My first LF camera. Excited! Can use some advice.

[Donald Qualls]

there is a difference between the clear and blackened plastic that accounts for the observed defect.

Hmmm. Got a high sensitivity Geiger counter?

 

[Tom Taylor]

No Geiger counter but there is a tactile difference between the clear and black plastic.

Thomas

 

[Doremus Scudder]

How will tilts and swings and rises affect falloff on wide-angle lenses if you don;t use a center filter? Will the falloff change depend on the section of the picture?

Alan,
I think I've addressed this in another thread, but it won't hurt here either

Using shift, rise/fall and front tilts or swings repositions the optical center of the image on the film. This also moves the position of the cosine fall-off by the same amount, e.g., if you shift or tilt the optical center to the right, the fall-off will be more pronounced on the left, etc.

This is easy to visualize if you think of the entire image circle cast by the lens. If the film is placed in the exact center of the image circle, then the fall-off will be evenly distributed around the edges. If shift or tilt is used, the film is no longer in the center of the image circle and the fall-off will be more pronounced on the part of the image that is closer to the edge of the image circle. Note that swings are just tilts 90° repositioned and rise/fall is the same as lateral shift, just 90° transposed.

Dealing with fall-off is best done with a center filter if you're shooting color transparency materials (unless you like the look of the fall-off). Even color negative materials can exhibit some color shift due to fall-off which is difficult to correct when printing, so a center filter is really helpful there too.

Many of us black-and-white photographers dispense with the center filter because the fall-off can be corrected when printing, provided that adequate exposure has been given so that the areas affected by the fall-off get enough exposure to render the desired shadow details. This means, in theory, that you would have to give just as much extra exposure when doing this as you would for a correctly-matched center filter. In practice, if the areas affected by the fall-off are featureless, e.g., blue sky, or unimportant, then not so much exposure compensation needs to be given. The decision is made by the photographer at the time of exposure depending on the subject and the degree of displacement of the image circle relative to the film.

Hope this helps,

Doremus

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Usually lenses wide enough to need/want a center filter don't have much excess coverage anyway, so you're likely to encounter physical vignetting by the time you have enough swing or tilt for changes in light falloff (vs. no movements) to be significant.

Donald,

I've found that many 90mm lenses have a lot of extra coverage for 4x5 film and can exhibit markedly uneven fall-off when displaced quite a bit and part of the image is very close to the edge of the image circle. The same with my WF Ektar 135mm.

I correct all that in the darkroom with burning, but would use a center filter for critical work on transparency material.

Best,

Doremus

 

[Donald Qualls]

many 90mm lenses have a lot of extra coverage for 4x5 film

You must have a bigger lens budget than I do. A 90 mm f/6.3 Angulon has little extra coverage, though I've read that Super Angulon of similar specs does much better.

 

[Bob S]

You must have a bigger lens budget than I do. A 90 mm f/6.3 Angulon has little extra coverage, though I've read that Super Angulon of similar specs does much better.

Maybe because that 90mm Angulon was never made to cover 4x5. It covered 9x12cm.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Schneider SA 90mm f/5.6 = 235mm image circle.
Nikkor SW 90mm f/8 and f/5.6 = 235mm image circle
Rodenstock Grandagon N f/4.5 = 236mm image circle
Fujinon SW 90mm f/5.6 = 236mm image circle
Schneider SAXL f/5.6 = 259mm image circle

Even the f/8 90mm SA/SWs from Schneider and Fuji have 216mm image circles; the Grandagon f/6.8 has a 221mm image circle

My WF Ektar 135mm f/6.3 has a 229mm image circle.

All of these provide lots of room for movements on 4x5.

Even the 75mm wide-angles from the various manufacturers have image circles in the 187-200mm range; room for some movements on 4x5, even if not extreme.

The Schneider 90mm f/6.8 Angulon has an image circle of just 154mm at f/16; barely covering 9x12 and sketchy on 4x5 (likely some image degradation at the edges). Schneider never recommended it for 4x5; just for 9x12.

Many older 90mm SA or Fujinon SW lenses are available quite reasonably.

Best,

Doremus

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Doremus. What does it mean when the specs show f/16 when the rest of lens shows the circle dimensions at f/22?

Nikon

Nikkor SW (specs @ f/16)

90

f/4.5

f/45

235

 

[Tim Stapp]

Regarding "the Dance". When first starting out shooting LF, I had a checklist. I tried mental, failed miserably, I wrote down every single step (KISS principle). Wrote in on a 3x5 file card, both sides. It fit perfectly in a shirt pocket or back pants pocket. Rain ruined it (camera survived). So wrote out another and laminated it with packing tape. Still use it.

Side note: carry a plastic trash bag, large size to cover things in the event of rain. Tarps can blow away in the wind

I will still occasionally have that sheet that I will inadvertantly add to the practice pile, usually not installed in the DDS properly.

Regarding quantify of film holders, I had a project that I was working on pre pandemic that would have me shooting portraits over a four day span of steam traction engines and the human caretakers. I accumulated over 35 usable film holders. Some from a retired commercial photographer for a buck a piece.

