Intermediate large format questions/photography misadventures

[MARTIE]

Yes, I misinterpreted the adjective/objective thing!
But now, I can follow why your lens selection boils down to size, weight and budget rather than the look and feel, in the print.

My apologies for the interruption and I'll let you get on with your ramblings!

 

[MTGseattle]

No problem. Interrupt away.

There are a lot of threads comparing various lenses, and I tend to think that a lot of t "feel or look" in the print itself can be accomplished in the darkroom regardless of a lens generally speaking. Take my 2 competing 90mm designs as an example. There are quite a few examples of people talking about the Nikkor SW 90mm f8 as being too sharp or clinical in its rendering. I haven't exposed nearly enough negatives with 90mm lenses to say for myself if I buy into that line of thought. I will say that if at some point I do want images that are perhaps softer and dreamlike, I will likely need to experiment and possibly seek out a different lens.

The shuffling of the dry mount press (old Seal 200) went fine. I had remembered it being crazy heavy, and while heavy it wasn't unmanageable. The rest of my basement/shop/darkroom has become unmanageable, and I feel like I am no closer to being able to print after most of Thursday and Friday spent down there trying to organize and sort. I even have a large donate pile loaded into the car.

Goal today: get things into printing shape. I have a specific negative in mind already, so I can disregard time at the light table sorting through binders at least.

 

[Roger Thoms]

It's the Seal 350 that's a real beast, although the 200 is no light weight either, glad you got it moved successfully.

 

[Vaughn]

No problem. Interrupt away.

There are a lot of threads comparing various lenses, and I tend to think that a lot of t "feel or look" in the print itself can be accomplished in the darkroom regardless of a lens generally speaking. Take my 2 competing 90mm designs as an example...

I hope it all goes well!

I did all my MF (6x6) printing ages ago at the college darkroom. Generally, I liked using the 135mm lens the D5-XLs had in their turrets rather than the 80mm. I'm tall, so I think it was just easier for me to work with the enlarger a little higher. True of not, I also liked to think I was using the 'sweet spot' of the longer lens, rather than a normal lens at its limits.

 

[JensH]

Ok, a LF misadventure happened to me.

Ordered two adapters to fit both, a lens with rms microscope thread and one M36 lens in front of a 1928 dial set Compur #2.

I had looked up the specs online - saying those shutters have M40, M45 or special sized threads. Took a caliper, aha: 40mm. So ordered adapters for M40x0.75.

They arrived today. Nice work in brass, but useless.
It turned out my shutter uses M40.5x0.5 to mount optics...

Sometimes you better look twice...

 

[eli griggs]

Ok, a LF misadventure happened to me.

Ordered two adapters to fit both, a lens with rms microscope thread and one M36 lens in front of a 1928 dial set Compur #2.

I had looked up the specs online - saying those shutters have M40, M45 or special sized threads. Took a caliper, aha: 40mm. So ordered adapters for M40x0.75.

They arrived today. Nice work in brass, but useless.
It turned out my shutter uses M40.5x0.5 to mount optics...

Sometimes you better look twice...

Yes, a minimum of twice when ordering kit is always a good thing.

Not LF, but earlier this week someone bought me a boxed thin LED string with remote, only, when the box was opened, it only had the remote, no string of lights, and the box was clearly labeled as just a remote for such lights.

Double checking has saved me many times and would had again, in this case.

They went back and bought the right lights yesterday, so all is well but, often times, if it's not there in the box where you buy it, you might never find the right one.

IMO

 

[MTGseattle]

Even though I have 10 screw bins (think sortimo or Dewalt or Milwaukee) full of various hardware, whenever I get into a project that is photography related, I am always missing needed hardware. For my Packard shutter adventure, it was expected since I don't deal with small machine screws very often but there are times when I have only 2 out of 4 needed lengths of common stuff and it's pretty annoying.

The basement shuffle is mostly done. Well, done enough to get printing at any rate. I did get pressed back into some actual work this last week, so I haven't filled any trays and exposed paper yet. I think we have nice weather today, so today might be a photography day rather than a darkroom day.