Anyone else moving backward instead of forward technologically

[Jim Galli]

Mark, Usually you mount the Packard inside and just behind the lens board area so that it remains in the camera for use with any of the lenses that are on board. Chris Ellinger.........Love the work! What is a "zone plate"?

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Yeah, what is a zone plate?....nice work BTW...

[David A. Goldfarb]

Nice work, indeed.

Here's a good explanation of the zone plate:

http://members.rogers.com/penate/zoneplate.html

[Chris Ellinger]

A zone plate is much like a pinhole, in that it images by diffraction. Instead of a single opening, the zone plate is a (very small) array of concentric alternating transparent and opaque rings. (It is printed on high contrast film and looks like the graphic on my website.) The result is an image that is a bit softer than a pinhole image, with a "glow" in the highlights.

You can buy a zone plate:

http://www.pinholeresource.com/products.html#zoneplates

Or, make your own:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Pinhole/Articles/ZonePlate/Zone_Plate.htm

I bought one from Pinhole Resource, and mounted it in a shutter (where the glass bits used to be.) Thanks for the encouraging remarks on my photos. It's nice to know they are appreciated by fellow photographers.

[Kaatharine Thayer]

To Michael Kadillak's observation that keeping up with computers is "a money pit that has no possible end in sight" I'll add my own experience for confirmation:

The problem with being an "early adopter" as they used to call people who kept on the cutting edge with computers, is that unless you are independently wealthy or have at your command an unlimited corporate or nonprofit budget, you just can't keep it up forever. I spent $35,000 of my own funds keeping up with digital imaging from 1990 to 1998, and that's when I stopped. I'm still using 1998 equipment and knowledge, slipping farther and farther into obsolescence, and when this system breaks, I don't see myself replacing it again. Been there done that, is my feeling about digital.

Luckily an angel gifted me with an 8x10 a couple of years ago, and since I've printed exclusively in gum bichromate for more than a decade, (my sole use of digital at this point is to generate contact negatives for gum printing) I've already had one foot in the 19th century for quite a while, so it won't feel strange to have both of them there when I give up digital for good. My 2cents.

[Erec Grim]

Dan Fromm, thank you for posting that wonderful little composition.

[jantman]

I - and my unshuttered Wollensak Apochromatic Raptar (f/10-45) - am very proud of moving backwards technologically. While I admit that at some time I will be forced into renting digital to keep costs down, for my personal work, I shoot lots of 8x10 and look forward to trying cyanotype and pt/pd.

[Bev McInis]

Found this thread while trying to find someone to sell my retouching machine to. I must say I do miss the smell and the feel of the darkroom but in this day and age I no longer have the time so have had to go digital. Would any of you who do still have the luxery of time be interested in an Adams in great shape? Bev

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

I am neither moving forward or backward. I am expanding outward - and not only my waist. In colour I am shooting the latest Velvia and printing digitally. Actually I am having my transparencies scanned and printed because I can not yet afford a scanner and decent printer. In black and white I am on the verge of starting to contact print with Azo in Amidol. The basement is not yet ready for me. Hopefully it will be by April. I don't mind old glass but I want a modern shutter and my meter is a middle of the road Sekonic. In other formats I have an autofocus SLR but I only have manual focus lenses and I have a Yashicamat that is slightly older than I am.