Film Show us your Fujifilm GF670 Professional Medium Format Camera

Luke, get the Hubble Space telescope next! Now that you're used to carry around slightly larger cameras.

I might need to get a land camera and an assistant to follow me around carrying the camera and holding an umbrella over my head.
 
Do you mean a view camera, or field camera, perhaps Boid?

The term "Land camera" is usually reserved for cameras invented by Edwin Land (what become Polaroid cameras)
 
I was only leg pulling.

There's otherwise a pretty healthy trade in those old polaroids. The ones that can't be refurb'd and used with impossible film can often be converted to 5x4 or panoramic with roll film.
 
Just loaded up a roll. Fiddled about for a few minutes looking for something to shoot. Finally, Lucy volunteered. Found a composition I liked in a pretty dark corner of the house. Set the aperture wide open at f3.5. Fiddled about with focus (keeping in mind that I was quite close to the subject and shooting wide open and being fairly certain that most of the shot will be out of focus, but hopefully not her eye). Considered for a moment that there was a bright window behind her that the meter will take into consideration and factored in that overexposure is better than underexposure and dialed in +1 EV. Recomposed slightly and saw the shutter speed switching between 1/30 and 1/60 as the sun flickered through the leaves and was thinking that might be a bit long for handheld and gently released the shutter.

1 very likely failed exposure down...... 11 to go.

Man, my right thumb is sore.
 
After that very frustrating and humbling first exposure, I decided to take the Fuji out into the woods and put it in front of a scene that is more suited to it's strengths. I set it up on my tripod (the sun is shining, but it is DARK in those woods) in front of the ruins of a fallen tree. Looking through that giant viewfinder is really a treat. I don't know how or why, but the scene seemed better lit and with more clarity through the viewfinder than it did to the naked eye (that's not possible is it?). I moved the tripod around a bit to find a pleasing composition. Looked good. Then I decided to "pre-visualize" it with my x100. Yup....looked sweet. Set the aperture, focused and released the shutter.

Obviously there is no way to review the image, so I assume it's fine. I decide to try with the same framing, but stopped down for a much deeper DOF, and release the shutter (I think I did.....I didn't really hear anything.....that seems to be an issue with me and this quiet shutter). And then it dawns on me that I forgot to wind the film after my first one. So I advance the film and shoot again. And now realizing the frame #2 is very possibly an unplanned double exposure, I decide to stop the aperture down again and re-try my first shot again. I am being eaten alive by the Wisconsin mosquitoes that are the size of small birds. I fold the legs of the tripod and leave the woods feeling defeated for the second time in one day.

And just to rub some salt in the wound, neither of the panoramas I shot in the woods with the X100 turned out either. I won't let it get me down though. It's snapping photos....not brain surgery. I'll get it. I may just waste a few rolls of film getting all the mistakes out of the way first.
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DSCF5186 by Luke Lavin, on Flickr
 
A digital version would be awesome! Hybrid viewfinder like on the X100s but bigger of course, 5" high res display on the back, and a 50-odd megapixel enormous sensor inside.
Probably replace the bellows with a telescopic lens design of some sort.
If they start developing it now they can have it ready for my 40th birthday next year :clap2:
 
Do you mean a view camera, or field camera, perhaps Boid?

The term "Land camera" is usually reserved for cameras invented by Edwin Land (what become Polaroid cameras)

I meant a view camera, like the one Atget (my hero and undying inspiration) used. I know next to nothing about those systems, which explains my confusion.
 
Personally I think "land camera" would be a lovely name for LF or ULF cameras, if it were not for the accident of history that the blessed Edwin wasn't named Mr. Instantcamera
 
Looking through that giant viewfinder is really a treat. I don't know how or why, but the scene seemed better lit and with more clarity through the viewfinder than it did to the naked eye (that's not possible is it?)

i used to say this about looking in the cars rear view mirror...
it was what had me convinced i was through the looking glass for the longest time!
 
Luke,

I'm sure you did great. The really tricky part of shooting color negative film is the scanning. Even pro labs don't get it right all of the time. If you are getting your film scanned at the lab, and you don't like the scans, do not assume that the negatives are no good. Color negative film is very forgiving of exposure errors, particularly overexposure, so chances are your negatives are fine. If you are going to scan yourself, just be patient, as the learning curve may be a bit steep.

I find that in a typical shooting day, I end up with approximately the same number of keepers (typically, between 2 and 5) regardless of whether I shoot digital, 35mm or 120. The difference is that those 5 shots will come from 80-100 digital shots, 36 35mm shots, or 12 120 shots.

I look forward to your first shots!

Cheers,

Antonio
 
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