Dark view finder on Mamiya RZ67

SoulfulRecover · Dec 31, 2014

The other day I was shooting some portraits with my Mamiya RZ67 in the "studio" and was having a bit of a hard time focusing because of how dark the view finder was. I flipped on the modeling lamp for my strobe but even then it was still a bit difficult. During the day, outside, Ive never had a problem by any means. Is there something I can do about this for studio shooting? Ive heard people talk about after market ground glass and what not but I have no knowledge of even where to start when looking into that. If it makes a difference, I have the eye level viewfinder with a built in metering system. Any tips or tricks are appreciated.

tirediron · Dec 31, 2014

A new focusing screen may help (FWIW, "ground glass" normally refers to the glass viewing surface in a view camera), but one of the downsides of MF work is that the lenses are inherently slower than they are for 35mm work; there just aren't too many 1.4 and 1.8 lenses, which makes the viewfinder darker than you may be used to, especially inside a studio, which is normally dim to begin with.

SoulfulRecover · Dec 31, 2014

Thank you for the information. Maybe a split focusing screen would help. Or I just need to run some real power into the studio and get some lights going. I had two over head lights running in the end along with the modeling lamp. Ill have the negatives back this evening so Ill be able to see if I got anything in focus.

cgw · Dec 31, 2014

A WLF might lighten things up. Test the brightness with the prism finder removed. I have a RB67 Pro S and find the prism a bit dark sometimes for studio shooting. Have on occasion with taller subjects used a crate to get above the WLF when the camera was at their eye level. My prism finder is fine outdoors. Bright screens are pricey and not IMHO worth the extra $$$.

SoulfulRecover · Dec 31, 2014

cgw said:
A WLF might lighten things up. Test the brightness with the prism finder removed. I have a RB67 Pro S and find the prism a bit dark sometimes for studio shooting. Have on occasion with taller subjects used a crate to get above the WLF when the camera was at their eye level. My prism finder is fine outdoors.

Ill give it a shot. I have been wanting a waist level finder just cuz for a while now. If that works, it gives me an excuse to invest in one

PWhite214 · Dec 31, 2014

You can usually find the WLF and focus screens on the big auction site. I just bought one for my RB67, type B, Rangefinder Spot. I think it will help these old eyes.

Phil

Mike_E · Jan 2, 2015

A chimney finder works pretty well too. They have a diopter to help with focusing as well.

minicoop1985 · Jan 2, 2015

Is there something like an Acute Matte screen for it? It's all I've used with my Hasselblads for good reason too. Maybe a Beattie Intenscreen?

SoulfulRecover · Jan 2, 2015

ran into another problem this evening. My scanner won't pick up my black and white negatives for some reason. I was thinking it was just because it was 120 film but I tossed some color neg film in there and it worked just fine. So for whatever reason its not picking yup the black and white.

Thank you all for the suggestions on the view finders. I haven't been able to dig around for some options but this weekend I should have some free time to.

minicoop1985 · Jan 2, 2015

Does your software have an option for black and white vs color neg film? Mine does, and it's an Epson V550.

SoulfulRecover · Jan 3, 2015

yeah it does. It allows me to select between Color Neg, Color Positive, Monochrome Neg and Monochrome Positive. I tried all of those options with no luck

I asked on a film forum in a scanner section and Im hoping to hear something from them soon. I found a Flickr group that is dedicated to this scanner but it has very little activity. I asked on there but I doubt I will hear anything any time soon. I tried google but have not found this problem anywhere so Im not sure whats going on. If it makes any difference I am using a 2014 Mac desktop with OSX

cgw · Jan 3, 2015

SoulfulRecover said:
yeah it doesn. It allows me to select between Color Neg, Color Positive, Monochrome Neg and Monochrome Positive. I tried all of those options with no luck

I asked on a film forum in a scanner section and Im hoping to hear something from them soon. I found a Flickr group that is dedicated to this scanner but it has very little activity. I asked on there but I doubt I will hear anything any time soon. I tried google but have not found this problem anywhere so Im not sure whats going on. If it makes any difference I am using a 2014 Mac desktop with OSX

Might be worth joining and asking at the Film Photography Project.

Flickr: The Film Photography Podcast Pool

PWhite214 · Jan 3, 2015

I had that problem with an Epson 4490, I had the negative holder about 1/16" out of position.

Mamiya Beattie Intenscreen, Mamiya Beattie Intenscreens.

Phil

SoulfulRecover · Jan 8, 2015

I couldn't figure out why my scanner wasn't scanning black and white film so I went to the local camera shop and they took care of. The bill reminded me why I bought a scanner in the first place. But anyway it worked. I am happy with a couple photos from the roll. The Ilford Pan F Plus is a nice film. It looks like I got my focus right as well from what I could tell. I just started a new job so I have been busy with that rather than editing but this morning I got around to one of the photos:

Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr