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The Definitive Sony B&W Images Thread

A

Audii-Dudii

Active member
Re: Atomic Blonde

scho said:
What aperture did you use with this setup and any tilt applied? Nice depth of focus in this scene. I've been using an old MF Pentax-A 35mm on the Actus with an A7r on back. Plenty of room for shifts and tilt and very sharp.
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Because the aperture is controlled by the Fotodiox Cinepro adapter, which has click-stops but no markings and is a bit sloppy mechanically, it's difficult to determine exactly what aperture is being used at any give time. That said, I typically photograph between f5.6 and f9 and my best guess is that this was taken at either f8 or f9, but I'm not absolutely certain which it was. There was no intentional tilt applied, but with the Actus -- or at least my copy! -- there is always a tiny bit of unintentional tilt being applied. <shrugs>

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I'm also quite good at focusing at just the right point to maximize DoF ahead of and behind the focus point and doing so while using a high-res 7" external monitor certainly helps, too!

Speaking of DoF, a little bit of front downward tilt can do wonders, as you yourself probably know already. Take this photo, for example:



The aperture is f8 and there is approx. .4 degrees of front downward tilt applied. I can enlarge the full-size .tif file enough to read the writing on the No Parking sign nearly 200 feet away!

I haven't tried any of the medium-format Pentax lenses, but have heard good things about many of them. Personally, I have a half-dozen Contax 645 lenses, plus another three lenses that have been adapted to the Contax 645 mount, but they are large and heavy and awkward to use for my night photography with their slow apertures, as well as the clumsy procedure necessary to change it.

On the other hand, I borrowed a friend's K-1 body and Zeiss ZK 35/f2 lens yesterday and was quite surprised to learn today that the lens projects an image circle large enough to provide 8-10 mm of rise / fall / shift movements with my A7R. I bought a lens adapter this morning from Amazon so I can try it on my Actus -- same-day delivery from a distribution facility that's 300+ miles away is amazing thing, eh? -- and hope to head out with it later tonight and see how it fares. My friend has four more Zeiss ZK lenses I can borrow, plus two or three Pentax FA limited lenses, so I will soon have a better idea as to which ones will work on an Actus and which ones won't ... stay tuned!

Although I have been pleased with the three Sigma Art lenses I've been using exclusively for the past six months, I'm a life-long Zeiss fan and if other of their ZK and ZF/ZF.2 lenses also allow for rise / fall / shift movements, I can easily see myself making the switch back to Zeiss glass ... we'll see, eh?
 
scho

scho

Well-known member
Ithaca's first fire bell. A6000M 16-50 B+W orange filter



Historic building in Cascadilla Creek neighborhood. (Neutral/warm split tone)



Cat nap on a front porch.

 
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Bugleone

Bugleone

Well-known member
Audi-dudi,....You images continue to fascinate me, for several reasons......

In that last image/post you mention using a little front tilt...... However, if you used front swing, to the right to bisect the angle between sensor and walls, you would throw the plane of focus along those walls perfectly and have unlimited DOF for the image.

(ex technical photographer here still missing MPP 5x4)
 
A

Audii-Dudii

Active member
Bugleone said:
Audi-dudi,....You images continue to fascinate me, for several reasons......

In that last image/post you mention using a little front tilt...... However, if you used front swing, to the right to bisect the angle between sensor and walls, you would throw the plane of focus along those walls perfectly and have unlimited DOF for the image.

(ex technical photographer here still missing MPP 5x4)
Click to expand...
Yes, that's definitely true. So you know, I photographed with several view cameras (Toyo 23G, 45G, 810G, Galvin 2x3 and 4x5, etc.) almost exclusively for nearly 15 years prior to buying my first digital camera in 2006, so I am quite familiar with the use of movements generally and also combined movements.

