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Migration to Digital question



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 6th 09, 03:23 AM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
[email protected]
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Posts: 3
Default Migration to Digital question

I haven't followed the photographic scene lately and suspect there's
been a lot of advancement with digital photography.

I have a complete Rollei SL66 setup and would like to take some nature
photos but prefer to have digital output.

So...

What options are there? Is a digital back available? Would it be
best to shoot transparencies and scan? Or any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Paco
  #2  
Old May 6th 09, 03:44 PM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
Richard Knoppow
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Posts: 751
Default Migration to Digital question


wrote in message
...
I haven't followed the photographic scene lately and
suspect there's
been a lot of advancement with digital photography.

I have a complete Rollei SL66 setup and would like to take
some nature
photos but prefer to have digital output.

So...

What options are there? Is a digital back available?
Would it be
best to shoot transparencies and scan? Or any other
suggestions?

Thanks,

Paco


You might want to check out the two Rolleiflex mailing
lists, one at Yahoo lists and the other at Freelists. I
don't know the current availablility of a digital back for
the SL-66 but suspect is would be quite expensive. OTOH,
many users of these and other MF cameras produce excellent
results by shooting on film and scanning the negatives. I
don't know the current prices of high qulity film scanners
but suspect you would be ahead of the game by going that
route especially since the scanner can be used for any
negatives where the camera back is specific to the camera.
--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA



  #3  
Old May 6th 09, 05:09 PM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
Alan Browne
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Posts: 12,640
Default Migration to Digital question

wrote:
I haven't followed the photographic scene lately and suspect there's
been a lot of advancement with digital photography.

I have a complete Rollei SL66 setup and would like to take some nature
photos but prefer to have digital output.

So...

What options are there? Is a digital back available? Would it be
best to shoot transparencies and scan? Or any other suggestions?


I scan using a Nikon 9000 ED with an anti-Newton-ring tray. It takes a
few minutes to setup, scan, occasioanally re-scan. a 6x6 produces a 77
Mpix file of about 470 Mbytes (16b/color).

However, My Sony a900 (36x24mm (aka full frame) sensor) produces cleaner
looking images that print pretty much as large at 24 Mpix. My desire to
shoot MF has waned quite a bit.

I'm considering a MF back for my Hasselblad. Even a used 16 Mpix is
well over $5K - hopefully this will fall with time. A 20 - 25 Mpix
sensor would be great.

--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource:
http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.
-- usenet posts from gmail.com and googlemail.com are filtered out.
  #4  
Old May 7th 09, 01:24 AM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
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Posts: 3
Default Migration to Digital question

On Wed, 6 May 2009 07:44:32 -0700, "Richard Knoppow"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
I haven't followed the photographic scene lately and
suspect there's
been a lot of advancement with digital photography.

I have a complete Rollei SL66 setup and would like to take
some nature
photos but prefer to have digital output.

So...

What options are there? Is a digital back available?
Would it be
best to shoot transparencies and scan? Or any other
suggestions?

Thanks,

Paco


You might want to check out the two Rolleiflex mailing
lists, one at Yahoo lists and the other at Freelists. I
don't know the current availablility of a digital back for
the SL-66 but suspect is would be quite expensive. OTOH,
many users of these and other MF cameras produce excellent
results by shooting on film and scanning the negatives. I
don't know the current prices of high qulity film scanners
but suspect you would be ahead of the game by going that
route especially since the scanner can be used for any
negatives where the camera back is specific to the camera.


Thanks for the suggestion. For some reason I had forgotten about the
negative choice versus positives.

I have a great scanner so now the issue is positive or negative. Any
firsthand experience?

Thanks once again,

Paco
  #5  
Old May 7th 09, 05:14 AM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
Toni Nikkanen
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Posts: 255
Default Migration to Digital question

writes:

I have a great scanner so now the issue is positive or negative. Any
firsthand experience?


Well, scanning positives is such a roller coaster ride. Some frames
are easy to scan and a great joy, for others, it appears almost
impossible to get a good scan. Deep shadows, flare added by the
scanner (which Nikon is notorious for!) etc.. all contribute to the problems.

(I guess one would have an easier time shooting lower-contrast slides, such
as Astia, and perhaps even pull-processing them. I might try that some time.)

Negatives on the other hand are always easy to scan with the only
nuisance being sometimes having to adjust color balance by hand. So
after years of banging my head on the wall, I've come to the
conclusion that I will shoot slides for projection and negatives for
scanning. I will scan all the slides I shoot anyway, but I don't
expect trying to print them.

That is not at all a bad decision given that Kodak is now making the
wonderful new Ektar 100 color negative film in roll film size! While
being super fine grained and having all that kind of neat stuff, what
I and some friends have noticed they've even improved it beyond their
own marketing claims - for example it can withstand underexposure
better than any color negative I've seen before, though I can't give
you a scientific proof for this if you require one. What I know is
that underexposed images can be easily be brightened up in Photoshop
without having ugly grain noise popping out of the shadows.
  #6  
Old May 7th 09, 03:18 PM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
David J. Littleboy
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Posts: 2,618
Default Migration to Digital question

wrote:

I have a great scanner so now the issue is positive or negative. Any
firsthand experience?


I far prefer scanning positives. You see what you are supposed to be
getting, and the colors are more vibrant. Also, I find grain less obtrusive
with the Fuji 100F films than with most color negative films. I find Provia
100F a real joy to work with. Other folks prefer Velvia 50. Astia 100F for
portraits and when less contrast is desirable.

--
David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan


  #7  
Old May 8th 09, 01:00 AM posted to rec.photo.equipment.medium-format
[email protected]
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Posts: 3
Default Migration to Digital question

Thanks for all the great comments. As with many things I guess I will
have to buy some of each and experiment.

Thanks again, I'm off to the camera store.

Paco
 




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