Grex Photography Conference

Item 44: Question and Answers Item

Entered by denise on Wed Jan 1 12:40:30 1997:

49 new of 67 responses total.


#19 of 67 by mcpoz on Fri Jul 25 00:12:12 1997:

#17.  Denise.  I have NEVER heard of this film, but it probably is pretty good
if it is made by Kodak.  Do they say it is good for huge light differences
picture-to-picture within a role or within a single frame?  I am curious -
let me know what you think of it.  


#20 of 67 by mcpoz on Fri Jul 25 00:33:24 1997:

Sounds like Max is something worth trying - here are a few words from a site
pulled down by HotBot:


New! KODAK GOLD Max Film
Improved! KODAK GOLD 100, 200, and 400 Films
KODAK GOLD 100, 200, 400, and Max Films are a new family of color negative
films that offer the best combination of color saturation, color accuracy,
and
sharpness at ISO 100, 200, 400, and 800 available from any manufacturer. They
are designed for general picture-taking situations for exposure with daylight
or
electronic flash. You can also expose them under photolamps (3400 K) or
tungsten illumination (3200 K) with filters. Improved! KODAK GOLD 100, 200,
and 400 Films feature better color accuracy, more color saturation, and higher
sharpness than the current generation of GOLD 100, 200, and 400 Films. They
also feature wide exposure latitude--from two stops underexposure to three
stops overexposure.
New! KODAK GOLD Max Film is the newest addition to the family of GOLD Films;
it features high speed (ISO 800) and outstanding emulsion efficiency. It
also offers extremely wide exposure latitude--from two stops underexposure
to five stops overexposure.

Thanks, Denise.


#21 of 67 by omni on Fri Jul 25 03:45:31 1997:

  Didn't Kodak have a ASA 1000 on the market in the early 70's? I seem to
recall shooting a roll or two when I owned a Konica that my parents gave me.


#22 of 67 by mcpoz on Sat Jul 26 01:20:38 1997:

Yes, I recall a 1000 print film.  As I recall it was pretty grainy and
contrasty.  I have used Kodak 1600 print film indoors (graduation ceremony)
with telephoto and no flash with pretty good results.


#23 of 67 by omni on Sat Jul 26 03:46:27 1997:

  Kodak.com has more info on Max film than any human should know. ;)

 I found that they made a asa 25 film for bright lights. But it's
not for my camera. I guess in some cases, the camera does matter.


#24 of 67 by denise on Wed Jul 30 15:08:03 1997:

I'm still looking forward to trying this film--but between my work schedule
and the too hot and/or wet weather outdoors, I haven't been able to do any
shooting with it yet.  Soon, I hope!


#25 of 67 by agent86 on Fri Nov 21 20:43:01 1997:

Ok, here's my question: has anybody ever taken any underwater shots? I have
decided that I want to take some... suggestions on film type, shutter speed,
etc? PLus, there is the obvious question of has anyone ever seen a
"camera-condom" (something that will keep a camera dry) that won't noticeably
degrade image quality? I saw something meant to do this, but it was plastic
and I figured that it would just smear my image to hell... anybody ever tried
this?


#26 of 67 by mcpoz on Sat Nov 22 01:56:41 1997:

You can buy the "disposable" type of cameras for under water.  I saw pictures
from these and they were really impressive.  I think they had Kodak 400 film
in them.


#27 of 67 by rickyb on Sat Nov 29 23:50:14 1997:

Yeah, I use those disposable ones and, if the water is pretty clear, and the
sun is bright enough, you can get good shots.  Obviously, the deeper the water
the more light needed.

I once saw a plastic bag type thing that had a glass lens, sort of like a
large dive mask.  The bag was flexible enough to manipulate the camera, but
I could never figure out if you'd get distortion in the event the lens was
not parallel to your focal plane/lens.  Never used one...didn't trust it to
keep my camera safe either.



#28 of 67 by mcpoz on Sun Nov 30 14:06:08 1997:

I'd have a hard time trusting an expensive 35mm camera & lens inside a
low-cost device which has no warranty for the equipment inside.


#29 of 67 by agent86 on Wed Dec 3 01:00:35 1997:

ditto that. I am sure there are professional devices intended for this though.
Maybe i will go take a look at Canons website -- considering a lot of the
other stuff they make, I have a feeling that they might have something along
these lines...


