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RZ67Pro11D

PeterA

Well-known member
Some snaps from the weekend - my first chance to start playing with the RZ and Phase45+. I bought the system and added a few things as an experiment to see how I liked a wist level finder and to see how a big heavy body with big old fashioned 'studio' ?? glass felt like to use.

Some observations - I dont know what you guys think but to my eye the results are very film like ( or what I think is film like). The lenses are very good but lack the sharp bite of the 645 lenses I am used or Leica stuff.

Like most, I have gradually climbed the experience curve starting from SLR and then rangefinder and then on to DSLR and MFD - I think the WLF in this system is FANTASTIC - big and BRIGHT allowing for easy relaxed composition. The rotating back is a real plus - something I thought I wold never have use for. i am looking forward to making people shots with this - as holding the camera whilst casually talking - is very easy. You get a different type of shot using this method - something new for me.

All this stuff was shot with ISO 50 or 100 and hand held - I am still waiting for clamps and Arca Swiss Cube for tripod use. I dont know if the camera's speed settings were accurate as I think that the battery was flat:ROTFL: how is that for knowing nothing about the system yet! :LOL:

Anyway here are some shots from around the farm - it is Spring here now and I am starting to get some nice light to play with. I used the 75 and 50 for these.

The lenses are sharp enough at plane of focus whilst delivering a lovely film like out of focus in the distance - as you can see from some landscape and close ups of weeds and I post a person to shot to show the nice rendition of the 50.

This is a very nice camera system - of course it would be even better with a chip that allowed full use of the BIG lenses LOL - the viewfinder is addictive.
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Jack - I just noticed your post in other thread. Let me play with this for a while - still yet to try the tilt shift gizmo I bought from you or either of teh short barrel lenses that go with it! LOL Will let you know - in the meantime it is being very well looked after and treated with kid gloves!
 

David K

Workshop Member
Hi Peter,
Good to see you shooting with that kit and glad you are enjoying that big, bright WLF and rotating back as much as I did. That portrait with the 50 is fantastic and sure looks like film to me. I think when you get set up with your tripod and head you will start to appreciate the bellows focusing as well. I found hand held shooting with this kit to be challenging although my shooting buddy used his this way almost exclusively.
 

dougpeterson

Workshop Member
Jack - I just noticed your post in other thread. Let me play with this for a while - still yet to try the tilt shift gizmo I bought from you or either of teh short barrel lenses that go with it! LOL Will let you know - in the meantime it is being very well looked after and treated with kid gloves!
Don't forget that the other (non short barrel) lenses should work with the Tilt Shift adapter; you just loose infinity focus. In fact, if you throw on one of the already-macro lenses then the de-facto-macro-extension given by the Tilt-Shift adapter will give you some wicked reproduction ratios. Go shoot the left eye of a fly :); just don't expect the depth of field to cover more than a sliver of a fragment of a small portion of it.

Glad to see your already getting some good results. These systems always have a learning curve, so if you're already becoming comfortable I think that bodes extremely well for a few weeks from now when you can stop thinking about the mechanics and start focusing on the images.

Too bad the kit didn't arrive in time for RiverFire (a Brisbane fireworks celebration). I would have loved to have had a WLF kit with a Tilt-Shift adapter for the fireworks when I was there in '06. I'm thinking a tilt to place the top of the fireworks in focus but the buildings out of focus.


More photos from RiverFire

O, and if the bite of the RZ glass isn't cutting it for you be sure you're shooting in the f11ish area of the lens. Also consider slightly increasing the default radius of sharpening in Capture One. Not sure it will give you what you're looking for (lens renderings being so subjective), but it's worth a shot. For some reason, maybe the dreary feeling in some of those shots, I think you would also like the look for shooting at ISO 200 or 400 with luminance noise reduction turned off (keep color noise reduction, at 35-50). When printed large that will leave you with a grain that will affect the feel out of focus area (I wouldn't say improve, since again that's subjective). "Film" in this case being free, it's probably worth shooting both once or twice to see how you like the look.

Doug Peterson, Head of Technical Services
Capture Integration, Phase One Dealer
Personal Portfolio
 

PeterA

Well-known member
Doug - thanls for chipping in. As a mater of fact I am waiting for the final working version of Capture One to be released - before I start usng it..it is a very different workflow for me ..and I have just gotten over teh learning to use Phocus with my blad system to add to complications.

hahahah @ dreary feeling re shots..you are looking at a couple of layers via PS including SilverFX pro in there..they say you shoot how you feel ..and it has been a dark and dismal year for me ( so far)..I will of course email you when I get Capture One loaded- n teh meantime one of the greatthings about Phase is that LR automatically takes in DNG ( unlike Haselblad).

Regarding lens sharpness- I havent used it enough to say ..although for my purposes the lenses are plenty sharp. I actually dislike modern optics for being too sharp most of the time.

David - I love the bellows focusing - much less mucking around and so intuative when looking down a viewfinder. Must read a manual to see how electrics and metering work..

Pete
 
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