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Joseph O'Neil
31-Jul-2012, 05:18
This is for real. A Nikon D800 mounted on the back of a 4x5 camera:

http://nikonrumors.com/2012/07/30/guest-post-large-format-photography-with-nikon-d800-as-a-negative-holder.aspx/

partial quote from the article:
"It’s really quite simple. What you need is a large format camera, a suitable lens and a digital camera body instead of a film holder. In this case it’s an Arca Swiss 4x5/9x12 rail camera, an Yamasaki Congo 180 mm/4.5 lens and a Nikon D800:"

Worth a look. Actually looks kinda fun
joe

vinny
31-Jul-2012, 06:04
There are several forum members who've done this and talked about it at length here. Sorry, it's not new. There are several companies making the parts.
waste of time.

Frank Petronio
31-Jul-2012, 06:10
Great way use a dodgey Congo ;-p

Yeah Calumet/Cambo made stuff to do this 15 years ago. It's impractical unless you need a long lens. 1/10th of a degree tilt on that small a sensor is going to look like a mile, there is too much slop in most 4x5 cameras.

big_ben_blue
31-Jul-2012, 14:35
way back, in the 70s, some companies offered a kind of mini-viewcamera for 35mm SLRs. The thing was basically a very fancy macro-bellows contraption and looked a lot like the L-standard Horsemans, offering FULL movements (swing, tilt, shift, rise) front and back (some even geared). A 75mm lens already allowed focusing to infinity. I still have one; but in truth, it's little more than a cool looking gizmo of limited use.

Kirk Gittings
31-Jul-2012, 15:46
Veeeeery old news. I've tried it a couple of times like maybe 10 and 6 years ago? And it is not worth the effort past a quick novelty-no wide lenses-sensor box quickly cuts off image with movements-the best dslr lenses are better in most cases than the LF ones at that sensor size-older vc lenses (non "digital") have worse CA than modern lenses designed to deal with it blah blah blah.......at one point Calumet came to my class to do a demo of the latest example of this technique (Sinar). It was a joke.

It destroys the handiness of a DSLR AND the large image capture advantage of a 4x5.

ic-racer
31-Jul-2012, 15:52
I read a lot about people 'Polaroid' proofing with digital cameras and using digital cameras for exposure meters, so I figure that kind of setup is pretty common.

Kirk Gittings
31-Jul-2012, 15:57
"Polaroid proofing" with a Digital camera (quite common) usually refers to using an equivalent lens on your DSLR as per your LF camera and using that to check lighting and exposure-not sticking your DSLR on the back of your VC where you will get a small sample of your VCs field of view.

sethlatimer
31-Jul-2012, 16:52
I made one, it only took five minutes on a slow saturday. I used it to practice my Galli Shutter, also to compare lenses. I don't think it is a *complete* waste of time.

ic-racer
31-Jul-2012, 19:07
"Polaroid proofing" with a Digital camera (quite common) usually refers to using an equivalent lens on your DSLR as per your LF camera and using that to check lighting and exposure-not sticking your DSLR on the back of your VC where you will get a small sample of your VCs field of view.

Doesn't seem like that would get one very far in terms of exact exposure as the method is not using the view camera's point-of view, lens, shutter, aperture or bellows extension. Just wondering.

vinny
31-Jul-2012, 19:21
Doesn't seem like that would get one very far in terms of exact exposure as the method is not using the view camera's point-of view, lens, shutter, aperture or bellows extension. Just wondering.
f22 and iso 100 is f22 and iso 100, use the iso dial or exp compensation for any bellows factor. not a big deal. Not sure how attaching a heavy camera to the back of your heavy camera, changing the bellows to a bag bellows to accomodate the ultra short lens needed to to get the same field of view, moving the standards around to focus the tiny 24mmx36mm sensor, then switching it all back to shoot a piece of film would get one very far either.

Frank Petronio
31-Jul-2012, 19:27
A digital camera works well for testing lighting and composition. You can also get useful exposure information from it but you need to temper that with experience, traditional meters, good judgement. But I use them all the time and for a commercial shoot I wouldn't be without one for testing.

The nice thing about instant film backs that are the same or almost the same size as your film is that you can test the actual camera for bellows factor, lens flare, light leaks, etc. Luckily we still have Fuji Instant in ISO 100 medium format size... it isn't an ideal solution but it is good, consistent film and at least you can test the camera set-up with it.

Sticking even a full-frame 24mmx36mm sensor onto the back of a ~100mm x ~125mm film camera simply isn't going to tell you much and you are going to be introducing more issues trying to use it.

I hate to say, "That's the way it is done by the pros" but it is.