#30 of 67 by mcpoz on Fri Dec 5 02:45:45 1997:

Let us know what you find.

Thanks


#31 of 67 by agent86 on Sat Dec 27 09:10:59 1997:

Ok, here is what I have found: there is in fact at least _one_ company that
makes waterproof camera's that use standard 35mm film and are waterproof to
a substantial depth (200 feet and more).

Here is the company that I found (actually I kind of stumbled across this by
accident in a sailing magazine).

Pioneer Research
97 Foster Rd, Suite 5
Moorestown, NJ 08057
Telephone: 1-800-257-7742

The Autofocus SLR that was in this particular ad is called the "Sealife
Reefmaster." I had an opportunity to check one out, and it looks pretty nicely
built, very sturdy. The price tag is sorta hefty, though -- it will probably
cost at least $125 (probably closer to $200 if you buy it in Ann Arbor), for
a camera that if it wasn't waterproof would likely cost around $50. If you
do a lot of underwater shots, or need to take an underwater shot that is more
than the 9 feet or whatever that the Kodak disposables allow, this is quite
likely a good bet.

I did find a few companies that make camera housing. For _video_ camera's,
check out aquavideo.com

So, you are planning on taking the next epic underwater photo series for
National Geographic, huh? You need something more than a point and click
camera? Check out the Nikonos system (no, that is _not_ a typo) at larger
camera shops, or check out ikelite.com, which also distributes underwater
color filters and camera housings.

The camera housings they make look pretty dependable (plus, they ahve been
manufacturing them for 31 years now...) They have housings fitted for
Minolta, Nikon, and Canon SLR's and lenses, as well as color corrective
filters. Oddly enough, they also have a housing fitted for the SONY Mavica
digital system, but I have no clue why someone would use a CCD system for
an underwateer shot, where the image quality is going to be negatively
affected by lower light levels. The Mavica system seems to work okay for
closeup shots, though there is still some visible aliasing on close
inspection, but for wide angle shots, the system is terrible, especially
when there is a wide variance in light levels (this is a problem with CCD
systems). I have put a _good_ example of what can be done with the Mavica
system in an underwater setting here on Grex as
/a/a/g/agent86/mavica-fish.jpg -- if you have internet access, just check
it out directly at http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/mav_pic5.html.

Ah, well, thats all for now.



#32 of 67 by scott on Tue Jul 18 18:20:38 2000:

Anybody know anything about cleaning accumulated grime and dust off of old
slides?  I just got a slide scanner and I've been digging through the family
shoebox...


#33 of 67 by rcurl on Tue Jul 18 20:46:40 2000:

A fine camel's hair brush is usually used, after blowing. You can wash
the slides in distilled water, if you take them out of their mounts.


#34 of 67 by scott on Tue Jul 18 22:55:53 2000:

I was going to buy one of those camera lens brushes...

Question two:  Glass slides.  They won't fit in the scanner, so how likely
is it that they can safely be taken apart?


#35 of 67 by rcurl on Wed Jul 19 04:30:32 2000:

There are different kinds of slides *in* glass - old ones with thick glass
and paper around the edges, and more modern ones of plastic with
ultra-thin glass inserts. The former come apart by cutting the tape, and
inside the photo is held in a paper frame. The latter snap open. In the
former, the film is at most tacked with spots of glue on the edge. I'd
suggest if you have the former that you remount them in the latter kind
holder - they are thinner and lighter. 



#36 of 67 by scott on Wed Jul 19 12:22:05 2000:

My dad is worried that the film itself may have become stuck to the glass.

Yup these are the Olde Kinde of slides, thick slabs of glass held together
with some kind of black tape.  The projector we have actually has a "preheat"
section for the next slide, so that it can warm up before having 500+ watts
of incandescent heat blast through it.


#37 of 67 by rcurl on Wed Jul 19 13:59:58 2000:

Open a few and find out - it is easy enough to close them back up with
new black tape.


#38 of 67 by eprom on Thu Jul 26 23:11:16 2001:

hmmm...just wondering - what type of photography equipment is
used to take poster size photos??? I have a hard time believing
that so much detail could fit on 35mm, even with the top of the
line SLRs.


#39 of 67 by scott on Fri Jul 27 01:49:04 2001:

You'd be amazed at how much information is contained in a 35mm negative.  I
used an 1800 dpi slide scanner to archive family photos, and even at the top
resolution (yielding 13Mb files) I could zoom way in and see that there was
still some stuff on the slide being messed up by the scan quantizing.


