Leaf Q's for repro work

[Ben Rubinstein]

Marc, the Aptus II-7, 40 megapixels, has a base iso of 80.

Shooting a full spread in one go only works if you can lay the book down flat, we can't, the books fall apart if you do that so we have to shoot page by page anyway.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

They probably thought a cable hanging off a camera in a studio was a pain in the neck, which it is. Even for repro work. I am sorry your experience with the EyeFi has been so poor. From the demos I have seen with it in a 645D, the transfer rate is not much slower than a cable.

It was just a suggestion. Peace.

Hi,

If they didn't want to provide a cable tethering solution then that would be one thing but they didn't provide any tethering solution at all such as a wifi transmitter, etc. It's cut them out of practically the entire studio/fashion industry who are the majority of pro MFDB users. Just strange as although the main market for it is landscape shooters, it wouldn't have cost much to net another large market.

The problem with eyefi although I've never used it and I'm hoping some of the other pros here will chime in on this one, it's a workaround. I've spent too much money and endured too much fustration to consider workarounds as a pro solution anymore as a photographer. It's why I told them in the meeting last night that my suggestions for equipment choices are not what is the coolest, most modern or slickest but the tools that I would like to use day in day out without tearing my hair out. It's why I'm looking at the Mayer book cradle rather than the Atiz, why we are looking at Profoto for lighting and not Einsteins, why the computer will be a mac and not a homebuild PC. When you are working with gear you don't want to have to think about it, it should switch on and work, every single time over the course of years.

Does that make any sense?

 

[Shashin]

Ben, I understand. However, it seems the biggest hurdle my be your clients. If they are worried that a 10% difference in resolving power is going to be a problem, you may have your work cutout (that is the difference between 33MP and 40MP). Sometimes the hardest part of photography is the people you work for--you sometime wonder, since they know so much about it, why they don't do it themselves.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

I get the feeling that they don't mind paying the resolution difference but I don't know how far I can push it, the most fustrating thing about this whole exercise is that I've never been given more than a hint of the actual working budget, everytime I say it might go over what I had imagined was the budget they tell me not to worry but I don't know where the cuttoff point is where I lose the job to an outside consultant. Fustrating.

 

[BobDavid]

Hasselblad CF39-MS and a pancake cam with a 72mm Apo Digitar is a great combo. I am selling my pancake cam. It's in the "Gear FS or WTB" section in the getdpi forum. Just do a search for fine art reproduction and my pancake cam will come up. I will consider selling the rig for $2750. And, I will sell my Hasselblad CF39-MS for $11,800. All and all, this is a terrific set and will give you astonishing quality.

 

[BobDavid]

I can suggest a wonderful and accurate copystand system for under $1K that will give you macro capailities and has an 8.5' column. Give me a shout if you want to hear more.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Bob, PM sent, thanks!

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Just a quick update, presented the data, they had a meeting on the subject yesterday and the project is approved in theory pending funding. I had assumed they had the funding already but they wanted figures so that they could start the funding with a specific figure in mind.

Rather fustrating for me personally but what can we do, I wait again...

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

UPDATE!

The project is a go!

I have to get a final quote for approval and then we go to ordering. 40 megapixel back with a DF camera (they want fast work so I'm going AF to speed things up). A Meyer Traveller book stand, a Kaiser RSX book stand for flat copy and Kaiser continuous lighting banks.

Still not 100% sure on the lens selection yet as I only decided today to go with the DF as they're pushing hard on the speed issue (mistakenly in my opinion, better slow and perfect than fast and less precise). Probably a 55LS, 80LS and 120mm Macro as I need at least one lens with macro capability for all that I'll lose AF. I just have to work out a budget for what is a huge leap in lens prices over the RZ system I was considering.

 

[archivue]

for the repro stand, i've converted a polaroid MP4 STAND... bought for 50 bucks...
Rigid, well built !

I've used D1, but i ad pyrex domes -600... to color temp. was way too cool without it !

maybe an Arca RM2D or Alpa STC could be the good option with a schneider 72 or rodenstock 70... i'm using rodenstock 55 and 90.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Orders have already gone out, the Mayer Traveller, especially the custom design we've ordered will take till mid January so most of the stuff won't be ordered until about a month before then. Exception is the 24TB of drives which we've ordered now to try and beat the price hikes due to most of the HD factories being under water in Thailand.

 

[mediumcool]

What file format? Saving proprietory RAWs uses up a huge amount of storage space and to be honest, is not hugely [emphasis mine] archival.

Honesty aside, why not? Ones and zeros are used in all file formats. And storage is getting cheaper all the time.

Tiffs are 4 times the size.

With or without compression, Ben? If you look at the history of the Tagged Image File Format, it was designed for pre-press use where maintaining maximum quality was the goal (TIFF was developed by Aldus, a company later inhaled by Adobe Systems). Lossless compression by LZW or other means makes for smaller file sizes with zero loss of pixel information (some folk, such as me, were not enthralled when Adobe introduced JPEG compression to the TIFF specification—not in the spirit!)

Jpgs are small, small enough to be able to use cloud backup as secondry backup and to be honest with files which are mainly black text on white pages should not have a lack of information if they are the final result of proper processing, they are just text, they will not ever need further processing. However they are jpgs!

Hmmm; a lot of old works have stains, patina, wear etc. that would be lost if contrast and sharpening were to make them “black text on white pages”. Mosquito noise can still loom on contrasty edges if compression is too great.

One of the museums here has taken a radical approach of using jpgs as a file format for long term storage, what would your opinion be?

Radical? Expediency over quality is my guess.

JPEG is a delivery format; it is lossy and not ideal for storage as a master. The main justification for keeping RAW files is that they are true originals; anything rendered out, whether it be TIFF, PSD, PNG or [erk] JPEG is an interpretation of the unbiased original.

I think a viable option is to employ PSD, Photoshop’s native format; it has non-lossy compression and is optimised for use with Photoshop for fast opening and saving. But there is still the interpretation scenario to consider. RAWs can often be compressed further by using ZIP or other technologies.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Hi,

We're sticking to RAW's for archival at present,

Thanks!