New Arca Swiss releases

[Christopher Barrett]

I love these guys... and their cameras!

http://www.digitaltransitions.com/images/upload/Arca-Swiss-News-2014.pdf

[Jacques-Mtl]

It looks very good but I'm sure the price for the 4x5 must be very very high. Thanks for the link.

[Oren Grad]

I'd like to know more about the central shutter and focal plane shutter (p 6).

[David R Munson]

Sexy stuff, as always. I'm intrigued by the idea of the F-Universalis with a Sony A7r or one of its eventual descendants, though I'm not certain what the advantages might be over adapting something like the Canon TS-E lenses. In theory I can see the advantage of greater adjustability of whatever and greater choice of optics, but in practice? I'm not sure.

[Songyun]

The LulF camera, is it the P1 ball head used as a front/rear carrier?

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

The LulF camera, is it the P1 ball head used as a front/rear carrier?

Yes, exactly, there are two P1 ballheads, one in front and one at the rear.
Taking into account the weight of the front and rear standards of a 11x14" camera, A/S have decided for indirect rise only.

I've manipulated the new Lulf at the recent 2014 Photokina fair and the new model is dual format 11x14" and 8x10".
For the 8x10" format the camera is used reversed; a large lens panel is fitted where the 11x14" film holder usually slides in, and the lens board used in the 11x14" configuration is substituted with a 8x10" film back. Actually the 11x14" lens board has the same size and shape as a 8x10" rear accessory plate holder for a classical 8x10" F-line camera.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

I'd like to know more about the central shutter and focal plane shutter (p 6).

Hi, Oren

Actually A/S already had an electromagnetic leaf shutter on their catalogue in the nineties.
Copal shutters being discontinued, there is a need for different sources of shutters.
At the 2014 photokina, Horseman had their ISS shutter systems on display, this is not new as well, I have the description of the Hoseman system dating from the nineties as well.
Schneider also has an electronic leaf shutter but to the best of my knowledge, limited to 1/60-th of a second. The A/S leaf shutter is faster.
At the 2012 photokina, Rodenstock announced something similar but I did not see it at the 2014 Rodenstock booth.
And since DWH-Rollei was not present at the 2014 Photokina, I do not know about the current availability of electronic Rollei shutters for view camera lenses.

Regarding the A/S focal plane shutter, it is a module of about 5-10 mm (do not have the specs handy) in thickness that you can add to any 110 mm format frame.
Hence you'll loose soem amount of back focal distance, this of course implies a severe constraint when combining the shutter with and ultra-wide lens like the 23 mm Rodenstock digital lens.
As usual a focal plane shutter offers the ability to mount shutter-less barrel lenses, but you probably do not wnat to use a Petzval with your A/S digital camera ;-)
A more intresting application would be to use one of the ultra-sharp copying lenses like the Apo-Rodagon D, those lenses being like many enlarger lenses sold a barrel lenses without shutter.

A linguistic remark : A/S mention "central shutter" in their press release, which sounds strange to US readers, in fact this is what we say in French (obturateur central) and probably in German (something like Zentralverschluss ??).
In French un obturateur à feuille would be something extremely funny ;)

[Songyun]

The LulF camera, is it the P1 ball head used as a front/rear carrier?

Yes, exactly, there are two P1 ballheads, one in front and one at the rear.
Taking into account the weight of the front and rear standards of a 11x14" camera, A/S have decided for indirect rise only.

I've manipulated the new Lulf at the recent 2014 Photokina fair and the new model is dual format 11x14" and 8x10".
For the 8x10" format the camera is used reversed; a large lens panel is fitted where the 11x14" film holder usually slides in, and the lens board used in the 11x14" configuration is substituted with a 8x10" film back. Actually the 11x14" lens board has the same size and shape as a 8x10" rear accessory plate holder for a classical 8x10" F-line camera.
Interesting,
what I don't understand is why using a ball head as a carrier? The 360degree pan on top of the ball head provide swing movements, so all needed is the tilt back-forward movement, by using a ball head, the tilt is not limited to back-forward direction, but all 360 degree around.

[Louis Pacilla]

Interesting,
what I don't understand is why using a ball head as a carrier? The 360degree pan on top of the ball head provide swing movements, so all needed is the tilt back-forward movement, by using a ball head, the tilt is not limited to back-forward direction, but all 360 degree around.

One would think Arca Swiss must/could have figured a way to make independent movements for the P1 standards for foe & aft & Right to left movements right? If not what a PITA that would/could be to use for repeatable movements .

Very cool cameras though.

[Songyun]

I have no doubt that they have some tricks in the ball head, they can implement something like B2 easily, just dont know if they did that on this particular camera.

One would think Arca Swiss must/could have figured a way to make independent movements for the P1 standards for foe & aft & Right to left movements right? If not what a PITA that would/could be to use for repeatable movements .

Very cool cameras though.

[MilamBardo]

I'd like to know more about the central shutter and focal plane shutter (p 6).


As usual a focal plane shutter offers the ability to mount shutter-less barrel lenses, but you probably do not wnat to use a Petzval with your A/S digital camera ;-)


Apologies in advance for what is probably a very silly question, but does the article imply that this is only for MF backs, both film and digital?

[Christopher Barrett]

Yes, the shutter is 645 sized, so MF and smaller (film and digi).

[Sekundogenitur]

Sexy stuff, as always. I'm intrigued by the idea of the F-Universalis with a Sony A7r or one of its eventual descendants, though I'm not certain what the advantages might be over adapting something like the Canon TS-E lenses. In theory I can see the advantage of greater adjustability of whatever and greater choice of optics, but in practice? I'm not sure.

