Klyment.com - Journal - Equipment

2010.05.21: Binatone iDECT X5 Phone

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 21 May 2010 23:15:25 -0500

I was looking for a unique land line phone with sharper lines like those in my HTC Touch Diamond GSM and came across Binatone's iDECT X5 phone. I ordered the phone through a UK seller on eBay because I was unable to find a North American seller and because all of the European sellers wanted £40-70 ($60-$100) or about 50% more than the eBay seller and wouldn't ship out of Europe. Overall, the phone is beautifully designed with thoughtfully laid out keypadand call quality is excellent. Fit and finish is good though the AAA NiMH batteries (included) rattled inside the battery chamber a bit due to poor fitting band because they were stacked linearly and not in parallel. Fixing the rattle was easy; I wrapped a bit of tape around each battery and reinstalled them. The body of both the handset and the stand are made of plastic but the finish is no uglier than that of the blasphemously-painted top plate of the silver $9000 Leica M9 digital rangefinder cameras. But maybe some people prefer the damage-prone plastic-y painted finish over the chrome or black chrome finishes of the current pre-M9 Leicas considering Leica now offers to paint instead of chrome your M7 or MP for an extra $100.

Box shot. Yes, it's beat up but hey, I work with what I get. Plus it's probably the only box shot for this phone on the Internet at time of writing. The graphic design on the exterior of the box is attractive and the printing quality is satisfactory.

The phone in front of the base, adapter, and a plug adapter that I picked up from Black's for the system. I checked London Drugs for a plug adapter and they didn't have a physical plug adapter but had a universal adapter with interchangeable tips that would completely replace the packaged adapter for $15. A sales rep suggested that I check out The Source and 220 (I think it's spelled like that) at West Edmonton Mall. The Source had physical plug adapters but they wanted $15 just for those. Zellers didn't have universal adapters or plug adapters and suggested that I check out London Drugs or the Source. As I was about to exit Kingsway Garden Mall I decided I'd stop into Black's and check. They had a well-built plug adapter for $9. I'm guessing that Princess Auto would have them cheaper and had I been more patient, I could have asked my parents to bring me an adapter from home because they have lots of that sort of stuff.

Phone on its base. The base has a recorded message counter. My criticism of the base is that it may be a little too minimalistic in that there is no large "guide" to help a user who attempts to sloppily replace the phone to quickly get it back into place. It also lacks the audio and visual feedback of plugging in/charging that my Netgear SPH-200 Skype/Standard Dual Phone offers. Still, these are minor complaints.

Photos shot with the tungsten modeling lamps of Norman IL2500 Illuminator heads modified with a Chimera Video Pro Plus Medium and the Norman 22" beauty dish with diffusion sock attached for frontal lighting all driven by the Norman D24r power pack and captured through a 25mm F/1.4 CCTV lens @ F/1.4 on the Panasonic DMC-GH1. Underneath is the next piece of 18ga aluminium that I am about to clean, sand, clean, precoat, print, and varnish for a client.

2009.07.11 Rescued by drum scanner

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Wed, 19 May 2010 01:25:21 -0500

Well . . . sort of. This frame has been on my list of 4x5's to rescan once I got the drum scanner up and running. We shot this almost a year ago when we were scouting that abandoned house site north of Bon Accord.

If I recall correctly, this film was Ilford HP5+ shot at stock speed and processed in Kodak HC-110 Dilution B. The fixer had been exhausted or had otherwise gone bad and my usual policy to peek into the tank after the first two minutes of fixing probably killed the film. I closed up the tank and remixed a batch of fresh fixer but the damage had already been done. Still, kind of a neat look for the frame. Photo shot with the Sinar X and Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Colours deliberately retained and levels adjusted so that the maximum amount of tonal information would be retained which doesn't always mean the scan will be neutral or linear.

At left is the negative from which I made the previous scan and to the right is a properly exposed and developed frame shot on the same film for comparison.

