Digital Camera Recommendation

It was only in the last year or so, I learned that the aesthetic quality of those out of focus zones has a name. It's Bokeh.

In part from the above linked article:

"Although difficult to quantify, some lenses enhance overall image quality by producing more subjectively pleasing out-of-focus areas. Good bokeh is especially important for large-aperture lenses, macro lenses, and long telephoto lenses because they are typically used with a shallow depth of field. Bokeh is also important for medium telephoto "portrait lenses" (typically 85­150 mm on 35 mm format) because in portraiture photography, the photographer typically seeks to obtain a shallow depth of field to achieve an out-of-focus background and make the subject stand out."

Erik

Ive got a couple spare 4x5 cut film cameras if you want a big camera

Gunner, camera collector

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

"Gunner" wrote

I had a nice Kodak 2.5x2.5 Rolleiflex? when I was doing black and white. Quite a nice camera, actually. The Hassleblad was the Nikon of the day in the 2.x" square camera. You just had to use a light meter, and set all the settings, but back then, the negative being 4x the size of a 35mm was nice. Had an old BIG honking Speed Graphic, too. Boy, think of a press person dragging one of those around all day. Like carrying a bowling ball.

Steve

And flash bulbs the size of household 60 watt bulbs.

I have a small collection of cameras...about 5 Speed Graphics, a nice Combat Graphic, a Linnhoff view, Hassies, a handful of Mamiya TLS,

My working cameras are Canon A1s, power drives, lenses to 500mm..the usual. Getting to be time to change the batteries in the smoke detectors and drag out all the cameras and exercise the shutters. Do that once a year and it keeps them working. And the batteries in the A1s (making a note)

Course..Ive been using Olympic digitals for my actual daily work. Its really hard to beat the old Olympic C3000-C5000 cameras and you can pick em up on Ebay for nearly nothing. I snagged a C5000 NOS for $11.25 + $4.25 shipping a couple months ago. Still wrapped and bagged in the box. Got what I believe is a NOS C4000 thats become my daily user. ($19) The C5000 is just too pretty to toss in the truck.

Small but decent LCD screen, and they AV out to any computer if one wants to dedicate one to close ups (1"). I have absolutely NO need for anything over a 5mp camera. Uses Smart Media, which are dirt cheap and Ive got a half dozen readers kicking around

If Im going to need to blow up a photo that big..Ill fire up a 2

I keep about 200 rolls of film in the freezer plus cut film, 4x5, 2

Shut down my darkroom a few years ago, but I can still develop negatives or slide film and then take them to the Walmart and have em printed for cheaper than I could keep the darkroom filled with Stuff.

But most of my photos are for online storage, Ive got about 100 gigs on Picasa, Ive been a user there since they first went on line and they gave me some extra raw storage for some testing favors and critiquing over the years. Im not a big fan of their Google+ additions btw. Shrug

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

Yep! From Japanese, I think. I skipped it as not really being needed to confuse people here. You'll find it mentioned in the serious photography newsgroups fairly often.

The donut shaped Bokeh is considered by most to be ugly.

The more leaves your iris diaphragm has, the smoother the Bokeh (because the rounder the iris opening). Wide open, they all are the same, because you are up to a truly circular opening.

It is a couple of stops down that you start to get the shape.

Essentially -- it is a projection of the shape of the iris opening onto the sensor/film. You don't get that for the in-focus areas, but the more out of focus the more you get.

Have you ever heard of Waterhouse Stops? They were metal plates slid into the side of the lens -- originally before the iris diaphragm was invented. Those were multiple plates, each with a machined round hole of the right size.

And you still see them in lenses used in process cameras for making halftones, except that the holes are square to aid in producing the shaped dots in halftone images. You'll usually find a set in wood-boxed lenses of various focal lengths for such purposes.

Enjoy, DoN.

For certain kinds of photography, including architectural, those can be very useful. A view camera is best, but even a 4x5 Press camera (e.g. the Speed Graphic -- what news photographers used to lug around) can be pretty good for the purpose. Things like correcting the perspective distortion when photographing the front of a building -- or the front panel of a piece of electronic gear. The normal instinct is to tilt the camera up to get all of the front of the building in covering the most part of the film. This causes it to taper in towards the top. You can avoid this by backing off and setting the camera perpendicular to the front of the building, and then throwing away the part of the image below the street level. But this wastes resolution. A view camera or a press camera, mounted on a tripod with the film parallel to the front of the building is the start. But then the lens board is slid up to get the whole front on the whole of the film, and this eliminates the distortion. When photographing some things, where you can't place the camera where you want to, you can also slide the lens board sideways to correct for being off to the side.

And another trick, when you *want* something tapering, and want to keep it sharp over the whole length of it, you draw a line perpendicular to the lens (parallel to the lens board), and another one along the surface of what is being photographed, and mark where they cross. Then you tilt the back of the camera (the film holder) so a line along it will cross at the same point, and you will keep the whole of the image sharp in spite of the varying distance.

Both can be done to some extent with a Press camera, but a view camera covers a wider range of adjustments. I have one of each -- both in 4x5 size, though the view cameras are available in amazingly large sizes. I've used an 8x10 one (for making master negatives for printed circuit boards), and I'm pretty sure that they make them at least to

Enjoy, DoN.

But a better handle. :-)

And I have the flash gun to use those. (But none of the bulbs anymore.)

OD finish?

I was about to ask the size, but I see that it is also a 4x5 reading down towards the end. :-) If it were 8x10, I would be asking if you were willing to part with it, but I've already got a 4x5 view.

The TLRs with interchangeable lenses.

More than I have so far. But quite a few Nikon Fs, and a couple of Nikon N90s bodies converted by Kodak to digital for the AP photographers. And Nikon D70 and D300s. A mix of lenses for these, some of which are only useable (without modification) on the Nikon F itself.

I used to have several Miranda SLRs, but gave them to my Niece when I got enough Nikon gear to cover what I did wit the Mirandas. The Mirandas were a lot quieter than the Nikon Fs. :-)

Yep -- you know the tricks.

Hmm ... which Ektachrome process? I've got some exposed (and frozen) E4 process 35mm rolls, and can only get the E6 process kits these days -- which is done at a temperature which strips the emulsion off the E4 films.

I've got a coupe of Omega enlargers -- one D series with the Chromega head, and one B2 (2-1/4 square max size), both with autofocus tracks matched to the lenses.

Long live SATA 2 TB drives and docking stations. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Want some?

Mostly. About 75% is left. A gift from an old friend of mine who was dying from Agent Orange. He carried it for only a short time, before they gave him a Rolliflex. It banged around in his Stuff for years and is mechanically perfect..just not all that pretty.

I had a Toyo 8x10, but couldnt afford film for it. So I swapped it for a pickup truck.

Ayup.

Ive got a lot of "hobby" SLRs, Minolta SRTs..that sort of thing. I taught a photography course for a few years at the local JC and I was gifted with some stuff by students going on to better gear and the like.Swapped, traded, bought stuff surplus at the school auctions when they closed down the program, then reopened it 6 months later.

I liked the Nikon Fs..but they were too expensive for me to buy/swap/trade for until the last few years. Now they are on Ebay for $50. Shrug

Ive got a couple Mirandas. IRRC..a Sensorex and a Sensormat.

They do nearly all films. Check em out. I just pawed through the freezer and mine is Highspeed Ektachrome.

Ive got a pair of Omega Ds, B&W only. Ive offered them to just about everyone I could think of, free..and no takers. Now they are sitting out back under a tarp. About another couple years and they will be garbage. Sad to see em get tossed, when I remember how important they were to me..and the hoops I jumped through to score them.. I pulled the lenses and have them in storage, but...shrug.

Ive got a simple AT puter with some 500gig drives in them that is my "server"...raw storage. Ive got an add on card that gives me the ability to stick in up to 7 hard drives + a single DVD drive, so Im doing ok with storage. Ive got at least another 10,000 prints/slides and negatives that I need to go through one of these years. I put some on Picasa over the last year or so.

I suspect Im going to be at home a lot this winter and spring as manufacturing collapses in California..so might get out the scanners again and start saving them to media. I scanned a bunch of early photos from the late 1960s through the 1970s..and put em on DVD and sent them to friends of mine who were in the photos. Got some fun comments after they were viewed. Young sharp guys who are now bald and fat....chuckle. You will find a few of them in the link above if you want to browse. Feel free. Ive got some military photos I need to scan, but...shrug...those have memories Im not sure I want to remember all that much. One of these days.

I always preferred B&W over color..so a lot of my stuff is that.

And I was always a fan of available light at night.

A good meter, a decent self timer and a tripod..and Voila...

Never did like amature photos of me..always found too many flaws..telephone poles growing out of my head and so forth..so did a number of them myself. Never could teach the wife how to frame or the Law of 3rds. So there arent that many of me. Shrug.

Be well

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

Ayup. I used to love doing old buildings. Im kind of an architectural buff and ya needed a hood and an adjustible camera to get the stuff square and straight. One of the reasons I never liked doing with 35 mm or even 120, though I had a Pressman D with a 120 roll back and it was surprisingly adjustable. Same thing here in the oil fields, back when there were more standing rigs than today. Hard to get parallax and vertical clean and neat with a straight body. I did have a Canon bellows housing that was interesting as it did allow tilts and lifts on a 35mm camera, but the bellows finally went to s*it and I traded it off to someone who could afford to have it rebuilt.. It looked a lot like a close up bellows..but was multiadjustable.

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

Geez, your sensorex still work? I have my dad's, but the shutter mechanism got sticky. I've got a bunch of lenses and adaptors for it.

Jon

Ayup. Shutter still works. Ive not run a roll of film through it in 20 yrs though.

Shutters are pretty easy to get worked on and lubed if you need it done. Ive done a few of the easy ones...but its a bit spooky.

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

Actually -- yes, a few -- if only to show people how it *used* to be. :-)

I actually started with the No. 5 flashbulbs, and only later got equipment which would handle the larger ones. I also got some demerits at school from using one. :-)

That is normal for those -- at least all that I have seen.

Sounds like a deal -- in both directions, depending on what you need.

If I had one, I would see if I could still get 8x10 litho film, and the two-part developer for it. (Of course, these days I would lay out printed circuit boards on the computer, and print the negatives on transparencies in the laser printer. :-)

O.K. That explains both the mix and the quantity.

I think that most of mine were $50.00 or less.

The problem these days is finding batteries which work well in the Photomic head. (It really wants a pair of PX-13 cells, which being mercury cells are now made of unobtanium.) There are adaptors to fit modern cells in there -- including some air-activated ones, but I don't have them -- and have not bothered to make them. :-)

I also could use another for my Miranda spot meter.

My first one as the Miranda F, then added a Dr (previous model, but cheap, and with a bellows and a short-focus mount lens), another F, and then a Sensormat, which I preferred to the Sensorex as it was easier to use older lenses with it and still meter through the lens.

Of course, I now have a Gossen LunaPro SBC, which is nice in certain conditions.

And I'm currently experimenting with a Zeiss Contax to see what it does with some B&W Polaroid slide film -- if the processing pack is still good. :-)

That is going to be expensive -- at about $47/roll, and I have at least ten rolls needing processing. :-(

O.K. But which *process* -- The older E4 (and earlier), or the more recent E6? If mine were E6, I could still process it at home, but I can't find kits for the E4. The temperature for the E6 process just floats the emulsion of the older ones away.

I understand.

I'm using a Mac Mini to run the scanner (A Nikon USB interfaced one), and keeping the 2 TB drives on FireWire interface docking stations to store them. They also get copied to my Sun Blade 2000, and processed using "the GIMP" to convert to JPEG, crop, and tweak curves, and from there are burned the CDs and DVDs for friends and family.

Hmm ... "Nan and Son". The kid is supposed to be the one with a Bandaid on. :-) Fun expression on her face, too.

Done a bit -- but not enough time to do it all.

My collection (in scanable 35mm format) dates back it the late

I can understand that -- even though I've never seen combat. There are probably some in there which you would like to see again, but the trick is not seeing the rest.

