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Frequently Asked Questions Somebody once said there's no such thing as a dumb question, only dumb answers. They were wrong - there are plenty of dumb questions. We'll handle those first, and move on to some of the smarter ones, okay? EDQs (Extremely Dumb Questions) I've just bought a brand new WonderFlex 35. How do I take pictures with it? If you don't have the mental ammunition to read the little book that came with it, or the common sense to load a film and try it out or ask somebody that does to help you, return it and see if you can get your money back. Ask your dealer to sell you a point-and-shoot camera, preferably APS, and have him load a film for you. Next Christmas he can put another film in for you when he takes that one out. Photography isn't for you. What's the best camera to buy? I love this one. What's the best car to buy? A Rolls-Royce, right? Best camera? Probably the Leica, but Linhofs are pretty good, too! Neither of them will be as much use to you as an artificial appendix unless you learn how to use them. What kind of photography do you want to do? Just record the kids being cute? Parties and holidays? A trip to the zoo? Or do you anticipate developing your skills and trying creative stuff - even processing your own film? Do you go to sports meetings often - racing, track events, football games? Maybe even make some money with it - a lot harder? Sorry, but there's just no single right answer to this. I have a Kodak Instamatic that my grandpa gave me back in 1965. How much is it worth? Quit your job immediately, don't even bother to clear your desk out. You just hit the jackpot! Drive straight round to the nearest Daimler-Chrysler dealer and order the biggest, fattest S-Class Mercedes you can get. Leather, AC... don't haggle over the price of your own car, just leave it on the lot. You'll never want for money again! Book a month in Jamaica in a 5 star hotel - a real Instamatic, eh? Come on, guys, be serious! Please check ebay before mailing me, okay? My 1970 WonderFlex TTL is broken, but they've quoted me $150 to fix it! Is this a rip-off? Your WonderFlex costs just as much time and effort to fix as a Leica, a Rolleiflex or a Nikon; probably more because the repair company may have difficulty finding parts for it. It's hardly fair to blame them for this, is it? A word on repairs - FAST, GOOD and CHEAP: you can have any two, but never all three together. Much Smarter Questions (MSQs) These are much more sensible, but many could have been avoided with a simple internet search with Google or Alta Vista. Where can I get a manual for my camera? SOME manuals, due to the efforts of dedicated private individuals, are now available for free download. Start by doing an internet search. If this comes up blank, try the manufacturer - some offer copies of manuals either free or for only a nominal charge. If it's an older camera or very rare, a specialized dealer like Craig Camera will sell you a manual. Obviously it's not cheap to keep thousands of out of date manuals on the shelf, so expect to pay a considerable sum. Good Questions Some of these are my answers to questions posed either on the ACE forum or Nikonians, so I'm sorry if you end up with the same info twice! You may not agree with my answers, but I'll try to be honest with you. I wish others had been so candid when I started out... I want to have prints made, what's the best film? You mean colour prints, right? To get the feel of a new camera, or of taking photos generally, I wouldn't buy anything but the cheapest colour negative film rated at 100 ASA. If you're still unfamiliar with your camera, feeling your way, there's no need to buy more expensive, "professional" film. Later, as you get better at interpreting the results, you may find a need for more accurate skin tones or more vivid colours, but for now, stick with learning basic shooting skills. In the winter months, a 400 ASA film might be a better choice. I've heard that pros use professional film. Should I get some? So-called "professional" films (Like VPS-III) are designed to be kept cool until use, exposed, and developed as quickly as possible. Unlike regular film, the emulsion is optimized to give more consistent results under these parameters. The trade off is that they have a lower shelf life than regular films. However, if you expect to see a dramatic gain in quality by using a "professional" film, forget it! Unless you're shooting ultra-critical stuff like studio portraiture, where a custom printer needs a perfect colour match, you'll never notice the difference. The film is more expensive to buy because it costs more to store and has to be sold quicker, but as for grain and colour balance you'd probably not see a difference Will a better camera make me a better photographer?
