What is the Most Difficult Large Format Photography

[Bernice Loui]

IMO, skip any view camera or this imaging need. Get a Leitz-Wild M420 with the lighting system needed and 4x5 film adapter if wanting to do film.
This image making system solved a LOT of problems with more optical capability than could ever be done using ANY view camera.. which is a lash-up at best.


http://www.savazzi.net/photography/wild_leica_m420.htm

The very best solution to macro-micro image needs to date. Higher magnification with other illumination needs can be addressed
with different microscopes set up for a camera. Lighting is a SERIOUS issue with microscopes.

If stuck trying this with a view camera. Use a monorail camera with the object to be imaged mounted on some method of support and lighting on to the camera monorail. Stability, vibration, setting image ratios and magnification will be "interesting"..


Bernice

i said MICRO in all caps to make it perfectly clear that i meant micro, with a microscope, not macro.

[Dan Fromm]

Bernice, I've used an M420 and the older Photomakroscope. Using these and, if I've read the user manuals correctly, other photographic microscopes with 4x5 cameras built in (Reichert MF-2, for example) is like shooting with an SLR. These bon-bons aren't exactly SLRs, but they allow viewing the subject until, sometimes while, the shutter release is pressed. This isn't nearly as difficult as macrophotography of mobile subjects with a view camera.

maltfac, posters here use the common language quite loosely. Asking for clarification is almost always necessary. Thanks for clarifying what you're about. As Bernice pointed out and I echoed, with the right gear -- just about any 'scope with a photo tube -- what you want to do isn't very hard. Setting up and using the wrong gear, not so easy.

[Eric Woodbury]

Just making any really good image is difficult.

Hardest type of LF I've done was holography. If anything moves more than a few nanometers, the image is lost.

[ic-racer]

Animals & pets.

[LabRat]

Action...

How about re-creating Halsman's shot of Dali in the studio??? Where 'ya need assistants to throw cats around... (Tip: cats always land on their feet...) ;-)

Steve K

[Vaughn]

Animals & pets.

In comparison, photographing triplets is easy...

[maltfalc]

IMO, skip any view camera or this imaging need. Get a Leitz-Wild M420 with the lighting system needed and 4x5 film adapter if wanting to do film.
This image making system solved a LOT of problems with more optical capability than could ever be done using ANY view camera.. which is a lash-up at best.


http://www.savazzi.net/photography/wild_leica_m420.htm

The very best solution to macro-micro image needs to date. Higher magnification with other illumination needs can be addressed
with different microscopes set up for a camera. Lighting is a SERIOUS issue with microscopes.

If stuck trying this with a view camera. Use a monorail camera with the object to be imaged mounted on some method of support and lighting on to the camera monorail. Stability, vibration, setting image ratios and magnification will be "interesting"..


Bernice

i've got a speed graphic, a few basic student microscopes, a stereo zoom kyowa and an old as dirt ao spencer brewmaster with motorized focus and an lcd-based all-in-one darkfield, oblique, etc. filter... and zero budget for any new scopes or cameras. for lighting i'll probably be going with blue filtered flash and led.

[Dan Fromm]

i've got a speed graphic, a few basic student microscopes, a stereo zoom kyowa and an old as dirt ao spencer brewmaster with motorized focus and an lcd-based all-in-one darkfield, oblique, etc. filter... and zero budget for any new scopes or cameras. for lighting i'll probably be going with blue filtered flash and led.

Hmm. IIRC the standard monocular 'scope tube diameter is ~ 24 mm. There are inexpensive lensless "microscope adapters" for 35 mm SLRs. One might fit your basic student scopes. You could probably adapt one of the adapters to a Graphic board, but unless you can rig a beamsplitter for viewing you'd be shooting blind. How do you plan to manage that?

I have two stereo scopes at home, a Unitron and a B&L and have the use of a Leica SMZ 125 in the museum where I have a courtesy appointment. Also have access to Wild M-5s and a variety of other stereo scopes there. Haven't been able to find a way to attach a camera to any of them. Their eyepiece tubes are all too large to mount a cheapie lensless adapter or the nice Nikon one with lens that I've had for years.

FWIW, one of our visitors got what our curator emeritus said were "publication quality" shots by holding a cell phone's lens over a stereo scope's eyepiece. Remember, what matters is that you get usable images of your subjects. How you get them is secondary. Try y'r cell phone. My cheapie took poor shots through an eyepiece, but trying's cheap.

Thinking of subjects, please tell us a little about the moving subjects you want to shoot.

Now that I think of it, another problem for you to solve is mounting your Graphic so that it transfers no vibration to the 'scope.

[tgtaylor]

Outdoor photography of a subject with tricky exposure on a breezy day with a heavy 810 camera with a 760mm lens mounted in an Ilex shutter that uses the old speed settings. Made the classic error yesterday when I set when the meter called for f22.7 @ 1/30” and I used f/22 at 1/25”. Should have went the other way, f/32+, and the negative came out too overexposed for a Kallitype print but there was no vibration from the wind which was a steady 15mph gusting to 21mph. I shielded the camera with a golf umbrella and tripped the shutter when a wind gust subsided and a passing cloud/fog cleared the sun.

Thomas

[Dugan]

8x10" stereo dry-plate tri-color action photography, using flash powder, underwater.