2010.05.07: Howtek Scanmaster 4500 Up and Running!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:46:53 -0500

Just a quick update since I'm still working through a backlog of scanning. Most of the new scans are still under embargo. Full artist profile associated with this photo to come. I'm still pretty new at the mounting thing but I feel that my colour management experience has made the colour handling part of learning this new technology fairly painless. If anyone needs some drum scanning done in the next month or so I'm willing to do drum scans to 16bit per channel TIFFs at up to 4000DPI for just $20/scan plus $10/mounting and burned onto your choice of DVDs or Blu-ray discs. For 4x5's I can comfortably mount two frames per mounting but have been having luck with the last two mountings in which I put four sheets of film. For 6x6 I'm guessing I can get six to twelve frames in per mounting.

Christina and Aaron Ignacio-Deines' dining room, as styled by Christina and Aaron Ignacio-Deines. Shot with the Schneider 72mm F/5.6 Super-Angulon XL on the Linhof Technikardan 45s. Filtered with a Lee 80A polyester filter. Kodak Portra 160 VC. F/8. 30s exposure.

Unsharpened 100% crop from the previous image. Scanned at 4000DPI on the Howtek Scanmaster 4500 drum scanner (circa 1994) driven by Aztek's fantastic Digital Photo Lab Professional software. Fluid mounted with Kami fluids and Aztek-packaged optical mylar. Full resolution 16bit per channel/48bit TIFF is almost 2gigs. The "noise" that you see here is film grain, not digital noise.

2010.02.12: Klyment's Garage Sale Part 2 (Linhof Technikardan 45s)

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:32:46 -0600

The Linhof Technikardan 45s is this garage sale's feature item. You can find it new here and the bag bellows here. As noted in the previous entry, the Linhof Technikardan 45s is $1795 with choice of bag or standard bellows, $2075 with both bellows, or $1999 with a Calumet Caltar-II S 210mm F/5.6 in nearly flawless condition that's also almost free of Schneideritis which wouldn't have affected image quality anyway. This camera has been my primary camera for the past six months shooting over a dozen residential interiors, two commercial interiors, a handful of outdoor personal projects, and Avenue's sneak peek of the new Art Gallery of Alberta. Before that, Juliana Sohn owned this camera. In fact, it is for that reason that I am halfheartedly selling the camera but I now have too many cameras. Thanks again to Rico Moran for shooting these photos for me.

The classic "pretzal" shot of a full monorail camera. Full movements in the front and all movements in the back except there is only rear rise but no rear fall. Just apply rise in the front.

The camera is equipped with Linhof's standard gridded ground glass with 9x12cm markings and is fed by a Fresnel lens. The cover glass is pretty scuffed up but doesn't hinder your ability to compose. However, after using a Maxwell Precision Matte screen on one of my Horseman L frame cameras, I would highly recommend spending the money for an upgraded screen regardless of how good your standard ground glass and Fresnel.

The most amazing feature of this camera is that it's capable not only of compressing the standards this close together with the FULL non-bag bellows but the rail can also be rotated so that it is parallel with the standards allowing it to fit into a slim camera attache case like the Domke J-803 or some Billinghams more commonly used to house Leica rangefinders.

This photo shows that this is the newer 45s and not just the 45. Note the lines on the L standard and if you look carefully there is a swing detent visible under the front standard. This camera is more rigid and easier to collapse than the original Technikardans.

This photo shows one of the red lever tabs is missing. It doesn't affect operation and I was told by the original owner that this tab can easily be replaced by speaking to a Linhof dealer but I never bothered replacing it.

This photo shows the other tab that's missing. It's green and it's missing from the front tilt locking lever.

All bubble levels are intact. Not shown is the bubble-level on the right of the rear standard which is also still there and fully functional.

The cross section view of the collapsible rail that allows the rail to extend up to about 19" or almost 500mm.

One of the most recent shots done with this camera that has already been scanned. This one is of a small part of the Art Gallery of Alberta's Karsh: Image Maker exhibit that runs until May 30th. Shot with the Calumet Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5 that was listed for sale in the previous entry. Portra 160VC . . . the sRGB colour profile conversion doesn't do justice for the colour of the walls in the exhibit and for the capture. Thank you to Brendan Klem for assisting with shooting some of these interiors of the AGA with a view camera.

