Focusing Sinar F2

ssharpphoto · Jan 7, 2018

Hi All,

I've owned a Sinar F2 for a year or so now but never used it due to just not understanding it basically.

Gone through the Sinar manual on how to set focus and DOF and it seems easy enough but quite simply i can't get it work. For example using tilt for landscape i would have though i would be tilting forward but am always tilting back according to the scale.

It would be great if i could grab some help from a Sinar user as i've now got a project for the camera and really need to get the hang of it.

I've read loads on forums abut this topic but a lot of different opinions and some that fly in the face of the official manual and each other !

Any Help appreciated.

Simon

Alan Gales · Jan 7, 2018

Not a Sinar F2 but front tilt is front tilt. Watch this video.
Ben Horne has other videos on Youtube if you are interested. He is also a fellow Large Format Photography Forum member of mine. LFPF is a great forum just like APUG Photrio here but specializes in large format photography. Many of us APUG members belong to both. We would be glad to have you if you are interested.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/

Also check out the LFPF homepage for great information. http://www.largeformatphotography.info

Alan Gales · Jan 7, 2018

Here is the Sinar F2 instruction manual. Yeah, I know. It doesn't tell you a lot.

http://www.galerie-photo.com/images/sinar_introduction-manual.pdf

Here is a great book for beginners. It's very easy to understand starting out. You may find a used version on Ebay if you want to save some money.

https://www.amazon.com/Using-View-Camera-Creative-Photography/dp/1626540772

Alan Gales · Jan 7, 2018

I found this. Scroll down to post #10.

https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/sinar-calculator-basic-help-please.15359/

jim10219 · Jan 7, 2018

If it’s telling you to apply back tilt when you know you’re supposed to use forward tilt, then you’re focusing on your nearest and furthest objects in the wrong order. Also, it’s better to use the ground glass and a loupe than to rely on a calculator.

John Koehrer · Jan 7, 2018

Something I think is important that's mentioned in passing by Ben Home and that's paraphrasing "A little bit of front tilt at the camera goes a long way"
he also mentions that the effect is easily seen on the GG.

DREW WILEY · Jan 8, 2018

Sinar made a lot of fuss about yaw free technique. That approach might be useful in studio tabletop setups, but isn't particularly efficient for much else. I learned how to use those yaw-free controls nearly forty years ago, promptly forgot them, and have simply used a groundglass loupe ever since. But when to use front versus rear tilt, or use a combination, pertains to basic view camera technique, not just Sinar. You can do near-far plane of focus either way, but the effect will be different. A basic illustrated view camera book or tutorial would be helpful.

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 8, 2018

ssharpphoto said:
Hi All,

I've owned a Sinar F2 for a year or so now but never used it due to just not understanding it basically.

Gone through the Sinar manual on how to set focus and DOF and it seems easy enough but quite simply i can't get it work. For example using tilt for landscape i would have though i would be tilting forward but am always tilting back according to the scale.

It would be great if i could grab some help from a Sinar user as i've now got a project for the camera and really need to get the hang of it.

I've read loads on forums abut this topic but a lot of different opinions and some that fly in the face of the official manual and each other !

Any Help appreciated.

Simon

I've used a sinar f2 for decades. It's about setting the proper angles and setting the DOF correctly. The camera originally came with an orange card that's size of the lens board that fits in the F2 image kit. But these are the best books to learn.

https://www.amazon.com/Large-Format-Handbook-SINAR-System/dp/3723126006

https://www.amazon.com/Photo-Know-How-Large-Format-Photography/dp/3908020107

ssharpphoto said:
Hi All,

I've owned a Sinar F2 for a year or so now but never used it due to just not understanding it basically.

Gone through the Sinar manual on how to set focus and DOF and it seems easy enough but quite simply i can't get it work. For example using tilt for landscape i would have though i would be tilting forward but am always tilting back according to the scale.

It would be great if i could grab some help from a Sinar user as i've now got a project for the camera and really need to get the hang of it.

I've read loads on forums abut this topic but a lot of different opinions and some that fly in the face of the official manual and each other !

Any Help appreciated.

Simon

Mainecoonmaniac · Jan 8, 2018

Also found a PDF manual.

http://www.galerie-photo.com/images/sinar_introduction-manual.pdf

ic-racer · Jan 8, 2018

I'd leave the standards parallel to each other. Expose some negatives, process them and make some prints. There is a lot to learn. Scheimpflug principle would not be something I'd try to master with your first sheet of film.

Neil Poulsen · Jan 9, 2018

Don't let the DOF calculator over-complicate the photographic experience. My primary camera is an Arca Swiss, and it doesn't have a DOF calculator. In fact, there are only a couple of cameras of all those available that do have one.

