carstenw
Active member
I did a "job" today, for a friend of a friend, and ran into a couple of minor issues along the way which I would like to find some solutions for. The quotation marks around "job" mean that it was a dry-run for me, and I don't intend to demand money for it (which they don't have at the moment anyway), but I intend to do the job well, and to make it clear to them that I would be happy to hired again, with a proper contract the next time. I might still get some sort of payment, but that was of secondary importance today.
First of all, the camera was rock solid, and the lenses too. Since I removed the Sinar-Contax adapter, cleaned all the contacts, and reassembled it carefully, I think I have had just one hang (with one exception; see below). So that old problem is now solved, thankfully.
A little background: eletrical cars are making inroads into Europe, and fast, but there are almost no electrical "gas stations" yet. There are some Vattenfall stations and some RWE stations, but there are problems, and to my knowledge, neither use the now Europe-wide standard plug shape, so soon they will all need upgrades, meaning that the playing field is currently essentially even.
The friend of my friend works in the field, and got his first station with the new plug, and now he must go to the various government agencies and businesses and sell it. For this purpose, he needed a series of photos, partly of a simulated reality nature (i.e. the station by the side of the street is ready to be used) and partly of a political nature (station in front of important government building).
I resisted the temptation to bring either the Hartblei 45mm T/S or the Hasselblad 110/2, since I haven't spent enough time with the first to be familiar with the workflow and to trust it, and the second one has an adapter thickness problem.
Therefore I used just the 35/3.5, 80/2 and 120/4 Macro lenses. I really wish I had also had the 55/3.5, which on two separate occasions would have made a shot significantly easier to get, but I haven't found one yet at a reasonable price, so I had to do without. The gap from 35 to 80 is too large. I might pick up a 45 if I need to do more stuff like this.
I cannot post photos until the new year, since the station has still not been shown to the public.
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On to the issues:
- The screen was too dim and too low-res, which I already knew. I used it more or less only to check the histogram and clipping. Even for composition it wasn't good enough.
- In the middle of the day, the back filled up, and the camera refused to meter. It didn't start metering again until I had emptied the back of images, and the back itself was also acting a little flaky while full. It might have hung at one point, but given the trouble with the camera, I am not sure. I had thought that if I simply switch the destination to the CF card I could continue, but this was not the case.
- When I copied the images from internal memory to the card, I had no way to check that they arrived correctly, which was a bit nerve-wracking, given how often cards have problems. I had no laptop there, which I could have used to do this. I could have brought it, but a lighter solution would be preferable.
- My tripod was good, but the twist-thingies to open and lock it were killing my hands by the end of the day. I need to get a current Gitzo real soon.
- A ballhead is not ideal for this work. In fact, it isn't ideal for anything that I can think of. I really need to get something else, and I will likely go to Calumet and test the Manfrotto 410 with my setup, once I have the Gitzo.
- The Kata R-103 was perfect, except that it is hard to get stuff out of unless you put it on the ground... I am not sure what my choices are here, given that I don't want a shoulder bag (too hard on one shoulder with that much equipment for that length of time).
- The Contax 645 metering was sometimes iffy. I have noticed this in the past. I think I will pick up a Pentax Digital Spotmeter, which for what I do would be pretty much perfect.
---
Comments, solutions and tips welcome. I especially hope to find a more secure way of moving images around, which hopefully doesn't involve bringing my laptop.
First of all, the camera was rock solid, and the lenses too. Since I removed the Sinar-Contax adapter, cleaned all the contacts, and reassembled it carefully, I think I have had just one hang (with one exception; see below). So that old problem is now solved, thankfully.
A little background: eletrical cars are making inroads into Europe, and fast, but there are almost no electrical "gas stations" yet. There are some Vattenfall stations and some RWE stations, but there are problems, and to my knowledge, neither use the now Europe-wide standard plug shape, so soon they will all need upgrades, meaning that the playing field is currently essentially even.
The friend of my friend works in the field, and got his first station with the new plug, and now he must go to the various government agencies and businesses and sell it. For this purpose, he needed a series of photos, partly of a simulated reality nature (i.e. the station by the side of the street is ready to be used) and partly of a political nature (station in front of important government building).
I resisted the temptation to bring either the Hartblei 45mm T/S or the Hasselblad 110/2, since I haven't spent enough time with the first to be familiar with the workflow and to trust it, and the second one has an adapter thickness problem.
Therefore I used just the 35/3.5, 80/2 and 120/4 Macro lenses. I really wish I had also had the 55/3.5, which on two separate occasions would have made a shot significantly easier to get, but I haven't found one yet at a reasonable price, so I had to do without. The gap from 35 to 80 is too large. I might pick up a 45 if I need to do more stuff like this.
I cannot post photos until the new year, since the station has still not been shown to the public.
---
On to the issues:
- The screen was too dim and too low-res, which I already knew. I used it more or less only to check the histogram and clipping. Even for composition it wasn't good enough.
- In the middle of the day, the back filled up, and the camera refused to meter. It didn't start metering again until I had emptied the back of images, and the back itself was also acting a little flaky while full. It might have hung at one point, but given the trouble with the camera, I am not sure. I had thought that if I simply switch the destination to the CF card I could continue, but this was not the case.
- When I copied the images from internal memory to the card, I had no way to check that they arrived correctly, which was a bit nerve-wracking, given how often cards have problems. I had no laptop there, which I could have used to do this. I could have brought it, but a lighter solution would be preferable.
- My tripod was good, but the twist-thingies to open and lock it were killing my hands by the end of the day. I need to get a current Gitzo real soon.
- A ballhead is not ideal for this work. In fact, it isn't ideal for anything that I can think of. I really need to get something else, and I will likely go to Calumet and test the Manfrotto 410 with my setup, once I have the Gitzo.
- The Kata R-103 was perfect, except that it is hard to get stuff out of unless you put it on the ground... I am not sure what my choices are here, given that I don't want a shoulder bag (too hard on one shoulder with that much equipment for that length of time).
- The Contax 645 metering was sometimes iffy. I have noticed this in the past. I think I will pick up a Pentax Digital Spotmeter, which for what I do would be pretty much perfect.
---
Comments, solutions and tips welcome. I especially hope to find a more secure way of moving images around, which hopefully doesn't involve bringing my laptop.
With regard to the Contax metering... are you using a WLF. If so, it's not uncommon for stray light to find it's way in and mess up the metering (not a problem with the Hy6). I've not had any problems with the prism finder. Feel free to drop me a line anytime if there's anything else you have questions about.