Helloooooooo Larry!
LB>Hap!
LB>HN> LB>I have a few specialized cameras - ultra-wide, view
LB>HN> LB>and panoramic, that have no built-in meters, so a hand-held
LB>HN> LB>is very useful - though I have been known to take a reading
LB>HN> LB>with the Nikon's internal meter and transfer it to the Linhof
LB>HN> LB>or WideLuxe.
LB>HN> When was the last time you used the Widelux?
LB>Quite a while ago. Without my own lab currently, getting prints
LB>made is a major hassle. However, it is paid for - several magazine
LB>shots spread across two pages and at least one gatefold cover and
LB>many, many shots in the newspaper where I worked.!
Hmmm, that means I have no chance of getting it from you?
LB>It may be currently inactive, but it is far from permanently on
LB>the shelf. As I may have mentioned in the past, I scored a couple
LB>of gallery shows of photography rather uniquely altered via image
LB>processing and printed via ink-jet. These were very small prints
LB>done on a HP500C printer and therefore very delicate.
Now it's sounding like you are gonna start using it again tomorrow!
LB>The major art dealer in Western Canada contacted me about being
LB>my rep - providing I can do very large format prints with inks
LB>that are archival. This put the project on hold until computers
LB>gained enough power to handle the huge image files efficiently
LB>and large format printers came down in price to the level that
LB>mere mortals could afford them.
Tell him to cough up the sheckles to supply you with what you require
and you'll pay him back out of the first show. I of course expect a free
signed artist's proof for coming up with such a grand scheme, er, um
IDEA yeah, idea! Unless of course you want to donate a camera or two to
my user bag.
LB>Encad now supplies two levels of archival inks for their printers
LB>and actually has 24" x X" printers in the $2,000 range now. Epson,
LB>Canon Lexmark and HP have printers that use six or seven inks to
LB>do near continuous tone quite well. I expect to see this tech trickle
LB>up to large format printers along with archival inks - probably in
LB>the next year. Since these printers can handle roll paper or very
LB>long sheets, I expect that I will do a lot of panoramic prints in
LB>the near future. The WideLuxe neg is 24mm x 59mm - perfect for
LB>a 2' x 5' print!!!
or 4'X10'!
LB>Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) has announced a next generation CPU
LB>for their Alpha workstations which will be shipping in systems
LB>this summer some time. I am planning to buy a graphics workstation
LB>shortly thereafter for both 3-D and image processing. This hairy
LB>beast will have no problem handing huge files with stunning speed.
LB>I may consider trading in the WideLuxe on one of the new Noblex
LB>cameras that will allow me to use 120 film. I am getting so close
LB>to re-entering printmaking that I can almost taste it!
I can see now that I have completley talked my self out of getting any
of the cameras now...oh bother!
LB>HN> I'd love to have a
LB>HN> panoramic camera, but the cost yiyiyi! As it is now I have a 17mm shot
LB>HN> that I enlarge to 8X10 and cut to fit! It's the poorman's panoramic
LB>HN> camera!
LB>Of course, the Noblex and WideLuxe are true panoramic cameras
LB>like the old Cirkut (sp?) cameras, with rotating lenses and
LB>curved film planes. Both Linhof and Fuji make 6 x 17 rectilinear
LB>wide angle cameras that do what you do with the 17mm. They just
LB>do the cropping in advance. Linhof also makes a nice 6 x 12
LB>camera.
When I was up shooting flowers this last week, with Jim Cochran, a
fellow showed up with a fuji 617...uses 120 film. Looked nice.  He
wouldn't give it up either .
LB>I have a superb old Brooks VeriWide with a 47mm SuperAngulon
LB>that shoots seven 6 x 10 images on a roll of 120 that does the
LB>task for me. The 47mm is roughly the equivalent to an 18mm lens
LB>on a 35mm camera. Awesome! A 65mm SuperAngulon would give you
LB>similar coverage on your 4x5, as long as you can drop the front
LB>track sufficiently to get it out of the image! IIRC, the 65mm
LB>will just cover 4x5 if it is stopped down, but allows no movements.
LB>The Linhof 6 x 12 uses the 65mm as well.
I still haven't found a 90mm that I can afford yet..but I'm looking!
LB>I have one with my Linhof, but of course it only has to cover
LB>6 x 7. There is a 75mm XL SuperAngulon that would be quite
LB>comfortable on a 4x5 - equivalent to a 20mm on a 35mm camera.
LB>Looking at an enlarged negative from the Brooks through a 25x
LB>grain focusing magnifier, one reaches for the eye protectors
LB>because it is so sharp!
I don't suppose I could talk you out of the brooks either eh?
LB>There is considerable fall-off of light in the corners due to
LB>the rules of physics, and one can get a stunningly expensive
LB>filter that has a stop of density in the middle with a gradient
LB>to clear at the edges. You lose a stop of lens speed, but get
LB>even coverage. In fact the fall-off seems to enhance a lot of
LB>landscapes just as if you did a little burning in the corners.
I have seen shots both with and without the filter, and you're right the
fall-off does lend a certain something to the shot.
LB>The Brooks has also served me well as a camera for environmental
LB>portraits. Since the lens is about the same focal length as the
LB>normal lens on most SLRs, working AT THE SAME DISTANCE, one gets
LB>the same perspective. However since one has seven times the
LB>negative area, a lot more information is captured in the image.
LB>This information can tell a great deal about the world in which
LB>the subject lives. Since one is working at only three or four
LB>feet from the subject - well within their "personal space" to
LB>talk Californian - the picture has a powerful intimacy. Since
LB>foreshortening is a constant factor in super-wide photography,
LB>it is well to compose so that the subject's face is in the
LB>central area of the frame and the rest of the subject is
LB>pretty much parallel to the film plane. This you can certainly
LB>experiment with using the 17mm. Furthermore, since it is on a
LB>SLR, you can judge the point when foreshortening goes over
LB>the edge.
I can see now I have no chance of scamming this one from you either .
LB>On the other hand, I once did a portrait of Joe Louis, the boxer,
LB>using a 50mm lens on an RB67. I had him extend his famous fist
LB>toward the lens until it filled the bottom half of the frame.
LB>His head was still close enough to  the centre that there was no
LB>objectionable foreshortening.
LB>I used a similar technique to do a shot on a karate instructor,
LB>who was just in process of opening an new school. He did a
LB>series of choreographed movements - something like a 'kata' IIRC,
LB>(Karen?) - ending in a power blow aimed just short of the bottom
LB>of the lens shade on the Brooks. All the energy gathered during
LB>the moves that lead up to the blow was released into the shot.
LB>The reporter complimented that I only flinched AFTER the exposure!
LB>;-}
LB>larry!
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