Mamiya C220 soft prints

[scott k]

I have a Mamiya C220 with the 80mm lens and now the 55mm lens. I have been shooting FP4+ and making my own enlargements in a community type darkroom. Some of the images are soft and some are tack sharp. I always use a tripod and cable release. The soft images are landscape shots where I have the tripod set on a large rock that is in a fast moving stream and exposures at f22 are on the order of 1/4 sec to 2 seconds, 80 and 55mm lenses. I have a nice sharp shot of our German Shepherd on the carpet and the individual fibers in the carpet come out clearly, if I remember correctly that was shot at f5.6 for 1/30th sec with the 80mm lens. No flash, I only use natural light. The enlarger is a Beseler 45 MX that I have aligned as best I can and I'm only printing 8x10s now. Since I can get a sharp enlargement I think the enlarger is ok, at least for 8x10s. I'm wondering if the water is causing the rock to move, but it is a big rock, it might even be bedrock. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

After shooting large format on a Bender 4x5 I made last spring, I have a hard time with 135. I'm looking for a system that is faster to set up and use than the Bender but with more film area than 135. I shoot nature/landscape and macro for the most part, b+w and color transparency with ~100 speed films. I really like the TLR but I may end up with an RB67 or Crown Graphic if I can't get the C220 to work for me. Any thoughts?

 

[David Brown]

Just a thought, but your infinity focus might be off. You have to focus all shots, you can't just rack the lens all the way back for infinity. If you already knew this, please disregard.

Good luck.

David

 

[scott k]

I am a little worried about focus but I do use the magnifier in the waist level finder.

 

[ann]

how about wind? doesn't take much with a time exposure.

 

[Marco Gilardetti]

Forgive the following newby-addressed question, but can it be perhaps that you're photographing the stream itself? If that's the case, of course the stream would come out totally blurred, seen the long exposure time.

Well, since you were photographing with 4x5 before, do as I didn't write the above at all...

 

[scott k]

It was just a little windy both times I tried to get the shot, I guess the thing to do is try it when there is no wind. Thanks for the idea, but if that's the problem I'm going to have to get a smaller heavier camera I want to take some mountian top pictures with this camera and it's almost always windy on top.

 

[scott k]

Marco,

I really want the soft look to the water. On the other side of the water is this really huge rock, about 15 feet tall and 30 feet long. On top of the rock is a small hemlock tree and on the left side of the rock is a very large deciduous tree growing out at an angle. Lots of icicles hanging off the rock and snow under the hemlock. It's a really great image but I just can't seem to get the rock trees and icicles sharp. The softness in the hemlock is due to wind but the rock, icicles and other tree should all be sharp and they aren't.

 

[Dave Parker]

Scott,

Next time you try the shot, hang a weight from your tripod and see if this firms things up a bit, I have to do this around here quite often due to the fact many of the areas I shoot in have windy conditions. Another little trick that has worked for me, make sure and stand on the windward side of the camera, often times this will break any breeze hitting the camera.

Dave

 

[scott k]

Thanks Dave,

That's a good idea. The tripod is a Bogen 3221w and I have a Kirk BH-1 ballhead. Now that I think about it I have the rubber feet at the end of the tripod legs. I should probably spin them in and expose the metal points, so I have rock to metal to camera. The center column is not extended on the tripod.

Scott