Sinar question.

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Bought a beautiful F2 4x5 and it arrived in the mail today. I'm still trying to figure out all the moving parts. Feels good to the touch. Came with Sinar mounting head too.

I have a Toyo 45D, has no markings on it at all. No measurements, angles... nothing. I take it out and point it at the scene, then twist/fiddle/adjust/swear/sweat under the dark cloth...etc until I see what I want to see on the GG, then shoot it.

Now today I set up the F2, it looks VERY IMPRESSIVE with all the markings and angles all painted on in white paint... a VERY precise instrument.
Then I took it and pointed it at a scene then I started to twist/fiddle/adjust/swear/sweat under the dark cloth...etc until I see what I want to see on the GG, then shot it.

I suddenly realized that I do not know what those markings are for. It did not change this Newbies approach to setting up the camera to shoot a scene.
I have to know what all these markings are for, I have to know!!! SOMEONE MIGHT ASK ME!!!!!!

Thanks, Bill

[Peter Lewin]

Bill: The angle markings are part of Sinar's focusing system. You focus on the near and far, read the required angle off the rear focus knob, and then set the angle using the scale on either front or rear standard. The proper description of the method can be found on page 11 of the instruction manual, and the manual can be found here: http://di.hexagram.ca/files/manuals/cameras/sinar_introductionmanual.pdf.

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Peter,
I read it front to back, copied it to the desk top. I think I'll have to read it again... a couple of times.
Thanks for the link, it really helps.
Bill

[Frank Petronio]

FWIW, I never bother with that ~ I just look. But it is impressive looking to people who don't know anything ;-)

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

On the first reading I understood the depth of field scale and how to use it. Then I had to come back up for a breath and I'll try the rest later.

[Peter Lewin]

Frank is a much more experienced photographer than I am, and you can certainly use the F2 without using their "system." In fact, I used it very rarely when I still had my "F" since most of the time I just adjusted based on the ground glass. Where their approach has some value, in my opinion, is in more complicated Scheimpflug cases, where being able to use the focusing angle scales helps with the setup. In other words, for portrait shots, you know where the plane of focus is, and for most landscapes, you are doing the usual "focus on the far, tilt for the near." But for tabletop product shots where the focus plane is often tilted, the Sinar scales are another approach to getting the camera set up so that the planes of the standards and the subject all meet at a point somewhere (Scheimpflug). Too many words - in short, what Frank says is correct 99% of the time, but for me, about 1% of the time I found those scales helpful.

[Bill, 70's military B&W]

Peter, that opinion was forming in my mind as I read it. I have not used the Scheimpflug principle in practice yet, I've only read about it.
Today, I had the gear out and thought I'd set up a shot with focus from"Here to Eternity". Couldn't do it. I first tried what Sinar said to do, but I ran out of room on the focus knob. I had to adjust the standards to get the near in focus. Then I thought about really small f/stop... so I closed er down...f/64 and beyond... could not see anything! End result... no shot!

There is more to this than what comes to mind while reading the books.

Bill