Topics

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Third Party Manufacturers / I've had a revelation

« on: May 10, 2013, 12:58:18 PM »

I have had a revelation, and seen the light. Suddenly I can see in all colors of the rainbow. Vivid greens and blues. Beautiful browns and purple that pops. Yellows that are like looking into the sun, and everything just the way it should be.

In short, I just got back my first 2 rolls of positive (slide) film. Shot a roll of Provia and one of Velvia. Wow. That's all I can say, and on 120 everything is so amazing. The Provia is of a vinyard and wine production facility from Carmel Valley, and the Velvia I shot on my way back down the cost towards LA. So traveling through Big Sur and further down the central coast. Oh. My. <DEITY>. So gorgeous. I'll have to get busy scanning, hopefully I'll be able to do them justice in the scan.

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Software & Accessories / So...what am I doing wrong with this scan?

« on: March 30, 2013, 02:46:23 PM »

So I just got the Epson v600 scanner to scan some of my 120 film negatives that I have started to take. Then decided to get ViewScan rather than the Epson software, and so far I like VueScan better. However, I seem to be having an issue with some digital noise as part of my scan. Top image is my scan, bottom is the scan I received from Samy's when I got the film developed. Anyway have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

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Software & Accessories / Film and polaroid scanner

« on: March 25, 2013, 12:37:05 PM »

So I am on a quest to find a not insanely expensive scanner for both my film (120, 35mm) film as well my polaroids that I've recently jumped into. At my local pro photo shop it's $12/roll for standard scans (somethinglike 2K pixels long edge, JPG). If it was less expensive, I'd say that's fine for 99% of my needs, and I'd be happy to pay for individual image scans at significantly higher quality if I needed it. So, there's an element of cost effectiveness of buying my own scanner, although unless I'm scanning massive amounts images it won't 'pay' for itself for years. And I realize the 'convenience' of having it at home will undoubtedly be outweighed by what I've read can be time consuming and sometimes frustrating.

All that said, I'd like to be a bit more in control of the output, and also since I have a polaroid back and have taken a few great images with that, I'd like to be able to scan those in as well which leads to a flatbed, rather than a dedicated film scanner. I've been doings some reading, and the Epson v600/v700 seem highly rated, but I've just come across the ArtixScan M2/F2 Pro, which the v750 Pro seems more geared to target. However spending $1000 on a scanner is a lot, however they generally also include some software. Assuming the bundled software doesn't cut it, I've seen it boil down to VueScan ($80 for Pro), or SilverFast of one flavor or another with AI Studio being quite expensive, but does everything. So looking at the ArtixScan F2 Pro which includes SilverFast AI Studio 8, that seems like it's a reasonable premium over the M2.

So, should I go for the v600 and heavily evaluate it for the return period? Or just jump up to the 700/750 or M2/F2 provide me with a significantly better experience for a relatively moderate increase in price over other film scanner type products. In either case, I won't be breaking the bank, and I'm happy to take a longer term look and say I'd rather spend somewhat more now, rather than buying twice.

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Black & White / My first B&W film

« on: March 21, 2013, 02:24:10 AM »

So recently got a Mamiya RB67 Pro-S film camera, and started going a little cray   Man, scanning film is expensive! These first 4 were all from a long expired roll of T-Max B&W film that came with the camera since I was new to using it, and didn't want to waste a good roll if I totally screwed up.

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Third Party Manufacturers / Film negative/positive scan/viewing advice needed

« on: March 07, 2013, 07:03:17 PM »

So, as I begin my journey into film, I'm realizing instead of paying to scan or print every roll (120 film mostly, 6x7), that being able to view the negative/slides either at pick (and then give them to scan), or at home and then bring back to get scanned is probably the more cost effective way. That and I'm considering getting a scanner, but that probably won't happen as I expect I'll be paying $250+ on a quality home scanner. I've been eyeing the V600 which has some good reviews, and that's about $190 at B&H.

However, just looking around on B&H, I'm seeing that a lightbox & loupe will probably cost around $200 or more. So, what would ya'll recommend? Just go ahead and wait until I get paid this month and then go buy a quality scanner like the V600? Should I save for a couple of months and jump to the V700? I'm sure I'm serious about film, however the quantities I'll be doing will be varying.

As a side note, I would like to take it back home to scan some family negatives/photos. Not likely all of them, but at least some. If it (and the software included or other recommended software) can help with that, bonus awesomeness.

EDITS: Fixed V600 price

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Third Party Manufacturers / Learn me on the use of filters!

« on: March 04, 2013, 12:49:01 PM »

So, I pulled the trigger and got a used but good condition RB67 6x7cm MF film camera. Awesome! Shot this weekend with it, both B&W film (need to drop it off today) and the Fuji instant develop film. I got started thinking though, filters were a lot more useful with film, since a lot of what you can do digitally with RAW files (color levels, whitebalance, etc) you can't do with film. So, where's a good point to start learning about the different filters and how to use them with color and B&W film?

As a note, I decided to get the 3-volume Ansel Adams photo books. I'll probably mostly start with The Negative, but I will read through the other 2 as well.

