Technical Camera Images

[mristuccia]

Maria, Königin des Friedens (Mary, Queen of Peace) - Neviges, Germany
Architect: Gottfried Böhm

(I'm posting some images here and some in the "Fun with MF images 2025" thread)


Cambo WRS-1600 | CFV-100c | SK 35 XL | 10mm lens rise

Edit: edited the name of the cathedral and added the name of the architect.

 

[cunim]

OK. I'm cheating now, right now. This was taken with a rail nonpancake semitechnical thingamie bob (as defined in the tariff thread).
Bit of a departure for me. This espresso machine weighs 50 kg and I'm alone so no way it was moving into controlled lighting. I had to shoot daylight, and where it is. I never do that. IQ4, Rodenstock 70HR @ f8. Single plane. Swung with some veritcal displacement.

 

[Whisp3r]

Looking from the inside out, and from the outside in: Kapel Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Kerselare (Chapel of Our Lady of Kerselare), designed by our very own Juliaan Lampens and built in 1963-1966, stands as a fine example of pure brutalism. Shot on Arca-Swiss RM3di, Phase One IQ4 and two lenses: the Sinaron 5.6/90 (inside-out) and the SK 60XL (outside-in).

 

[rdeloe]

We had an interesting conversation in some recent threads about the cost of entry into technical cameras.

There are many reasons why technical cameras are extremely niche. I think the major one is people don't know what they don't know; technical cameras are not an option if you don't even know they exist, you don't know what they do, or think you can do what they do using software (a very common view). However, cost is also a barrier. Some people do know what technical cameras can do, but simply can't afford them.

Around these parts people like the best of the best. The best is nice to have and use, but a lot less than the best can get the job done too, and may help to get some new people to join the technical camera niche.

For the last few weeks I've been using my MAB Camera, an inexpensive home made technical camera that takes my GFX 100S "back" and works with most of the lenses I use on my F-Universalis. It's a "back to basics" experience, which is a lot of fun. It's also very light. My MAB Camera is only 850 grams, and because it's so light I can use a much lighter tripod and head. It's been a delight to walk around with just a satchel and a light tripod, rather than a backpack and a beast of a tripod and head.

This is the extension on Hagey Hall at the University of Waterloo. Space is at a premium, so we're always attaching new buildings onto old buildings. The picture would be more authentic were it filled with students rushing around, but out of politeness they wouldn't enter this space while my camera was pointing at it.



Mamiya G 50mm f/4 lens, Fuji GFX 100S digital "back", and MAB Camera. 15mm of rise.

Full resolution version here.

 

[Rod S.]

Rob, that's a very nice image, with plenty of interesting features for the eye to wander over.

And a good demonstration of that Mamiya G 50mm lens you adapted.

 

[rdeloe]

Rob, that's a very nice image, with plenty of interesting features for the eye to wander over.

And a good demonstration of that Mamiya G 50mm lens you adapted.

Thank you Rod.

Unfortunately, it's also a good demonstration of the cost of entry problem, with a different kind of cost. My MAB Camera is not a viable solution for just about anyone else. The Mamiya 645 Auto Bellows unit I used is not common, and most people aren't interested in modifying and building their own parts. The next version I'm going to build will be much cleaner and simpler, and will involve components that are professionally manufactured. Nonetheless, there's still assembly and fitting work that requires some experience and skill. It's the same problem with that lens: way too much custom work is needed.

To tackle the cost of entry problem, I think what we need is a highly functional but low cost (and light weight, for my preference) solution that uses good quality, reasonably priced and readily available lenses and mirrorless cameras (which are the cheapest way into this game).

The toughest nut to crack is the lenses. Wide angle retrofocus lenses from the film days have moustache distortion that is a deal breaker for architecture. At the wide end, this really is a job for the Chinese lens makers! Normal and longer focal lengths are easy using what's available on the used market.

