely strong wind but I've taken it hiking, used it on some uneven ground near cliff edges and the like without issue. I'd say whatever you have now is probably fine, if after you've used it for a bit and there's some issue change it but it's a pretty light camera so I don't think it's going to be an issue for any decent tripod.
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Aug 7, 2019 10:59
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Went out with my Chamonix to a local black sand beach in a really remote prehistoric feeling place this morning but it was insanely windy, overcast and raining. I learned that it's really insanely hard to manage a large format camera and all of the stuff you need to use it on a beach in strong wind and with occasional drizzle. Have developed but not scanned the colour photos I took, hopefully I was able to capture the desolate mood of the place and conditions but given how overcast it was I probably just got some trash photos for idiots.
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Aug 11, 2019 09:33
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alkanphel posted:You should probably add a hook to your tripod so you can hang your bag to weigh it down even more. Yeah it has one and I use it frequently but this time I had the legs splayed out really wide and the tripod very low to the ground for stability. Of the three colour photos I got here's the best one. I really needed my GND for the sky which was ~4 stops lighter than the subject but given the wind and rain I didn't want to faff around with it. 
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Aug 12, 2019 10:38
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ansel autisms posted:also you can just wait until the light isn't so lovely Lol yeah, I think a better photographer than I could have made a lot more out of it but the weather has been poo poo here for like 10 days in a row and I just had to get out and photograph a thing. Developing the FP4+ I also took that day right now, might make for a better image.
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Aug 13, 2019 08:47
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Google Butt posted:Just got my 045-n2 and god drat it's way nicer than I was expecting, top notch materials and construction, for real. Hell yeah, I guess to some extent you pay for it but it's so solid and nice to use I can imagine them holding value.
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Aug 16, 2019 09:47
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More Ektar 4x5. It's the middle of winter over here but I bet this beach would be fantastic in summer (to swim at, not photograph).
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Aug 25, 2019 10:04
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FP4+ with a 6-stop ND
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Aug 28, 2019 11:05
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Google Butt posted:Nice. How are you metering? Pentax Spotmeter V, and using a phone app to calculate exposure details including whatever filters I have in place. Lmao love the painted tree on the side of the tank.
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Aug 28, 2019 19:48
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ImplicitAssembler posted:Lol, wtf. I figured a maintained software, with colour profiles, etc would be better than something from 2007, but no.. What aperture is that? Did you want the foreground to be out of focus? I'm going to develop a few shots I took last weekend sometime today that had some front standard movements to try to both foreground and distance in focus, hoping it worked out because it seemed like the amount of front tilt I needed was almost zero.
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Sep 6, 2019 21:10
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ImplicitAssembler posted:F16 and no, that was a plain mistake from my side. I picked the most contrasty line I could find, which was the background mountain. Ahh ok, I almost always default to f32 on my 4x5 outdoors, remember that to get an equivalent depth of field on a large format camera to 35mm you need to use a proportionally smaller aperture. In normal lighting this usually ends up as between 1/4 and 1 second exposure on ISO 100 film, shooting a landscape on a tripod unless it's super windy or there are waves up close or something that's usually fine.
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Sep 6, 2019 23:11
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Also this owns.
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Sep 6, 2019 23:13
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Second time I've gone to this place and second time the light hasn't come to the party with heavy cloud, still I feel like these two worked ok. 
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Sep 7, 2019 10:56
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Just shot and processed a bunch of 4x5 sheets of Provia. Seeing large format slides come out of the tank is magical, and doing E-6 myself wasn't any harder than C-41 (and I practically have to do it myself because the only lab I know of around here that does E-6 sheet film charges $12 each). Don't seem to be having any dynamic range issues with Provia but I'm always very careful with metering.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:46
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Scans of my slide film taken yesterday, Provia in 4x5. All of the same scene from slightly different locations/angles and times of day, not sure which one I like the best to be honest but overall I'm really happy with the results.  
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Sep 22, 2019 04:42
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These always own.
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Sep 29, 2019 09:08
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You can also use a DSLR with live view or mirrorless camera with the equivalent focal length lens and aperture if you want to preview how the scene will look at different exposure levels, but that's absolutely cheating if you're doing it for a course.
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Oct 3, 2019 19:18
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Some 4x5 film comparisons, colour negative and slides. Velvia 50 on the left, Ektar 100 on the right.   Provia 100 on the left, Ektar 100 on the right.   Ektar definitely has very strong yellows and greens, for the flowers I definitely prefer the velvia but for the landscape I'm leaning more towards Ektar but that might be more due to the change in lighting between the two shots.
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Oct 6, 2019 09:37
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Here's a streak shot I took of the most recent Rocket Lab flight out of Mahia, New Zealand. Launch video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gI_Ng4SGyUY&t=896s 30 second exposure on 4x5 with Provia 100, had to stack a 6-stop ND filter and polarisier and shoot at f64 to get the shutter speed down to that as the flight was in bright early afternoon sun. Probably the oldest way to get an image of one of the most modern rockets currently flying. 
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Nov 1, 2019 08:30
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Attempted to re-process an older image with the hopes that having more experience I could do a better job. I think the re-process is quite a bit better: For reference the original attempt at processing was: 
Blackhawk fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Jan 5, 2020 |
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Jan 5, 2020 09:03
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 23:34 |
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Mix of Portra 160, Provia and Velvia. Actually digging the Porta a fair bit, especially for taming really harsh light.   
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Jan 14, 2020 10:07
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