But what I didn't say is that this photo was taken using my modified Cambo WDS, which has no provision for either tilt or swing movements, only rise / fall / shift movements, and not my Cambo Actus. Although it's not quite as convenient to use, one big advantage of the WDS over the Actus is that the front and rear standards are rigidly locked together, so there is no possibility of unintentionally applying small amounts of tilt and swing movements on the front standard. This has been a bit of a problem for me with my Actus, despite having tightened the movement mechanisms so they require more effort to use, plus getting the front and rear standards perfectly zero'd with respect to each other is a bit tricky, too.

But sometimes I need more than just DoF, so I've been experimenting with adding a small, but fixed amount of tilt to the WDS by placing thin shims (.024") under the top of the A7R mounting panel on the back of the camera and leaving them there, on the theory that most of the photos I take will either benefit from a small amount of tilt or at least not be harmed too much by it. According to my math, this works out to .34 degrees of downward front tilt and having now used it this way for the past month, this appears to be a good compromise between using no tilt and having too much tilt for some photos. Unfortunately, it requires some fiddling in practice, because I have to then transfer the rear tilt to the front standard by leveling the camera off the rear lens panel instead of the body itself.

Assuming I choose to keep the WDS -- I'm leaning toward buying a used WRS-400, which is both smaller and lighter than the WDS and Actus -- I'll likely remake the camera mounting panel to include the rotating camera mount assembly from the Actus-GFX, which is available separately for $219. And while I'm at it, I'll also remake the lens mount panel as well and incorporate a provision for applying small amounts of downward front tilt via a finely threaded screw mounted at the top / center of it.

So, Yes, you're correct -- and thanks for offering the advice, btw! -- but for the type of photography I typically do, DoF covers me most of the time and based upon my recent experiments, I think a small amount of front tilt will cover me for most of the rest and swing is a luxury I can live without. Really, all I need most of the time are small amouints of rise and fall to correct perspective distortion and/or fine-tune my compositions, as well as a few millimeters of shift on those occasions when I'm unable to reposition my tripod or need to eliminate the camera's reflection in a window. As such, a technical camera, rather than a view camera, is the the best solution for me these days.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words about my photos. As I joke with my friends, tinkering with cameras is my daytime hobby and photographing with them is my nighttime hobby. If push ever came to shove, though, the latter is by far the most important part of this hobby for me and I tinker with cameras only because I have the ability and resources to do so, plus as an inveterate tinkerer with all things electromechanical, I very much enjoy it. :)

P.S.: As a lagniappe, here are a few more photos from my outing to this area late this past Sunday night / early Monday morning:





 
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A

Audii-Dudii

Active member
777

I woke up at 12:35 am this morning (after going to bed at 10:00pm ... ugh!) and after an hour, I accepted that I wasn't going to be falling back asleep any time soon.

So a photography outing seemed like a good idea and off I went, exploring the downtown Phoenix area from 2:15 am until 5:30 am, shortly after this photo was taken. (I actually tried to photograph it earlier in the night, but needed the lighter sky to achieve the necessary tonal separation from the subject.)



A7R / Cambo Actus / Pentax FA Limited 31mm/f1.8
 
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scho

scho

Well-known member
A few shots taken at the Cornell Botanic Gardens near the Nevin visitor center. A6000M B+W 040 orange filter on 16-50 lens











 
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scho

scho

Well-known member
A vigorous cold front came through last night and swept out the stale humid air leaving us with a beautiful day today with clear skies. We went out to enjoy the nice weather and stopped at Glenora Wine cellars on the west shore of Seneca Lake for lunch. All images taken with the A6000M 16-50 B+H 040 orange filter.



Next stop on our afternoon drive was Watkins Glen at the south end of Seneca Lake.





There was also an Italian Festival going on with lots of tempting (but mostly unhealthy) food stands.



and even a puppet show that the grandfather seemed to enjoy more than the grand daughter.

 
scho

scho

Well-known member
A quick test shot using the Sony A6000M on the Cambo Actus with Cambo Actar 60/4 lens at f/11. This may be a nice setup for doing stitched B&W landscapes.

 
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