Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan Rabe
Digital backs for 4x5's run between 8 and 22 thousand dollar's. I can't even imagine what a 20x24 will cost. Wonder what the mega pixels will be. Or maybe giga pixels would be more appropriate.:D
OK, a couple of notes. If you did the calculation on the basis of image area the 20X24" back should run on the order of $528,000 dollars. I am just figuring that the 20X24 at 480 square inches is about 24 times the area as the 20 square inches of a 4X5" negative. Might stretch our budget a bit.
In terms of pixel count, a 20X24" file in RGB at 10,000 spi should come in at under 300 G. I figure that size would be a knock-out blow to my old Mac.
But this would sure save time over makin those 27 different exposures for the HDR work!!
Sandy
Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS
What the BTZS badly needs, IMHO, is a better book describing in a step by step manner what a photographer should do to use the system. A book that would do for BTZS what Picker's book did for the ZS. Davis's book is (again IMHO) poorly edited. For instance it contains information needed for setting up the graphs not in the text, but in a cutline to one of the illustrations. It also goes into far too much detail - detail the average photographer will not use. The video suffers from some of the same problems - plus the production values are not very good, even considering that it's about 15-years old.
I read the Davis book four or five times over the course of two years, but think I learned more about practical application from posts by Sandy, Jorge and others.
The system needs a book that says do this, then this, then this and here's what you've learned. It could be done in conjunction with the View Camera Store's existing service of providing test negatives and densitometer reading.
juan
Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS
J.E.
From what I have heard there is one in the works.
Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS
[QUOTE=j.e.simmons
I read the Davis book four or five times over the course of two years, but think I learned more about practical application from posts by Sandy, Jorge and others.
juan[/QUOTE]
Same for me Juan. I think you hit what the inital problem is...for me anyway..I read it many times. There are some people who eat this stuff up and understand it first time. My eyes tend to glaze over with graphs and logs (too much like being back in High School :). Less graph drawing and more practical examples are needed -Winplotter does the graph work anyway. Nothing against Phil or the book, he is a great guy!
I started to use BTZS for large format but I need more practice. I still use the zone system for medium format roll film.
Re: Survey on Zone System vs BTZS
I guess I use the zone system. I use a spot meter, expose for shadows, and develop by inspection. Works great for me, which is what matters.