B&W was more affordable, and easier to process at home. And could be pushed a lot more. I usually used Tri-X in Acufine or Diafine, and occasionally Plus-X, depending on what I needed.

Me also.

The tags aren't working with my browser -- probably the security is set too tight. So I am seeing the top image with each URL.

Of course. Or instead of the self timer -- a good long cable release. :-)

My wife gets some of me -- usually with a cat in my lap. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

I loved replacing overhead bulbs with them. They screwed right into an edison lamp base and when you hit them with 120 volts..they were Bright!!

Also learned a couple tricks from an old arson investigator. He said it was a specialists trick to grind a hole in one and fill it about half full of gasoline, plug the hole and screw it into one or more lamps. When the victim came home and turned on the lights...WOOOF!!!!

Ill see about digging some out. Do I have your snail mail addy?

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

You might read this...interesting...doing E4 in C22 chems

And this:

Likewise, the type of process is important. K-14 processing is soon to become obsolete (hurry up and load those last few rolls!), and E-4 is long since gone. If you plan on purchasing expired film, always inquire as to what it says on the box ? E4 can be processed in black and white chemicals (Diafine works great for this), but it can be a gamble.

You may find this interesting.....

And this comment:

"Hey hang on a second there....we...Film Rescue charge 17 dollars for roll film regardless of format and charges nothing if the film is blank. This includes scanning, quick digital fix-up and upload for preview so you can pick, choose and only pay for the images that you want for 65 cents each. Where does this 50 dollars come from? And contrary to what you might believe we're probably a lot better at it then you are. If not you have a job or air fare and a good consultation fee. Posted 45 months ago. (permalink) "

I have found a roll of Kodak Ektachrome 120 film in an old camera that requires E-4 process, does any one know where I could get this done or where I could obtain the chemicals for this.

-- John Warren ( snipped-for-privacy@pacific.net.hk), November 30, 2000

Answers

If you do a search under yahoo.com for kodak e4 you will find some labs that do e4 processing. I also have a friend that just found some unopened 1 gallon e4 kits. Shipping would be a problem from Alaska.

cheers.

-- Mark A. Johnson ( snipped-for-privacy@gci.net), March 26, 2001.

We can process this film in E-4 chemistry but at this point due to the age of the film we do not at all recommend it (success around 30 -

Cheers Greg Miller Film Rescue International 1 800 329 8988 "

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

That kid is now about 6' tall and has two kids of his own. The Lady...she really hasnt aged much. I see her every few years when she comes back to town to visit relatives..

I call that photo my "Appalacian poverty pic"

At that time..she was a heavy..heavy methamphetamine user. So the photo and title is pretty accurate. Shrug

She cleaned up about 30 yrs ago and now works in a big hospital in Nashville and is a surgical administration nurse.

I was desperately in love with her at the time. But..Ive never been into drugs of any sort...and shrug again.....time went on and we went in different directions. But..its still good to see her and we dont talk about the bad old days.

Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

Gunner on Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:40:45 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I learned a similar trick from my Dad, who learned in his college days. Carefully remove the glass, "replace" with a small paper bag with a handful of flour in it, reinstall, tap the bag to get flour on the filament. Victim switches on light - "Foomp!" Prankster rolls on floor laughing.

You got gasoline filled bulbs "handy"? B-)

tschus pyotr

-- pyotr Go not to the Net for answers, for it will tell you Yes and no. And you are a bloody fool, only an ignorant cretin would even ask the question, forty two, 47, the second door, and how many blonde lawyers does it take to change a lightbulb.

Grinding a hole in a bulb. That's got to be about as practical as bending a popiscle stick 90 degrees, leaving enough wood to hold the two halves together.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

Nah...but Ive heard it can be done easily enough. Shrug

Folks just never know what they can dig up.

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

I used to use a triangle needle file on the evacuation tit of picture tubes, to slowly let the air in. Done just right, they would hiss for days to a week. I slipped one into a load on it's way to the landfill, behind the guy who was stacking them in the van. He walked on the ceiling to get away, and out of the van! So much for someone who claimed not to be afraid of anything. ;-)