Tools: Would a $2000 hand-built chisel, forged and sharpened by a master chisel-maker, adjusted to the shape of my hand and balanced to perfection, with an engraved English willow handle make me a sculptor? Put me in Ralf Schumacher's Formula-One BMW-Williams - do you really think my lap times would come even within one minute of his around the Nurburgring? Get the idea? Is it realistic to expect an old classic camera to be used today? It depends. However much of a fan I may be of older equipment, If I was a photojournalist depending on rapid results, I'd be using the latest Nikon F5 autofocus camera like all my colleagues. If I had to take this kind of photo in order to eat, I couldn't afford not to have the very latest technology, even though I'd be grinding my teeth for spending so much money! Some older cameras can still be used reliably as professional tools - any of the older F Nikons; the F, F2, and F3 are all reliable workhorses. They may lack "features" like autofocus, but then they'll work without batteries even under the most extreme conditions. What can and does wear out is the light sealing material around the film back - check it and replace ASAP unless you want to risk little blobs of goop sticking to your film (and lots of other folks' film in the lab!). If you're a professional wedding photographer, a later model Rolleiflex or a Mamiya TLR will do just as good a job for you as an electronically driven roll film SLR, without the weight or the battery worries. Generally, the higher-end the camera was in its heyday, the better the chances of getting it regularly serviced and keeping it running reliably. You can buy three good used Nikon F3s for the price of a single F5, so you'd be spending less money for more cameras. Nikon , Leica, the professional Canon SLRs, any Rolleiflex after 1960, and the Mamiya C330 TLRs, after a check that they work properly and that the light seals on the backs haven't failed, can all be used daily by any professional or serious amateur not concerned with ultimate speed of operation. Also, any of those traditional cameras can take an occasional drop or bump without having to have the entire electro-optical path checked and re-aligned, and will never leave you in the lurch in a no-battery-no-camera situation! Do I need a UV filter on my lens? This is how I feel about filters, but don't take it as Gospel Truth because opinions vary: When a top lens manufacturer builds a lens, they design it to be used without a UV filter. They generally know their business, and the lens will give its ultimate performance without adding more glass to it. ANY glass absorbs UV light, even a picture frame, and it's possible that a good UV filter will absorb a little more. But the minimal haze reduction is balanced by the loss of optical quality you get by putting even a really expensive filter on your lens. It's like tuning your motorbike and adding a couple of horsepower to the engine, and then filling the saddle bags with cement to add weight - you're back where you started! Some filters are really useful. A polarizer can actually be seen working, and will not only kill reflections but also darkens the sky when you shoot colour slide film. Red, orange, and yellow and green are all vital tools for B&W photography. Get the best you can afford, and take care of them. But a UV filter? With a top-notch lens it's as necessary as a second appendix! There are times when a UV filter is useful. If you're shooting in the rain, or around seawater, or any place where there's a danger of salty spray, sand, dust and so on reaching the front element of your lens, put a UV filter on it. It's cheaper to throw the filter away than junk the lens! Another of the few occasions you should consider putting a really good quality UV filter on your lens is for aerial photography - see below. By the way, don't underestimate what that "standard" lens can do - take a look at the "lenses" section on my site...
I just bought a very expensive 300mm telephoto lens, but my pictures don't look sharp. Why? Don't bring it back to the shop just yet. Two possible problems, or a combination of them, could spoil your whole day. First, what shutter speed are you using? If it's less than 1/250th and you're hand holding the shot, you're asking for trouble. A rough rule of thumb is to keep the shutter speed about as high or higher than the focal length of your lens. 1/30 should be hand-holdable with a 50mm lens, and 1/250th is about the safe limit for your new 300mm. Secondly, it might be the way you're holding the camera. You should have your left hand under the lens to support it - if you're just holding the sides of the camera the lens will be trembling like a puppy in a thunderstorm. If you're in any doubt, try using your lens on a tripod. If the shots are now sharp, your technique of hand holding needs some work. Pictures taken at night outdoors with my standard flash on AUTO are all too dark. Why? First, most "standard" flash units are just too Mickey-Mouse to work properly outdoors when you're more than ten feet or so from the subject. Are you familiar with the Guide-Number rule? The higher the guide number, the greater the output. Let's say your standard flash has a GN of 28 in meters with 100 ASA film, okay? That means that at 5 meters, the output is sufficient to be able to use f-5.6 (28 divided by 5). A very powerful, potato-masher type flash like the Metz 60 CT-5 with a GN of 60 does better: at 5 meters, you could use f-12 (let's say f-11 to make it easier.). If the cars were 50 feet away (about 17 meters) your standard flash would need f-1.65 (let's say f-1.8) to expose film right, and the big Metz could still get away with f-2.6 (let's say f-2.8), allowing the use, theoretically, of a short telephoto lens like an f-2.8 135mm. Secondly, unfortunately that's all theory. In practice, the great outdoors swallows a heck of a lot of light, usually several f-stops. If you were using your flash on AUTO, any nearby objects (like people in front of you) will cause light to reflect back into the sensor, switching the flash off prematurely. Dark, grainy pictures with appallingly awful colours! To have even the slightest chance of getting good shots, you'll need to use the flash on MANUAL. This allows the flash to give its full output for every shot, at the cost of a longer wait between firings, and it won't be influenced by other objects. And if you're planning on doing serious action photos, a bigger flash would make a difference. But the biggest difference will be anything you can do to reduce the DISTANCE between yourself and your subject. How can I copy artwork onto slides? See if you can gather up a pair of powerful tungsten lamps on stands. Film: using tungsten illumination, regular daylight Ektachrome slide film will show a strong yellow colour cast. Two ways to overcome this: you can either use a tungsten-balanced film, like Ektachrome 160T, or use an 80B (blue) filter over your lens. Illumination: keep the room lights off and the blinds down. You'll never get the colours balanced properly if you mix daylight with tungsten. Lens: at a pinch, your standard 50mm can be used unless your subject material is very small. If this is the case, and you plan on doing this often, you'd be wise to invest in a good 50mm macro lens, which is specifically designed for this kind of flat-field work. Since most lenses perform best at around f-8, this would be a good working aperture. Position: Make sure the camera is EXACTLY at the center of the subject, and absolutely parallel. This is very important if you want to avoid distortion. Metering: Forget any ideas of metering directly off the artwork - use a grey card! place the grey card over your artwork and read the meter - let's say it gives you a reading of 1/30th at f-8 - and that is your exposure time for ALL your shots, regardless of how the artwork looks. The only exception is if you have to shoot closer to record a small area - the lens extension will cause a light loss, and you'll have to put the grey card in and meter again. But if you try to meter artwork and illustrations, you'll wish you hadn't! Tripod: As heavy and solid as possible. Anything you can do to cut down vibration will increase the quality... wait ten seconds between shots, squeeze the cable release gently. Your A1 has a mirror lock-up - use it! Finally, rather than trusting the film to Doofy the Summer Hire down at the local shopping mall, a visit to your nearest professional custom lab will pay dividends. A properly calibrated E-6 process monitored to professional standards will get you the best results. What's the best way to do aerial photography? You'll need to find a pilot with a type rating for a high-winged aircraft,
like a Cessna 172 / 150. With all the low-wing types (Piper, Mooney etc.) the
wing gets in the way of the camera, and you can't open the right side window. If
you're new to photography you probably won't have any medium format equipment,
but bigger negatives work best for fine detail from the air. The pros use 4x5
inch, but a 120 roll-film TLR, set at infinity and using the sports-finder to
compose has served me well in the past. Personally, I find 35mm just too small
for aerial stuff. However, you can certainly get some practice and interesting
shots with your 35mm
camera, and the same basic rules apply. Here goes:
As for markets, I don't know enough about your area to help you, sorry. But I do know you'll have to be GOOD at it to make any money, because there's a lot of competition out there...
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