#40 of 67 by eprom on Fri Jul 27 03:20:56 2001:

so then its basically an issue of film grain?


#41 of 67 by scott on Fri Jul 27 12:23:08 2001:

Yup.

Also note that films shown in movie theaters (much bigger than poster size!)
are shot and printed on 35mm film.


#42 of 67 by eprom on Wed Jan 29 22:16:15 2003:

hmmm......

I scanned this picture from the book 'Better Homes and Gardens 
- Creative Decorating on a budget' published in 1970.

http://members.triton.net/eprom/decor.jpg

There is something in the tonal quality that gives this photo
a dated look. I can't seem to put my finger on it though.

I would like to use Photoshop to try to manipulate some pictures
I took with my digital camera to re-create the same 'feel'.

can someone give me some tips on how to possibly do this?


#43 of 67 by rcurl on Thu Jan 30 04:11:06 2003:

The decor itself is dated - the shrubery, the upholstery, statues, the
wall paint. I'm not sure the "tonal quality" has much to do with it. 


#44 of 67 by scott on Thu Jan 30 04:48:46 2003:

I'd guess that the dark walls are part of what you are seeing.


#45 of 67 by gull on Thu Jan 30 19:50:07 2003:

Dark walls, dim lighting, low contrast.  The lighting and filtering used is
giving a brownish cast, too.  That's part of it -- dated decorating sense.

However, I've noticed that older pictures seem to have a more muted color
quality than modern ones.  The colors are less bright and vibrant.  I don't
know if this is a result of the film stock used or a result of fading.  I'm
not sure exactly how you'd duplicate that in Photoshop.


#46 of 67 by scott on Thu Jan 30 20:08:51 2003:

On a second inspection I'm seeing a very subtle herringbone sort of pattern
going from top left to bottom right - easiest to see on the right-hand wall.
Might be part of the various format conversions on the way to my screen,
though.

Might also be something to do with color separations for printing - Pantone
stuff, maybe?  


#47 of 67 by eprom on Thu Jan 30 22:30:41 2003:

the herringbone is due to my crappy flatbed scanner.

I should clarify what I meant.....  

Theoretically if you had a regular 3 MP digital camera and
were in that same place, time, setting, etc...as the original
photographer and took a photo with the digital camera, you
would capture quite a different look...irregardless of the 
dated drappery and carpet..

anyways...looking over the same book, i'm starting to
wonder if some of those "photos" were actually very realistic
illustrations.

you can probably see what I'm taking about in this picture.
specifically the photo to the left with the blue curtains.

http://members.triton.net/eprom/decor2.jpg


#48 of 67 by scott on Fri Jan 31 00:20:17 2003:

Nobody does wall colors in anything like those photos anymore.  Mentally map
in white walls and it'll look a lot more recent.


#49 of 67 by eprom on Sun Feb 29 06:22:26 2004:

Why is a focal length of 50mm considered a standard? I've been
reading that 50mm is very close to what the human eye see's.
I'm wondering which human is that? when I measure my perphial
viewing angle it's slightly greater than 90 degrees.

which according to this nifty little .swf applet:

http://www.usa.canon.com/eflenses/lens101/focallength

is somewhere between 20mm and 28mm...(i'd estimate 24mm). 

Am I gifted?



#50 of 67 by rcurl on Sun Feb 29 07:53:22 2004:

Its an arbitrary (compromise) value chosen to make cameras moderately
compact but still have good resolution and light-gathering capability
(smaller f). All you get with a longer focal length is a bigger camera
(and image). 



#51 of 67 by gull on Mon Mar 1 18:20:40 2004:

Re resp:49: It's based not on the field of view, but on how you perceive
depth.  With lenses shorter than 50mm, depth relationships look
stretched, with distant objects appearing farther away than they really
are.  With lenses longer than 50mm, depth relationships are compressed.


#52 of 67 by rcurl on Mon Mar 1 18:48:15 2004:

I disagree. The effects lie in both field of view and depth of focus. 
Otherwise the images are identical (the image is only what can be seen
from that point). I think what you call "depth relationships" are just
depth of focus. You can obtain the same with a shorter focal length by
stopping down (greater f). 


