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Thread: the f 64 club

  1. #11

    the f 64 club

    Ellis this is old news to many of us, and unlike you, I have seen many lenses with f64 as a mid range f stop, you should get out more often

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Posts
    262

    the f 64 club

    Sorry to swing back in the general direction of the topic, but some time ago I did a test of my lens and my weary eyes couldn't tell a difference at all from f11 to f64 on my 12 inch ektar. I only contact print (8x10) so that is probably a source of the lack of difference, but boy was there ever a difference in DOF.

    Except in conditions of low light or when I am deliberately limiting dof (something I am doing more of lately) I just about always shoot at f64 now and while it may be lack of experience with truly sharp prints made from modern glass, I am very happy with the technical quality of the images I make at f64. I have found I am sure to botch a tilt. The aesthetic qualities, well, that's another matter!

  3. #13

    Join Date
    Feb 1999
    Posts
    41

    the f 64 club

    There are many older lenses which have an aperture marked with a number greater than 64. I have an old rapid rectilinear, the type Weston used extensively which goes to f128. However most of those are lenses with markings using the now out of date "uniform system." According to Picture Taking and Picture Making (1898) p. 19 the equivalencies are: U.S. 4=f8 U.S. 8=f11.3 U.S. 16=f16 U.S. 32=f22.6 U.S. 64=f32 U.S. 128=f45.2 According to the text the Uniform System had "been adopted by almost all manufactures." Presumably f64 would be about U.S. 256. So in the U.S. system 64 is a mid range aperture. Note the table uses the prefix f only for the modern system. The text explains the f stands for the relationship between the diameter of the stop and the length of the lens. My guess is that the name f64 was also an endorsement of the f system of marking, with its inherent and explicit photographic meaning, over the U.S. system. In the f system of marking f64 is about the inherent limit of the aperture.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Mar 1998
    Posts
    1,972

    the f 64 club

    Once again, from Mary Street Alinder's bio of Adams (page 86): "...Willard remembered that he proposed "U.S. 256," the old system name for f/64 in the new aperture-marking system. he said that Ansel responded, "U.S. 256 is not good, it sounds like a highway." Willard continued, "He then took a pencil and made a curving 'f' followed by a dot and 64. The graphics were beautiful and that was that." At first, itwas written "Group f.64" in the style of the old aperture notation, but that was soon updated to the new notation with its slash, "Group f/ 64."

    Mark, just quickly looking over Nikon's 1999 listing of large format lenses (from 65mm to 1200mm, 26 lenses all told, in Copal 0 to Copal 3 shutters) only two -- the 300mm f/9 & 450mm f/9 M-Nikkors to be precise, had minimum f-stops below f/64 and those two only went down to f/128.

    But you are right in one aspect: I do need to get out more.

  5. #15

    the f 64 club

    Ellis, I never restricted myself to only new lenses and thus missing out on all the wonderful high quality lenses of old, why should you? (I shoot almost all black and white and know that color would be a different situation)

  6. #16

    Join Date
    Mar 1998
    Posts
    1,972

    the f 64 club

    Mark, I use modern lenses for two reasons.

    No. 1) I shoot mainly color: 95>98% of what my large format work is color transparency. This is by choice: I like the challenge of color.

    no.2) Because photography is how I make my living, I prefer to use modern equipment for most of my work on the basis that it is easier to degrade a sharp, contrasty image (either through exposure, filtration & development techniques) or in post production (Photoshop) than it is to do the vice versa.

  7. #17

    the f 64 club

    color a challenge, eh okay.

    Yeah I make my living at photography too and there are still many lenses that are up to the test of advertising ( what lens couldn't stand up to magazine reproduction?)

    oh well, to each his own

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Sep 1999
    Posts
    449

    the f 64 club

    A 160 page book titled "Seeing Straight" (subtitled "The f.64 Revolution in Photography") is (was?)available from the Oakland Museum, 1992. Mine cost $29.95. (paperback) It has all the pictures in the Group's initial show, lots of wordage about their aims and ideals, etc. All the pictures are not technically sharp.

  9. #19

    the f 64 club

    If you are thinking about resolution a lot, I think you are missing the point. For all practical artisitc purposes, lens resolution in lf is a moot point. The fact that Adams, Weston, Cunningham et al produced such stunning images with low resoultion lenses lacking multi-coatings, special glass, and computer aided design emphasizes this point. Resolution does not make phototgraphs: photographs are about form, texture, contrast and luminosity, not about lines/mm.

  10. #20

    the f 64 club

    I will disagree with that statement. They went through lenses like people go through underwear. They would know of a lens that was for sale and try it out. If they liked it they would buy it if the money was available. Good lenses were around and the quest was for the good ones. But the whole point of f64 was the ideas behind the images. Yes the images should be sharp technically but the ideas of the artist should be sharp also. No longer were they complacent being figuratively bound to other arts such as the painters. They would forever after change the way things were portrayed and how they were portrayed. Social issues came into sharp focus and could be shown with the new 35mm and 2x2 cameras coming onto the scene. james

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