Medium Format

Flashphill said:
Doesnt the film packet still have those little pictograms on the inside that show exposures for different conditions?
Its based on the sunny 16 rule.
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I don't think I've seen those little diagrams for years. They were all the exposure guidance I had for the first 4 years of my camera life. Worked very well in the UK, but took a bit of a beating when I went to Greece for a couple of weeks, but the pics still scan reasonably well!
 
Peak......no reply from the Canadian guys yet[emoji22]

I had a box for free postage, together with their quick turnaround time means that I should get them back at the weekend/Monday!
 
Sir SR said:
Peak......no reply from the Canadian guys yet[emoji22]

I had a box for free postage, together with their quick turnaround time means that I should get them back at the weekend/Monday!
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Ah very good. Look forward to seeing them as always. I have two rolls on the way to Spain again. Ones just a test from the Hasselblad after repair and the other from Friday's wedding.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
Ah very good. Look forward to seeing them as always. I have two rolls on the way to Spain again. Ones just a test from the Hasselblad after repair and the other from Friday's wedding.
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What's their turn around time and how large are the files when scanned?
 
Sir SR said:
What's their turn around time and how large are the files when scanned?
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Turnaround is a week but have to add postage time onto that which is 3-5 days according to Royal Mail.

I got large scans last time so when I'm home I'll confirm the size. They were from the contax though so 6x4.5. I'll have some 6x6 in this batch.
 
gazmorton2000 said:
That's what it's all about! Just be confident. Your grandparents used to do it probably without a light meter. How hard can it be?
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I once lugged my LF gear up from the car park to Housesteads on Hadrian's wall and on arrival found I'd left my light meter in the car (note - I now carry a light meter in my pocket all the time, even when I don't have a camera...). Being lazy, I didn't go back down and up again but estimated the exposure. The results were fine - but years of using an external meter and transferring the readings made me aware of light levels; and I wasn't using transparency film.

Medium format is fun and you have a big negative; large format is even more fun and you have an even more bigger (sic) negative :D
 
Sir SR said:
Unfortunately I ordered portra 160 rather than 400......we'll see how steady my hand is at 1/30[emoji85][emoji85][emoji85][emoji85]
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ancient_mariner said:
Your hand will be fine, but beware that big 'ol mirror flapping around.
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Mirror lock up is definitely your friend if you're working from a tripod, but it's not impossible to shoot handheld at slower speeds with an SQ-A and get reasonable results. For example:


1/30


To be fair though, there's only a stop and a third difference between those two varieties of Portra, so there's not actually that much difference between them in practice.
 
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Grrrrr. Mail arrived. No pics. Thought I was being a tad optimistic as it was sent second class (free) on Tuesday.
 
Sir SR said:
Grrrrr. Mail arrived. No pics. Thought I was being a tad optimistic as it was sent second class (free) on Tuesday.
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You just need to start shooting film and sending it off very consistently. This way you'll always be receiving scans back from previous rolls just as you're sending off the latest ones. :)

That said, the services that I use typically take about two weeks, so it's a little easier to keep this cycle going. I know that I wouldn't personally shoot fast enough for 3–5 day turnarounds.
 
skysh4rk said:
You just need to start shooting film and sending it off very consistently. This way you'll always be receiving scans back from previous rolls just as you're sending off the latest ones. :)

That said, the services that I use typically take about two weeks, so it's a little easier to keep this cycle going. I know that I wouldn't personally shoot fast enough for 3–5 day turnarounds.
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It's because I was away and had a couple of rolls - ideally should have sent them off before I took more shots with new film!!

I also tend to shoot in fits and starts

I suspect it will be here on Monday! Have a couple of friends popping over them so I'm sure I'll finish another roll!!
 