#53 of 67 by gull on Tue Mar 2 04:20:56 2004:

No, I mean perspective, actually.  A long lense compresses perspective, 
a short lens stretches it.  Objects look closer together in a shot taken 
with a long lens.  There's an excellent demonstration of this at the 
bottom of this page: http://www.mendophoto.com/grabshot/focallength.html


#54 of 67 by rcurl on Tue Mar 2 07:21:03 2004:

But he *moved*. That isn't fair. The effect shown is due to his motion,
where moving further away from the stick (for example) decreases the
apparent size ratio of the stick and objects in the background. If he had
stayed in the same place and changed lenses, and then enlarged the
pictures so that the stick was the same size in all of the prints, there
would be no difference (apart from depth of focus and grain effects).

You can get the same effect he got simply by using the same lens at
different distances, and enlarging the prints to have the stick the
same length in each. 


#55 of 67 by gull on Tue Mar 2 14:55:19 2004:

The point is, if you position yourself to set something up full-frame in
a telephoto lens, objects in the background will look closer to it.  If
you position yourself to set something up full-frame in a wide-angle
lens, objects in the background will look more distant.  A 50mm lens
splits the difference and results in size relationships that look like
what you would perceive with your eye.

The fact that you can crop and enlarge to get the same effect isn't my
point.


#56 of 67 by rcurl on Tue Mar 2 16:52:44 2004:

We are saying the same thing up to your conclusion, but the reason for
compromising on 50 mm is that that creates what seems to be the
nearby perspective we see *in the most economical fashion* in terms of
camera size, weight, and film format and processing. 


#57 of 67 by eprom on Tue Apr 27 04:48:09 2004:

what exaclty are these for? They came attacted to my camera straps. I took
them off because i don't have a use for them if I don't know what they're for
http://members.triton.net/eprom/clueless.jpg


#58 of 67 by gull on Tue Apr 27 14:54:27 2004:

One of them looks like a viewfinder cover.  It's used to keep light from
leaking in through the viewfinder during long time exposures, since the
light seal around the mirror is not always perfect.

The other may be a lens cap holder.


#59 of 67 by eprom on Tue Apr 27 22:23:05 2004:

I think you're right about the viewfinder cover, it fits exactly. 
They're both the same, I just positioned them at slightly different angles.


#60 of 67 by eprom on Sat May 29 00:22:30 2004:

uhh...stupid camera question #4029

I have a Sunpak flash rated at a GN of 59.  I need a more 
powerful flash...if I get an identical flash and fire them 
both at the same time, is it the equivalent of firing a 
single flash rated at GN 118?


#61 of 67 by eprom on Mon Dec 13 21:10:48 2004:

question #34948

approx. what year did Kodachrome 64 first come out?


#62 of 67 by rcurl on Tue Dec 14 01:01:56 2004:

http://www.screensound.gov.au/glossary.nsf/Pages/Kodachrome?OpenDocument


#63 of 67 by eprom on Thu Dec 23 18:53:08 2004:

That link you listed didn't really say when Kodachrome 64 came out. 

I did a little more checking and according to someone on one of the
Usenet groups, It was introduced as Kodachrome-X in 1963. Prior to 
that, kodachrome was only availible in ASA 10 and 25.


#64 of 67 by cmcgee on Wed Jul 12 14:36:47 2006:

I have an snapshot I'd like to turn digital.  Dates from the mid80s, is in
good shape colorwise.  I've got an HP1510 scanner.  How much better quality
would I get by taking the photo to a professional photo shop for the
transform?


#65 of 67 by gull on Wed Jul 12 17:35:32 2006:

It depends on what you want to do with the photo, in my opinion.  
Better quality doesn't mean anything if the quality from the scanner is 
good enough for your purposes.  My experience is that the main weakness 
of home scanners is color consistency.  You may need to learn how to 
use your scanner software's color balancing features to get the color 
to come out the way you want.


#66 of 67 by cmcgee on Wed Jul 12 20:14:17 2006:

*grin* I don't think I HAVE color balance on the scanner.  I'd have to play
photoshop with it after it's digitized.


#67 of 67 by gull on Wed Jul 12 21:39:40 2006:

That works, too.

I miss my old Agfa SnapScan scanner.  It had a really nice set of color 
tools in the TWAIN driver.  One of the best features was the ability to 
click on a white spot in the photo and have it automatically adjust the 
color so that spot actually *was* white.


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