MorseBlog

As I discussed before I picked up a couple of cheap K&S adapters for Nikon F and Olympus OM lenses. I have a few of each in each lens family and I wanted to evaluate them on the GFX 50s ii for vignetting. The sensor is only 44mm across, so larger than 36mm full frame but not so big as 56mm fil medium format film. There are some discussions on forums that mention some lenses that perform well with the GFX series cameras. Sadly, my lenses do not seem to be amongst them.  I have the following lenses. OM Series Zuiko 28mm f2.8 This is a nice wide lens. Generally regarded as a very good lens.  Zuiko 135mm f2.8 This lens get consistently great reviews. It can be quite costly to buy second hand. Mine I bought in almost mint condition. Tamron 70-210mm f4-5.6 Again a well-liked lens surprising for a non-Zuiko lens.  Nikon F Series Nikkor 50mm f1.4 This is a classic lens and well-made and a joy to use. It was optimized for black and white and as such has a slightly yellow coati...

My odyssey in film photography these past short 8 years has taught me a few things about my preferences for cameras. Affordability has always been a factor. I also have a distinct prejudice in favor of medium format. This stems from first my brother’s involvement where he left a distinctly favorable impression on medium format despite having shot 35mm and large format competently as well. He passed away well before the digital era. I also decided that I wanted to avoid 35mm despite the obvious advantages in terms of cost, size and weight. I reasoned the advantages of film over digital was being quickly overtaken and medium format would remain relevant for a while longer. As I write this however it seems the technical advantages of film have been mostly if not completely over-run by advances in digital technology and cost. Never-the-less there are some attendant benefits to shooting film; among are not economy, simplicity, nor instant gratification. So my first film camera tha...

The journey through the darkroom continues. My recent upgrade s to make 16"x20" prints has been very satisfying and illuminating. During my first printing work at this scale I became aware that the focus at the edge of the print was not as clear as at the center. Prior to this scale of printing I had not noticed. This is for two reasons 1) My biggest prints were 12x16" prints, 2) I used fast modern papers in this size. When you move up to larger prints you need longer exposures for the same f-stop and my first 16x20" paper was some old Negra Portrene  which is a slower emulsion than the modern Ilford paper that I used in the past. Consequently the dual panorama print referenced above was printed at f5.6 at 16" and 32". This lead to the observation of softness at the edge. 16x20" print on Negra Portrene f5.6 | If one zooms into the upper photo at lower right corner and the lower middle, one can easily see the softness expressed at the edge of the ...