ZeroImage 6x9 camera question

rince · Sep 12, 2014

I feel really stupid right now ... I just bought a 6x9 multiformat zeroImage camera to take with me on my vacation. I managed to forget the manual at home and now I m wondering which of the film counter windows is for which format ... Can anyone please help me out. And don't be to hard on my stupidity

Jeff Searust · Sep 12, 2014

If it's loaded so the numbers are right side up, then 6x9 is on the bottom. If the numbers are upside down then it's the top hole.

here's a picture:

http://silverbased.org/load-120-film/

BradS · Sep 12, 2014

645 is on top, 6x6 in the middle and 6x9 is on the bottom.

TheToadMen · Sep 13, 2014

And if you're shooting 6x18 then use the 6x9 frame and wind twice, only shooting at #2, 4, 6, 8.
I forgot that last part when using my new wooden pinhole camera for the first time.....

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

rince · Sep 13, 2014

Thank you so very much for your help! I did not even know you could do a 6x18 with this camera :O
Again, thank you for your help and I am goijng to put your advice to good use today

TheToadMen · Sep 13, 2014

rince said:
Thank you so very much for your help! I did not even know you could do a 6x18 with this camera :O
Again, thank you for your help and I am goijng to put your advice to good use today

I was referring to an other (wider) model, but it you advance the film not too far, you can make 2 exposure next to each other (without a seem) to get a 6x18 panorama.
- Transport film to frame 1 and a small bit beyond (so you still can see #1 in the window on the right side).
- make an exposure and guess where the angle of view ends on your right side (let's say a single tree in a field).
- turn the camera to the right until the single tree is at the left side of your angle of view.
- transport film to frame 2 but this time a bit too short (so you just can see #2 in the window on the left side).
- make a second exposure to complete the panorama.

If you use a tripod or a stone wall to keep the camera horizontal at the same level, you might get a fluent panorama.
Or just don't for a nice artistic effect

rince · Sep 13, 2014

Well, I guess this is for the advanced user let me burn through a few rolls with normal operation, but I will definitely give it a shot when I am feeling a little more confident with the camera. Thanks a bunch for the detailed description

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NedL · Sep 14, 2014

TheToadMen said:
...
- Transport film to frame 1 and a small bit beyond (so you still can see #1 in the window on the right side).
- make an exposure and guess where the angle of view ends on your right side (let's say a single tree in a field).
- turn the camera to the right until the single tree is at the left side of your angle of view.
- transport film to frame 2 but this time a bit too short (so you just can see #2 in the window on the left side).
- make a second exposure to complete the panorama.
....

Bert I'm having trouble imagining how this could work! Does the 120 film travel from left to right in a ZeroImage camera? I've never seen one, so maybe I can't imagine it.

TheToadMen · Sep 14, 2014

correction on previous post: ZeroImage is the other way around!!!!

NedL said:
Bert I'm having trouble imagining how this could work! Does the 120 film travel from left to right in a ZeroImage camera? I've never seen one, so maybe I can't imagine it.

Hi Ned,
Good point. Almost any camera transports film from left to right (when looking through the view finder). I tried to make a simple drawing to explain my way of thinking.

Take the first shot of situation A-B, transport film from left to right, move the camera to the right and make the second shot of situation B-C.
Since most pinhole cameras (or a Holga as well) have fully manual film transport, you can wind the film too far or too short. This is prevented by centering the frame number excactly in the middle of the window. This I use to my advantage by misaligning the film on purpose.

The trick is that the image you see is inverted inside the camera: left becomes right and right becomes left on the negative. With a normal SLR yo wont notice this, since the view finder corrects this effect with a prism inside the finder. But when you ever used a 4x5" camera you know what I mean.

However: the ZeroImage camera seems to be the proverbial exception: IT TRANSPORTS FROM RIGHT TO LEFT. (I just checked my ZeroImage 6x9).
So for this kind of camera it is just the other way around: Shoot situation B-C, transport film from right to left, then shoot situation A-B.

Thanks for the correction!