Cambo led the way already with a small and capable technical camera. I think it's still too expensive to check the "low cost of entry" box, but maybe the Actus already is the floor (leaving aside tilt-shift adapters). Still, my experience with the MAB Camera shows that functionally, even simpler designs are possible and still useful (and simpler means cheaper and lighter).

• On my MAB Camera, the only gearing is on the focus rail. Rise/fall and shift are fully manual. That's a weight and cost saving right there that does not reduce functionality.
• Both tilt and swing are very simple involving an axle in the centre of the frame. I have Arca-Swiss' micro-orbix tilt on my F-Universalis, and I can honestly say it's not better with the lenses I'm using; it's still necessary to use rise/fall/shift to correct composition with most of my lenses on my F-Universalis. Very basic axis tilt/swing using a central axle works and is cheap and easy to implement; I even managed to add axis tilt with two simple shoulder bolts on my old Toyo VX23D.
• Rise/fall/shift are limited to 15mm each on the Mamiya 645 Auto Bellows. I would have preferred 20mm, but not if it meant more weight. For context, 15mm on the long edge on GFX is like 12mm on the long edge on full frame; people are making a good living using full frame tilt-shift lenses with 12mm of shift, so only 15mm on 33mm x 44mm sensors is hardly a deal breaker.
• All movements on my MAB Camera are on the front standard. Accepted wisdom says that's a bad thing; I agree, in theory, but in practice it's never mattered. Even flat stitching using front standard shift has not produced any parallax error that I've seen. Putting all the movements on the front standard is a compromise I can live with because it allows the rear standard to be as sturdy as possible while still providing the focus movement on the rail.

If I had the skill to use the necessary software, and the time and money to work on this, I would enjoy a project focused on creating the simplest, lightest, cheapest -- yet still highly functional -- technical camera. These days, rapid prototyping outfits can build one-off projects from supplied designs.... Maybe this is a retirement project!

In the meantime, there's something deeply satisfying about being able to whip this thing out of my satchel and drop it on my tripod ready to shoot. I can even use it hand-held if it comes to that!

 

[corvus]

We had an interesting conversation in some recent threads about the cost of entry into technical cameras.

There are many reasons why technical cameras are extremely niche. I think the major one is people don't know what they don't know; technical cameras are not an option if you don't even know they exist, you don't know what they do, or think you can do what they do using software (a very common view). However, cost is also a barrier. Some people do know what technical cameras can do, but simply can't afford them.

Around these parts people like the best of the best. The best is nice to have and use, but a lot less than the best can get the job done too, and may help to get some new people to join the technical camera niche.

For the last few weeks I've been using my MAB Camera, an inexpensive home made technical camera that takes my GFX 100S "back" and works with most of the lenses I use on my F-Universalis. It's a "back to basics" experience, which is a lot of fun. It's also very light. My MAB Camera is only 850 grams, and because it's so light I can use a much lighter tripod and head. It's been a delight to walk around with just a satchel and a light tripod, rather than a backpack and a beast of a tripod and head.

This is the extension on Hagey Hall at the University of Waterloo. Space is at a premium, so we're always attaching new buildings onto old buildings. The picture would be more authentic were it filled with students rushing around, but out of politeness they wouldn't enter this space while my camera was pointing at it.

View attachment 222424

Mamiya G 50mm f/4 lens, Fuji GFX 100S digital "back", and MAB Camera. 15mm of rise.

Full resolution version here.

A very interesting project, Rob. I'm a little jealous, as I probably wouldn't be able to do it, or I don't have the time
How did you manage to maintain parallelism with your MAB camera when shifting? With that sensor and that standard adjustment, surely even the slightest misalignment would be noticeable. Did the original bellows have detents for zeroing?

 

[rdeloe]

A very interesting project, Rob. I'm a little jealous, as I probably wouldn't be able to do it, or I don't have the time
How did you manage to maintain parallelism with your MAB camera when shifting? With that sensor and that standard adjustment, surely even the slightest misalignment would be noticeable. Did the original bellows have detents for zeroing?

