An Alpa TC goes to Africa

[Shashin]

Woody, wow. I really enjoy your work here and in other threads.

I have a question. You were saying that determining exposure was slowing you down with more documentary work with people. Have you tried using a handheld meter with your camera to set shutter speed and aperture in these situations?

 

[Shashin]

Woody, how much of a problem did you find keeping the sensor dust free? Was this a problem when changing lenses or just dust finding its way into the camera?

 

[Shashin]

I love your A55--in a Platonic way.

 

[Woody Campbell]

Woody, wow. I really enjoy your work here and in other threads.

I have a question. You were saying that determining exposure was slowing you down with more documentary work with people. Have you tried using a handheld meter with your camera to set shutter speed and aperture in these situations?

My kit includes a handheld meter but I rarely use it. I use the "sunny 16 rule": shutter = 1/ISO at f16 in sunny daylight. So at f11 and ISO 50 the right shutter speed is 1/60. The rule has a bunch of corollaries for different lighting situations. Here's a link to Wikipediea which covers the basics. Sunny 16 rule. I grew up shooting a Leica M3 so this "rule" has actually become second nature. It's faster than using a handheld meter (and more accurate in some cases) but it still requires fiddling with the shutter, f-stop and ISO controls. It's not as fast as semi-depressing the shutter button on a Canon 5D II.

My Alpa setup requires frequent changes in ISO because the f-stop is effectively fixed at f11 and 1/60 is the minimum shutter speed. Of course changing the ISO requires going into a menu on the back.

For really tough lighting situations I use trial and error.

 

[Woody Campbell]

Woody,

Have you tried using a shorter cable. I know that my sync cable I use with my P40+ is a lot shorter than that one and doesn't catch on things or get yanked out.

My friend Lance Shad at Digital Transitions is sorting out a better cable option for me.

 

[Woody Campbell]

Woody, how much of a problem did you find keeping the sensor dust free? Was this a problem when changing lenses or just dust finding its way into the camera?

It was a minor problem. I blew off with a rocket blower every night which seemed to keep it under control. Most files required minor spotting in the skies.

 

[Woody Campbell]

I love your A55--in a Platonic way.

Lamu is an island and it has no cars. All transportation is by donkey (so there are plenty of them) or boat. Power boat rides tended to be rough and involve a fair amount of spray. I carried a small plastic shopping bag to cover the camera in these situations.

 

[Woody Campbell]

Here's a note on storage. I used Transcend 64 gb cards. Two cards were all that was needed for two weeks' shooting. When I changed cards I backed up to a Colorspace UDMA, which backs up the IQ 180 files but doesn't render them. I didn't carry a computer because of weight limitations.

On the flight back to NY I tried doing a rough edit of the files on one of the cards on the back. I deleted some of the total disasters, defying conventional wisdom to the effect that you should never delete files in the camera. Well the conventional wisdom is still correct. Part way through the process I noted that the back wasn't showing previews of some files - it showed black frames with red x's through them. Not good. I turned the back off and got some sleep.

When I got home I uploaded files from the Colorspace just fine.

Three rules were reinforced:

1. ALWAYS, I MEAN ALWAYS BACKUP. HAVE A STRATEGY WHEN YOU ARE TRAVELING TO HAVE TWO COPIES OF EVERY FILE STORED SEPARATELY.

2. NEVER DELETE FILES IN THE CAMERA.

3. THE MAIN RISK FOR CORRUPTED/LOST FILES IS OPERATOR STUPIDITY, NOT FAILURE OF A CARD. MANAGE YOUR WORKFLOW TO MINIMIZE THE RISK OF YOUR OWN MISTAKES.

It would be really helpful in dealing the many "polaroid proofs" that are generated in trial and error focus/exposure/composition if Phase would implement the color coding scheme that's available in C1 in the back's firmware.

 

[Shashin]

Woody, thanks very much for this thread. Not only for the great work, but also for the feedback on your working method and experiences. I appreciate the insights.

 

[docmoore]

Woody, wow. I really enjoy your work here and in other threads.