2010.02.12: Klyment's Garage Sale Part 1

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:20:32 -0600

I have some photography-related stuff for sale! It's mostly large format gear but there are some Nikon SLR-related items and some pieces of Bowens/Calumet lighting. Items are located in Edmonton. Thanks to Rico Moran for helping me shoot the product photos.

Here is the summary list of what is for sale along with prices in CDN dollars. US dollar prices are about the same at time of posting:

~~Calumet Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5 Flawless glass, some non-function-affecting scratches to barrel, caps included. - $575~~
Schneider Symmar-S 240mm F/5.6 in Sinar DB mount. Optically flawless. Scuffs on DB mount and on lens board. - $225
Schneider Super-Angulon 75mm F/5.6. Optically flawless. Scuffs on DB mount and on lens board. - $450
Schneider Symmar-S 180mm F/5.6. Optically flawless. Scuffs on DB mount and on lens board. - $225
Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6. Optically flawless. Scuffs on DB mount and on lens board. - $225. Or $950 for all four Sinar DB lenses.
~~Linhof Technikardan 45s - $1795 with choice of bag or standard bellows, $2075 with both bellows, $2350 with Calumet Caltar-II S 210mm F/5.6 and both bellows~~
Sigma 30mm F/1.4 for Nikon F-mount DX format sensors. - $395
Nikon 10.5/2.8 DX Fisheye Cleaning mark on front element that doesn't affect image quality. - $585
Bowens dual-cable ring flash with optional diffuser reflector and optional high intensity reflector. Kit value is about $1200US + shipping new - $850
~~Bowens/Calumet 2000W/s ellipsoidal reflector spot lamp head for Quad system - $450~~
~~Bowens/Calumet Universal Spot attachment - $295~~
~~Bowens QuadX 3000 power pack Functionally flawless. A few scratches on casing but far from ugly. - $1700 or $2300 with ring flash kit.~~
~~Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro multi-format film scanner. Conveniently scans up to 6x9 and other medium formats with results similar to the Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED. - $1050~~
~~Hasselblad 90degree prism finder for V system (500 series bodies). - $50~~
~~Hasselblad compendium pro shade for V system - $50~~
~~Almost complete roll of Superior Seamless studio blue 107" (almost 9foot) roll of backdrop paper - $40~~
~~Elinchrom/Profoto Fiber Lite Kit micro light system. Older version and shows signs of use. Photos on the way. - $950~~
Bowens Fresnel attachment. Side dented but doesn't affect operation. - $495
100foot spools of expired, cold stored, Kodak Edupe duplication slide film. EI 16, weird (fun?) colour casts. Enough for about 18 rolls of 36exp. - $18ea.
~~Microtek Artixscan M1 w/ Silverfast AI Studio (16/48bit . . . the good package) - $675~~
~~Sekonic L-508 incident/spot/flash meter - $250 (less than the price of a Sekonic L-358 which lacks a spot meter unless you add a $300 option to it)~~
~~Sekonic L-558 incident/spot/flash meter + compatible with internal Pocketwizard flash trigger - $325 (Probably still cheaper than an L-358)~~
Sekonic L-758DR incident/spot/flash meter including internal Pocketwizard flash trigger and is compatible with Sekonic's exposure latitude measuring system to give you exposure latitude warnings when metering scenes for the cameras that you have profiled - $425. Here's Vistek's page for it but you could probably find it for about $50 cheaper at other stores.
4x5 Fidelity and Lisco Regal II film holders with plastic dark slides. In my opinion the best double-sided 4x5 film holders and they are newer. $12 each. I have 20 that aren't spoken for. If you need them shipped I prefer that you buy at least 5 at a time and even better if you buy multiples of 5.
35mm bulk film loader. Brand new. $12 each. I have 5 4 left.
Nikkor-SW 65mm F/4. 4x5 coverage with some movement or consider it a 75mm lens and just apply displacements afterwards by cropping your 4x5's. very easy to focus even with basic ground glass w/ Fresnel lens. Most cameras will require a bag bellows to focus this lens to infinity while still allowing movement. $390.
Nikon MB-D10 Multi-Power Battery Grip for the D300/D300s/D700 bodies. Allows you to unlock the higher frame rates of these cameras and use AA batteries of desired. Included in the package is the Nikon BL-3 which allows you to use Nikon EN-EL4/EN-EL4a batteries which were spec'ed for the Nikon D2h/D2x/D3/D3x. Great if you need a grip and are already shooting a D2X or D3X and have a D300 or D700 as a backup body - standardize on one type of battery and charger! Vistek wants about $340 for the grip and $50 for the battery adapter plug. $280 total for the pair.
Set of four brand new BF Goodrich G-force KDW version 2 performance tires. Y-rated (tested to 300km/h). 215/40r18. $550 for four tires. Canadian retail price is $900 for the set. Some of them still have original labels and all have at least manufacturer's sticker residue still on them. The tires are currently on a set of brand new Enkei RSV 18 x 7.5" 45mm offset wheels in anthracite. The tires can be removed from the wheels or you can buy the wheels for an additional $190 each. They are not available as a set because three of the wheels have universal 5bolt drilling and one of the wheels has a universal 4bolt drilling. That said . . . if you or someone you know is selling a single Enkei RSV 18 x 7.5" 45mm offset wheel with 5bolt (specifically 5x114.3) drilling in any colour, let me know. If it's in really good shape and anthracite I'd happily pay $300 for it. If in a different colour I'd pay $225 for it.
Canon HV20 MiniDV HDV camcorder. Includes a few tapes, two spare third party batteries, all original accessories and box AND the Canon DM50 microphone which is $140US plus shipping from B&H or $300 from Vistek. I selected this microphone because I wanted a microphone that was much better than the built-in mic but could be powered from the camcorder and wouldn't require an external cable to connect to a microphone input. The microphone is directional and has a switch to change its angle of pickup which is handy if you want to use the camera and have your voice picked up if you are doing a quick interview without a lapel mic or can be switched to just pick up audio from in front. $495 for the kit.

