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Can MF take the heat

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Okay this has two meanings and reality is this it was hotter than a baking oven last night 119 air temp and working on asphalt. This morning a pleasant 109 but the real heat is speed. Can the MF take hard fast paced work under a situation that is one of a emergency style. No time to stop , no time to reload and if it fails your history. Situation dirty bomb goes off emergency team to rescue than as you see some of the image here in real time . This is a mockup situation but when the whistle starts you gotta go and better hope everything can keep up. I am shooting a Old AFD Mamiya which is a piece of garbage but is a loaner until the new Mamiya/Phase One body comes hopefully soon. So this thing is slow. Now the P25 Plus is 1.5 second back, and it is truly hot as hell here . The back did become warm but not hot to the touch. Given the temp and as rapid fire as i could it did very well. As far as the camera there were a couple times i was ready and it was not. I don't expect this very often with jobs but if you have a serious need to shoot than maybe a faster back is better. Even the P30 plus at 1.25 seconds sounds not much faster but reality it is. Something to think about . I know the P21 is .8 seconds and some of the other backs are pretty quick also.

But the good news it never failed even one shot and this was a pressure cooker with hard light and blazing heat. I used a SB 800 and put the camera on TV mode. Set the shutter at 125 th and pretty much shot the flash on manual outside than flipped camera to manual inside and flash to A mode on flash. 2 seconds to switch things around and went very smooth.

i know someone will ask too much for a PR gig. BS i say i worked for this client for many years they make house size prints from my stuff. Tis is what led to MF. Besides the files will knock them out and at the end of the day you still need to impress your clients. Hopefully after 800 images it will have some that do. LOL

Here is just some random takes but under cooker pressure moments
 

Dale Allyn

New member
Some real "pop" to some of these, Guy. And the "victims" look pretty happy for being all beat up. :)

I'm not sure that if I were covering such an episode that I'd reach for the MF gear over DSLR (for PJ type of coverage), but it's cool to see how you covered it. Also, it's good to know how the back handled the heat and rapid-fire usage.
 

robsteve

Subscriber
The blues are a bit over the top. Are you using the JH profiles to boost this? If you are, you may want to see if he can suggest a set of profiles for use with you back.

Robert
 

LJL

New member
Neat stuff, Guy. I am with Dale in thinking that the MF would not have been my first choice to cover things PJ style, but as you mention, this is as much a commercial type shoot where the client may be getting lots of mileage from the images, so bigger is better, even if a bit harder to get.

Looks like it handled things for you. I was thinking the same thing that Robert mentioned about the blues, and was wondering if that was your C1 default still being on "flash"? I do not think it bad, but it does have a bit cooler tone to it. Hey, maybe that is what you needed to keep yourself from getting overdone in that frying pan, so ignore this as a critique ;-)

Glad to see you pressing this into this kind of use. This is more along the lines of what I have been thinking about myself, so it is good to see it working for you. Thanks for sharing.

LJ
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I did not WB , did these very quick since i was exhausted from the heat. I have 800 images to process so was not into yet . Will start tomorrow
 

LJL

New member
Guy,
Not a problem. At least you have an idea what to think about for the fixes ;-)

I do not envy your task on this. Regardless of how streamlined one's workflow is, that is a bunch of images to sort through and process the keepers. I shot a couple of things entirely with my 1DsMkII and had to deal with about the same number of those files. The MF files are even bigger, so you are going to get your money's worth from your computer horsepower for sure.

Camp out in the A/C tomorrow and feel good about your work. I am sure you have a whole bunch of things that the client will love.

LJ
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks LJ . Yea what i did was add today's to yesterday and normally my workflow I WB everything as I go than if I need to WB several more times I do that to all also. This keeps me moving fast. But i process as i go and the finals are correct. i try to avoid PS as much as i can. I might even have to desaturate some of these. This is most likely the worst it get's with this sun here, so the DR on MF is HUGE for me in these kinds situations. Another reason i went MF was the DR. The M8 at one time I had the 35 cron and it was also too much so I start buying a little lower contrast lenses to make up for this. With the MF i can really push things around a lot better. Yes this really is not a MF job per say and at times a D3 would have been better no question but I am trying to see how far i can go without relying on a DSLR. I honestly would rather not have one. So for me this was another good test of what these things can and cannot do . Nothing better than real work to show folks these kinds of decisions and the work you do sometimes. Gives everyone a better picture of what it will do for them or what it won't do.
 