I have a question. You were saying that determining exposure was slowing you down with more documentary work with people. Have you tried using a handheld meter with your camera to set shutter speed and aperture in these situations?

Woody,

The VC II Meter is very fast...small and very accurate as a starting point. Do you still have it?

Bob

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I still miss my TC. Every time someone posts something about it my foot starts heading backwards and up aimed right at my butt. LOL

 

[Woody Campbell]

I still miss my TC. Every time someone posts something about it my foot starts heading backwards and up aimed right at my butt. LOL

You'd be rocking with the IQ 160.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

LOL.

I know and its killing me.

 

[rga]

Here's a note on storage. I used Transcend 64 gb cards. Two cards were all that was needed for two weeks' shooting. When I changed cards I backed up to a Colorspace UDMA, which backs up the IQ 180 files but doesn't render them. I didn't carry a computer because of weight limitations.

On the flight back to NY I tried doing a rough edit of the files on one of the cards on the back. I deleted some of the total disasters, defying conventional wisdom to the effect that you should never delete files in the camera. Well the conventional wisdom is still correct. Part way through the process I noted that the back wasn't showing previews of some files - it showed black frames with red x's through them. Not good. I turned the back off and got some sleep.

When I got home I uploaded files from the Colorspace just fine.

Three rules were reinforced:

1. ALWAYS, I MEAN ALWAYS BACKUP. HAVE A STRATEGY WHEN YOU ARE TRAVELING TO HAVE TWO COPIES OF EVERY FILE STORED SEPARATELY.

2. NEVER DELETE FILES IN THE CAMERA.

3. THE MAIN RISK FOR CORRUPTED/LOST FILES IS OPERATOR STUPIDITY, NOT FAILURE OF A CARD. MANAGE YOUR WORKFLOW TO MINIMIZE THE RISK OF YOUR OWN MISTAKES.

It would be really helpful in dealing the many "polaroid proofs" that are generated in trial and error focus/exposure/composition if Phase would implement the color coding scheme that's available in C1 in the back's firmware.

Hi Woody,
I have the colorspace UDMA also and it renders my P45+ files if I save them in camera as a TIF file rather than an IIQ file.
The TIF file saved by the back is actually a raw file and acts exactly like a raw file in C1 (and other programs). So you may want to try that if you want to see them on your Colorspace UDMA...
Best,
Bob

 

[Woody Campbell]

Woody,

The VC II Meter is very fast...small and very accurate as a starting point. Do you still have it?

Bob

Bob - indeed I do. It's the meter I was referring to. It is small and accurate. I have a number of other meters from my legacy film days including a Weston Master V (still works fine!), a Minolta Flashmeter V (don't leave home without the instruction manual) and best of all, a Zone VI modified Pentax spotmeter, which works perfectly and which I will never part with. But on this trip I took the VC II.

 

[Woody Campbell]

Hi Woody,
I have the colorspace UDMA also and it renders my P45+ files if I save them in camera as a TIF file rather than an IIQ file.
The TIF file saved by the back is actually a raw file and acts exactly like a raw file in C1 (and other programs). So you may want to try that if you want to see them on your Colorspace UDMA...
Best,
Bob

For now the IQ 180 doesn't offer a tiff option. I'm ok with with that because the backup feature on the Colorspace is more important to me than reviewing the files on it.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Woody that should be on the back to set the file ext. Don't have back in hand but I had it on the P40 for sure. With the new firmware you can also use IIQs. More compressed raw

 

[Woody Campbell]

The IQ 180 offers only IIQ S and IIQ L.

 

[Woody Campbell]

I thought that it might be of interest to post to this thread periodically with my ongoing experiences with my Alpa TC and IQ 180.

Let me know if you think this is a stupid idea.

Anyway, here's a two frame pan stitch on Union Square with the 35mm XL. Stitched and perspective corrected in PS. This worked surprisingly well. It helps to start with a lot of pixels.

 

[pipzz]

Woody, with all do respect :salute:, which IQ do you like best, from IQ180 or H4d-60? Thanks