More photos and discussion about items for sale in next blog entry.

Calumet Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5. It's about 20mm in 35mm terms and it was my primary architectural interior lens up until I picked up a Schneider 72/5.6 Super-Angulon XL. The lens is optically flawless but there are blemishes in the metal as illustrated in the following photos. This photo was lit with an older Calumet/Bowens optical spot lamp head (also for sale) for rim light and a diffused Bowens Softlite reflector with diffuser in the foreground on Savage Thunder Gray. Lights driven by a Bowens QuadX 3000 power pack (also for sale).

Rear view of the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5.

Close up showing condition of metal.

Shot with the Caltar-II N 75mm F/4.5 and the Linhof Technikardan.

The 75mm doesn't have the largest image circle of this type of lens but still has a big enough image circle to make some nearly impossible exterior shots. Here is a photo shot of the Uptown Estate building for Sylvie Perrault Architects of Montreal.

Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6 in Sinar DB mount. These photos are representative of the look and condition of the Symmar-S 240mm and 180mm in Sinar DB mounts so I won't post all of them but feel free to request photos if you wish to see them.

Symmar-S 210mm F/5.6

Rear view of one of the Sinar DB lenses. I originally purchased these Sinar DB lenses for use in studio and for architectural photography because of the shutter's system ability to mechanically time exposures up to 8s where I would normally have to manually time and trigger for architectural interior shooting. Furthermore, the shutter system makes Sinar handling in studio convenient since adjustments to exposure and aperture settings can be done from the rear of the camera and the shutter will also automatically stop down the iris when shooting. However, now I no longer own a Sinar camera or the shutter so I can't use these lenses anymore.

The Super-Angulon 75mm F/5.6 looks a bit different.

Rear view of the Super-Angulon 75mm F/5.6.

2010.01.18: [De]thinking Lighting

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:28:04 -0600

Patrick Jacob of Inex Design Studio came to me with a table that needed photographing. The table has spent the past two weeks sitting around my studio as I agonized over how to light it. The more I thought about it, the worse the lighting got. Over the past few hours I started working with my really old, really basic, and extremely cheap used Norman lighting system. I finally got the results that I wanted. I'll blog again once the film is back from the lab and I am thinking of shooting some Ilford HP5+ and pushing it to ISO3200 in HC-110 dilution B for a few of the angles to see what happens. 4x5 Portra 160VC rated at ISO 100 used as the primary film type with some Fuji Provia 100F to be pushed to ISO 400 out of curiosity.