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Third Party Manufacturers / Interesting future ILC concept camera

« on: February 28, 2013, 11:12:47 AM »

Found this from a friend sending it to me, and while the concept video looks intriguing, I'd really need to see it as a real product before even thinking of whether I want one or not, much less how much I'd pay for it.

http://www.artefactgroup.com/wvil/

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Third Party Manufacturers / Is this a good deal

« on: February 26, 2013, 08:28:14 PM »

Not sure I'm ready to pull the trigger, but out of curiosity, would this be considered a good price for this equipment? At some point in time it might be nice to try out some MF, although digital is way to expensive for me to get into, some used film gear like this might be where I'd want to go.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/pho/3617662170.html

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Third Party Manufacturers / Anandtech.com Understanding Smartphone optics & camera trends

« on: February 25, 2013, 01:41:17 PM »

I came across an interesting article on Anandtech.com this morning, and while it's not quite Roger detailed, it still was an interesting read with enough to whet my appetite.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6777/understanding-camera-optics-smartphone-camera-trends

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Lenses / Autofocus in AI-Servo performance in low light

« on: February 09, 2013, 04:36:46 PM »

So this half-way goes here, half-way goes in the 3rd party lenses section, but I figure this section gets more traffic.

As my post subject implies, I'm looking for some information on the Autofocus performance in AI-Servo, specifically on a 5d3, of 24-70 f/2.8 lenses. I've been highly tempted to get the Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 VC because of the lower price than the Canon v2, pretty good sharpness/IQ, and image stabilization. Just rented it for the second time, and in very poor lighting conditions both times. Most of the time it was doing just fine, getting decent to good focus, but there were quite a number of times when it just wasn't getting the focus. I was using Case 6, as this was a dance performance.

As I said, it was very poor lighting conditions, and I've attached a sample image where it didn't follow them and keep them in focus. I checked in DPP, and no AF point had focus, and the shots immediately preceding this one were a bit wider, and it was actually 5 shots previously that was the last time it had focus lock. I was in Zone, and with the center 9 AF points as the active points. Most of the time I had the AF running, even if not actually taking a photo.

So, anyone using the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 v2 or other 24-70 f/2.8 lenses that has been using it it for something similar, with difficult lighting, very active subjects? I'm trying to determine if it's more the Tamron lens than my 5d3, or if the Tamron is not able to keep up with the 5d3. I am thinking I'll rent the Canon v2 for the next performance in April, which will likely have pretty similar lighting, so I'll be able to test it in pretty similar conditions.

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Macro / Some nature Macro

« on: January 05, 2013, 03:02:43 AM »

So, these are some of my first, real macro shots. Hand-held with a vintage Vivitar 55mm f/2.8 (I think they were all at f/4 or f/5.6, no metadata on that

Any tips on hand-held macro work while out and about and not necessarily able or have the time to setup a full tripod? Especially for things that are down on the ground, or in hard to hold positions/locations?

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Speedlites, Printers, Accessories / YATT: Yet another Tripod Thread

« on: December 18, 2012, 08:39:48 PM »

So, I've randomly come into $250 AMEX gift card I could use on my regular, random expenses...or I could blow it on something I actually probably really should get since I do want to try out some timelapse, long exposure, basic macro, so I thought Tripod! Now, I understand $250 is probably about the minimum for a good set of legs, and then I need a head, but I'm fine going up to $350-400 total. So, what do you recommend? Right now I have 5d3, and the heaviest lens I've got is probably the 24-105 or 135L. I am planning on getting the Tamron 24-70 and Canon 70-200L 2.8 IS v2 eventually.

So, something reasonably lightweight so I can take it with me on hikes (doesn't need to be ultra-light, I can handle some extra weight for a few miles), but is pretty stable and can take the 20-700 and my 5d3 and be pretty stable. And of course a fairly nice head. Doesn't have to be really fancy, but something dependable and would work well for my current use cases.

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Software & Accessories / PSA: Lexar Pro USB 3.0 card reader has firmware update

« on: December 08, 2012, 01:48:55 PM »

So, I recently upgraded to an mSATA SSD on my laptop with a fresh install of Win7 Pro. So far awesome, but I saw I was getting really slow (~13 MByte/sec) reads from my CF cards when trying to download them. Very odd, as previously I was getting ~60+ MByte/sec on the spinning disk. Did some googling, apparently Lexar has a firmware update for their CF/SD Pro card reader to update it for UDMA7 support. So I download and update it, now my Transcend 400x 32GB CF card is doing sustained >100MByte/sec reads. Holy crap!

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Canon General / Advice for potential rate/releases

« on: November 14, 2012, 05:48:02 PM »

So, I've been doing some live band photography for a while, a ton of one particular artist whom I love her music, and she got me in touch with a DJ which I got some shots, and he's looking to pay me for the full res shots (already offered what I consider a reasonable amount). He also has links within the music industry with some bands, and possibly send me some more work. Yay!

However, I need to define my rates, rather than just play it by ear. Here's what I was thinking of telling him, for me to start at. What do you guys thing? Am I giving too much away in terms of releases?

I was thinking $70 for 45-75 minute performance (plus any venue fees, if required), which includes delivering non-watermarked 7-15 web size (1200px long edge like I gave you) images, and up to 3 full resolution images of any of the delivered images with full release other than a credit requirement for things like magazines/album covers/social media/etc. Additional full resolution would be $15 per image with the same releases.

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Macro / First real attempt at some (sorta) macro shots

« on: November 09, 2012, 08:06:09 PM »

So, got my first Macro lens (vintage Vivitar 55mm f/2.8 1:1 m42 mount) and tried a few shots handheld when I was out San Diego Decompression. What do you guys think? How could I improve these types of shots, aside from having a good tripod and possibly a set of real macro rails.