shooting a day windsurfing with pentax 67

[game]

hi everyone,
Ik have a pentax 67. Not version 2 but version1. It does feature the MLU mirror lock up. I do landscapes 90% of the time. But right now a am planning on going along with some windsurfers and make a series out of their day of windsurfing. I don't have any experience in THIS field. So wil need some advice...
Problems I forsee are: Making pictures with mirror locked up. How will I still be able to shoot a good fram e when I don;t see what I shoot....
Reduce exposure time to 1/125 or faster for handheld shots, and to prevent motion blur caused by moving subjects... Should I use faster film? I think so. Can I use flash? Fill flash? Pentax 67 has a fastest flash synchronisation time of 1/30... Will this cause trouble?

To be quick... I am not so confident as shooting landscape. And landscape can be done often without testing peoples patience. Thsi should be done good at once or twice...

So any help would be more than welcome
Best regards Sam

 

[Pinholemaster]

Sam

Well you've definitely chosen a camera not traditionally used for sports. That's not necessarily a bad thing 'cause pushing into new territory is always good.

I'd say bring your landscape style to the action. Don't try to turn your style into a sports action photographer. What do I mean by that? Your camera isn't a high speed 35 mm sports camera, so don't try to make it that. Play to the Pentax' strength not its weaknesses.

I'd set the camera on a tripod and shoot the scene as landscape, with long shutter speeds. This will capture the motion of the waves, water, spray, surfer's, not the peak action. I recently did the same thing with rodeo, shot with a 500 mm f/4.0 lens on a Nikon D2H at f/22. Captured nothing but blur, and with that I captured the poetry of bull riding.

Don't bring a flash unless you can get the camera in the water and shoot with in a meter or two of the subject. Flash from shore or boat is a waste of time unless you're close.

Now I say that, but if you're in a boat with good dawn or evening light, a flash/blur mix could be very very cool.

Regarding mirror lock-up, this is do-able if you shoot loose. Just pan with the action with you eye sighting down the centerline of the lens, directly over the prism. With slow shutter speeds you'll get some fun panning blurs.

This is how I'd approach your situation. I'm sure others would do it differently, but that's why everyone is different. Hope this is helpful.

Have fun. Remember there really isn't a wrong or a right way to do photography. As long as YOU enjoy the process and results, that's all that matters.

Best

 

[game]

Thanks for that extended reply!
I totally agree with you on the ethic side of thing. And I'd be the last to be worried about blurs etc. They can really add.
I know, I have a certain camera. I indeed chose that because I am a guy of long exposures a tripod and silent frozen subjects.
That's ideal when I do my own work.
Right now I have a school asignment. I attend a school of art. The assignment is to make sport photo's in your own way. I can do that. But another part of the assignment is to make some classical sportphoto's first, before moving on to 'the real deal'. normally I work my way around these kind of didactical stuff if I don;t see the point. But this time it made me wonder, can I even make a 'classical' sportsphoto if I'd wanted to....

So that's the purpose of this thread.
Particularly the flash issue.

Thanks Sam

 

[Lee L]

Do you have a flash shoe on your setup? If so, you could use a shoe mount bright line finder designed for 35mm rangefinders for framing with the mirror locked up. There are many used ones around in various focal lengths and some "turret" style finders have rotating options going from wide angle to short telephoto. The aspect ratio will be off, but you could calculate which finders are a closest match for your 67 lenses. I would go for the closest match to the 6cm dimension and visually allow for the crop at the ends. An additional advantage of this type of finder is that you can see what's happening at the moment of exposure and have a much better idea of what you got.

Aside from used finders, Cosina Voigtlander offers a wide range of new bright line finders for use on 35mm cameras with lenses of 12, 15, 21, 25, 35, 40, 50, 75, and 90mm, plus a mini combination finder for 28+35mm. I use their 50mm finder (1:1 magnification) on my Agfa Record III 6x9 with a 105mm lens, and their 40mm occasionally on my Fuji 690 GWII with a 90mm lens. These are very close matches (with the same aspect ratio on 6x9) and the views are much brighter, larger, and more comfortable to work with.

Lee

 

[game]

hmmm, that's quitte usefull! thanks.
I have a TTL metered Prism now. I don't measure light by hand. Mainly because I manage fine with the prism, and also because I lot of night work, and then I quess anyway. One big disadvantage of the TTL prism is that it's quite light absorbing resulting in a dim view.
That should be worked around to then, right?
AND if I get myself a handmeter for light, the TTL is complettaly useless, so I can remove it from the camera.

Is the above a good interpretation of what you Lee said??

