Hello From NL

[P1nc]

Just started the adventure of analogue full format photography, have been photographing for about 8 years now using digital camera's.

I just acquired a 4x5 Cambo Technical camera (studio version) but will use it in the field as well, it came with two nice lenses:

1 Rodenstock,Sironar 5,6/240 mm.
2 Schneider Super Angulon wide angle 8/90

Ill use my digital camera with tele lens for spot metering light. I hope I will be able to judge focus right since Im used to digital zoom 100% for super accurate focus, which luxury I wont have in analogue of course.

I plan to develop myself and then get them scanned by an external party, since I will probably shoot max 10 shots a month with this camera the first couple of months.

I like the slow proces of shooting and forcing you to really think a shot trough on analogue and the extremely high resolution one can get from full format.

Hope to post my first results soon

Maarten

[Leszek Vogt]

With an appropriate magnifier, you can have accurate focus results with your analogue rig. Anyway, welcome to LF forum, Maarten.

Les

[P1nc]

Hi Les,

Thanks for the advice ! I hope to shoot my first shots next weekend, just a bit worried about loading the film in the dark. But will ask for some help.

Maarten

[Havoc]

Loading in the dark is easy if you have the space to lay out everything before you start. Sacrifice a couple of sheet (as much as you need to fill your development tank) and practise in the light a few times. Load the holders, then inspect, load the tank and inspect again. Then close lower the light and look up, then close your eyes and lastly practise in the dark a few times. Repeat until you feel sure. Always with those sacrificial sheet. Take a coffee between each session of practise. After an afternoon you'll do fine. You just have to make a ritual of it.

[Leszek Vogt]

+1. Indeed, the more you practice (even in the daylight) with those sacrificial sheets, the more experienced you'll become.....and things become much smoother. This may be bit obvious, but make sure you mark those exposed sheets, so you can easily identify....and be certain you'll not attempt to develope those. He he. Good luck and enjoy the LF process.

Les

[P1nc]

Thanks a lot for the advice ! Ill be sure to practice a bit then. Now I find out how blind people feel all the time.

[Pere Casals]

I just acquired a 4x5 Cambo Technical camera (studio version) but will use it in the field as well, it came with two nice lenses:
1 Rodenstock,Sironar 5,6/240 mm.
2 Schneider Super Angulon wide angle 8/90

Nice camera, it's robust and easy to repair, it is ideal to practice movements.

Very good lenses, but you lack a normal lens that would be comparable to a 50mm in full format lens, you have a wide (90mm) ideal for landscapes and a long lens that may work like a 80 or 105mm in FF terms, suitable for head&shoulders portraits, for example. From 90 to 240 you have a big jump, no problem, you can do a lot with that, but this may determine the kind of scenes you will photograph.

Just started the adventure of analogue

Nothing wrong to start analogue with LF, but if you also practice with a 35mm camera (say a Nikon F80) you may speed up your learning curve. With roll film you can easily bracket exposures and discover the nature of different films.

In LF, often a custom development is made for each sheet, this is a resource comming from that you can develop individual sheets.

These books can be recommended to master all that: "Beyond The Zone System" , "Darkroom Cook Book". That can be found used and cheap.

Ill use my digital camera with tele lens for spot metering light.

OK, but it would be better if you use the DSLR meter with a prime lens, a 50mm for example. The reading will match better because a zoom has a lot of elements and there is a higher light loss while a prime lens and a regular LF lens have a comparable light loss, anyway you can adjust the matching from the results.

Remember that if you give bellows extension to focus on a near subject you have to correct the exposure, here you have a good learning base: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/

which luxury I wont have in analogue of course.

Yes.. but there is a trade-off,

With the view camera you can inclinate the plane of focus as you want, making it pass by the objects you want in the 3D scene, this is a major resource. If you review your cambo you will see that it has no AF menu (), but instead it has a lot of bolts that allow to custumize your plane of focus and perspective, that's a nice luxury !!!

Be careful, if you get addicted to movements then there is no return (sometimes I try to twist my dslr... ) Mastering movements takes a while, but this is a great aesthetical resource.

[P1nc]

Wow thank you for the extensive advise ! Lucky me I have a Tilt Shift lens on my digital camera ;-) Would hate to twist it LOL, but I agree it doesnt compare to the movement possible by this Technical Camera.

Ill look for new lenses later. First need to shoot some with what I have now. But Ill probably get addicted soon.

[Pere Casals]

Wow thank you for the extensive advise ! Lucky me I have a Tilt Shift lens on my digital camera ;-) Would hate to twist it LOL, but I agree it doesnt compare to the movement possible by this Technical Camera.

Ill look for new lenses later. First need to shoot some with what I have now. But Ill probably get addicted soon.

You can also do tilt shift with your DSLR, for example with Lensbaby Spark, Lensbaby Composer Pro II W Sweet 50, or with other gear.

...but a in a cambo tilt/swing is natural to the camera.

Here you have another dutch (Goes): https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotograafvanbueren/ using a SC-1.

Here you can see a tilt-swing usage : https://www.flickr.com/photos/fotogr...in/dateposted/

See how the face is in focus but also the window frame at the bottom right...

If you engage LF seriously you will find that hi-res is just a bonus, you will find that you have +300pix effective image quality, but that this is secondary. It allows to smile when new dslrs or digital backs are reviewed and mpix are sported, but in fact great LF artist does not care much about something that they have in excess.

At the end you can also obtain gigapixel images from a consumer dslr by stitching shots in photoshop...

I'd recommend you review what Yousuf Karsh did or Sally Mann does with a view camera. Sally has no problem when using a lens that has a crack in the middle, and she had been making the wet plates he uses. Or sometimes one can take advantage from insane image quality to show amazing textures...

Of course an image from an smartphone can be a master piece, and much better than another LF image, but LF photography has an incredible set of refined aesthetical resources that cannot be well emulated in photoshop.

[Gordon Lucas]

Good start with good tools!