[PRCo] Re: Film tricks

[Fred W. Schneider III]

I don't know why were are discussing this on the address list but maybe
we should continue because it will be good training for the others.  Ken
will no doubt find the comments interesting.  Ed will understand.  Some
of the others might get something of value to them. 

I'm in absolute agreement with you.  Not partly.  Not trying to make you
feel good.  But 100% agreement that you need to know manual camera
artistry before you can work properly with an automatic.  And that isn't
simply because I learned that way.  I've watched my dad teaching a woman
how to use a Canon automatic camera.  He simply turned her to turn the
automatic features off, and don't turn them back on until we are
finished.  It worked.   

I agree that everyone should learn in manual mode.  You don't know what
you are doing if you cannot use it manually.  You cannot even understand
subject failure if you don't first know how to do it correctly in manual
mode.  You need to understand all the tricks such as gray cards, how
your skin tone compares to a gray card.  You need to know when the
automatic mode isn't working. I would postulate that, if you can get 95
percent of your exposures on the money with a manual camera and no
exposure meter, then you are ready for an automatic.  But most people
simply do not treat it that way.  Automatic is great because it gets
close to 100% return on color negative films with amatuers;
professionals like it because it thinks faster than they do.  If I want
to go completely manual, I can pull out one of the two Nikkormatts, one
of two Mamiya reflexes, a Yashika 6x6 reflex, or the Hassalblad.  I
learned on a folding 35mm Baldina, several 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 plate cameras,
a 6x6 Minolta Autocord, and a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Speed Graphic, none of which
had the luxury of thrystor controlled flash guns, auto focus, auto
exposure, auto nose wipe. And if I want to get as manual as you can get,
the 4x5 view camera sits in a box not six inches from my feet.  But if
I'm too lazy for 6x6 cm cameras any more, there is no way the view
camera is coming out of its crate.  

But I've been surprised at how reliable the matrix metering works on a
Nikon M90, and I'm told the F series is even better.  I had the camera
for months before I had taken enough film to instinctively understand
when I had to take over for the automatic exposure system.  Of course,
if you photograph a white sign or a snow bank, it will try to convert it
to gray.  And if you let a black engine fill the entire  frame, it will
also try to convert it to 18% reflectance gray.  It doesn't understand
back lighting.  But for most pictures, indoor or out, cloudy or sunny,
it automatically gets within a third of stop. 

I've also got a flock of lenses that will not work automatically.  For
example, the Perspective Control 28 mm and 35 mm lenses are strictly
manual ... they don't couple to any metering system PERIOD.  The 28mm PC
was built so long ago that, when I bought it, it came from Nikon with
instructions that excluded every camera built in the last ten years. 
I'm got a bunch of fixed focus non AE lenses from the old days ... 28mm,
105, 135 ... they sit unused.  

I've learned to like Nikon's 24 to 120 mm zoom lens.  Expensive as sin
but almost as sharp as a fixed focus lens throughout the focus range. 
And surprisingly sharp wide open.  I've been using it for 95 percent of
what I've taken in the last two or three years.  The 70 - 300 zoom gets
used for maybe ten to twenty frames a month.  The PC lenses come next. 
And I might have had a 50 mm lens on the camera once or twice in the
last year.  (That ignores the fact that there is one Nikkormatt on a
copy stand in the basement to which is attached a macro lens.  I used it
for two to five rolls of film a year.) 

If you want a testimonial to Nikons 24 - 120 zoom beside me, see Ed
Lybarger.  I understand some of the other camera manufacturers (or
perhaps more honestly, brand names) are also introducing lenses in that
same 24 - 120 range.  It also fits nicely on one of the larger format
digital cameras being built, making it effectively more like a 35 to 180
zoom.    

Bob Rathke wrote:
> 
> Fred,
> 
> I use Nikon equipment, but I wouldn't own a camera that was so automated
> that it has automatic rewind :-).  All of my lenses are manual, and
> fortunately you can always find more Nikkor lenses on the used market at
> good prices.  When my daughter enrolled in photography classes at college in
> 1994, they would only approve students' use of fully manual cameras.  And
> right now I'm helping a neighbor learn how to use his super-expensive Canon
> camera in the manual mode.
> 
> Bob 10/18/01
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fred W. Schneider III" <fschnei at supernet.com>
> To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
> Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 6:24 PM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Film tricks
> 
> >
> > You primitive being.  I'm not so lucky.  The motorized rewind on my
> > Nikon simply winds it back into the cassette.
> >
> > Bob Rathke wrote:
> > >
> > > I don't usually perform the tight-wound-take-up trick, but when I think
> of
> > > it, I try to watch the rewind knob to be sure it's turning.  However, I
> > > sometimes switch film among cameras, especially if it's a 36-exposure
> roll
> > > of special film with only a few exposures on it, and I need to put a
> > > different roll of film in that camera.  I note the exposure number on
> the
> > > counter, then rewind the film until I hear the leader slip off the
> take-up
> > > reel; when I reload that roll later, I advance it to the exposure number
> > > where it was last exposed, and then give it 2-3 extra advances to be
> safe
> > > (this is all done in a dark area, lens cap on, and shutter set at 1/1000
> > > second).  However, if the roll of film is near the end of the reel, I'll
> > > simply rewind it, forget about the lost exposures, and get it processed.
> > >
> > > For most B&W exposures, unaided I can't differentiate among similar
> > > negatives of the same view, so I use an 8X loupe for that chore.
> > >
> > > Bob 10/18/01