 

[davetravis]

I assume you want some of yourself, and your board in the scene?
I shot crashing waves once from the shore and still got salt water on the camera...prepare as if shooting underwater, or plan on cleaning bills before the rust sets in. Things will get wet!
1. Load with 400 or higher asa slide film, and some filter over the lens.
2. Use only the wide angle lenses at F11 or F16 for great DOF.
3. A minimum of 1/250 sec. and higher to stop the action.
4. Use some kind of harness, and strap the whole rig to your chest.
5. For shooting, lock up the mirror, point your body towards the scene,
use a free hand, and shoot!
6. Repeat above procedure until your out of film, or drown.
Good luck.
(Disclaimer...not responsible for loss or damage)

 

[Lee L]

hmmm, that's quitte usefull! thanks.
I have a TTL metered Prism now. I don't measure light by hand. Mainly because I manage fine with the prism, and also because I lot of night work, and then I quess anyway. One big disadvantage of the TTL prism is that it's quite light absorbing resulting in a dim view.
That should be worked around to then, right?
AND if I get myself a handmeter for light, the TTL is complettaly useless, so I can remove it from the camera.

Is the above a good interpretation of what you Lee said??

It sounds like you understand the basic concept.

The shoe mount finder doesn't necessarily mean you have to pull off your TTL prism. What's important is that you have a place to mount the bright line shoe mount finder squared up to the body properly. Whatever configurations you have that will do that will work with the bright line finders. I'm at a disadvantage here because I don't know the Pentax 67 system well enough to know where the flash shoe is typically mounted, or on which prisms, so I can't be as specific as I'd like. Someone else with more specific knowledge might jump in here, and maybe recommend an appropriate finder/hot shoe setup.

One other caution is that the brightline finders are designed for 35mm rangefinder shoe to lens offsets. The 67 will obviously have more of an offset, and perhaps an offset to one side in addition, so as you get closer to your subject (within a few meters), you'll have to compensate for the difference in parallax (point-of-view shift between the finder and the lens). Most brightline finders have some parallax compensation marks (at least for the vertical offset) that you might use as a guide, but they won't be designed to match the 67 exactly.

You can get a general idea of how the bright line shoe finders work here:
http://cameraquest.com/voigtacc.htm

Hope this helps.

Lee

 

[game]

ok, the flash shoe mount is on a wooden handgrip that's attached and on the left of the body.
But, doe you see depth of field in te finder? Probably not....
Game

 

[FrankB]

Quite a few TLR's have a "sportsfiinder", which is a posh name for a hole in the WLF shroud. When you look through the hole you see roughly what you'd get if you released the shutter.

It occurs to me that you could probably rig something like that out of mountboard and duct tape, good enough for a one-off shoot (if you practice a little first) and a lot cheaper than buying anything.

As another poster suggested, I'd play to the strengths of your kit. You probably won't have anything to match the magnification of the 500mm 135 lens mentioned earlier, and with 10 shots per roll, strafing-off lots of film in pursuit of action shots probably isn't the way to go either. Then again, a 135 camera won't give you the sheer image quality of your 67.

Bear the limitations and strengths in mind and go for what you can achieve well rather than letting wishful thinking guide your shot selection.

Above all, enjoy yourself (oh, and post some results! )!

All the best,

Frank

 

[Lee L]

ok, the flash shoe mount is on a wooden handgrip that's attached and on the left of the body.
But, doe you see depth of field in te finder? Probably not....
Game

OK. That's the location I recall for the stock flash shoe, but not everyone uses the wooden grip, so I didn't assume it was there.

No, you get no indication at all of what the depth of field is. Everything appears sharp through the bright line finders.

There are also wire frame or punched metal frames that show up from time to time. You could try to find an old flash shoe or some kind of adapter and use it as a base to make your own wire frame finder. Much cheaper than a new optical brightline finder. I've seen used brightline finders in very usable condition for US$35. The Leicas are expensive and collected, but the used Soviet made turret finders and older "off" brands are much cheaper.

Lee

 

[Troy Ammons]

I just came off a stint of shooting MF telephoto and gave up and went back to digital via an slr/c. Much better tele advantage. I know film forum.

All that said what lens are you using ??

I assume its a 300mm at least and probably a TC.

All I can say is myself and another bird photographer found 400UC to be the best for MF when you need speed. Its very sharp.

Keep it over 1/250 and you should do okay, but persoanlly I would shoot for 1/500.

As far as mlu forget it unless you are going to preset your camera on a certain location.

That leaves the tripod.

I recently shot a 600mm and 1.4x Pentax 645 lens for wildlife and I found a wimberly head to work very well. Actually I have the manfroto variety.

If you need to move and have a heavy/long setup it works very well.