Medium Format

[Michael Griffiths]

HI'
I have been busy with my Bronica most of the day but then it occurred to me that maybe as I was using the camera hand held at 60th of a second I might end up with a lot of camera shake

Can someone alleviate my suffering please!?

 

[Christie Photo]

Well... what lens? The longer the lens, the greater the risk. If you took care, you should be fine using a normal lens (80mm or so).

Were you making flash exposures? Again, this would help since the duration of your flash should be at the very least 1/5000 of a sec, probably shorter. Unless the ambient light was very bright, you should be fine.

Whew!

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Hi'
Was using a 65m lens - but as I hate using flash I just used the ambient light f8 at 60th. There’s a bit of a kick with the shutter so I was thinking I might suffer with camera shake

 

[Christie Photo]

1/60 at f8... the correct exposure for all photographs! (hehehe)

You should be just fine. Just that you were mindful of it while shooting is a good sign. I'd bet there's little evidence of movement.

 

[ksmattfish]

The general rule is: minimum handheld shutter speed = 1/focal length

But this is a very, very general rule. A steady photog could go slower, a shakey photog should go faster. Focal plane shutters cause more camera movement than leaf shutters.

 

[Mitica100]

HI'
I have been busy with my Bronica most of the day but then it occurred to me that maybe as I was using the camera hand held at 60th of a second I might end up with a lot of camera shake

Can someone alleviate my suffering please!?

Hi Michael,

Like ksmattfish said, the rule is 1/focal length for handheld. Unfortunately the Bronicas are known to be quite jolting upon the mirror return. I worked with a SA2 for about 5 years and it was rather noisy and shaky when handheld. Which Bronica do you use?

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Ahh Hell - danm and blast, no camera shake just miles under exposed. Used my hand held meter, gave me a reading, may be it was the way i was using it - pointing it towards the sorse of light the window when i should have been pointing it away. At least I had my Nikon 35 with me and made some through the lens metering. They look like they could have been good too. I really didn not want to go under a 60th because of camera shake. Should probably have used my tripod for a slower shutter speed. But then any movement by the subject would have been read. please please please what am i doing wrong!. It a Bronica SQB

 

[voodoocat]

pointing it towards the sorse of light the window when i should have been pointing it away

This works when you use an incident meter. If it's a handheld meter it probably has a white dome that slides over the meter to change it to incident metering.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

I use a seconik with the invecone - should i point it away from the light source? also i'm using slide film for which you should be exposing for the light - by the way the film is nearly black which means i underexposed it i think! hell! i'm such a novice! The seconik also has a spot metering ability which i suppose i could use the same as the nikon but for the Bronika - I bought the light meter so i could learn how to do the zone system, but that did not work either!!!!

 

[Christie Photo]

Sorry to hear about the results. Yeah... nearly black film = grossly underexposed.

I think when metering for transparency, I would use a gray card. But the way you used your meter should have been much closer. Check the meter to be sure the ASA is set properly and no exposure compensation. I think I would point the meter at the lens in most cases. Don't forget to bracket the exposure.

I'm gonna make a confession now. I've always relied HEAVILY on Poloroid to check not only composition and ratio, but exposure too. It's saved my *** more than once!

Not the most professional approach, but more professional than coming home empty handed.

Wishing you better luck next time.

 

[spike000]

Choices are simple.

1) Spot meter to a number of different points and build up the zones.
2) Take a general reading from either grey card or your hand (this is approximately 18%)
3) Run around like a lunatic taking hundreds of readings from card until you are exhausted and cannot remember the first.
4) Polaroid
5) Use another camera whose light meter you trust and base your exposures on this
6) Bracket all the way to hell and back.

I find all of these methods work but I generally stick with using another camera.

As for the shaking - medium format cameras have this issue as they generally have very large mirrors - this leads to massive mirror-slap and, as such, camera-shake.

I use a Mamiya 645 and find that with the mirror lock-up on I can avoid this right down to 1/focal length with no problems. BUT.....if I was taking important shots and worrying about exposure to the extent that you seem to be - a decent tripod would save me a lot of trouble!


Spike

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Damn and blast I used the spot meter and tripod to do some test shots - apparently with medium format it reverts to factory settings for a single shutter speed when the battery is dead, hence the under exposed images. I had no warning. But I should have known I have not used this camera for a year or two, thank you for your suggestions, they have all been a lot of help
!!!! '''/;{{ it!!!