BradleyGibson

New member
Very cool. Very impressed with the realism of the exercise. Great job shooting in the thick of it as well.

Thanks for sharing!
-Brad
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks Brad. I did this one over and it looks just about perfect . Just knocked down the saturation a touch did the WB . One thing I noticed that is screwing me up . Is I have my blown highlights warning set at 250 and I keep trying to bring that down but it is 5 points off and i am not realizing it so i have been a little heavy with the highlight control , so i made the warning 255 that way i know exactly if I am blowing better in the highlights. I am simple over compensating and no need. I went with easy grey here also. Got to find your happy spot
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Looking at these now they can't embarrass me anymore . These thing can be truck size. I dare them to go big now. LOL
 

fotografz

Well-known member
God Love Ya Guy ... this is real world stuff where the rubber meets the road.

I shot a high end wedding yesterday, and on the way there it was a monsoon rainstorm where half the cars pulled off the road but we didn't have the luxury ... the shoot was in an old church with no air conditioning, with humidity so bad that the viewfinder fogged up just putting the camera to your eye. 8 exhausting hours of non-stop shooting with the H3D-II and Nikon D3. You're a wiped out noodle by day's end.

Pro work means you deliver ... literally ... come Hell (in your case), or High Water (in my case.)

Rapid shooting may be the domain of the DSLR, but as you say ... the repurposing of images these days can have a file used on the internet one day and as display prints the size of a barn-side the next ... with close viewing distances in some cases.

While I'm not about to abandon use of the D3, the H3D-II is proving that the over-all performance is getting closer ... the H3D-II/31 is a 1.2 sec capture ... and in the "caves" I shoot in the flash recycle is not much faster anyway.

Good job for your client Guy :thumbs:
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks Marc and this is what I am finding out it can get it done maybe not as eloquent as using a DSLR but the gap is closing. Ultimately if you have to have that speed in shooting the DSLR still rules but even the P21 and several others that are .8 closes the gap even more. Fun times that is for sure.
 

LJL

New member
Looks fine to me , thanks
Guy,
Not wanting to butt into this, but I think Billy's suggestion is a good one. It does change the ambiance of the setting, taking away some of that overall brightness, but it also brings a deeper level of "richness" to the entire image. Yes, it is essentially compressing the DR a bit to enhance contrast, but it will take the dark blues to a deeper navy blue color, and take that baked black asphalt to a deeper black. Your images look great as is, with tons of detail.

I do not see anything bad with what you have, BTW, but I also see where Billy is coming from for a deeper look.

LJ
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Playing around with them all now , made a slight adjustment in C1. See how it goes. Trying to find my happy spots in C1 . Interesting the blue shirts are of all different colors. Thanks guys help is always wanted to figure out a new software camera combo
 

LJL

New member
Marc,
I echo your comments about getting the work done. It ain't always pleasant or easy, but it really is great to get those shots. The repurposing looks to be a bigger trend than most of us want to think about. I just got another one of those "let's turn this into a billboard sized image" thought from a client. That is great that they love the imagery that much, but it is scary if you know the image may not hold up. Your comment about closer inspection on the larger prints is too real. Used to be that big prints did make folks stand back (at more appropriate viewing distances) to appreciate the entire scene. Now, the details actually wind up drawing them in closer to look at things.

Do not envy your last gig, but then down here in the swamp, that is closer to normal shooting, but all of the indoor stuff is heavily air conditioned. Worst thing is working inside like that and then running to the steps of the church outside for some shots.....fog city takes over on every piece of gear.

Well, I may get both of your extremes again today.....100 temps interrupted with a 2-3" downpour, but the shots are still expected. So when do you guys think some of this MF gear will start to get the same sort of weather sealing that pro DSLRs have today? This could be important for some of us...

LJ
 
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