While the thread for recent film shots is alive and well, I thought we could have a specific thread for medium format here on FM. Film or digital doesn't matter; it's all about the larger format.
I've posted lots of stuff from my Pentax 67II recently, but I'll begin with reposting some of the shots here, followed by new stuff at the end.
I've used three lenses, namely 75/4.5, 90/2.8 and 105/2.4 (all are the latest SMC 67 versions). The color images are developed at home with the Tetenal C-41 kit, while the B&W ones are developed with Fomadon R09 (”Rodinal”).
Great idea Martin. I'm glad the 67II is working out for you, it seems to suit your style of shooting. The color shots look great, are you using a Jobo, or regular tanks?
surfotog wrote:
Great idea Martin. I'm glad the 67II is working out for you, it seems to suit your style of shooting. The color shots look great, are you using a Jobo, or regular tanks?
Thanks, and yes, the Pentax is the one camera I've liked the most to use this far, of everything I've ever owned. The viewfinder is gorgeous and the aspect ratio is what I've been wanting forever.
For developing I'm using a simple Paterson plastic tank. So, everything is very much the same as when developing B&W film, except for a water bath to keep the bottles and the tank at ~38ºC.
Developing C-41 isn't at all that difficult as most people might think. The modern films are quite tolerant to temperature. For the images above I've used Kodak Portra 400 and Ektar. The new Portra can be exposed at EI 100-1600 and still give reasonably good results with standard development, while Ektar should be handled more or less like slide film. Which means; don't over expose it!
Yes, the 110/2 is a fantastic lens, similar to, but also very different from, the ZF.2 100 MP, which I also own. It is not a macro lens, but has quite a small MFD, and the boke is just amazing.
Martin, that is really interesting about C-41 development in normal tanks. I thought that colour film was much too temperature-sensitive for that, so I have all these films sitting around waiting for a decision on a Jobo, or professional development. Could you speak more about this?
Wow, there's a package right there, both the camera and the subject in front of the lens. There seems to be some dark-ish spots of equal fuzziness and size, distributed throughout the image though the focal plane recedes rather quickly...is it dust?
I'll post some stuff before too long from Mamiya 7 and RZ67 shots. I have full color darkroom at home (film and print processing), but only a so-so quality flatbed scanner @ the moment. I have a better scanner in storage (Agfa T1200 SCSI) but will have to dig that out to hook it up sometime in the future.
C-41 development is not too hard, no worse than B&W, only the developer is really critical as far as time and temps.
What is the best quality and lowest price equipment to scan 6x7 negatives to RAW format? It's always been a deterrent to me shooting more medium format compared to "35mm" digital. I would love to shoot more 120/220 film if I could easily and simply scan the negs.
Just to shortcut that discussion, G'ro...no Nikon scanner using Nikonscan will output "RAW" as you say, though they do scan to *.NEF it's not like it's a raw readout of an SLR or point and pray camera sensor. Based on what I've seen (histograms and editability, plus Coolscan usergroups) it's simply analogous to a *.TIF in an *.NEF container.
Like Martin, I have a Pentax 67 (version 1 though) and a 90/2.8 SMC lens for it. Unlike him though I can't be considered a serious user.
The camera itself is great - I really love shooting with it. I don't have a metering prims though which complicates things. The 90/2.8 lens is OK but not brilliant. I've been thinking that I should perhaps get one or two better lenses for it and a metering prism but what stops me is that I've never been quite happy with the results I've been getting so far and scanning the film (Epson V700) nearly drives me to tears each time I have to do it.
When the negatives/positives are slightly bent - as they always are when I get it back from development - getting the film properly positioned in the holder is an exercise in futility. Each time I go through the process, I swear I won't ever touch 110/120 film again. After a while I forget my promise and repeat the process.
I know that there are better third party film holders but as with getting a metering prism and better glass, I'm still not serious enough about the 67 to actually try to build a system I could work with. Right now it's just a fun camera for me that I toy around with to get a bit of variation from shooting digital.
Anyway, a few shots, the first two are older and the last three are from my last developed film. The first shot is Ektar 100 and the rest Velvia 100.
Good thread idea -- I really like the Pentax 67, but love my Mamiya 7.
First two with the 80/4, last with 65/4.
First with E100VS, second and third with Reala 100. Scanned on a V500 with stock holders.
I'm the only person I know who likes E100VS. Anyone else? I shot a bunch of it in Italy alongside Velvia 100F and preferred the E100VS.
sirimiri -- So the Nikonscan is the best quality and least expensive solution for scanning to a RAW type format? I thought I'd always heard Nikon scanners were quite expensive. I have some Nikon gear, so I'm familiar with their NEF format.
denoir -- In the ancient past, when I'd have panoramic 6x12 or 4x5 sheets that were copied, they were sandwiched in glass slides by the lab. I seem to recall special lighting to avoid polarized colors in the glass. ?? I wonder if that might not be a good way to scan these larger film sizes?
That last shot is great Luka! I know you said you don't want to invest a lot of time and effort in something you don't do that much, but I think it might be worth just snipping that one sharp edge in your process, and getting a nice holder with ANR glass for scanning. The rest you can leave as is for now.
carstenw wrote:
Martin, that is really interesting about C-41 development in normal tanks. I thought that colour film was much too temperature-sensitive for that, so I have all these films sitting around waiting for a decision on a Jobo, or professional development. Could you speak more about this?
The developing itself is just as easy as with B&W, but you have to heat the bottles and the tank with a water bath. This takes a while, and is more or less a PITA.
For my last roll, I just left everything in a bath at 50ºC for a while and started the procedure when the temp was right.
The developer is the only critical step, and it lasts for only 3:20 minutes or so. But it also means that the temp won't change much if you keep the tank in the bath inbetween agitations (once every half minute).
The chemicals can be used for 10-15 rolls or so, but some people have reported that it works fine for up to 25 rolls. Probably this won't be the case with fast film (400 or so), since it will exhaust the developer faster.
The whole procedure is standardized, so you use the same time for any film unless you are pushing it. Essentially there's only three fluids, but I've added a stop bath after the developer, to keep contamination of the blix as low as possible.
Gunzorro wrote:
sirimiri -- So the Nikonscan is the best quality and least expensive solution for scanning to a RAW type format?
No, no, I meant the opposite, in that *.NEF files produced by Nikonscan are *not* truly a raw data format, though Adobe Camera Raw wil try to open it as one, it doesn't seem to have nearly the editability of, say a Canon *.CR2 file. Sorry if my earler post was confusing.
