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Zeiss Flektogon 50/4
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:02 am    Post subject: Zeiss Flektogon 50/4 Reply with quote
Here's a scan from the Flektogon 50/4 mounted on the Pentax 645.

One of my favorite little nearby creeks, I spend many afternoons and evenings here in the Summer. Very few visitors, because it is out of sight of roads or trails. I think it is an attractive little "stepped" falls. I call it "Huckleberry Falls" because of the plentiful red hucklberries in the area.

The Flek 50 lens looks very good; here it is stopped down considerably so that I could "soften" the water sufficiently to keep from looking too harsh. Everyone's taste seems to vary in where to set the shutter for moving water.

It is cropped a bit to take out some brush on the sides; I also decided to increase saturation of yellows and greens by 10% each - is it too much?

This was a difficult shot for me. I took out the lightmeter and tried to average things out. In order to "tame" the blown out water, I had to underexpose a little. There are just a lot of compromises. Bracketed 3 stops over and under for a total of 7 exposures. "Normal" was f:5.6 and 1 second. The exposure at -2 stops (f:11) was the best of the bunch.

The sharpness on the transparency, edge to edge, is simply phenomenal on the light box.

Huckleberry Falls

Pentax 645
Zeiss Flektogon 50/4
f:11, 1 second
Fuji Velvia



PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Here's a longer shot of the pools below the falls. See the bent tree up on the rock to the left? That was my position for the first shot.

When I was a pre-teenager, I would hike up here with my Springer Spaniel dog and go swimming in the pool. But these days, I finally figured out just how COLD that water is! It would turn me into a Soprano quickly! Shocked Laughing

This shot was also cropped, mostly from the bottom, to get rid of some sticks and brush. The Flektogon 50 surprises with its fairly wide field of view, equivalent to about 30mm (35mm format).

If I was to do this again, I would make the shutter speed quicker, as I think the water here is too "fluffy" at the drop-in falls.

Drop-In Falls

Pentax 645
Zeiss Flektogon 50/4
f:8, 1 second
Fuji Velvia



PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Both are excellent, but the second one is simply breathtaking! What a
marvelous shot! I did some ops with the Marines at the Army Ranger
station, Huckleberry Creek, you know where that is? One of the best
views of Mt Rainier is on one of the ridges there. This would've been
back in 87/88 somewhere. We made 1,2, and 3 rope bridges across
chasms and did lots of rappelling using the Swiss seat (ouch). We also
did the 14-mile "mountain motivator" lot of ouch on that one. LOL

It could've been called Huckleberry Ridge, too, not sure.

Bill

Last edited by Katastrofo on Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:15 am; edited 1 time in total


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Katastrofo wrote:
Both are excellent, but the second one is simply breathtaking! What a
marvelous shot! I did some ops with the Marines at the Army Ranger
station, Huckleberry Creek, you know where that is? One of the best
views of Mt Rainier is on one of the ridges there. This would've been
back in 87/88 somewhere. We made 1,2, and 3 rope bridges across
chasms and did lots of repelling using the Swiss seat (ouch). We also
did the 14-mile "mountain motivator" lot of ouch on that one. LOL

It could've been called Huckleberry Ridge, too, not sure.

Bill


Thanks much Bill! I know the other Huckleberry Creek VERY well, as it is crossed on my way up to the "back side entry" to Mount Rainier and Grand Park! A great area, and I've seen operations going on in the area.

Yeah, that 14 mile motivator was, no doubt, up the creek, across the basin, and back down the other side! I'll bet your feet liked that!

Here's the Flektogon 50/4 mounted to the Pentax 645.



PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, that's a big lens!

Yeah, the route you described sounds about right. Haven't thought of
that place in years, we were there for only one week, but it was
Special High Intensity Training, run by
a small group of Rangers with no sense of humor, and cameras were
not allowed. The motivator killed just about everybody's feet except
DeWayne, the other corpsman, who had recently transferred in from
Force Recon--he thought it was a piece of cake! LOL

Bill


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 7:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Exellent! I have tried Zeiss Flektogon 50/4 on Canon, but I think it works better with film. Nice, colorful, contrast.
.


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Both excellent, but number 2 is better for me, because it's not so typical.

What a wonderful place, where you live. Very Happy


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wonderful nature photos, I like both for nice composition and great colours!


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
A dream place captured with dream photos.
-


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Excellent shots, Laurence!.
At any time you publish some picture, I always end thinking on how you got so nice shots (just to learn something).
The fine landscape where you live is a good help, but those greens and browns that you catch so well, are really impressive.
My sincere congratulations for your nice work.

Best regards,
Jes.


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 3:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Great shots again - the composition is superb.


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Jesito wrote:

The fine landscape where you live is a good help, but those greens and browns that you catch so well, are really impressive.
Jes.


it's a combination of good photographer, medium format, good film, and high quality scanning.


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Photographer's eye is the most important ingredient. Other stuff merely enables it. Smile Smile


patrickh


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
patrickh wrote:
Photographer's eye is the most important ingredient. Other stuff merely enables it. Smile Smile
patrickh


The photo as whole, yes. But I was answering about the colour quality.


PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
patrickh wrote:
Photographer's eye is the most important ingredient. Other stuff merely enables it. Smile Smile
patrickh


The photo as whole, yes. But I was answering about the colour quality.


Thanks you guys. I wasn't actually showing these as some kind of "album show", but merely to express the characteristics of lenses and things. So, your nice comments are very nice to hear. In actuality, you have to bear in mind that these static scenes are relatively easy to shoot. Where I really admire the work of the members of this forum is those shots that entail "street scenes" and "moving subjects" such as people! Now THERE's some challenge! Shocked

Regarding the colour quality, my scanner is the "weak point" in the chain.

The film emulsion is probably as "well worked" as possible because of the years of improvements since companies started their research on making better films. I would have to surmise that film may not get "substantially better" than it already is.

Same with the lenses themselves. I'm not so naive as to think that lenses couldn't get "better and better", but I think that lenses (such as the Flektogon) are probably at their peak for efficiency, for their intended purpose, in bringing out the colours that the film provides. Sort of like "the lenses have probably met the potential of the film".

So that brings the weak point in this: the scanner. My scanner is not meeting the potentials above. There are better scanners which I think would render a much finer image, especially in the high-end dedicated medium-format scanners and of course the drum scanners.

These are scanned at 800dpi simply because I don't need much more to present on the web. But even at 2400, my scanner won't allow for much more than a 16x20 before visible degradation of the image.

I have a few transparencies that I've had drummed scanned, and two of them are printed at 30x30 inches. The difference is huge, to my eyes. I can put my face right up to the surface and still not see "grain"...I wish I had the capability to have that in my home. Sad

The subject matter itself is serendipity: that is, it's the luck to live in a scenic area. By virtue of its "scenic components", the area is tough to shoot because for the most part, there are so many "details" in the forests here. But what REALLY gets difficult, is the huge ranges of light values in most shots. Zones I through VII in one scene are very common, and this causes compromises. The only thing I can do in these situations is bracket and hope! Laughing


PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Larry

If you like the Adams zone system Bibblelabs has a RAW processor at a decent price ($125) and there is a plugin available for it for about $20 which does luminance adjustments by zone. You can even adjust the zone coverage. One of my favourite pieces of software. All non-destructive on the RAW file with ooutput in jpeg or tiff


patrickh


PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
patrickh wrote:
Larry
If you like the Adams zone system Bibblelabs has a RAW processor at a decent price ($125) and there is a plugin available for it for about $20 which does luminance adjustments by zone. You can even adjust the zone coverage. One of my favourite pieces of software. All non-destructive on the RAW file with ooutput in jpeg or tiff
patrickh


Patrick, thanks for the tip. Yet another benefit of this forum! I am keeping this information on my computer. I think it will be especially effective when I finally break down and purchase a digital SLR. Cool

Thanks again!


PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
It will also handle tiffs and jpegs


patrickh


PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
patrickh wrote:
It will also handle tiffs and jpegs
patrickh


I see! You are convincing me of the value of this software! Smile


PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, love 1.


PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Laurence wrote:

Regarding the colour quality, my scanner is the "weak point" in the chain.
...
So that brings the weak point in this: the scanner. My scanner is not meeting the potentials above. There are better scanners which I think would render a much finer image, especially in the high-end dedicated medium-format scanners and of course the drum scanners.

These are scanned at 800dpi simply because I don't need much more to present on the web. But even at 2400, my scanner won't allow for much more than a 16x20 before visible degradation of the image.

I have a few transparencies that I've had drummed scanned, and two of them are printed at 30x30 inches. The difference is huge, to my eyes. I can put my face right up to the surface and still not see "grain"...I wish I had the capability to have that in my home. Sad


Drum scanning uses oil immersion. I understand that its also possible to do oil immersion on flatbed scanners, and the results show improvement from elimination of the air interface and reduction of scattering of the light from the point lightsource in the scanner in the base of the film.


PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Chris

Does that mean the item being scanned is immersed in oil? Or is it the scanning lens?


patrickh


PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
I don't want to deep fry my slides! Confused


PostPosted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
patrickh wrote:
Does that mean the item being scanned is immersed in oil? Or is it the scanning lens?


Yes, it is called wet mount or fluid mount. The negative is immersed in a fluid, usually a solvent like argon fluoride. Oil is better avoided with negatives, because it is messy to remove.

The Epson V750 Pro has a fluid mount accessory which seems to improve resolution, but is not without flaws: http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20V750/page_7.htm

Cheers!

Abbazz


PostPosted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Wow, very nice photos and a great location! My favorite is the second picture.

Regards from Berlin
Stonefish
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