Even with a Sinar F that I've been using recently, I don't use the DOF calculator.

If I anticipated an image where I wanted to be careful with DOF, I'd probably read up on the tool and do some practicing with it.

Craig75 · Jan 10, 2018

Alan Gales said:
Here is a great book for beginners. It's very easy to understand starting out. You may find a used version on Ebay if you want to save some money.

https://www.amazon.com/Using-View-Camera-Creative-Photography/dp/1626540772

Thanks alan. Due to a complicated chain of events i ended up with a silvestri h but the whole scene is very complicated for me but this looks exactly what i need to gently guide me into the rabbithole.

Doremus Scudder · Jan 10, 2018

The best online resources that I know for focusing the view camera and dealing with optimal depth of field are on the largeformatphotography.info homepage. Master these techniques and you'll never have a problem. Specifically, look at the articles on "How to Focus the View Camera" http://www.largeformatphotography.info/how-to-focus.html and "How to Select the f-stop" http://www.largeformatphotography.info/fstop.html .

For movements, start with a simple guide to help you understand the basic principles and go from there. It's really not rocket science. Don't get distracted by the "how," since there are many (often complicated and fiddly) ways to move the front and back standards around relative to each other depending on camera type; concentrate on general movement categories like rise/shift (the same movement along different axes) and tilt/swing (the same movement along different axes). Keep in mind that camera back position relative to the subject determines perspective rendering as well as moving the plane of focus around and things will be easier from the get-go. After you have the basic idea of what does what, you can turn to the particulars of your camera. Here are a few online resources:

http://www.properproof.com/largeformat/Guides/Camera movements chapter 2.pdf
https://sites.evergreen.edu/politic...ds/sites/131/2015/09/CalumetDigitalGuide1.pdf
https://paulturounetblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/view-camera-movements.pdf

Just google "view camera movements" for more.

Invest your time now and life will be a lot easier later. It's not difficult, just a lot of information.

Best,

Doremus

DREW WILEY · Jan 10, 2018

Sinar set up that DOF gimmick with studio work in mind, then typical ad or magazine repro situations. But lots of us work with the helter-skelter or complex film planes in nature, and might print things on a scale which mandates a different interpretation of ideal depth of field. Only your own eyes can be the ultimate arbiter of that.

andyvan · Jun 25, 2023

ssharpphoto said:
Hi All,

I've owned a Sinar F2 for a year or so now but never used it due to just not understanding it basically.

Gone through the Sinar manual on how to set focus and DOF and it seems easy enough but quite simply i can't get it work. For example using tilt for landscape i would have though i would be tilting forward but am always tilting back according to the scale.

It would be great if i could grab some help from a Sinar user as i've now got a project for the camera and really need to get the hang of it.

I've read loads on forums abut this topic but a lot of different opinions and some that fly in the face of the official manual and each other !

Any Help appreciated.

Simon

Hi, I have just researced to get one myself, but the thing is (obvious), but the swing is on a counter, that moves like a titr totr, oposite to the standard, and, as far as I am aware, the instructions are just like maths, trig gives you an angle, but YOU have to choose the right direction, this calculator does BOTH + and - angles, it is up to the photographer to apply sciemphlug correctly, aka for a minature affect, or for standard dof and selective focus, you just have to do the oposite to what you have been doing, this calulator just gives the amount of swing and tilt, you just try each, and use the appropriate one for the photo you want to take, if any of this makes sence. just like a machinists handbook, this takes the arduous maths out of it, and gives you the number you need, so in a kind of way this uses the camera like a sextant, to do the trig, then you use it as a camera, with the settings self realized earlier.

RJ- · Jun 25, 2023

Fascinating how digital is always years behind traditional large format Andy.

The post is 5 years old

Great camera btw.

Kind regards

andyvan · Jun 25, 2023

sorry, I guess digital is just easier to learn on, but we all aspire to the great format, and doing it all by hand, no computer doing things for us, as we can say it was us, that did the photo, mistakes and all. I have Autism, so takes me awile to grapple onto things, but yes, a great camera, not any can be the "silver bullet" and a one stop shop for everything, but looks like sinar tried to .

DREW WILEY · Jul 2, 2023

I learned all those Sinar aids and yaw-free features long ago, promptly forgot them, and then just ignored them, and have happily shot Sinar cameras using every movement on them for over 40 years anyway. After awhile, it all gets intuitive. They're remarkably versatile.

Features like angle calculators are designed for controllable studio applications with a consistent plane of focus, like tabletop photography. Out in nature, depth of field management can be a lot more complex because planes are often quite uneven.

But base tilt and axis tilts function differently. Some cameras offer both options.

Focusing Sinar F2

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency