Horseman sharpness with Wollensak 135mm

I don't have yet a ground glass to adjust focus on my Horseman medium format camera. I have to measure focal distances at home, improvising a ground glass with translucid paper, putting marks along the rail and then going outside and using these marks. As first, I was testing the mark of infinity, letting the others for a next time. I think it is almost done, but a ground glass and a veil opaque to light is necessary for shorter distances in order to get sharper pictures, I think. I never used such kind of cameras and I might beeing telling nonsense. The camera has a side viewer that looks like a telemeter, but I need instructions on how to use it. I see two overlaped pictures which overlaping disadjustment depends on the object distance and this may help to estimate the distance of the object, but I need a rule for that, I am trying to find it. And here are two photos of the last roll with the Horseman:

Example 1

Example 2

The roll was developed with Dignn's 2-bath method, in the meantime this method is giving better results because I decided to extend the developing times to about 10 minutes each, developer's bath A and bath B. You need also more time for bleach or blix at room temperature, about the same 10 minutes or more, depending on the freshness and room temperature.

Selling

When I see a nice camera at flee market, normaly I can't resist. But I need to gain space for new acquisitions. I am selling a lot of seven, packed in a new aluminum case:

For sale

More information...

Improving Holga 120 GN

Like I announced here, my Holga 120GN was 'upgraded' to make some 60 pictures with a nonperforated 35mm roll (brand General Photo). I made a mask that used the entire width of the roll (35mm) and about 24mm of the lenght. Because the normal lens act as a weak tele, 60mm focal lenght instead of the normal 50mm for a 35mm full frame, I thought about using a wide angle lens to turn the modified Holga into an almost normal camera. Yes, it worked, and I also used a fish eye lens but it distorts too much the pictures. The wide angle lens are 0.5 x, so, instead of 60mm we have a 30mm focal lenght which allows further reduction of the picture. I will use this possibility to make a smaller mask and let margins in the film. The new size will be then 30x20 mm with 2,5mm margin on each side. This is exactly in the same proportion 3:2 of the normal 35mm full frame but the 30mm focal lenght is still a weak wide angle lens, maybe 0.6 or 0.7.

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3 - Fish eye distortion

Mini photo contest at Facebook

I started this mini contest on last Monday and there are more than 100 competitors. On Saturday we know who the winner is. This winner receives as price a camera Holga. Not much but it was a nice entertainement.

Link to the contest:

https://www.facebook.com/events/211569178975935/

First time with color and the Horseman camera

I like this tree

Memories

Disorder

A turn on the road

Public hand washing utility

I had not enough time yesterday to write something about these photos. But here am I, almost sleeping, to make a very condensed appreciation. I made a 2 mm in excess mistake in focusing the camera for the photos recquiring infinity. Depending on the aperture they are more or less out of focus. The last one is sharp because I preserved the same distance as the others.

The development was still Dignan's (I have to try caffcol again!) with Blix of ferric EDTA+Ammonium Thiosulfate. No problem with a cheap film of Lomography (I think it is Foma in fact...) 400 ISO. The colors are not that brillant but quite realistic, I like it!

Professional film medium format

I allways wanted a versatile medium format camera like a Horseman. I found one that was beeing sold without lens and with some minor problems like very used bellows and a broken plastic lock button. But for that price I would have to wait some months or would never come again. So, I bought the camera and I have been studying how it works. On the other hand I have been busy making a lensboard to adapt a Wollensak-Rapax lens 135 mm, f/4.7. It worked very well, better than I expected.

Here is the camera:

Horseman 980 with a Wollensak/Rapax lens/shutter

One of the set with Fomapan 100 ISO

I must say that the photos of this first roll are almost good. Now, with the increase in the quality of the camera, it is not a Holga anymore but that is another story, I am missing the quality in the scan. In fact I think that these photo scanners are not a very good idea because they introduce many noise, reflected lines, durst (even with the anti-durst software) and they are so miserabily slow. I think I will return to my macros with increased quality, a better rig to digitize the negatives.