 

[Steven Lee]

"The dance" somehow felt natural to me. I attribute this to my medium format shooting style, which is very similar: slow, deliberate, tripod with cable release. I am on my second box of film and the biggest thing I am trying to optimize is the mechanics of the dance. Specifically, I am trying to minimize the backpack-to-tripod trips:

• Mount the camera on a tripod
• Go back to a backpack laying somewhere on the ground. Sometimes, when it's dirty near the tripod point, it could be at a distance
• Get the lens and the loupe and walk back to the tripod
• Mount the lens, realize that the focusing cloth is still in the backpack
• Go back and get that
• Get back to the camera and realize that the ground glass protector is still on. Take it off but find no place to put it - walk back to the backpack
• ...
• Same with holders and sometimes cable release

Basically this walking back/fro is what annoys me. Would be nice to have a freaking table right next to the camera so I could lay down everything for convenience Or maybe get some kind of a photographers vest with a bunch of large pockets so at least I could keep small things like the meter, loupe, cable and filters on me.

 

[Donald Qualls]

some kind of a photographers vest with a bunch of large pockets so at least I could keep small things like the meter, loupe, cable and filters on me.

Anglers' vests have the "lots of pockets" but the pockets might be too small for large format bits and bobs.

 

[abruzzi]

Anglers' vests have the "lots of pockets" but the pockets might be too small for large format bits and bobs.

I have this issue whenever I have to remove something from the camera--ie. using roll film--I have to remove the ground glass and stick it somewhere, and few vest poskes will be big enough. (this is why I love the Galvin back on 6x9 cameras--its can move far enough out of the way that the roll film holder fits under it.) my hack-workaround has been to hand the bacg for my dark cloth on one of the tripod head arms, pull the dark cloth out and fasten around my neck like a cape, throw the roll film holder in the bag while I focus and compose. Then when ready to take the picture, I take the glass off, pull the roll holder out of the bag and replace it with the glass. Put the foll holder in place, take the pic, then swap back and move on--all with my silver superman cape draped around my neck.

I do a similar abbreviated approach with normal sheet film holders, just keep the holder I'm going to use in the bag with the dark cloth. With 8x10 its a fair bit more difficult, just due to size.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Kinda messy when you forgot you left a fish head in there two weeks before when out fly-fishing. Someone gave me one of those photo vests. Nice present, but too hot and cumbersome for my own LF applications, which mainly involves a real backpack anyway.

The majority of my trips have involved serious weather, including many high altitude blizzards. Another reason why I made a darkcloth out of black Gorertex fabric - lightweight, waterproof, breathable (doesn't get hot underneath), extremely durable, dries off exceptionally fast, and no lint.

 

[faberryman]

I don't go out of the house with my camera in anything other than the most extreme weather, including tsunamis. And I don't wear clothes. Even Gore-Tex is too confining. I also don't carry a backpack, real or otherwise. I leave the heavy lifting to my old mule Betsy. Did I mention ankle weights?

Query: why would anyone put a fish head in the pocket of his fishing west?

 

[Chuck1]

for luck

 

[MattKing]

Query: why would anyone put a fish head in the pocket of his fishing west?

To keep naked photographers as far away as possible?

 

[Steven Lee]

@faberryman Thank you

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

"The dance" somehow felt natural to me. I attribute this to my medium format shooting style, which is very similar: slow, deliberate, tripod with cable release. I am on my second box of film and the biggest thing I am trying to optimize is the mechanics of the dance. Specifically, I am trying to minimize the backpack-to-tripod trips:

• Mount the camera on a tripod
• Go back to a backpack laying somewhere on the ground. Sometimes, when it's dirty near the tripod point, it could be at a distance
• Get the lens and the loupe and walk back to the tripod
• Mount the lens, realize that the focusing cloth is still in the backpack
• Go back and get that
• Get back to the camera and realize that the ground glass protector is still on. Take it off but find no place to put it - walk back to the backpack
• ...
• Same with holders and sometimes cable release

Basically this walking back/fro is what annoys me. Would be nice to have a freaking table right next to the camera so I could lay down everything for convenience Or maybe get some kind of a photographers vest with a bunch of large pockets so at least I could keep small things like the meter, loupe, cable and filters on me.

I try to walk around to find the spot I want to shoot from first. Then drop something from my pocket to mark the spot. Then bring over the tripod, camera and equipment to the spot. That way the pack is nearby. I also wear the loupe and meters on the neckbands.

 

[grat]

Query: why would anyone put a fish head in the pocket of his fishing west?

Dr. Demento fan?

 

[Donald Qualls]

Dr. Demento fan?

I thought that was Barnes & Barnes. I used to play it on the radio late at night, back around 1981.

 

[grat]

I thought that was Barnes & Barnes. I used to play it on the radio late at night, back around 1981.

The artists were Barnes & Barnes, but it was a heavily requested track on Dr. Demento's show.