[rollei_list] Re: Tripod versus Handheld
- From: Emmanuel Bigler <Emmanuel.Bigler@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:06:33 +0200
Le 17/08/2011 03:11, Bob James a écrit :
Well got my very first roll from my new Rolleiflex printed. Boy
there is a lot more information packed onto that negative compared
to 35mm! I've never shot medium format before (well not since I was
a kid in the 60's anyway on a Brownie).
Congratulations, Bob, and welcome back to the medium format gang, half
a century later ;-)
In addition to the lot more information packed into a 6x6 (56x56 mm -
2-1/4" x 2-1/4") frame, people of the XXI-st century who attempt to
scan a good Rollei negative or a good Rollei colour slide soon
discover that there is even much more in their images than their
family-grade flatbed scanner is able to extract. This can be very
frustrating !! I've experienced it painfully when I first attempted to
scan some colour slides from my Rollei archives. Hence for B&W images,
the good'ol enlarger & enlarger lens will give you probably more than
a family-grade flatbed scanner. Colour prints are another story ...
but 6x6 slides are so nice !!
I'm noticing one frame is super razor sharp, the others just sharp
(all handheld). I have a feeling I must have had a little camera
shake going on. Could be just getting used to the new way of holding
this camera still enough.
But I'm also thinking the Rolllei > might require the tripod more
than a 35mm SLR?
Certainly not (by saying this abruptly, I confess my addiction to the
Rollei TLR ;-) if you compare to a conventional 35 mm film SLR with
its flipping mirror and focal plane shutter. The Rollei TLR has a leaf
shutter, by its mere principel, moving parts in this kind of shutter
generate less vibrations than a focal plane shutter, and the TLR has
no flipping mirror. And your images taken with a Rollei TLR can
withstand such large magnifications that you'll reach a degre of
required sharpness for which you probably do not care with a 35 mm
image. As an amateur photographer using the Rollei TLR since 1977,
I've taken most of my images hand held like did the reporters of the
good old days.
I do not claim that all my Rollei-TLR images are super-sharp, but some
can be. See for example on our Rollei-Flickr Group Repository those
examples showing Mount Whitney, taken _hand-held_ from the trail (down
to Whitney Portal) with my Rolleiflex T. Sunny-16 rule@ISO-50 under
the generous Californian Sierra Sun, the picture was probably taken at
1/125-s f/11.
A detail of the scan, 560x560 pixels, raw scan, the whole image was
scanned at about 5600x5600 pixels, the detail is only 1/100-th of the
whole image area
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/412499936/in/photostream
same with some post-processing, digital edge enhancement
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/412499937/in/photostream
Before deciding whether this is sharp enough for you or not, please
note that the whole image is 10 times bigger in linear size. For
example on my 19" display, this sub-image shows as a 15x15 cm (6"x6")
frame. The whole image would cover 1.5x1.5 metre, i.e. 5x5 feet.
another detail, 560x560, raw scan, looks sharper, I do not know why
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/412499930/in/photostream
same with digital edge enhancement
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43175600@N00/412499937/in/photostream
The original slide is an Agfachrome 50-S from 1987 ; recent coulour
slide films are much better in terms of fine grain, This slide was
scanned at the beginning of the XXI-st century with an Imacon scanner.
When I discovered what the Imacon could extract from my slides (of
course served by the Zeiss-Rollei optics !!), I _definitely_ stopped
my attempts to refine my scanning procedure with my faithful family
flatbed scanner ;-)
I'm wondering if any of you tend to shoot a greater proportion of
photographs with the Rollei on a tripod compared to your 35mm SLR
shooting? Thanks as always, Bob
As an amateur, 99% of my 35 mm images were hand-held, same for my
Rollei-TLR 6x6 images. But I do not work for a client ...
Regarding "reporters of the past", the legend says that French
reporters used the so-called 'string-tripod' ("pied-ficelle" in
French). A string loop is attached under rollei at one end, the other
end of the loop is firmly pressed under the photographer's shoe. The
camera is held "up" firmly so thet the string loop is tight and (to me
this is a legend, I never experienced it) is supposed to stabilize the
camera.
--
Emmanuel from France
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