Today I exposed two color rolls with the Horseman and they are hanging now to dry. Tomorrow I will show some pictures of this batch.

Digital single lens reflex camera and compact cameras

When I bougth my only DSLR, a Sony A290, I knew nothing about these kind of cameras. I only knew it should make better photos, something between amateur and professional digital photography. I am a little disappointed, however, I expected much better results than those I reached with the compact cameras.

Recently I decided to compare the Sony A290 with a compact one, the Olympus SZ-14. Both have about 14 MP sensors but different sizes and types. The Sony has a CMOS image sensor of the size APS-C (half frame) and the Olympus has a CCD sensor of the size 1/2.3", much smaller than the Sony A290 one and the same used in many compact cameras of other brands too.

Both cameras were adjusted to the same ISO setting of 100 and with the widest possible angle, pointing to infinity in a cloudy day but clear.

Cropped  image of Sony A290

Detail of the picture above (Sony A290)

The same detail of a picture shot with Olympus SZ-14

The Sony A290 was set to the best JPEG image (RAW was not better, I also tried), the same with the Olympus SZ-14. As documented above, there isn't such a big difference, the Sony image is smoother but the lens (standard with the camera) are a little unsharp, as shown. I would say, unless we use a better lens with the Sony, it is not a great advantage the use of a cheap DSLR camera in what picture general quality is concerned.

What then are these DSLR cameras for? Which advantages they have? The manual operation, the optical viewfinder and the shorter field depth, when this is wanted. If you like to have full easy control on the settings, like aperture, speed and field depth then these DSLRs are a good choice. But if you are looking for a much better picture quality, you must consider buying a full frame DSLR of more than 20MP but costing about 5000 euro or more.

The good thing in this compact Olympus SZ-14 is the 24x optical zoom and its elegant appearence and easy handling. The adjustable focal lenght (zoom) allows short field depths too, like shown in the picture bellow. The main disadvantage of it is the absence of an optical viewfinder and less manual control. If you want to see what you are shooting with a compact camera, you may adapt an extern viewfinder, that avoids the blending of the screen when the light is falling in it from back.

Using zoom it is possible to have a short field
depth with the compact Olympus SZ-14

Colored B&W photos

If you scan a black and white negative in color mode, you will probably get a colored monochromatic image, the color will depend on the scanner settings. I got directly the image number 4 which was enhanced a little with Photoscape, increasing luminosity. Image number one was produced inverting pic. 4 and reinverted after aplying sepia to the negative image. Picture number 2 was a superimposition of 1 and 4 as layers in GIMP and finaly picture 3 was obtained from 4 filtering the reddish-yellowish spectrum with Photoscape.

Picture 1 is the cold version, picture 4 is the warm version and the others are in between. Personally I prefer picture number 2. Make your choice!

From a B&W negative

Note:

The original negative is a set of 60 photos made with an unperforated 35mm film in a Holga 120GN. This film was developed in a 2-bath developer of Parodinal+Vit.C and fixed with sodium chloride (table salt).

More than 50 pictures with a 36 exp. 35mm film in a Holga 120

As I already announced in another topic, I used now a not perforated 35 mm roll in a Holga 120GN. I reached 60 exposures, although this wil be not repeated, the frames have no space in between to divide clearly one photo from the other. I think that 50 photos is a good figure. In general the photos are OK, at the outer edges there are unavoidable marks of the reel of the developer tank. Another difficult issue is to scan the film without Newton rings, but I will make an adequate rig for that later on. Here is one of the 7 stripes with a total of 60 pics:

One of the 7 stripes of not perforated 35 mm roll in a Holga 120GN

And here is one of the photos of the stripe above:

Shepherd and his sheeps

 

The film is a 400 ISO but exposed as 100 ISO, compensated at development.

Cropping 120 Holga's image

The focal distance of the 120 Holga is 60mm. Using the mask 4,5x6 cm is equivalent to a 35 mm lens for a 35 mm camera. This is clearly a wide angle lens, since the normal lens for 35 mm cameras are typically 50 mm. Thus, reducing the area of the image in a 120 Holga to the size of a 35mm camera (full frame) is like using 60mm lens in a 35 mm camera. This is almost a normal lens for 35mm cameras. And I must say that it is not unconfortable to use 60 mm focal lenght as the normal lens in a 35mm camera.

Further, if we wanted to use the Holga with a normal lens, that is to say, not a wide angle lens like it is by nature, we would need a lens of about 85 mm focal length.

On the other hand, we might think that cutting image information is not wise, but there are good reasons for that. All lenses are sharper at the center and the quality becomes worst with the distance to the center. The cropped image discards then the portions of the image with the poorest quality. This makes much sense when using cheap lenses like in a Holga.

Photo made with a Holga 120 GN

The other advantadge is that instead of just 16 photos you get 27 to 28 photos. Forget the numbers window, start at the second circle before pic. number 1 and count 15 clicks for the first 4 pics, after the fourth shot  reduce to 14 clicks for the next 4 pics and so on until 11 clicks as minimum clicks between shots.

But my last modification of the Holga will allow me to shoot some 50 photos, using a slightly smaller mask, 22x33 mm instead of 24x36mm and a special 35 mm/36exp. roll without sprocket holes, as I said already in another post.

Photoscape and chemistry

I am using the software Photoscape (not Photoshop), a free software that is working fine with me. It is fast and easy to use. Especially if your computer is not the ultimate, it will help a lot to tweak your scanned photos. The program has several modules, one of them I used to make pages of already treated photos. 

Holga 120 GN with a 24x36 mm mask

Holga 120 GN with a 24x36 mm mask

Konica Z-up 110

The second and third series were made yesterday. The second series is from a B&W roll developed with Parodinal-C 2 bath developer and served to establish the final version (see recipes). It is working very well and is recommended for medium or large format and not so demanding 35 mm pictures.

The third series was made to test a small point & shoot camera I bought at ebay. Developed in Dignan's 2-bath developer.

So, I am now working with 2-bath developers for both B&W and color. The bath B is the same for both processes. If you are looking for a minimal concept, in what chemicals are concerned, so here you have a suggestion. I am not advising, I am not an expert, I am a just a hobbyist sharing his experiences.

	Color C-41 /min.	Black and White /min.
Bath A1 – CD4+Sulfite	5	0
Bath A2 – Parodinal-C	0	5
Bath B – Soda + KBr	10	10
Rinse with water 3 times	1	1
Bleach – Betadine 10%	90	0
Rinse 3 times with water	1	0
Fixer – Ammonium Thiosulfate	5	5
Washing very well	30	30
Photoflo	1	1

This is what I am doing at the moment, I am using at all 5 baths to develop color and B&W films. Bath B and Fixer are the same for both processes. In principle, bath A1 will also be right for B&W films but I never tried it. Some other time I will try and maybe the baths needed could be reduced to just 4 for both color and B&W, where for B&W we bypass bleach.

Holgagraphy - 3

I received today some special 35mm B&W rolls that have no sprocket holes at all. This is perfect for the mask I made for the Holga 120 GN, slightly modified. In fact, if the film is 35 mm wide the image can't be 36. So I choosed 33 mm, leaving 1mm margin on both sides. For this width and to get a 2:3 picture, I choosed 22 mm on the other dimension. 22x33 mm instead of 24x36, the difference is small, 8,3% less. The roll is about 1330mm long, exposable lenght, so it is theorethicaly possible to make about 50 photos with this roll, what is fantastic. On the other hand, the rolls have a reusable cartridge and serve to be reloaded and turns the B&W photography really cheap.

Tomorrow I will be shooting with a Holga and with this rolls, to be developed in Parodinal-C 2-bath, one of the cheapest developers too.

The second 120 roll exposed, although I polished the mask, gave also scratches because I had a fels paper making too much pressure on the film. I hope this problem is now completely solved for this new 'technology'.

You may appreciate the quality of the photos that may be obtained in this way, by cutting the outer parts which are not so sharp. Also the developer is great, giving a very good grey scale.

Train station at Caldas

Houses of Caldas

Fruit market

Public water tap

Leiria Shopping