That's the rub, as they say...

Mamiya did not built the 645 Auto Bellows with high resolution digital sensors in mind. I'm actually astonished at how imprecise these things are.

• While detents are supplied to indicate zero for shift and rise/fall, and for tilt and swing, there is a lot of play in the detent mechanism. At best, it's a rough indicator rather than a tight lock on zero.
• Rise/fall is guided by a part that provides rails on either side of the standard, but there was a lot of play in the unmodified unit that produced unwanted wobbling.
• The shift mechanism is a terrible design that has a guide only on the rear side, and the guide isn't built in a way that allows planarity.

To make this beast usable, I had to do the following:

• Tighten the rise/fall guide rails to eliminate play. This involved careful hammer and anvil work.
• Tighten the guide on the shift mechanism to squeeze the most out of it (more careful hammer and anvil work); if I had access to someone who could laser cut steel based on the design of the original, I'd build a totally new part for this with guides on two sides.
• Replace or reinforce weaker parts with stronger ones, e.g., steel bolts instead of softer metal screws for the tilt mechanism; washers under knobs to provide greater holding power.
• The main 'fix' is those pins that you can see in the pictures. I installed pins that lock down the swing/shift mechanism and the rise/fall/tilt mechanism. When the pins are in, I know that I'm perfectly in plane and zeroed. I've added a third pin that isn't shown at my website pictures; it locks tilt alone, so I can use rise/fall and be confident that the tilt mechanism hasn't moved.

You are right that extremely small alignment errors that are invisible to the naked eye and which cannot be reliably measured result in planarity problems. I found that out the hard way! After a few false starts, I was able to identify the precise positions for the pins only through an empirical approach. In a nutshell, I squared up the camera against my Siemens Star test wall, adjusted tilt and swing until I had perfect planarity at the largest aperture, and then drilled the holes for the pins. This is the same approach I used to confirm that my F-Universalis was in plane, and to confirm that the lens I'm using was properly calibrated. In this case, I knew the lens and F-Universalis were properly calibrated because I could get excellent results at full aperture; that was my baseline. The second picture in this set is a test of rise performance. It stays in plane perfectly on rise and fall. I'm not showing shift because it goes out of plane on shift; unless I replace the guide part.


As you may have guessed, this MAB Camera is not replacing my F-Universalis! When I need planarity on shift and rise/fall, that's the tool I use. The MAB is more like my old Wista 45VX 4x5 field camera. I never expected the performance of a Sinar studio camera when I used my Wista. Rather, I expected that with every movement I had to check edges and corners. That's why the lack of planarity on shift with the MAB Camera isn't a barrier in my photography; I make the shift, check, and adjust swing if something is out.

This is the photograph that told me I had a proper camera rather than a fun but unreliable toy. This is f/4 with the Mamiya G 50/4. I'm using swing, fall and shift at f/4. Every star is in as perfect focus as is possible for this lens.

 

[cunim]

Rob, I’m in awe of the precision you achieve with bits and pieces. I am more in the “What, me worry?” school of photography but I can only get away with that in studio. I will go out and do some structures to broaden my understanding

Given what I shoot, I have always been somewhat tolerant of standards misalignment. Lens elements - now those are different. Those fail hard and (sigh) often, even on the tabletop. That inhibits my purchases of old optics.

 

[rdeloe]

Ha, you should see my car!

I actually get that Peter. If I'm shooting subjects that don't have to be parallel to the sensor, then all this fussing about planarity doesn't necessarily matter because we'll be checking the frame carefully anyway.

I don't normally photograph buildings, so lack of planarity has slipped through the cracks in the past. For instance, it took me half a year to realize that my F-Universalis had a manufacturing defect on the rear standard; I assumed my lenses were just wonky, but the clamp for the Rotafoot was actually misaligned. Arca-Swiss sorted that for me quickly, so all good. But it is possible to miss when shooting nature and landscapes.