Lit with a Norman P500D power pack driving two LH4 heads. One set at 250Ws (channels A and B at 125Ws each combined to power one outlet) and one set at 62Ws (channel C only). The basic 5" Norman grid reflector with grid use to backlight the top glass. 18" beauty dish with a diffusion sock attached for foreground lighting. The "real" shots are being shot on a Horseman LE 4x5 monorail through the Schneider Symmar-S 210/5.6. The rail is tilted forward and the standards were leveled out to provide enough vertical displacement movement to properly proportion the table while still shooting from above the table to show more of the glass work on top. The camera is supported by a Gitzo GT1540 tripod and a Markins Q3 ball head. The head is under 1lbs including clamp (385g) and is rated for a 65lbs (30kg) capacity. And this is Markins' smallest ball head. It's lower profile than most pro ball heads thus helping to reduce impact on tripod stability due to addition of height and is rated for higher capacity and is lighter than any other ball head sold by Vistek or McBain Camera . . . and it's likely cheaper than any other ball head I have found. Markins' North American distributor is based in Langley, British Columbia.

2009.06.23: Epson Stylus Pro 9900 Arrives

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:39:49 -0500

About two years after Printhuge.com upgraded from using the Epson 9600 to the 9800 as its primary large format photo and fine art inkjet printer the primary printer is being replaced again. The move from the 9600 to the 9800 offered smoother ink droplet patterns with and without RIPs, slightly better paper handling, lower chance of nozzle clog (in my experience, anyway), slightly more cost effective (but still wasteful) black ink switching when switching from matte or glossy substrates, better dMAX and wider gamut with OEM inks (while making it harder to use third party inks and bulk ink systems), pressurized ink cartridges so that they don't stick out of the printer, about double the print speed, and a bunch of other nice little adjustments. The move from the Epson 9800 to the 9900 is beyond what Epson marketing calls "evolutionary"; it's nothing short of revolutionary in the hands of someone who works with this printer good ten hours a week with over sixty hours a week of print time. Epson's website has a list of new features if you want to see all of them. My favourites are that black ink switching now only wastes black ink as opposed to all or many of the other colours needlessly as well, further increased print speed (load is about the same, cut time is significantly faster and actual print times are dropped 50-60%), noticeably improved colour gamut with substrates requiring glossy black ink, refined paper basket design, and the new spindleless roll loading system that doesn't require a third arm or a leg to help you load paper onto the spindle and doesn't require separate adapter end plugs to adapt to 3" roll core sizes.

Around this time, two other photographers have become new 44" inkjet printer owners. Randy Stinchcombe of Eye Captured Images was indecisive about picking up my 9800 and I subsequently sold it to Dylan McAmmond of En Vogue Photography in Saskatoon. Randy talked himself into purchasing a new Epson 9900 as well. Congratulations to both of you. Dylan and Whitney will be in Edmonton from July 5 to 8th for hands-on training at my studio. On the 7th, Dylan has enlisted the help of Nick Hawkeye, who could be the youngest large format print operator in the world another large format printer who [semi]successfully moved his Epson 9880 down to his basement by himself when he was fifteen, riding it as a sled down the stairs and with just one other person managed to move my very first large format printer from my studio down the stairs with a bit more success. Dylan has also enlisted the help of Sean Traynor, an all around cool guy and in return Dylan has promised to buy him beer after the successful move of the printer out of the studio. Little does Sean know that Dylan isn't old enough to buy beer. Maybe he'll find out now.

2009.03.05: Betterlight Digital Scanning Back and Horseman LE go on eBay!

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:35:36 -0600

After about a year as my staple fine art reproduction capture system behind my large format digital printing business, 144megapixel Better Light digital scanning back and Horseman LE with Calumet Caltar 210/5.6 are now on eBay with lots of extras and a modest starting bid of $5,800US and no reserve. Check it out here. If an Edmonton buyer is looking to purchase the system I would be very interested in ending the auction and cutting a deal for the whole system at the buy it now price including lights but in Canadian dollars if only to have the opportunity to borrow the system occassionally for certain projects that benefit from using a digital scan back system. The reason I am selling the system is to free up some cash and make room for a major digital medium format purchase that is just around the corner.

2008.09.26: Photokina 2008: What's new from Bowens

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:47:26 -0500

I spoke with Mark Aherne, technical director of Bowens International that manufactures most of the lights that I use, about some of the new items to the Bowens line up. I'm most excited about the new monolights but the soon-to-be-released QX3 2500W/s power pack that will eventually replace the QuadX 3000 pack that has been the basic workhorse of my studio is interesting as well. First, a bit about the QX3:

The new specifications are definitely interesting - greatly improved recycle time, improved flash duration, three asymmetric channels (as opposed to four headers distributed over two channels on the QuadX) in a pack that is about the same weight but with slightly smaller volume. Furthermore, the interface has been simplified and the screen has been prettied up . . . a lot:

But it still wasn't the type of AC power pack announcement I was hoping for. What I was hoping for was a replacement to the Quad 2400 power pack with significantly faster flash duration and recycle time in a package MUCH smaller and lighter than what they are offering now. In the areas of compact AC power packs, Norman, Dyna-lite, and Profoto still rule. Anyhow, onwards to the monolights:

The analogue interface enhancements are almost revolutionary in the world of monolights. To get one tenth stop precision we used to have to resort to digital interfaces which often slowed down a photographer's or assistant's access to lighting setting changes. Analog dials, while quick, were often not very precise and were limited at best to one third stop precision. With Bowens' new dual-dial power control system a user can have the most intuitive control of his or her light with precision traditionally limited to digital lights. On top of this, Bowens has added an integrated option slot for Bowens Pulsar and Pocketwizard receivers and all of their lights now have the Travelpak/Turbopak/Explorer style DC input plug for battery power.

2008.09.24: Photokina 2008: Leaf AFi-II 10 Demo

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:11:09 -0500

A Calumet Netherlands Leaf specialists gives me a demo of the upcoming Leaf AFi-II 10. This camera is the evolutionary next step following the Leaf AFi which is based on the Franke & Heidecke chassis evolved from the Rollei 6008AF and uses the same lens mount. I spoke to many people at the leaf booth including Ari Briggs, Executive Director of Sales and Marketing and Seth Greenberg, Director of Marketing for Leaf. These people presented some insight on some of the nuances of the camera and little quirks which are spun differently for marketing.

While the AFi/AFi-II/Sinar Hy6/Rolleiflex Hy6 are marketed to support all of the old lenses of the Rollei 6000 series, some of the people at the Leaf booth noted that these lenses aren't tuned for digital sensors which have lower tolerances for variances and some of the older system lenses may not perform as well as the newer versions of the same lenses which have been optimized. However, another representative who has both the Rollei 6008AF and the new Leaf AFi noted that between one of the new lenses and a good sample of one of the old lenses, a shooter may not be able to see a difference in his prints until he or she views them both side by side.

The margin for error in tuning of these systems is very small. During the demo, I witnessed how even switching between identical digital back models from one body to another could completely throw out the focusing from one body to another. It isn't that the bodies are fragile but it's because the back and body are tuned together out of the factory so that the body holds the back and the lens so that the lens very precisely casts light from the lens and focuses on the sensor but these tunings will be different on different bodies.

It is also interesting to note that many of the lenses that are available for the AFi/Hy6/6008 system are available at wider relative apertures with faster shutters and are designed with 6x6 format coverage whereas the lenses of systems like the Hasselblad H or the Mamiya/Phase One digital platform are available with narrower relative apertures and, especially in the case of the current Mamiya system, have much slower flash sync but have a focal plane shutter. While the wider relative aperture is optically and creatively very attractive, it's important to note that lens of similar focal length in the Rollei/Leaf/Sinar system are SIGNIFICANTLY heavier than those of the Mamiya 645 or Hasselblad H system. For a medium format system, weight isn't my first consideration when purchasing but for our smaller friends, the weight of some of this glass is so great that it may become prohibitive.

After viewing the Hasselblad booth I think that the Leaf AFi-II is still on the top of my list for what will be replacing my Rollei 6008AF/Phase One digital medium format system.

2008.09.23: Photokina 2008: Laptop Screen Shade

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:21:52 -0500

There are a few screen hoods on the market but this offering by Screen-Shade was one of the easiest and fastest to setup. Distributed by Lee Filters USA in North America.

2008.09.25: Photokina 2008: Broncolor's new Scoro power packs and UV light modifier

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:16:07 -0500

This video shows two of Broncolor's representatives describing some of the new features and enhancements of Broncolor's new flagship power pack. As noted in the video, the pack won't ship until the beginning of next year but it's an exciting new offering by Broncolor.

We also discuss Broncolor's new UV light mod.

2008.08.26: Nikon D90/24FPS 720P Video in DSLR Announced

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:02:59 -0500

Rumours of a consumer level digital SLR priced to replace the Nikon D80 with features borrowed from Nikon's professional D3 and D300 cameras have been floating around the internet for several weeks. Now the news is official and the part of the announcement I am most excited in is the inclusion of a 720P (high definition) 24FPS recording mode. Why the intrigue? When you think about it, for years, indie film makers have been making or buying tools to mount SLR lenses on their video cameras from manufacturers like Redrock Micro, Letus, and Canada's Cinevate whose Brevis 35 adapter I once owned for my Canon HV20 HDV camera to produce footage with a cinema-like look. By using an SLR lens to project an image onto a rotating or vibrating matte screen and then using the attached video camera to macro focus off of this matte screen, one could "borrow" the shallower depth of field associated with a lens with a longer focal length and wider aperture while not incurring the direct cropping effects that one would encounter by attempting to directly capture a part of the circle of illumination from an SLR lens using a relatively small sensor that would be found in almost all affordable video cameras. In addition, to have decent motion rendition captured to a non-tape recording medium, one would have to consider buying into a Panasonic P2 or XDCam solution at the lowest end of the price spectrum.

I am neither an expert in video and motion picture nor have I had hands on experience with the camera like this lucky bastard (:=D) but allow me to indulge in some speculation. Assuming that cameras like the D90 and those that may follow it with motion picture recording capability can:

capture true 24 or more progressive frames per second;
record uncompressed video or use compression has good motion reproduction that allow for easy editing with a variety of non-linear editors;
support an external audio source;
limit light hitting the sensor or being picked up by the sensor with the use of an internal neutral density filter or with some other method not involving changing shutter speeds or apertures;

we suddenly have an interchangeable lens video camera system with depth of field control near what one would achieve with a 35mm depth of field adapter for a video camera that records onto a solid state medium and will directly attach lenses in which there is a huge used market and many photographers already own that would easily satisfy most of the needs of many would-be film makers at 5-15% the cost of a video solution designed for this purpose. And as an added bonus, it's also a 12megapixel dSLR that shoots better-than-merely-usable ISO6400 shots.

2008.03.20: Phase One; why have you forsaken us?

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:38:36 -0500

For most of my life as a full time photographer I have used Phase One's Capture One Pro as the core of my photographic workflow. With this software Phase One proved to me that the company understood the professional photographer. "For passion and profit" . . . not only do we have to be good at what we do but we have to be efficient. Throughput and turnaround has a huge impact on this business and Phase One understood by creating one of the most streamlined software solutions for the RAW-shooting photographer who understands light and shoots with good glass and does little retouching.

For almost a year I have shot the Franke & Heidecke/Rollei 6008 AF and a Phase One P20 digital back with Schneider glass that has 1/1000s leaf shutters. By releasing a back that functions with this camera system, again Phase One showed that it understood its market and the market's need for a high quality 16bit digital capture solution with a sickeningly-efficient workflow driving the world's most desireable glass with the world's fastest mechanical flash sync speed offering two full additional stops of ambient continuous light control over most Canon and Nikon SLRs when using strobes.

