Leveling the playing field

[Tapper]

Although I mostly shoot digital, I've been prowling Ebay for a while now, and have picked up several older film cameras (cheap). All are in excellent shape, and I've been reasonably careful to pick up quality stuff (I suspect this is turning into one of those collecting obsessions that men in their 40's seem to get infected with). My shootng favorites include a Yashicamat 124G, a Mamiya 220, a Mamiya RB67, and a very cool old folder, an Agfa Isolette III. I also just received a large format camera with a Caltar 150mm lens.

The problem is - every one of these has a shutter calibrated differently. Although I have a lightmeter, it's almost useless unless you kow how to correct the exposure produced by the shutter. And paying to have all these shutters calibrated is a significant expense.

Any suggestions on a good procedure for systematically determining exposure corrections? Ideally, one which would work with all of them? I have strobes as well.

And lastly - what's the normal practice for getting cut film to processing? Whaat do processing labs expect it to be delivered in?

Thanks!

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

On the exposure situation I would approach it this way.

Take a wall that is painted in a flat paint at a gray card color- Just paint a wall area in the garage that you can get a decent distance from and then light that wall uniformly with either the strobes or a constant light source then write out a grid sheet for each camera. In that grid sheet you will have noted what camera body that you are using and burn some film noting how you are progressing through the various shutter speeds and F stops. Then go get the film processed (I would use slide type film since they don't try to mess with it in the lab too much) and see what your results are. Then you just know what your data sheet is producing. You will be doing a lot of bracketing and you may burn more than one roll through a body and that data sheet will be good for that one body only.

If the budget allows you have an excellent shop in Richardson that can do the calibration work for you and clean the cameras -Archinal Camera Repair on Main St right off of 75. So why spend $30 in film and processing to try to figure out what is off vs paying a bit more and getting the camera fixed and calibrated?

BTW why did you go with the RB67 instead of the later RZ67 model (both of which to me are a steal on the used market right now-I shoot a RZ set up is why I ask). Lenses for these cameras are amazing and like I said a steal on the used market. (digital backs can be bought that will work on either body in fact including Blads! with an adapter).

[johnastovall]

Is it the shutter speed or the stops? If the stops (and there have been many over the years) you can find equilant charts on the net with google.

[Tapper]

I wonder what calibrating those shutters would run each? How accurate could I reasonably expect them to be afterwards? I'm thinking I'd still need to determine an exposure compensation for each cam in relation to the reference light meter. I'm thinking Deep is right - better to just bite the bullet, and shoot the film to prove them up.

Also - I got the RB67, because I got one hell of a deal on it, along with a 150 and 180 lens, waist level finder, prism finder, shutter release, etc. $325 :) Seals still hold light, and it's in reasonably good shape too.

If you're patient, have a good eye for sellers, and know how to play a bid, you can get some great deals on ebay (you can get screwed too of course).

I'm shooting a family tomorrow, so I'm planning to haul the RB along too. I'm still pretty hit and miss with the exposure on it, but when you nail it, those mamiya 180 lenses sure produce some wonderful images.

Alas, one of the kids is 4, so I fully expect to suffer for my art.

[jeffkohn]

Any suggestions on a good procedure for systematically determining exposure corrections? Ideally, one which would work with all of them? I have strobes as well.

That's what the Kodak Q-13 is for among other things. Basically you would use test shots for each camera to determine the "offset" from the meter reading that you need to compensate for. So then for instance if you're going to shoot with Camera A at f/8 and you know that it's -1/3 stop off from your meter then you would meter at f/11 to determine the correct shutter speed. Of course you're going to keep track of the offsets for each camera but for a handful of cameras I would think you could get by with a little notecard taped to the back of your light meter.

[Stephen H]

Have you actually tried shooting with them? There could be some variations in the shutter speeds that simply disappear in the approximations of the metering process.

[Tapper]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

Have you actually tried shooting with them? There could be some variations in the shutter speeds that simply disappear in the approximations of the metering process.

Yes. at f11/125 the RB67 lenses are pretty close, but the TLRs and folders are perhaps two stops off or more. Not sure about the 4x5, haven't gotten anything developed from it yet. Hard to say whether the variations are uniform or vary across the range. I'm guessing they vary, but that's just a guess.