What Scouting/Planning Apps Are You Using in 2021?

[pozzello]

I can get wide-angle frame lines in Artist's Viewfinder because I have an iPhone 11. It supports them natively for iPhone 11 and 12. Your phone would require a converter. Info here, and in the app's manual: Tech Specs

I just purchased a 75mm lens for 4x5, and the native support for iPhone 11/12 works fine.

What converter would you recommend ? Would it work with the following lenses ?

72mm SA XL on 6x17
35/45/55 APO grandagon on 6x12
Hasselblad SWC 38mm 6x6

[r.e.]

What converter would you recommend ? Would it work with the following lenses ?

72mm SA XL on 6x17
35/45/55 APO grandagon on 6x12
Hasselblad SWC 38mm 6x6

I just checked the app. Like 4x5, it will create generic 6x17, 6x12 and 6x6 formats. From there, you can add whatever focal length frame lines you want.

I haven't used a converter so can't suggest one. Have a look at the link I gave you and what the app manual says about converters. I think that the developer has also written one or two blog posts about converters.

[Bill Poole]

>>What do you guys do to preview wide angle lenses? My iPhone 8+ isn't wide enough..<<

Interesting question. All I can tell you is that on my IPhone 12, Viewfinder Preview seems to allow me to preview framing for a 65mm lens on 4x5 format--wider than I would use, actually.

[r.e.]

What converter would you recommend ? Would it work with the following lenses ?

72mm SA XL on 6x17
35/45/55 APO grandagon on 6x12
Hasselblad SWC 38mm 6x6

I just looked at this further on my iPhone 11. The screen capture shows what the app offers me for 6x12. The widest is 58mm, which isn't wide enough for you. You might contact the app developer and see what he says about your specific needs and what a converter can do for you.

The Artist's Viewfinder app, and I assume the one that Bill Poole is talking about, uses the iPhone 11/12 camera's widest lens. That is presumably the limiting feature on how wide the app can go without a converter.

"Wide Required" in the screen capture refers to a button in the app that engages the camera's widest lens.

[alan_b]

What converter would you recommend ? Would it work with the following lenses ?

72mm SA XL on 6x17
35/45/55 APO grandagon on 6x12
Hasselblad SWC 38mm 6x6

I have a Moment wide lens that I use on an iPhone 7, and it shows as wide as 56mm on 6x12 (Horseman 56 x 112mm). It's kind of a PITA to carry the extra lens around, so I'm looking forward to getting a new phone w/ a superwide lens built in.

As far as the Artist's Viewfinder app, I highly recommend it, even though it's "expensive" for a phone app. I use it all the time for scouting. Especially helpful in areas where I want to have the view camera pre-setup for a shot so I call as little attention to myself as possible.

[lassethomas]

What do you guys do to preview wide angle lenses? My iPhone 8+ isn't wide enough..

on my iPhone 8 II used som cheap crap I bought on some airport that somewhat worked in the sense it was better than nothing at all. Had to find the right magnification by trial and error. Before that on the iPhone 5 I had the Schneider iPro which was brilliant.

If you use it a lot and depend on it, upgrading to an iphone with a super wide lens is the best option. I've got the 12 mini now and it almost covers my 47mm on 4x5 with great quality.

[Drew Bedo]

>>What do you guys do to preview wide angle lenses? My iPhone 8+ isn't wide enough..<<

"Normal" eyesight covers an angle well over 120 degrees. I look at a scene and note what I'd like in it and where the edges might fall, then mount the lens and see where my mental edge markers fall. It helps some that work primarily with a 90mm, 150mm and 210mm as my regular 4x5 kit of lenses. So I am acustomed to how they cover the format. Sometimes I'll use a 75mm.

Tthe ground glass is truth.

[r.e.]

"Normal" eyesight covers an angle well over 120 degrees. I look at a scene and note what I'd like in it and where the edges might fall, then mount the lens and see where my mental edge markers fall. It helps some that work primarily with a 90mm, 150mm and 210mm as my regular 4x5 kit of lenses. So I am acustomed to how they cover the format. Sometimes I'll use a 75mm.

Tthe ground glass is truth.

Yes, you made your point about eschewing preview viewfinders in post #12 as well: "I cannot imagine an app that would give me the same joy as finding a great image on my ground glass".

You should explain this to feature film directors and cinematographers. They've been under the impression for decades, evidently misguided, that such viewfinders are not only useful for scouting and for making aesthetic decisions when shooting, but save them time and money. Look at the price, size and features of a traditional physical director's viewfinder and you'll know why an app on a phone or tablet is attractive. Then there's the poor man's viewfinder. Having used coat hanger wire or a cardboard cutout, together with a piece of string to emulate focal length, it took me about a minute to decide that my iPhone/iPad and an app is kinda a better idea.

We get it. You don't like the subject-matter of this thread and want everyone to know it. Meanwhile, the person you're responding to wants to know how to use an iPhone 8+, the camera of which is limited at the wide end compared to the camera in an iPhone 11 or 12, as a preview viewfinder for wide angle lenses. It would appear that the option that you favour is precisely the option that he wants to avoid.

[pozzello]

"Normal" eyesight covers an angle well over 120 degrees. I look at a scene and note what I'd like in it and where the edges might fall, then mount the lens and see where my mental edge markers fall. It helps some that work primarily with a 90mm, 150mm and 210mm as my regular 4x5 kit of lenses. So I am acustomed to how they cover the format. Sometimes I'll use a 75mm.

Tthe ground glass is truth.

And back in the real world - when I’m hiking in the Arctic in -30 degree weather, I prefer carrying a limited amount of equipment and getting an idea of what the scene will look like on my phone instead.

[Drew Bedo]

Sorrry to appear to be an anti-tech luddite. As the Seinfeld character George Costanza frequently said, "Its not you, its me." I broke into LF while working in diagnostic imaging using computer driven "Gamma Cameras" and isotopes as a Nuclear Medicine technologist. Back then, using a view camera was, for me, a step back from that.

By all means; if using an iPhone to help you visualize a composition, choose a lens and determine exposure go on ahead with that as your creative process. In the end the single most important thing is to get out and shoot, however you do it.

Cheers to all