I souped 10 rolls of b/w in April, there looks to be some beaut printers in there but....well....that was April.
They're not going anywhere, I'll get to em when I get to em.
I could scan them but, I can't be bothered.
I remember how annoying it was that the speed at which I wanted to do things was out of my control, but I suppose its just another part of that liberation thing.
Shooting film can be truly liberating after shooting digital, but it takes some getting used to..:D
 
joxby said:
Shooting film can be truly liberating after shooting digital, but it takes some getting used to..:D
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TBH it's really digital that is liberating, because it removes constraints and restrictions. Film is far more restricting, and so we develop our selves to cope with the inadequacies of an analogue chemical process. :)
 
ancient_mariner said:
TBH it's really digital that is liberating, because it removes constraints and restrictions.
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There is absolutely no camera system, film or digital, that is free of constraints or restrictions.

With digital, for instance, I can think of a few hiking trips where the need for batteries would have been very constraining. I certainly can't recall seeing too many power outlets on the Great Wall either...
 
skysh4rk said:
There is absolutely no camera system, film or digital, that is free of constraints or restrictions.

With digital, for instance, I can think of a few hiking trips where the need for batteries would have been very constraining. I certainly can't recall seeing too many power outlets on the Great Wall either...
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For me, film makes me think more about the photo and less about the gear. I have two Lenses and a light meter. I'm so concerned with not wasting a frame that I slow down, try to get everything right and the take the pic. Although I realised that I forgot to attach the pic sync cable a couple of times the other day :banghead:

With digital, because of the instant review, I seem to worry more about the technicalities and end up shooting faster. Film is helping me to slow down a bit with the digital shooting!
 
Sir SR said:
For me, film makes me think more about the photo and less about the gear. I have two Lenses and a light meter. I'm so concerned with not wasting a frame that I slow down, try to get everything right and the take the pic. Although I realised that I forgot to attach the pic sync cable a couple of times the other day :banghead:

With digital, because of the instant review, I seem to worry more about the technicalities and end up shooting faster. Film is helping me to slow down a bit with the digital shooting!
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That certainly is a point, but I doubt you'd shoot 135 instead of 120 film. When I did, I was infuriated with the 24-36 frames I had to go through before I could even develop. There's slowing down and there's slow-mo :D. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for me at least. a lot of the charm comes from the larger format. The rest is just common sense, so as to not blow 12 frames out within 2 minutes.
 
Cistron said:
That certainly is a point, but I doubt you'd shoot 135 instead of 120 film. When I did, I was infuriated with the 24-36 frames I had to go through before I could even develop. There's slowing down and there's slow-mo :D. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for me at least. a lot of the charm comes from the larger format. The rest is just common sense, so as to not blow 12 frames out within 2 minutes.
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Well if you dev yourself and for 35mm there is nothing stopping you loading just 12 frames or even less...but I know what you mean as with slowing down if I don't go anywhere interesting it could take me a month or more just to get thru' 24 frames.
 
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I didn't mean that digital had no constraints, but when it comes to both creating the images and handling them post capture it is far less constraining. Sure there's no power outlets on the great wall but neither are there battery and film vendors, and no longer do I have to bring all the film I need for a holiday, nor worry about the images being degraded by heat or X-rays before I get the film home.

The key thing here is that the restricting, constraining character of film photography is creating a different way of working that is proving beneficial to experienced and very able photographers, rather than film being a free-er medium to work with than digital.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I didn't mean that digital had no constraints, but when it comes to both creating the images and handling them post capture it is far less constraining.
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I can't really agree with this. Digital isn't necessarily less constraining, it just constrains in different ways and these constraints only take on meaning when you consider what you're trying to achieve.

Ever try making a darkroom print from an SD card?
 
ancient_mariner said:
I didn't mean that digital had no constraints, but when it comes to both creating the images and handling them post capture it is far less constraining. Sure there's no power outlets on the great wall but neither are there battery and film vendors, and no longer do I have to bring all the film I need for a holiday, nor worry about the images being degraded by heat or X-rays before I get the film home.

The key thing here is that the restricting, constraining character of film photography is creating a different way of working that is proving beneficial to experienced and very able photographers, rather than film being a free-er medium to work with than digital.
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Well many of the guys here know all about digital and still use film as well, so there is no point telling us what we already know :rolleyes:

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/which-digital-do-you-own-if-any.628230/
 
Great thread and lots of great info, thanks.