You're absolutely right about misaligned lenses, or incorrectly spaced cells. Those are tricky to resolve, if that's possible, and the bad lens problem overlaps nicely with the misaligned camera problem, so figure out the source of the problem can be its own challenge.

 

[corvus]

That's the rub, as they say...

Mamiya did not built the 645 Auto Bellows with high resolution digital sensors in mind. I'm actually astonished at how imprecise these things are.

• While detents are supplied to indicate zero for shift and rise/fall, and for tilt and swing, there is a lot of play in the detent mechanism. At best, it's a rough indicator rather than a tight lock on zero.
• Rise/fall is guided by a part that provides rails on either side of the standard, but there was a lot of play in the unmodified unit that produced unwanted wobbling.
• The shift mechanism is a terrible design that has a guide only on the rear side, and the guide isn't built in a way that allows planarity.

To make this beast usable, I had to do the following:

• Tighten the rise/fall guide rails to eliminate play. This involved careful hammer and anvil work.
• Tighten the guide on the shift mechanism to squeeze the most out of it (more careful hammer and anvil work); if I had access to someone who could laser cut steel based on the design of the original, I'd build a totally new part for this with guides on two sides.
• Replace or reinforce weaker parts with stronger ones, e.g., steel bolts instead of softer metal screws for the tilt mechanism; washers under knobs to provide greater holding power.
• The main 'fix' is those pins that you can see in the pictures. I installed pins that lock down the swing/shift mechanism and the rise/fall/tilt mechanism. When the pins are in, I know that I'm perfectly in plane and zeroed. I've added a third pin that isn't shown at my website pictures; it locks tilt alone, so I can use rise/fall and be confident that the tilt mechanism hasn't moved.

You are right that extremely small alignment errors that are invisible to the naked eye and which cannot be reliably measured result in planarity problems. I found that out the hard way! After a few false starts, I was able to identify the precise positions for the pins only through an empirical approach. In a nutshell, I squared up the camera against my Siemens Star test wall, adjusted tilt and swing until I had perfect planarity at the largest aperture, and then drilled the holes for the pins. This is the same approach I used to confirm that my F-Universalis was in plane, and to confirm that the lens I'm using was properly calibrated. In this case, I knew the lens and F-Universalis were properly calibrated because I could get excellent results at full aperture; that was my baseline. The second picture in this set is a test of rise performance. It stays in plane perfectly on rise and fall. I'm not showing shift because it goes out of plane on shift; unless I replace the guide part.

View attachment 222431
As you may have guessed, this MAB Camera is not replacing my F-Universalis! When I need planarity on shift and rise/fall, that's the tool I use. The MAB is more like my old Wista 45VX 4x5 field camera. I never expected the performance of a Sinar studio camera when I used my Wista. Rather, I expected that with every movement I had to check edges and corners. That's why the lack of planarity on shift with the MAB Camera isn't a barrier in my photography; I make the shift, check, and adjust swing if something is out.

This is the photograph that told me I had a proper camera rather than a fun but unreliable toy. This is f/4 with the Mamiya G 50/4. I'm using swing, fall and shift at f/4. Every star is in as perfect focus as is possible for this lens.

View attachment 222433

Thank you very much for always taking the time to explain the connections in such detail!

 

[mristuccia]

Maria, Königin des Friedens (Mary, Queen of Peace) - Neviges, Germany
Architect: Gottfried Böhm

Another one from my visit to Neviges. This is a view of the interior of the cathedral.
This cathedral is very dark inside, so this is not a realistic view of it; I have used quite a long exposure.
Moreover, I should have taken some underexposed images to keep the window within the dynamic range, and do some sort of HDR composition to preserve the window area. Another lesson learned.


