Diary of a medium format virgin.

Kev M

Kev M

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You can call me Sir.
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Today I learnt my first lesson. The film doesn't wind itself on and if you don't wind it on you take atleast two shots over the same bit of film.:bang:

Then, after taking a second shot after changing position I learn't my second lesson. I no longer have the luxury of autofocus and have to re-check focus before EVERY shot.:bang:
 
Oh how I get that! My first time out I left the winder on "multi" too. Didn't wind the film on the spool properly and ended up with a completely unexposed film which I then went on to develop brilliantly!

It's addictive though :)
 
But then you see your negative and remember why Medium Format, despite having some disadvantages on a limited budget - is worth all the patience in the world.
 
It appears I didn't learn my lesson about winding the film on at all. I asked the wife to let me take her photo and repeated the same trick again.
 
Have you got any pics from yours yet Ven?

I've been busy nifty fiftying but I'll get back to the MF now. Might try to get some pics this weekend (weather permitting)
 
AliB said:
Have you got any pics from yours yet Ven?

I've been busy nifty fiftying but I'll get back to the MF now. Might try to get some pics this weekend (weather permitting)
Click to expand...


Just answered Kev on the very same question in the original MF thread Ali ... :D




:p
 
Today I went mountain biking with my Lubitel and my equally ancient russian light meter. I saw what I thought was a nice photo, the wife riding up a tree lined track where the branches met to form an arch and frame the wife on her bike.

Step one, out with the light meter and point it in the direction of the shot.
Step two, dial in the exposure on the Lubi.
Step three, fire.

Only after I took this once in a lifetime shot (there was no way the wife was going to ride that hill again) did I think it might be wise to see how my light meter compares to my DSLR. Brilliant, it was about a stop and a half down on the digi cam. That should make a nice black frame to use as a coaster.

Onwards and upwards (literally) and I stopped to take another shot of the wife riding a path along the side of a steep hill. She was travelling left to right, I pre-focused on the point of capture and then picked up the wife through the viewfinder, and then she was gone. God damn it, I knew she was travelling left to right but I still moved the camera right to left as the sodding inverted picture got the better of me.

And just to top the day off, at the end of the ride I decided to finish the film with a nice portrait or two of the wife. Can you guess what I did? Yes that's right, I forgot to wind the film on between frames :bang:. When will I learn.

Anyway time to get the film off to Colab for developing and see what damage I've done.

On a plus note I showed the camera to my father in law who promptly showed me his Rollicord TLR and Western something or other 5 light meter which still meters bang on the button when compared to my DSLR. I'm going to relieve him of them the next time his back is turned.
 
:LOL: ... great day out then Kev ... :shrug: ... thanks for sharing your experiences with us ... made me giggle anyway ... :D



I think you might mean the Weston Master 5 light meter ... :thinking: ... just got mine and think it is a super little meter and relatively easy to use too ... ;)


Look forward to seeing your images from the day ... :D





:p
 
Kev M said:
Today I went mountain biking with my Lubitel and my equally ancient russian light meter. I saw what I thought was a nice photo, the wife riding up a tree lined track where the branches met to form an arch and frame the wife on her bike.

Step one, out with the light meter and point it in the direction of the shot.
Step two, dial in the exposure on the Lubi.
Step three, fire.

Only after I took this once in a lifetime shot (there was no way the wife was going to ride that hill again) did I think it might be wise to see how my light meter compares to my DSLR. Brilliant, it was about a stop and a half down on the digi cam. That should make a nice black frame to use as a coaster.

Onwards and upwards (literally) and I stopped to take another shot of the wife riding a path along the side of a steep hill. She was travelling left to right, I pre-focused on the point of capture and then picked up the wife through the viewfinder, and then she was gone. God damn it, I knew she was travelling left to right but I still moved the camera right to left as the sodding inverted picture got the better of me.

And just to top the day off, at the end of the ride I decided to finish the film with a nice portrait or two of the wife. Can you guess what I did? Yes that's right, I forgot to wind the film on between frames :bang:. When will I learn.

Anyway time to get the film off to Colab for developing and see what damage I've done.

On a plus note I showed the camera to my father in law who promptly showed me his Rollicord TLR and Western something or other 5 light meter which still meters bang on the button when compared to my DSLR. I'm going to relieve him of them the next time his back is turned.
Click to expand...


