Tag: large format

Copal 0 and 1 shutter handling tips

Nicolai Grossman Leave a comment

Swiss camera manufacturer Alpa says to not change the shutter speed after cocking the shutter on Copal 0 and 1 size shutters.

From their newsletter:

Back in analog times everything was a little bit easier. Photographers were photographers and the number of actuations of the shutters low. Now in the digital times the number of actuations has increased dramatically. This might be the reason why some restrictions become more obvious. Copal avoided to mention that it is a bad idea to change the time ring after cocking the shutter [emphasis added]! To be clear: If a photographer constantly changes the times after cocking the shutter (especially times around 1/30 sec) he or she will destroy the shutter sooner or later. One can observe a golden shiny covering of the aperture blades from the abrasion of copper.

In order to avoid expensive repairs, please check for proper handling!

Hope for Polaroid 20×24 & 8×10 film?

Nicolai Grossman 2 Comments

This article in Amateur Photographer says:

Polaroid is in fresh talks over the survival of its professional instant sheet film following its failure to reach agreement with UK firm Ilford Photo.

Polaroid bosses have confirmed that they are in discussions with a ‘third party’ over the continued production of 20x24in large format professional b&w sheet film.

In a meeting with Amateur Photographer, Polaroid’s European vice-president Paul Telford also revealed that there is a ‘strong possibility’ that production of 8x10in format sheet film will be taken up by an, as yet, unnamed manufacturer…

Kodak discontinues ReadyLoads

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Kodak says:

Due to significantly declining sales volume, Kodak is preannouncing the discontinuance of READYLOAD Single-Sheet Packets for four films.

The items listed below will be discontinued by year-end 2008. However, inventories may run out before then, depending on demand.

Please note: This preannounced discontinuance applies to Readyload format only. Other cut sheet sizes, such as 4×5 and 8×10, are not affected. [emphasis added so no-one freaks out]

READYLOAD Discontinuances:

  • KODAK PROFESSIONAL T-MAX 100 Film
  • KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 160VC Film
  • KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100G
  • KODAK PROFESSIONAL EKTACHROME Film E100VS
  • KODAK PROFESSIONAL READYLOAD Packet Film Holder

Large format lesson learned: use a fucking notebook

Nicolai Grossman 5 Comments

I like to load up several different types of film when I go out to shoot large format, at the very least a B&W and a colour negative. I usually try to stick to some sort of easy-to-remember loading scheme, like holders 1–5 are colour and 6–10 are B&W. Easy as that should be, I constantly got them mixed up in the field. Or I’d get it half-right, remembering that holder x held black and white, but forgetting that I’d loaded an ISO 100 film instead of the Tri-X I’d been using steadily for a few weeks, and shoot it 2–3 stops under.

A few weeks ago I was out shooting with my friend Jonathan and got the holders royally fucked up and ended up not getting several shots the way I wanted to. I didn’t get the results I was after, and I blew a good 20–30 minutes of waiting for light. No more!

I’ve always resisted carrying a pad, because documentation a) isn’t fun, b) is distracting, c) hurts (I have bad hands and writing is painful), and d) often seems to become a fetish, and I’m not interested in any of those things. But something had to give, so I ponied up the 89 cents or whatever it was for a little pocket notebook, in which I now keep a list of holder numbers and what film is in each, and other useful stuff, like bellows tables and the reciprocity corrections for the films I use.

Surprise! There is a middle ground between novel-length, Adams-style exposure records and not even knowing what film I’m shooting, and that works for me. In fact, I’m getting so enamored with not fucking that up that I think I’m going to invest in one of those Rite In The Rain waterproof notebooks.


Notebook page

One suggestion: get a notebook with a brightly-coloured cover so you can see it if it falls on the ground in the woods. Black, olive green, or camo seems like a bad way to go (YMMV).

Ingenious method for bellows calculations with brass lenses

Nicolai Grossman 1 Comment

Brass lens madman enthusiast Jim Galli offered this incredibly useful piece of advice on the Large Format Photography Forum:

Since I almost never use my antiques [lenses] at infinity, (they are usually approaching 1:1 for a portrait) I make my waterhouse stops to “known’s” like 1 inch or 30mm. Then I measure the distance from stop to ground glass and divide a whole number. ie. a stop is a 1 inch hole. I measure the bellows at 22″, I’m at f22. The bellows is stretched out to 32 inches, same lens same stop, f32. No other calcs needed. Reciprocity still needed sometimes of course, but none of the bellows factor gymnastics.

Very smart!

You can see Galli’s work at his Web site, tonopahpictures.0catch.com.

Fujinon discontinue production of XPan and some LF lenses

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This is from month or two back, I somehow got it stuck as a draft and forgot about it. Anyway, the following large format lenses are now out of production, so whatever is left in the supply chain is it if you want to buy new:

  • Fujinon-SW 90mm f/8 (shipment ended August 2006)
  • Fujinon-T 300mm f/8 (shipment ended in August 2006)
  • Fujinon-CMW 300mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)
  • Fujinon-SWD 65mm f/5.6 (shipment ended in December 2006)

and all of the Hasselblad XPan/Fuji TX lenses stopped shipping in November 2006:

  • 30mm f/5.6
  • 45mm f/4
  • 90mmm f/4

Via Kerry L. Thalmann on the Large Format Photography Forum

If you’re interested in Fujinon large format lenses, check out Thalmann’s Unofficial Fujinon Lenses page. No historical information seems to be available from the manufacturer, and this is far and away the best resource I’ve seen.