nyesimmons
New member
My first post - so here goes. Pardon the typos.
Have been using P45 on Phase/Mamiya 645 AF. Helicon focus sometimes works well sometimes too much artifact; definitely too much post processing time. Am in process of researching to buy Arca rm3d or Cambo wrs 1000. Cambo seems easier to use, Arca allows for fine tune of focus but at loss of spontaneity - ie go to the card and then dial in the resulting distance. And if you lose the card .... well, just don't.
I have seen a lot written and traded a few PMs with several folks on this forum and others over the past few weeks. Presets may be the answer if you can develop enough of them. Do you get there visually - get close then tweak?
Do sliding backs offer enough detail to check focus accuracy on a near/far comp, or is that just asking for errors?
For me there is a difficult to define aesthetic, a sense of wonderment, a sense of anticipation looking through the viewfinder or on the GG that I think I will miss that with straight zone focusing and a slide-on finder. So a GG solution, for composing at least, is attractive. If an image can be focused at need using tilts, so much the better.
As an old 4x5 user (well, not really old - just shall we say former) I continue to be amazed at the incredibly critical nature of focus on MF backs. And they said digital is so much easier!!
Harold Merklinger has posted an on-line calculator for tilt and DOF which might be a starting point - but, using his book, I quickly settled on visually focusing on the GG for 4x and 5x7 and never looked back. If GG focus is elusive on Arca or Cambo, it might be a useful supplement. The link is here - it leads to a page with multiple links - go to Harold Merklinger's Technical Photography Page http://www.trenholm.org/>>Scroll down to the View Camera Focus Page >> scroll down about 3/4 way to "spreadsheets" and follow the link - you get an excel spreadsheet that will calculate things for you - it will save to "neo office" for MAc users using that shareware program also. Sorry not able to insert the link for the final page itself - the only url showing was for that home page.
Any thoughts you have to share will be appreciated. Leaning towards Arca but Cambo is attractive for many reasons including ease of use and what seems to be weight as well, with loss of a few usable lenses because of mount restrictions.
thanks in advance
??:deadhorse:
Nye
Have been using P45 on Phase/Mamiya 645 AF. Helicon focus sometimes works well sometimes too much artifact; definitely too much post processing time. Am in process of researching to buy Arca rm3d or Cambo wrs 1000. Cambo seems easier to use, Arca allows for fine tune of focus but at loss of spontaneity - ie go to the card and then dial in the resulting distance. And if you lose the card .... well, just don't.
I have seen a lot written and traded a few PMs with several folks on this forum and others over the past few weeks. Presets may be the answer if you can develop enough of them. Do you get there visually - get close then tweak?
Do sliding backs offer enough detail to check focus accuracy on a near/far comp, or is that just asking for errors?
For me there is a difficult to define aesthetic, a sense of wonderment, a sense of anticipation looking through the viewfinder or on the GG that I think I will miss that with straight zone focusing and a slide-on finder. So a GG solution, for composing at least, is attractive. If an image can be focused at need using tilts, so much the better.
As an old 4x5 user (well, not really old - just shall we say former) I continue to be amazed at the incredibly critical nature of focus on MF backs. And they said digital is so much easier!!
Harold Merklinger has posted an on-line calculator for tilt and DOF which might be a starting point - but, using his book, I quickly settled on visually focusing on the GG for 4x and 5x7 and never looked back. If GG focus is elusive on Arca or Cambo, it might be a useful supplement. The link is here - it leads to a page with multiple links - go to Harold Merklinger's Technical Photography Page http://www.trenholm.org/>>Scroll down to the View Camera Focus Page >> scroll down about 3/4 way to "spreadsheets" and follow the link - you get an excel spreadsheet that will calculate things for you - it will save to "neo office" for MAc users using that shareware program also. Sorry not able to insert the link for the final page itself - the only url showing was for that home page.
Any thoughts you have to share will be appreciated. Leaning towards Arca but Cambo is attractive for many reasons including ease of use and what seems to be weight as well, with loss of a few usable lenses because of mount restrictions.
thanks in advance
??:deadhorse:
Nye