Corran
31-Jul-2012, 20:15
f22 and iso 100 is f22 and iso 100, use the iso dial or exp compensation for any bellows factor. not a big deal. Not sure how attaching a heavy camera to the back of your heavy camera, changing the bellows to a bag bellows to accomodate the ultra short lens needed to to get the same field of view, moving the standards around to focus the tiny 24mmx36mm sensor, then switching it all back to shoot a piece of film would get one very far either.

That's not necessarily true with digital, regarding the ISO setting.

Apparently certain ISO settings aren't the actual true value being displayed, depending on the camera and specific ISO. Try it out. You'll see your shutter speeds won't change by a full stop between supposedly full stop increments of sensitivity. I believe this is more of an issue at the lowest and highest settings. But if you're metering at ISO 100 that's the lowest on most cameras.

It might be semantics that would only account for 2/3 of a stop in light, but, I think it's important to note. I noticed that when I "metered" with my DSLR I got inconsistent results.

welly
31-Jul-2012, 20:59
That's not necessarily true with digital, regarding the ISO setting.

Apparently certain ISO settings aren't the actual true value being displayed, depending on the camera and specific ISO. Try it out. You'll see your shutter speeds won't change by a full stop between supposedly full stop increments of sensitivity. I believe this is more of an issue at the lowest and highest settings. But if you're metering at ISO 100 that's the lowest on most cameras.

It might be semantics that would only account for 2/3 of a stop in light, but, I think it's important to note. I noticed that when I "metered" with my DSLR I got inconsistent results.

That's been my experience of metering with digital. I did a test shot using the values straight out of a Canon 400d, the exposure was a mile off. I'm not sure if it's Fujiroid FP-100c but it was at least a stop under exposed on the Fuji paper as compared with the shot from the Canon. But I guess as long as it's consistently off (I haven't tried) then you can adjust to suit.

E. von Hoegh
1-Aug-2012, 06:31
Contradiction in terms.

Sylvester Graham
1-Aug-2012, 08:44
What's really shocking is the obesity of that cat.

jose angel
2-Aug-2012, 01:37
Well, I also wonder why people in this kind of "tests", always show short-bodied cameras with the battery grip attached... do they really use it all the time? And on a D800... ?!?! Pure fetishism...

I`d like to see the other side of the board where the extension tube is attached.

Linhof
2-Aug-2012, 21:00
I would use my view camera whenever I need camera movement to correction perspective and of course to shoot 4x5" or 8x10" film. I did try to attach a SLR camera to 4x5 camera in the past but this exercise is just for fun only. One of the problem is I don't have a 28mm or even 24mm lens for 24x36mm format or even even I use current digitar lens, the camera movement allowed in my Linhof 2000 is not enough.

Leigh
2-Aug-2012, 23:47
That is NOT an LF camera.

It's a D800 with a bellows.

- Leigh

eric black
3-Aug-2012, 05:32
Get one of those adapter thingees so it can position the dig camera in the corners of the frame as well as one for the middle and you have the makings for a great lens tester with more immediate feedback- thats about the only real use I can think of for that kind of apparatus.

TheDeardorffGuy
3-Aug-2012, 22:23
That is NOT an LF camera.

It's a D800 with a bellows.

- Leigh
Perfect reply. I've been doing this since 1982.
I used Kodachrome. all it can really do is test the center of the lens. It was fun but only got tests done. Theres just too much space for a short lens. But it sure did mighty micro work if you could stop the vibrations.

E. von Hoegh
4-Aug-2012, 07:08
Contradiction in terms.

Beat you both!

Leigh
4-Aug-2012, 07:29
...an Yamasaki Congo 180 mm/4.5 lens...
First improvement would be to replace that lens with the bottom of a broken soda bottle.

Maximum improvement for the $$$.

- Leigh

sandrajohnson
23-Aug-2012, 02:36
This is for real. A Nikon D800 mounted on the back of a 4x5 camera:

http://nikonrumors.com/2012/07/30/guest-post-large-format-photography-with-nikon-d800-as-a-negative-holder.aspx/

partial quote from the article:
"It’s really quite simple. What you need is a large format camera, a suitable lens and a digital camera body instead of a film holder. In this case it’s an Arca Swiss 4x5/9x12 rail camera, an Yamasaki Congo 180 mm/4.5 lens and a Nikon D800:"

Worth a look. Actually looks kinda fun
joe

I am a newbie here and I don't know the other use of my NIKON D800 (http://mydigitalcamerareview.org/digitalslrs/nikon-d800/) that's why I need a lot of tips about this.

welly
23-Aug-2012, 02:43
I am a newbie here and I don't know the other use of my NIKON D800 (http://mydigitalcamerareview.org/digitalslrs/nikon-d800/) that's why I need a lot of tips about this.

This smells like spam.

Leigh
23-Aug-2012, 07:59
This is NOT an LF camera. It's a Nikon with a bellows and a PC lens.

Definitely off-topic here.

- Leigh