It's as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears

I decided to bring my Fuji GF670 to my son's first high school homecoming photo op that the kids put together. All the parents were crowed around a very small backyard trying to get shots of their kids using mostly phones, superzooms or one of the many DSLR's available today. I was the freak with the weird camera that had to wind after each shot. I also couldn't see my shot, so to someone who only started shooting film a little over a year ago, who developes himself in a Jobo and never shot this camera with a flash there was more than one opportunity to screw something up. However, since I basically committed myself to shooting film I would also shoot this in film.

My flash is a Metz 58AF-1 for Olympus/Panasonic DSLR's, so I used in in Auto mode hoping the flash would correctly measure it's output and adjust itself accordingly. I could have used a light meter, but that would have been too much trouble in that environment. I did some testing before hand by using my MKI eyeball and adjusting the aperture setting on the flash to see if I could judge the flash intensity. I was satisfied that it was working correctly.

Did I mention that I was also trying out a new film? Based on my reading, I wanted to try out Fuji's Pro400H. I like the way Fuji's 120 film has the little hole to help loading and the way you seal the roll after it's been exposed. It's easier to unwind too when it comes time to develop. Why does Kodak make you wet the sealing strip with spit and causes you to almost rip off a fingernail trying to unwrap the thing?

Bottom line of all this is that I came out just fine. If I had more experience I would have been able to adjust the flash output better on the fly. As it is, I'm just glad I had useable images on the roll.

Here's one to share

Cheers,

Ned



Yes I know I cut of the hands...

what a lovely couple!

very nice. Hands are vastly overrated.

luck

As luck would have it, California lobsters don't have those big claws.

Looks like a Keeper to me.

Flashes don't communicate with the GF670 do they? I don't understand how to meter with a flash in this case.

RattyMouse said:

Flashes don't communicate with the GF670 do they? I don't understand how to meter with a flash in this case.

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It does not communicate with the camera, but the flash has an Auto mode which will measure the flash intensity. I just set the camera up and make sure I set the aperture on the flash to what I dialed in on the lens.

nbagno said:

It does not communicate with the camera, but the flash has an Auto mode which will measure the flash intensity. I just set the camera up and make sure I set the aperture on the flash to what I dialed in on the lens.

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Well your shot looked really nice so I guess it works pretty well. I'll have to pick up a flash like this for my GF670.

That reminds me of when my little brother, Eric, graduated from High School back in the early 90's. Everyone was shooting film back then but I had a big Sunpak flash with the head turned backwards and firing into a Sunpak umbrella all attached to my little Contax 139's hot shoe. People were staring and my brother's best friend, Dennis, was laughing at me. Eric told Dennis not to laugh until he saw the pictures. Anyway, later when Dennis saw my photographs he commented that he had seen a lot of photographs from that day but mine were the only ones that looked professionally done.

Sometimes it's nice to have lobsters crawling out of your ears. Good job!

RattyMouse said:

Flashes don't communicate with the GF670 do they? I don't understand how to meter with a flash in this case.

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Look for a flash with its own built-in sensor. I can say from experience the older Nikon SB-28 works in Auto mode with all older film cameras from Minox to 8x10 to modern film Nikons.

Looks great to me.

Jeff

Looking good

Next step - find an old flash meter, hook up your flash to a cable or remote, and start playing with off camera flash so you can really give a sense of depth. You really get weird looks when you start asking people to hold a flash for you... It helps to have an understanding spouse.

The old Pentax AF200T isn't a bad choice if you want an auto flash. It also offers four power settings in manual mode. Not hugely powerful but cheap and reliable.

If you want to use it off camera then you'll need a PC adapter, as it's hot shoe only.

The Vivitar 285 was kind of shockingly accurate when I used one...

As for Kodak's 120 rolls... after you shoot, lick the paper tape, and FOLD a little tab under before you seal it down. You only need 1/8" or so to hold the roll closed...

When I shot fashion and catalogs, I'd keep a bunch of blue tape strips, an inch long, tabbed under, and stuck to a tool cart. The assistant would just use the blue tape to close the rolls. The lab guys loved it.

Vivitar 285, shot from a de-icer crane, Ektachrome 320T, 2-stop push, probably about 1/4 sec exposure:

M Carter said:

The Vivitar 285 was kind of shockingly accurate when I used one...

As for Kodak's 120 rolls... after you shoot, lick the paper tape, and FOLD a little tab under before you seal it down. You only need 1/8" or so to hold the roll closed...

When I shot fashion and catalogs, I'd keep a bunch of blue tape strips, an inch long, tabbed under, and stuck to a tool cart. The assistant would just use the blue tape to close the rolls. The lab guys loved it.

Vivitar 285, shot from a de-icer crane, Ektachrome 320T, 2-stop push, probably about 1/4 sec exposure:

View attachment 96868

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Thanks for the tab under the tape tip!

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

M Carter said:

The Vivitar 285 was kind of shockingly accurate when I used one...

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My father used 285s as soon as they came out (for weddings). He told me that at the time, they were the only flash which actually put out as much light as the manufacturer claimed. Other manufacturers were being a bit optimistic.

I don't know if this was actually true but it was his observation after trying out quite a few different makes and models.


Steve.