Precision and Accuracy in LF Photography: How much is enough?

[Vaughn]

The nice thing about photography is the 'product' shows all and answers all questions; just look at the print.

Exactly! And if one keeps decent notes, one can repeat the successes. But the key to this is to have looked intently at a lot of prints (esp. one's own) so one knows what the hell to look for in one's own prints.

"It's the Zone system, not the Pinpoint system." Love it! I just love the discussions about the 2/3 stop or whatever! And there I am looking at the redwoods counting one-ansel-adams, two-ansel-adams, three-ansel adams, and so on for a couple minutes.

[Michael R]

The “2/3 stop” is the opposite of what you make it out to be. It could simplify things for people, or at least for aspiring Zone people.

Exactly! And if one keeps decent notes, one can repeat the successes. But the key to this is to have looked intently at a lot of prints (esp. one's own) so one knows what the hell to look for in one's own prints.

"It's the Zone system, not the Pinpoint system." Love it! I just love the discussions about the 2/3 stop or whatever! And there I am looking at the redwoods counting one-ansel-adams, two-ansel-adams, three-ansel adams, and so on for a couple minutes.

[Vaughn]

The “2/3 stop” is the opposite of what you make it out to be. It could simplify things for people, or at least for aspiring Zone people.

Ah...but true Zonies know it is all in the print...

[Michael R]

Ah...but true Zonies know it is all in the print...

Not in my experience.

[Vaughn]

Not in my experience.

True Zonies read all of the scripture -- just not the technical notes.

[Drew Wiley]

Are we nearly through the extra two-thirds of that elusive last zone of the Zone System - the alleged Kuiper Belt way out in the darkness somewhere? Good thing that the Zone System is so elastic, and that they launch its space probes using a big rubber band. Of course, if that springs back too fast, you might get your Stetson cowboy hat knocked off, and end up with a bent nose as well.

[Michael R]

Ha!

True Zonies read all of the scripture -- just not the technical notes.

[Nigel Smith]

I built an Arduino based shutter tester. I'm not sure it's very accurate or consistent when trying to use faster shutters speeds (that's what I want to convince myself of anyway after recording some results!) as it fails to record a result a lot of the time.

I did some tests on 3 cameras where I fired each shutter speed 3 times then averaged the results. Not a great sample, but I ran out of enthusiasm!



If these are indicative of the cameras shutters, then I conclude:
The Minolta is consistently inaccurate, slow by about 20% (a good B&W camera! which is good since it was given to me to give to a youngish lad down the street interested in B&W film)
The Mamiya ProTL was spot on to 1/8sec, then got slower and slower until the 1/1000th speed was actually less than 1/500th (actually ranged from 1/453 to 1/493)
The Mamiya 1000s is ok up to 1/8sec then so inaccurate I gave up...

I have yet to try it on my LF lenses... and probably won't!

[otto.f]

“It’s all very personal and subjective” is a too easy conversation stopper IMO. The subject is a much more important factor than personal taste or style of the photographer. In still life, portrait, architecture a deliberate chosen focus point and perspective control is much more important than in landscape (if ground glass and film plane are aligned correctly indeed). In landscape photography I’m finished in a minute with focusing. With stills I can dream on big time with choosing a selective focus. And at the other side of the spectrum are the ‘happy little accidents’ which turn out to have an artistic value, which often can only be valued after a little change of mind.

[Alan Klein]

I built an Arduino based shutter tester. I'm not sure it's very accurate or consistent when trying to use faster shutters speeds (that's what I want to convince myself of anyway after recording some results!) as it fails to record a result a lot of the time.

I did some tests on 3 cameras where I fired each shutter speed 3 times then averaged the results. Not a great sample, but I ran out of enthusiasm!



If these are indicative of the cameras shutters, then I conclude:
The Minolta is consistently inaccurate, slow by about 20% (a good B&W camera! which is good since it was given to me to give to a youngish lad down the street interested in B&W film)
The Mamiya ProTL was spot on to 1/8sec, then got slower and slower until the 1/1000th speed was actually less than 1/500th (actually ranged from 1/453 to 1/493)
The Mamiya 1000s is ok up to 1/8sec then so inaccurate I gave up...

I have yet to try it on my LF lenses... and probably won't!

I checked my large format lenses 4x5 and found that none of them were off by more than 1/3 stop. I couldn't really measure faster than 1/125th. But slower speeds, that's what I got. Lenses included: 75mm Fujinon, 90mm Nikkor, 150mm Schneider and 300mm Nikkor. Interestingly, I checked my Nikon N6006 35mm SLR electronic controlled camera, around 30 years old. The accuracy was astounding - everything was right on the money. Then I checked my RB67 medium format lenses with built-in shutters. Their accuracies (50mm, 90mm, 180mm, and 360mm) were better than the large format but not as accurate as the Nikon camera.