Bert from Holland

NedL · Sep 14, 2014

If the film travels from left to right, and make your panoramas by moving to the right; if the film travels from right to left then make them by moving the camera to the left! Your drawing makes it very clear.

Funny... I only have a couple old folders for 120 and the film travels from right to left, so I assumed this was common for 120 cameras. But more modern cameras like the Fuji look more like a 35mm SLR with film traveling from L to R.

Cheers!

TheToadMen · Sep 14, 2014

Yeh,
Funny thing is, I was only thinking about "modern" roll film cameras like Holga, Pentax67, Bronica RF-645, Noon Pinhole, Natasha Pinhole. My mistake.

But your summary makes it easy to remember:
"If the film travels from left to right, then make your panoramas by moving to the right; if the film travels from right to left then make them by moving the camera to the left!"
Move with the flow of the film ...

NedL said:
If the film travels from left to right, and make your panoramas by moving to the right; if the film travels from right to left then make them by moving the camera to the left! Your drawing makes it very clear.

Funny... I only have a couple old folders for 120 and the film travels from right to left, so I assumed this was common for 120 cameras. But more modern cameras like the Fuji look more like a 35mm SLR with film traveling from L to R.

Cheers!

rince · Sep 14, 2014

TheToadMen said:
Move with the flow of the film ...

Even I can remember that one ! Great! So did you actually use this technique before? I guess my biggest issue is, that I first have to get a better feeling of how to compose my shots with the pinhole camera and what will actually be on the shot

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TheToadMen · Sep 14, 2014

rince said:
Even I can remember that one ! Great! So did you actually use this technique before?

I did, even without intention

NedL · Sep 17, 2014

TheToadMen said:
I did, even without intention

And sometimes that's the best!

Poisson Du Jour · Sep 17, 2014

rince said:
Even I can remember that one ! Great! So did you actually use this technique before? I guess my biggest issue is, that I first have to get a better feeling of how to compose my shots with the pinhole camera and what will actually be on the shot

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Composition is more about judgement and a bit of guess work mixed with experience. The 6x9 multiformat does not have angle-of-view lines on the top to assist like many other cameras do, nor any indication of what size you have selected, so write it down in a notebook! That said, you need to get down low behind the camera and 'jiggle' it into position with a "view" in your eye of the format you have chosen (6x4.5, 6x6 or 6x9) and 'fit' the scene approximately (it will never be possible to do it precisely) into that view. Also, because of the extreme depth of field, you need to be fairly close to your subject otherwise for example a tree that is 4 metres from you will be a very small tree indeed on the film! It's a beautiful camera and a lot of fun to use and always manages to start a conversation when out and about.

BradS · Sep 19, 2014

Poisson Du Jour said:
...(snip)...because of the extreme depth of field, you need to be fairly close to your subject otherwise for example a tree that is 4 metres from you will be a very small tree indeed on the film! It's a beautiful camera and a lot of fun to use and always manages to start a conversation when out and about.

This is true but it is a result of the very short focal distance. The extreme depth of field is partly due to the short focal distance but also due to the very small aperture.

So, yeah, you'd better have this camera pointed at a very close and, hopefully, interesting subject or you'll likely to end up with very boring photos.

rince · Sep 27, 2014

So I am finally back home and I wanted to thank you all for the great help. I managed to get some decent shots with the Zero and had no issues with the frame counter, thanks to all your help. On the composition site though ... Let's call it a work in progress still I am happy with the 12 rolls I just developed.

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TheToadMen · Sep 27, 2014

Nice to hear. If you could upload something fo us to see ...

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

rince · Sep 28, 2014

TheToadMen said:
Nice to hear. If you could upload something fo us to see ...

Bert from Holland
http://thetoadmen.blogspot.nl

Well, I am not sure if any are worth showing ... I just started the tedious process of scanning. Will take me a good while to process the images. Here are some from today :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dbieling/sets/72157646540077205/

I am not happy with the scans, since I am having issues with my scanner. seems like the focal plane is out of whack and also it has massive dust under the scan glas, so please do not be to hard on me

NedL · Sep 28, 2014

I like the Seattle waterfront and the pillar.

ZeroImage 6x9 camera question

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