LOL. Great post - really had me chuckling. :LOL:

You really need to drum it into your head Kev - take the shot and wind on straight away, try to condition yourself to think of it as one process - you don't do one without the other. You'll still forget now and again though. :D
 
Today there were some more firsts for the Medium Format Virgin. Today I tried slide film, I've no idea if the camera even works as I've not had the first film developed but I couldn't wait. We went to Bradgate Park in Leicestershire with the dogs and I learnt a valuable lesson. Manual Focussing, Medium Format and two Springer Spaniels do not make for a happy photographer.

Eventually I managed to knacker them out so they'd sit still long enough to have their photo taken. I even mixed it up with some off camera flash action. Nothing like trying to run before you can walk is there.

Anyway I've got three frames left to use and that can go in the post too. I definately need to nick that light meter off my father in law as well.

And i even think I remembered to wind the film on too.
 
ha haaa, been there done that:LOL:

I was quite surprised how many I actually called "successful", I mean anything short of err.....black or white was a triumph in my book:LOL:

Just lately, I've been shooting a lot of night shots where my meter cant read and where reciprocity rears its ugly head.
So, I've been using this chart, it looks complicated but I printed it and work out exposure for the scene.....before I leave the house !
It also gives a decent guide for daytime exposure....if you've got nothing else.
So far, the night shots have been bang on:shrug:
 
:LOL: ... (again) @ Kev ... I'm beginning to understand precisely how you are feeling m8 ... :cautious:


AND ... Great linky Jox ... (y) ... bookmarked for bedtime reading that little lot methinx ... :D





:p
 
Tell me the advantages of medium format please.
 
Fun, Janice. It's just more fun. No chimping and trying again and again. You just work things out as best as you can go for it, hoping that when you get the film developed you got it right. I've not even been doing it a week and I'm really enjoying my photography more than I have done in a long time.
 
Kev M said:
Fun, Janice. It's just more fun. No chimping and trying again and again. You just work things out as best as you can go for it, hoping that when you get the film developed you got it right. I've not even been doing it a week and I'm really enjoying my photography more than I have done in a long time.
Click to expand...

Well isnt that just an SLR like I used to have?

whats the medium format bit about?
 
Your SLR would have been 35mm J ... MF is based around 120 type film and gives a bigger negative ... say 6x4.5 or 6x6 or 6x7 cm ... etc., ... :shrug:


Bigger neg = better quality for enlarging and stuff ... ;)



You can also do it MF in digital now though ... :D




:p
 
Yep J, the negs are HUGE! So you can scan them and blow them up BIG. Or just have cracking resolution straight from the box.

Yes it's old, yes it's clunky, yes it's unpredictable but all those things make you really think about what you are doing rather than the sheer disposability of digital.
 
Hmmm I can see the attraction now. But my bank account can't! ;)
 
Anything bigger than 35mm film is considered Medium Format.
Anything bigger than errr 6x9, excluding panoramics is Large Format
You can compare a 1D sensor @ not quite 35mm with 6x6 film.
Kev's shooting a TLR, its 6x6, Photostar shoots Bronica 6x6, Vens faffin with an RB67 so called because.....yep...you guessed it, its 6x7.
The 6 denotes 60mm, its actually 56 mm square

vnnzpx.gif
 
Thanks for that Joxby,.... very informative.

So one would need sufficient funds to "run" such a beauty as far as developing costs go and finding out youve made a cock-up! :D
 
Nothins free......you could sell your digital gear:LOL:

Nah, its just great fun, and good or rubbish....it exists as a thing you can see and touch, by nature, it cant be shoved to the back of a hard drive and never exist as anything other than 1's and 0's.
You can shove it in the back of a cupboard, but It'll always be real:)
*removes rose tinted specs*
Finance-
I dunno, everything we enjoy doing costs money.
If you develope your own b/w, its not very expensive, it depends whether you count the route taken to the product as as much the entertainment as the product itself.
Why aren't any of you lot shooting a frame of traveling 6x9 Clack...
 
Oh I get the cost thing J. I'm developing my own B&W in the cellar and it has not cost me much for a developing tank and some chemicals. Now all I need is a properly exposed film!
 
joxby said:
Why aren't any of you lot shooting a frame of traveling 6x9 Clack...
Click to expand...