In architectural photography, it is sometimes necessary to rise and laterally shift the optics simultaneously. This is not or nearly not posible with DSLR TS lenses, although very standard for technical cameras (since the 19th century). With the configuration described above this will now work digitally without the need for an expensive MF back. In addition, rise/fall/shift will be possible with lenses of various focal lengths, however, limited down to 35 mm (Rodenstock HR Digaron) only.

Matthias

http://architekturfotoblog.de/2014/03/14/matthias-roesch-architekturfotografie/

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

There are some problems intrinsic to the use of a reflex 35 mm SLR or half-format SLR on as the image detector at the back of a view camera, even the best ones: the 35 mm reflex camera body itself is not very thin,
(about 45 mm between the lens bayonet seat and the sensor plane, no view camera lens shorter than about 80 mm can be focused at infinity, the rear lens block cannot enter the camera 35 mm body, hence the back focal distance of the lens has to be larger than about 50 mm),
and slanted rays are blocked by the camera itself thus preventing the use of wide-angle view camera lenses for image stitching.
The use of such a combination (view camera + 35 mm reflex body), to the best of my knowledge, is limited to some specific situations like macro shots with relatively long focal lengths, but usually architecture shots with wide angles do not work.

Non-reflex 35 mm digital cameras with a much thinner body will not mechanically block slanted rays, about 20-30 mm is gained with respect to a reflex body, allowing to focus view camera lenses with focal lengths shorter than 80 mm. Sure we could imagine to use retrofocus view camera lenses, but I do not think that such a lens exists.
And the question on of how those slanted rays are actually detected arises, for example if the sensor is equipped with micro-lenses like most 35 mm and sub-35 mm digital cameras.
Otherwise, for a static subject, taking into account how easy it is to digitally stitch a mosaic of frames with a view camera featuring very precise controls, one could easily implement a 80 Mpix equivalent stitched image at 1/20th of the cost of a 80 Mpix full-frame medium format sensor.

[Christopher Barrett]

I know the little cameras are OT here, but I'd just like to clarify a couple things.

Matthias, it's quite possible to employ rise AND shift on an SLR T/S lens. Most designs allow you to rotate the lens and shift diagonally. I find this a little frustrating compared to a view camera but it's totally workable. Indeed, Kirk Gittings, who frequents this forum and is a renown architectural shooter does all of his commercial work with a DSLR and T/S lenses.

Emmanuel, the newer mirror-less cameras, specifically the Sony A7 series that I've been using, allow you to focus as wide as 35mm on these little view cameras. Arca Swiss sent me their new bellows to adapt the Sony to my M-Line 2 and I've used this setup on a number of assignments. The quality nearly rivals my digital back and the workflow is far more efficient.

I shot my last couple architectural jobs on the Sony, using the Cannon 17 and 24 TS-Es on the wide end and my Arca with Schneiders and Rodenstocks from 35mm up to 135mm.

Cheers,
CB

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

The quality nearly rivals my digital back and the workflow is far more efficient.

Thanks, Christopher.
This raises interesting questions for other readers who would like to follow the same route.

And if this is definitely off-topic [format too small, stitching is cheating ;)], no problemn my apologies to forum moderators.

The question I have is : in your job, where you get a stitched image that meets your expectations, do you have an idea of the largest angle made by the most slanted rays ?
Another way to ask the question, and get the result immediately, would be simply to mention the lens you use and the maximal image field actually stitched in infinity-focus position (assumed, for architecture).
For example two 36 mm frames horizontally stitched makes 72 mm, and we know that this lens is a quasi-symmetrical design, focal length 40 mm from brand Z. with its exit pupil approximately located at about 40 mm in front the focal plane.
This would yield an estimation of the effective angle: for example, 72 mm of field and a 40 mm between the exit pupil and the focal plane = max angle of 42°, total field 84°.
Hence it is interesting to set a limit to maximum angles yielding good results with your camera, without unwanted effects due to micro-lenses or other weird effects that old timers never encountered with film ;)
It appears that mechanical vignetting by SLR bodies is probably more important than vignetting by micro-lenses on a mirror-less camera. But this has to be discussed from real experience in the field.
(Actually if the stitched image is 24x72 mm, the diagonal is 76 mm so the maximum field, corner to corner is slightly wider.)

[Sekundogenitur]

Emmanuel,

since I'm a frequent reader on galerie-photo.com, I know you're a very expert in large format photography; I don't want to doubt your competence.
As I know from Rodenstock customer support, the HR Digaron wide angle lenses are retro focus. They do not or only weakly suffer from crosstalk problems which occur if you combine some of the (in principle excellent) Schneider Digitar lenses (no retrofocus, you can immediately see the difference in length and weight as compared to Rod) with high resolution backs. As Martin Vogt told me, the F-Universalis can be combined with a SONY Alpha 7R and HR-Digarons down to 35 mm. So either imaging with very enhanced perspective control can be performed in the standard focal length range, or in the wide angle range using the stiching option. LCC's are recommended if necessary.

Chistopher,

thank you for your comment on the T/S lenses! I use the Nikon's on my camera and have to admit, simultaneous rise and shift it is possible, however, very uncomfortable. You have for instance to take care that there is no collision of any of the screws with the camera body.

Matthias

http://www.artfacts.net/en/artist/matthias-roesch-464319/profile.html