[LargeFormat] Re: 5x7, was Re: rainbows, was R O Y G B I V
Ole Tjugen
largeformat@f32.net
Fri Dec 12 19:32:01 2003
The expert on 5x7" enlargers is Clive, I've only got one...
I have tried scanning negatives, prints and contact prints. I find I get the
best results scanning contact prints, since (A) I've done all the burning,
dodging and dodgy chemistry tricks on them, and (B) I don't have to make a
smaller enlargement than 9 1/2 x 12" just to fit it on my flatbed.
Many good papers are capable of reproducing the grain structure of the
negative in any enlargement, some even in contact prints. I don't mean grain,
I mean the SHAPE of the grains... Scanners can't do that (yet), not can
digital printing.
As to rise and fall and movements - remind me to try my 90mm/f:8 Super Angulon
on the 5x7" camera. It fits, it can be focused, but nothing can move at all.
Next time I must put some film in the camera to see what it looks like ;)
Many of my recant pictures have been taken with an ancient 9x12cm plate
camera. Front shift and rise are the only movements, no swings or tilts. But a
great little camera for handheld shooting...
Ole
>===== Original Message From "philip lambert" <philip.lambert@ntlworld.com>
=====
>Hallo Ole, nice of you to respond. A point about all three sizes of holder
>being usable in the same 5x7 camera is that film sometimes turns up in
>halfplate at encouraging prices, and if it's a couple of years O.O.D. it
>might not matter for monochrome. Another point I kind of mentioned, that a
>half-plate camera on Ebay could be a good buy even with no darkslides or
>lens, given that the 5x7 holders can be found and almost anybody can lay
>hands on a 210mm Symmar. My 203mm Ektar isn't really a 5x7 lens - it covers
>the negative but I am warned that rising front makes for blurred corners.
>If you have rising front you want to use it.
>This doesn't address the problem of how to enlarge from 5x7. Is there any
>logic in scanning in the contact print or the neg and trying to print A4 off
>it, or does the process wreck the sharpness of the image. I did see a 5x7
>enlarger once; looked like the rise and fall had been made out of old
>battleship. Philip
<snipped>