Cambo WRS-1600 | CFV-100c | SK Apo-Digitar 5.6/24 XL | 2mm lens rise

 

[diggles]

Last week I went backpacking in the San Juan Mountains near Ouray, Colorado and spent two nights at Columbine Lake. Known for its vivid blue waters, the lake lived up to its reputation. While there are several alpine lakes in the area, this one sees fewer visitors—mostly because the trail is steep, with over 2,500 feet of elevation gain. It was a tough hike, especially with a full pack of camping gear, food, and camera equipment. But once I made it and set up camp, the effort was absolutely worth it.

Shortly after getting rained on and hailed on the sun came out and lit the peaks around the lake– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + HR Digaron-W 40 mm


The following morning during blue hour while waiting for the sun– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + HR Digaron-W 40 mm (2 image panorama with 6mm LR Shift)


Another after moving a bit closer with light casting a warm glow– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + HR Digaron-W 40 mm


While heading up to higher ground the light hitting the alpine grass caught my attention– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + HR Digaron-W 40 mm (65x24 crop mode)


Now up higher and looking down at the lake– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + HR Digaron-W 40 mm (2 image panorama with 12mm LR Shift cropped to 16x9)


After making the above image I turned around and was greeted by some interesting light on another one of the peaks that surround the lake– Hasselblad CFV 100C + Arca Swiss Pico + Apo Digitar 72L (7x6 crop mode)


And my campsite at 12,700 feet– iphone

 

[Rod S.]

Warren, it must be satisfying to return from this adventure and be able to construct these wonderful images as reward.

How much forward tilt did you use for your prominent foregrounds in the first three images?

 

[diggles]

Warren, it must be satisfying to return from this adventure and be able to construct these wonderful images as reward.

How much forward tilt did you use for your prominent foregrounds in the first three images?

Hey, thanks Rod!

Since I knew depth of field would be an issue, I shot these at f/13, and f/16 for the first image. That first one is a combination of tilting the camera down slightly and adding just a bit of front tilt—maybe around 1°. For the others, I don’t think I used any tilt. I also like to add a couple millimeters of rise to give the foreground a bit more visual weight.

I approached it this way because I wanted to keep the midground in focus. I’ve found that when I rely solely on tilt for these kinds of shots, the midground can fall out of focus—and it’s hard to judge in the field whether that’ll be a problem or not. Sometimes it’s fine, sometimes not, and I can’t always tell until I’m back at the computer.

I felt like I could get away with this approach here because there aren’t any trees in the frame. I really don’t like the look of trees splaying out, which can happen when you tilt the camera down too much with a wide-angle lens.

 

[SrMphoto]

Pulgas Water Temple.

Very popular for photoshoots in the Bay Area. Removed two photographers, their equipment, and some visitors walking around.

IQ4 150, Alpa STC12, Rodenstock 40mm.

P.S.: The image looks better when seen in HDR mode.

 

[John Leathwick]

A sunrise image from Lake Matheson in South Westland, NZ, with our two highest mountains Mount Tasman (left) and Aoraki (right) on the skyline. A flat-stitched panorama taken with GFX 100s/F-Universalis/S-K Apo-Symmar 120mm with +/- 10mm of lateral rear shift.

-John

 

[Paul Spinnler]

Let's be honest - the SK APO Symmar lenses are, on 4x5 and on digital, fantastic value!

 

[John Leathwick]

Let's be honest - the SK APO Symmar lenses are, on 4x5 and on digital, fantastic value!

Agree - I've remounted mine into an S-K B-0 aperture-only shutter, which I mount (along with other lenses) into an M39 board via a copal-0 to M39 adapter. It weighs just 145gm with caps, so is a fantastic option for carrying in country like this.

-John

 

[Paul Spinnler]

I think an SK lens with AU is close to perfection. Optically their design is already extremely efficient, with lage IC and excellent sharpness. Aperture Unit shutters are indestructible so a set of small SKs with AUs is like perfection with longevity.