Having come back to film recently, having never really shot it seriously I'm really quite smitten by it all and now quite fancy an MF camera.

I think the Bronica SQa looks a great option and probably what I'll end up with
 
skysh4rk said:
I can't really agree with this. Digital isn't necessarily less constraining, it just constrains in different ways and these constraints only take on meaning when you consider what you're trying to achieve.

Ever try making a darkroom print from an SD card?
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It's easier than displaying your cibachromes on Flickr. ;)

I don't want anyone to think I'm say digital is 'better' than film - far from it - but it makes the process of picture creation much more immediate, more accessible, more easily manipulable. I can go out with my D610 and shoot 1000-1100 frames without having to replace the battery or add another memory card: compared to my old Minolta 7000 where I'd have replaced the batteries about 3 times and gone through about 30 films (or about 73 in my Bronica ETR). And I had late nights in the darkroom where I was pleased to get 5 OK prints out by the end of an session.

I'm slightly tempted to try to resurrect the old bronica, not because of the remote and slow process required to get film processed (I still have my dev tanks, but no enlarger) but because there can sometimes be a quality about a medium format film shot that post-processing hasn't yet managed to replicate.
 
ancient_mariner said:
It's easier than displaying your cibachromes on Flickr. ;)

I don't want anyone to think I'm say digital is 'better' than film - far from it - but it makes the process of picture creation much more immediate, more accessible, more easily manipulable. I can go out with my D610 and shoot 1000-1100 frames without having to replace the battery or add another memory card: compared to my old Minolta 7000 where I'd have replaced the batteries about 3 times and gone through about 30 films (or about 73 in my Bronica ETR). And I had late nights in the darkroom where I was pleased to get 5 OK prints out by the end of an session.

I'm slightly tempted to try to resurrect the old bronica, not because of the remote and slow process required to get film processed (I still have my dev tanks, but no enlarger) but because there can sometimes be a quality about a medium format film shot that post-processing hasn't yet managed to replicate.
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I read a quote a while ago that springs to mind with the I can take a billion photos argument. It went along the lines off "you must be a very talented photographer to see that many compositions in afternoon". I've spent weekends away and only shot a dozen sheets and never felt like I've missed anything really.

Plus when when ever I use my dsrl I always smoke the highlights having become so used to the massive dynamic range of porta and b&w films.
 
steveo_mcg said:
I read a quote a while ago that springs to mind with the I can take a billion photos argument. It went along the lines off "you must be a very talented photographer to see that many compositions in afternoon". I've spent weekends away and only shot a dozen sheets and never felt like I've missed anything really.

Plus when when ever I use my dsrl I always smoke the highlights having become so used to the massive dynamic range of porta and b&w films.
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It's funny how we only see things from our own perspective. My comment about being able to get 1100 images on a single charge and battery was in return to Skysh4rk's comment about hiking without finding power sockets. However if you were a wedding togger and you couldn't find 1100 images to shoot in an afternoon you might need to try harder. ;)

Personally I'd rather shoot more & bin more than shoot less and bin none.
 
ancient_mariner said:
It's funny how we only see things from our own perspective. My comment about being able to get 1100 images on a single charge and battery was in return to Skysh4rk's comment about hiking without finding power sockets. However if you were a wedding togger and you couldn't find 1100 images to shoot in an afternoon you might need to try harder. ;)

Personally I'd rather shoot more & bin more than shoot less and bin none.
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If you were a wedding photographer using a 54 you've probably found a niche where by your target audience aren't expecting 500 samey photos.

Personally I hate sitting in front of the computer, editing down hundreds of largely similar photos bores me to death. Scanning in a half dozen different compositions on the other hand I can largely deal with.
 
I'd rather shoot less and bin none - that way each one is "special", a one-off whose making I can recall. I get to enjoy each act of creation.
 
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