Thank you!Originally Posted by Old_Dick
Thank you!
Steve Midgley
Corran, Shooting a 'gator in LF? You must be nuts! But I like it. Congratulations.
John, last year a friend and I went to the Big Cypress National Preserve to photograph, and drove down "Alligator Alley." They aren't kidding with that name - saw dozens and dozens of gators. At one point we were watching one swim through a culvert and crossed the road to see him come through the other side. Afterwards we looked up and about 10 feet to the right of us was a big ol' gator eyeing us from the shore that we had totally missed when crossing. We scampered back to the car and for the rest of the day were a lot more alert...
You know, you could probably corner the market on contact prints of the more charismatic herpetofauna in that part of the world--though there's always the possibility a big gator might end up going "whir/click" instead of Dr. Hook's crocodile's "tick-tock."
Your gator picture is actually raising some questions I've had about working on the "long end" with LF. Here's my thought process:I might want a longer lens than I have though...
1.) From what I gather, it's reasonable (if not uncontroversial
2.) If I am content with 16x20 as my target output, then the equivalent of a 6x9 negative (nine or so square inches) becomes my "quantum" no matter what native format I'm shooting in. 4x5 thus has two "quanta," 5x7 has a little under four.
3.) Therefore I should feel comfortable either optically or digitally cropping into an LF negative, to the point that my effective lens focal length is doubled (in the case of 4x5) or even quadrupled if I'm scanning 5x7.
So, what am I missing? I realize that I might pushing the envelope for LF lens sharpness, but I'm also avoiding the stability issues that might arise with a big lens at the end of a racked-out bellows.
So I shot that with a 4x5 camera, and for sake of argument let's say I shot it on 4x5 instead of 6x12 roll film, and my intent was to crop down to just a 56 x 70 millimeter section of the negative. I would get an identical image from my Pentax 67 and 500mm lens. Of course the 6x7 has a wicked mirror slap and that's a humongous telephoto so there may be some differences in actual image quality due to those issues, but let's also assume that isn't a problem.
Therefore shooting 4x5 is a waste of film. Cropping a little in the print, say to 3 x 4 inches or so, makes sense, but the more you crop it seems to me the less reason you have for shooting it on that format to begin with, except maybe because you don't have another camera with you.
Since my scanner preserves the dimensions of the scan in the document I can actually go in and crop to exactly a 36 x 24 millimeter negative size, or what a 35mm image with 500mm lens would be. It has more depth of field actually because my 500mm f/8 catadioptric can't stop down, whereas here I shot at f/22:
So in conclusion, I would try to use the format and lens which most closely matches the focal length and composition you want to achieve without cropping when it comes to longer lenses, unless you have some issues in the system preventing the optimum use of longer lenses, such as the mirror slap on your 6x7.
Also don't forget the optimum aperture difference between LF and MF lenses. With telephotos the issue of DOF is there as well, whereas LF can apply some movements unlike most MF cameras.
That happens to some of us, Bryan...
Along those lines, it's interesting you brought up the P67, since it's what catalyzed this train of thought: my Horseman kit is so compact and (finally) quick to set-up, I'm questioning the need to own an MF system at all. On the flip side, I could sell the Pentax and "optimize" 4x5 with a camera that had enough bellows draw to handle, say, your 500mm tele, but that leads me back to whole 6x9 "quantum" business--that's right at the focal length that would be noticeably longer than my 270mm Tele-Arton, but with some enlargement a given, it would represent a lot of money chasing after a (perhaps) marginal return.
At any rate, it occurs to me I just made a couple of grand in the course of talking to you--beer's on me if you're up this way...
I actually sold my whole Pentax kit back when I first got into 4x5 (which allowed me to splurge at the time on several nice lenses, such as the Nikkor-T set). A couple years later I bought back into the system because it is a very flexible camera, especially for walking around shooting handheld.
Some folks pare down their gear to just one system / format but I'm definitely the kind of guy who likes to shoot all kinds of formats and cameras to keep things fresh and fun.
I'll definitely make it up there soon, and you'll have to show me the best spots! By the way, does your Horseman have a Graflok back? If so, I have a roll-film holder you might want. That could be the real "solution" to your problem.
Bronica EC-TL, Acros, Beutler's
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks