jeudi 19 octobre 2006

NOTE: Various pages have been deleted... As part of an ongoing overhaul of around 200 pages/articles on this weblog, various pages have been deleted and will probably appear at a later date in a modified form. I should have copied this "note" to every page deleted but only thought to do that afterwards... by which time you cannot go back to edit a deleted page! Some searchers from Google are going to have a frustrating time too. However, the first 50 original articles and image/s can still be accessed as Ed Buziak's Photos + Artwork #1 e-book from Lulu.com for just a few dollars... it has 148 pages, around 40,000 words and 133 images... enjoy it. Cameras I've clicked with... Pentax 6x7... part 5 Pentax Spotmeters for the Zone System... I'm jumping ahead by one article in this review of recollections of the Pentax 67 system... but there are two important non-camera Pentax products which cater for their 6x7 as well as the 35mm and 6x4,5 cms film formats, namely exposure meters and enlarging lenses. The two Pentax Spotmeters "Digital" and "V" are very accurate instruments measuring an acute 1 degree area of the field of view. The newer Digital model (linked here on to Todd Schoenbaum's excellent page) is so named because it's read-out is by LEDs (Light Emiting Diodes) for quick and accurate readability under any lighting conditions. The older and now discontinued model "V" was a firm favourite with practioners of the Zone System (then here, here and here) because being analogue, with a moving needle against a scale, it is clearer to see differences in exposure against various subject tones by moving the meter across them and noting the variation in the needle's deviation from the null point in EV (Exposure Value) steps. Supplementary stick-on scales are still available for both meters from the late Fred Picker's Zone VI Studios (no website but obtainable through large-format camera maker Ron Wisner) in Newfane, Vermont, USA. However, there used to be a service from Zone VI Studios that modified the meter by installing better photo-electric cells; step-down baffles to eliminate flare; a 15-layer broad-spectrum (ultra-black) infra-red absorbent coating to eliminate reflections (which cost $455 for a 2 inch square of the material!); four corrective filters to match the meter's spectral response to that of film; and calibration to 1/6th of stop accuracy. There was heated discussion in the defunct American "Camera & Darkroom" magazine between the late Fred Picker, Dr. Paul Horowitz - the designer of the meter - and noted photo writer Ctein, culminating in the March 1994 issue, about the meter's accuracy and the advertising claims made for it. Whatever, it worked very well for those using Zone System principles of exposure correctly, although the meter rather expensive when modified. I sold my version on eBay a few years ago (pictures above), the only visible "modified" difference being two stickers on the gadget. Pentax Under the Enlarger... For those (still) printing their own black-and-white images in a traditional wet darkroom there are some very underrated enlarging lenses circulating on eBay and in dealer's second-hand stocks bearing the name "Durst Neonon." They were made years ago, under license by Pentax, and are regularly seen in 50mm, 80mm and 105mm focal lengths for 35mm, 6x6cms and 6x7cms formats respectively. They can usually be found at much lower prices than equivalent enlarging lenses from Nikon, Schneider and Rodenstock... and from my past usage are their equal for most work critical work. Extraordinary Pentax Lens... A recent, and perhaps the only, detailed user-review published appeared last week on the luminous-landscape site written and illustrated by Michael Thompson, describing the extraordinary Pentax-M* 800mm ED (IF) lens and it's dedicated x1.4 Extender he uses for candid photography! This monster weighs 6.5 kilos (or 14.5 lbs in old money) and needs a tripod of somewhere around the same weight probably... so it's a fascinating read. Bird Watching and Star Gazing... If you want to use the same source of glass for birdwatching, for example, Pentax binoculars will fit the bill... or for a subject much further away there was at least one size, possibly more, of Pentax telescopes available for the Japanese home market. And if you are working close-up on a light-box examining your trasparencies and negatives then a Pentax loupe will do nicely. Part 1 of Pentax 67 System is the system compatibility. Part 2 of Pentax 67 System is a comparison with Hasselblad. Part 3a of Pentax 67 System is the 120mm Soft Focus lens. Part 3b of Pentax 67 System is the 35mm Fisheye lens. Part 4 of Pentax 67 System is being written. 4:06:43 PM    comment []