Manual Diaphrams -- how much of a hassle for portraiture?

I'm looking at getting something a little longer than 135mm for my
Pentax 645. The obvious choice is the 200mm f/4, and I'm seriously
thinking of going that route. However, the Zeiss Jena 180mm f/2.8
seems like a really nice piece of glass as well.

The good news is that an adapter is easy to find and inexpensive.
The bad news is that it's strictly manual -- you have to open up to
focus (and arguably meter) and then stop back down and shoot. I've
never tried to use that procedure "live" before.

So in a more or less formal portraiture setting, how much of a hassle
is it in real life?

--
Michael Benveniste --
Spam and UCE professionally evaluated for $419. Use this email
address only to submit mail for evaluation.

Michael Benveniste wrote:


The good news is that an adapter is easy to find and inexpensive.
The bad news is that it's strictly manual -- you have to open up to
focus (and arguably meter) and then stop back down and shoot. I've
never tried to use that procedure "live" before.

You'd have to meter stopped down. Wouldn't you?



So in a more or less formal portraiture setting, how much of a hassle
is it in real life?


If you're camera lets you stop down the lens for DOF preview try it like
that. You'll be working in that sort of setup.

Nick

On Tue, 8 Jun 2004 19:34:45 -0500, Nick Zentena
wrote:

Michael Benveniste wrote:
The good news is that an adapter is easy to find and inexpensive.
The bad news is that it's strictly manual -- you have to open up to
focus (and arguably meter) and then stop back down and shoot. I've
never tried to use that procedure "live" before.
You'd have to meter stopped down. Wouldn't you?

You're correct. And it's spelled diaphragm. Two strikes against me.
For my use, though, metering is moot, as I'd be using an external
meter.

If you're camera lets you stop down the lens for DOF preview try it like
that. You'll be working in that sort of setup.

I've tried that, but using a DOF lever/button is easier than trying to
flip back and forth between stops. Even so, I haven't tried it before
a live "target." (I'm strictly an amateur working on a volunteer
project.)

Thanks for the tip, though!

--
Michael Benveniste --
Spam and UCE professionally evaluated for $419. Use this email
address only to submit mail for evaluation.

Michael Benveniste wrote:

I'm looking at getting something a little longer than 135mm for my
Pentax 645. The obvious choice is the 200mm f/4, and I'm seriously
thinking of going that route. However, the Zeiss Jena 180mm f/2.8
seems like a really nice piece of glass as well.

The good news is that an adapter is easy to find and inexpensive.
The bad news is that it's strictly manual -- you have to open up to
focus (and arguably meter) and then stop back down and shoot. I've
never tried to use that procedure "live" before.



It's no problem. Most portrait work is done at the wider f-stop anyway. I
have the sonar and even when using it on bodies that allow auto apeture, I
use it in manual mode so I can see the DOF while shooting. It's the best
lens I've ever used on any camera =period=, the bokeh is wonderful which is
very important in a portrait lens. It's sharp wide open and is even better
at f4 which is where I normally use it or maybe f5.6. I use maxwell focus
screens so even at f5.6 the image is pretty bright. The only downside is it
-IS- a big heavy lens, probably a lot more than the pentax 6X4.5 lens is
and uses large 86mm filters.

Spend the extra few bucks and get the latest 4-5 digit multicoated one.
Cupog on ebay is a great person to buy one from. If you don't like it, you
can easily sell it for what you paid for it, probably around $225.

--

Stacey

So in a more or less formal portraiture setting, how much of a hassle
is it in real life?

In location portraiture you are often trying to isolate the subject somewhat
from a cluttered and distracting background. So you'd focus and shoot pretty
wide all the time, seldom stopping down to f/8 or f/11!

In studio formal portraiture, you'd have the camera to subject distance pretty
fixed for a number of shots before thinking about altering the shooting
distance, and might not even look thru the lens when deciding when to release
the shutter, so it matters less there.

In fashion work, you are moving around so the need to refocus wide open and
immediately stop down for the shot is important. So auto diaphram is the only
way to go.

In brief, the answer is, "It depends on what you are using the lens for!"