- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 1
- Format
- Medium Format
Hi,
I just found this forum today, so a brief intro is maybe in order. I live in the bay area, California, and mostly do landscape stuff as an 'advanced amateur'. Or whatever that means. Amateur but not amateurish?
From the mid 80s until about 1993 I had an SQ, only ever had the standard 80mm lens, but I loved it and got some great results. Eventually, as a poor student, I swapped it for a car. Worst swap I ever made -- the car conked out after a year, but I'm willing to bet that the SQ is still working fine even now.
I spent about a decade not really doing any photography, but started to get back into it again about 3 years ago when I acquired a Fuji digital point-and-shoot. The bug bit again, so recently I've taken a moderately large step, and have put together a large format system (Cambo Legend, 47mm Super Angulon XL, 90mm f5.6 Super Angulon, 150mm Nikkor-W, 210mm Caltar, Better Light Super-6K 8000x6000 scan back), and am currenly putting together a Bronica system too (so far I have an ETRS, 40mm, 75mm, 100mm macro, 150mm and an AE-II finder, and am currently in the process of buying a 55mm Schneider Super Angulon PCS Pe shift/tilt lens, and a Megavision 16 megapixel monochrome digital back for it). I plan to shoot some 120 film as well as digital with the Bronica, hence turning up in these parts.
The Cambo/Betterlight system is pretty awesome, but (as is typical enough with 4x5) quite challenging to use and to physically carry, and is also somewhat limited to scenes with plenty of light. When it works, though, the results are stunning, and it's neat to be able to shoot in IR just by swapping from an IR high pass to an IR low pass filter. But, alas, it's just too heavy to set up much more than a couple of hundred metres from the car, so I wanted a second, medium format system that delivers most of the image quality, but small and light enough to fit in a backpack, including tripod.
I shoot mostly B&W, which the BetterLight does fine (no Bayer pattern sensor issues), and I wanted to retain as much of the Cambo/BetterLight image quality as possible. I'm currently having Megavision build me a monochrome version of their E-series back -- hopefully I should be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks, so it should be pretty interesting to see what it can do. I also recently found a second-hand Schneider shift/tilt lens with a Bronica mount (apparently these things were over $8000 new?), so I shouldn't need to give up camera movements either. I do intend to retain film as an option though, partly as backup, but also so I can shoot colour if I feel like it (and if I don't have the BetterLight with me).
Anyway, so there it is.
I just found this forum today, so a brief intro is maybe in order. I live in the bay area, California, and mostly do landscape stuff as an 'advanced amateur'. Or whatever that means. Amateur but not amateurish?
From the mid 80s until about 1993 I had an SQ, only ever had the standard 80mm lens, but I loved it and got some great results. Eventually, as a poor student, I swapped it for a car. Worst swap I ever made -- the car conked out after a year, but I'm willing to bet that the SQ is still working fine even now.
I spent about a decade not really doing any photography, but started to get back into it again about 3 years ago when I acquired a Fuji digital point-and-shoot. The bug bit again, so recently I've taken a moderately large step, and have put together a large format system (Cambo Legend, 47mm Super Angulon XL, 90mm f5.6 Super Angulon, 150mm Nikkor-W, 210mm Caltar, Better Light Super-6K 8000x6000 scan back), and am currenly putting together a Bronica system too (so far I have an ETRS, 40mm, 75mm, 100mm macro, 150mm and an AE-II finder, and am currently in the process of buying a 55mm Schneider Super Angulon PCS Pe shift/tilt lens, and a Megavision 16 megapixel monochrome digital back for it). I plan to shoot some 120 film as well as digital with the Bronica, hence turning up in these parts.
The Cambo/Betterlight system is pretty awesome, but (as is typical enough with 4x5) quite challenging to use and to physically carry, and is also somewhat limited to scenes with plenty of light. When it works, though, the results are stunning, and it's neat to be able to shoot in IR just by swapping from an IR high pass to an IR low pass filter. But, alas, it's just too heavy to set up much more than a couple of hundred metres from the car, so I wanted a second, medium format system that delivers most of the image quality, but small and light enough to fit in a backpack, including tripod.
I shoot mostly B&W, which the BetterLight does fine (no Bayer pattern sensor issues), and I wanted to retain as much of the Cambo/BetterLight image quality as possible. I'm currently having Megavision build me a monochrome version of their E-series back -- hopefully I should be able to pick it up in a couple of weeks, so it should be pretty interesting to see what it can do. I also recently found a second-hand Schneider shift/tilt lens with a Bronica mount (apparently these things were over $8000 new?), so I shouldn't need to give up camera movements either. I do intend to retain film as an option though, partly as backup, but also so I can shoot colour if I feel like it (and if I don't have the BetterLight with me).
Anyway, so there it is.