I missed the list first time round. The thread has gone quiet too.
 
You can get TLR's for under a tenner on ebay or if my father in law parts with his TLR I'll probably pass on the one Groucho gave me so somebody else can get the enjoyment. Cost wise you can get the film for a couple of quid a roll especially if you buy in bulk making it about 20p a negative. Sending it off for developing is the expensive bit, about £15 for developing and scanning to disk or printing at about 8"x8". I might look at having a go at developing once things have calmed down on the home front one day.

DLAB7 will develop and mount slide film for about £3 I think and you can either print from that or scan into your PC.
 
Hi just wondering seeing as you a virgin to medium format, what camera have you got?
With any new equipment, I would read the instructions for the feel of it!
 
latie said:
Hi just wondering seeing as you a virgin to medium format, what camera have you got?
With any new equipment, I would read the instructions for the feel of it!
Click to expand...

I've got a lubitel 2 which has no instructions although I found some on the internet but the camera is so basic it doesn't need them. To be honest, most of the problems haven't been with a lack of technical understanding on my part it's just getting used to a different way of working and forgetting the procedures.

If I was making this many mistakes with my digital kit I'd prbably be getting the arse with myself but for some reason with this basic film kit I can just laugh it off.
 
latie said:
Hi just wondering seeing as you a virgin to medium format, what camera have you got?
With any new equipment, I would read the instructions for the feel of it!
Click to expand...

Kev is a bloke :LOL:

And it is well known that alll us blokes do not read instructions or maps :rules:, which why we never understand the video recorder :bang: and why we post questions on the interent :help: to find out how our new equipment works :eek::LOL:

Great diary Kev really enjoy reading it,
 
No fool, I was talking about the travelling 6x9 thread. I finished my first roll of slide film last night and it's winging it's way to Guernsey at the minute. I really should wait for the first two rolls to come back to see if the camera (or me) is even working properly but I'm not sure I can resist sticking another roll in it.

It this rate I might look at getting a 2nd hand scanner, it's got to be cheaper than what the labs are charging for burning a CD.
 
Keep it up Kev!(y)

I also want to play with them again but the finances went the way of another body recently.

Hope to join you guys soon - are you doing colour or B&W or both?
 
I'm guessing that's the cherry officially popped now. I've just recieved my first developed and scanned roll back from Peak Imaging. I've not been able to have a proper examine of them as I'm at work and don't have Lightroom here but so far everything seems pretty much as expected. So here's the results of me losing my cherry you lucky, lucky lot. Can't remember the type of film but it was a Fuji 400 of some sort.

1.
3907_001-S1-0001.jpg


Yes that's right folks, I forgot to wind the film on and reset the focus after the first shot. This wouldn't be the last time either!

2.
3907_001-S1-0002.jpg


At least I only exposed it once this time, even if it was over exposed. Guess the DSLR metering is quite the same as the film's requirements in this case. If I remember rightly most of these were shot at 1/250 (max speed of the Lubitel) and F16-22 due to the speed of the film and the amount of light outside. Definately don't need ISO400 all the time when I can only go upto 1/250.

3.
3907_001-S1-0003.jpg


There'll be no recovering that sky in Lightroom either.

4.
3907_001-S1-0004.jpg


Can you guess what I did here yet?

5.
3907_001-S1-0005.jpg


Not too shabby but I'm not convinced about shooting from the hip and looking up at people.

6.
3907_001-S1-0006.jpg


I think I'm losing my model's attention!

7.
3907_001-S1-0007.jpg


Isn't this beautiful? No I am not some type of fireplace afficienado it was a test to see if the flash would sync at 1/250. Result. That's with un-modded poverty wizards too.

8.
3907_001-S1-0008.jpg


SWMBO won't appreciate me posting this but hey ho. It's got a very LOMO feel to it but I'm surprised by the green cast. I would have expected an orange one from an indoor light bulb.

9.
3907_001-S1-0009.jpg


This in the one where I found my meter was 1-1.5 stops down on my DSLR. I promise you it looked better in my mind's eye.

10.
3907_001-S1-0010.jpg


Follow the rider, right to left, left to right, bugger. More blown sky, nice eh!
 
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