March 19, 2008, Phase One announces a camera that shows that it has forgotten about the photographer who chooses to make his or her studio in places never meant to be sterile and controlled but chooses to tame these environments with extensive light controls and studio lighting. These announcement commercially confirms fears that Phase One has no plans for building a back for a system with native support for exotic modern lenses. What does the Phase One 645 camera offer over a Nikon or Canon camera system other than more megapixels and two extra bits per colour channel? Slower flash sync. Slower glass. A much bigger, slower camera. With Nikon and Canon cameras with actual resolutions that can produce 40x60inch prints that hold up to close inspection when shot with good glass under ideal conditions (the same conditions that would be needed to run a Phase One digital back optimally), what is that extra $5,000 to $30,000 buying me exactly?

Vicki, as photographed through the Rollei 6008AF, Schneider AF Xenotar PQS HFT 80/2.8, onto a Phase One P20 digital back and lit with the sun and almost the full 1500W/s from a Bowens Explorer 1500 pack pumped through two Quad flash heads, a Bowens grid reflector with barn doors and a 20degree grid with a 30degree Lighttools Soft Egg Crate for a Calumet Illuma 75 soft box. Makeup, hair, and styling by Maurice. Shot in the afternoon at F/2.8 and 1/1000s. With the Phase One 645/Mamiya 645 AF lens system and their 1/125s flash sync, this photograph would require literally 16x the amount of strobe power or almost 24,000W/s (!!!). Keep in mind that the nearest AC power outlet to this location is about 30km away. Phase One: you were always at the top of my list for high end digital capture but I can't even consider you anymore.

2008.02.06: Playing around with large format digital capture

nospam@example.com (Klyment Tan) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:58:13 -0600

The Horseman LE 4x5 monorail camera and the Caltar II-s 210/5.6 (Rodenstock Sironar?) arrived today. I mounted the camera body onto the Manfrotto RC4 plate for the 405 geared head and temporarily attached it to my extremely light weight Gitzo GT1540 carbon fibre tripod. After weighting the tripod down a bit it was fairly stable but I noticed a lot of play in the head's joints and the cantilever which holds up the quick release platform was "bouncy". I'll likely be returning this tripod head to pick up something more robust . . . perhaps the Arca-Swiss C1 Cube. Anyhow, I tried out the Betterlight true colour digital scan back on the camera anyway.

A quick arrangement of some photographic goodies illuminated by two Flolight high frequency ballast dimmable fluorescent lights. I've been doing some tests with the lights and the scan back in the camera shown in this photo prior to the new camera arriving. The lights allowed for satisfactory results after profiling but the real test comes with some artists come in to audit the process to ensure that their works are being faithfully reproduced. Caltar II-s 210/5.6 @ F/5.6, 1/30s line time, ISO 1100. In the top right of the image is a Caltar 75/4.5 (Rodenstock Grandagon?) which I recently purchased used from Calumet. It's 35mm format equivalent lens would be 25mm or about 17mm on a camera like a Nikon D300 or Canon 40D.

A 100% pixel crop from the preceding image. This file was processed in Adobe Camera RAW as it was exported as a DNG from Betterlight's Viewfinder software. For fine art reproduction I would be directly outputting out of Betterlight's software after applying an ICC profile created in Profilemaker. There are some noise artefacts. At least I think it's noise. The camera standards have been adjusted significantly to get some of the inscription of the Angenieux lens, the Kodak lens on the Speedgraphi and the Caltar resulting in abnormal (but, in my opinion, pleasant) looking depth of field blur.

A photo of the scene photographed above. The camera sees the scene very differently than we do.

The capture rig. There is an infrared blocking filter in front of the lens. Since the digital scan back doesn't have its own infrared filter like most digital camera sensors do, a filter has to be put somewhere between the subject and the capture area. Ideally I would put this filter on the rear of the lens behind the lens board but with a 77mm filter and with rear filter ring being a lot smaller than the front filter ring and not having the right step up rings I resorted to attaching the filter to the front of the lens which was conveniently 77mm.

For the amount of money that this thing costs, I wouldn't mind it being a bit more aesthetically pleasing. No biggie.

I am so impressed with this camera chassis. Not too happy with the tripod head, however.