by John Crane | Jun 27, 2019 | lens compatibility, Technical, Technical Features
This next post is a guest post from Michael Cox of Vancouver, B.C. Michael was gracious enough to supply the following information about the Voigtlander 58mm f1.4 Nokton Lens, with a few sample images. Take it away Michael…
Michael Cox:
Image © Copyright 2019 by Michael Cox. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
After owning a Nikon F3 (which I loved for its design and size) I had realized that if I was going to continue with using a film SLR, given that I wear bifocals, I’d need an autofocus camera, so I found a near-new F6 at B&H Photo a couple of years ago. But I’d also sold many of my Nikkor lenses. After using the F6 with an old 105 Ais, and seeing how great the viewfinder was, how easy it was to manually focus with the F6, I wanted to try one of the Voigtlander Nokton lenses. I was familiar with Voigtlander from years ago, and was confident I would like their Nikon F mount Nokton 58mm f/1.4 SLII. The version I got was the earlier one with a rubber cover on the focus ring, whereas the newer, second version has a ribbed metal ring. The great advantage to either of these lenses is they have a chip that will send aperture information to the camera, and allow auto exposure with the aperture set to f/16.
Image © Copyright 2019 by Michael Cox. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
It’s important to set the F6 up for the lens: Menu:Non-CPU Lens. Press the INFO button to set the correct focal length and maximum aperture.
The camera could now be used in Aperture Priority using the front dial, rather than having to adjust the aperture ring; also it can be operated in Shutter and Program priority modes.
Image © Copyright 2019 by Michael Cox. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
The focus ring is smooth and well-damped, with just enough resistance. It’s difficult to describe the look: slightly creamy, I would put it: not soft, but with a filmic feel. It focuses as close as 1.5 ft (about 1/2 a meter). The results met my expectations. I’ve only shot three rolls since buying the lens and look forward to trying it out on portraits.
Image © Copyright 2019 by Michael Cox. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Given that the viewfinder doesn’t have split image or microprism focusing aids, I had thought that would be an issue, but the ground glass is so bright one can focus using any part of the screen.
Image © Copyright 2019 by Michael Cox. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Stephen Gandy’s CameraQuest site has details on the lens and the other Voigtlander Nikon F-mount lenses, some of which are unfortunately sold out (but available on eBay, or your favorite major photo store). https://cameraquest.com/Voigt_SL2.htm
These images were all shot with my F6 using a Voigtlander 58mm f/1.4 Nokton, Nikon mount, on Kodak Pro 100. The processing was done by the
Canadian Film Lab, in the small town of Hope, B.C., where they also scanned the negs using a Fuji SP-3000 at 4547 x 3047 pixels (their medium res scan).
Michael Cox
Vancouver, BC
Michael, thanks very much for your article and images. Anyone wishing to contribute to the F6 Project is welcome, just please let me know. I’m happy to feature new thoughts and ideas as they’re presented.
by John Crane | Jan 29, 2019 | Film Emulsions, Slide Film, Technical, Technical Features
This past week, after much anticipation, I received back my first rolls of the new Kodak Ektachrome 100, exposed in Chicago over the Christmas holiday (thanks to Denver Digital Imaging Center). After all the hype and fanfare surrounding Kodak releasing a new chrome film this far into the alleged afterlife of film I was excited to see the results. Spoiler alert: the wait was worth it. You’re going to love the new Ektachrome 100, as I did when I saw the first frames come on screen.
Jewelers Building, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 25 sec. @f8 = +0.7EV
Color is what I’d consider to be fairly natural, with a definite warm bias – especially when contrasted to my (expired) rolls of the older Ektachrome 100G, which the new Ektachrome was reportedly based on. Grain is super fine – for all practical purposes, if you want to process the photograph so it’s grain free it doesn’t take much. It’s a very sharp, contrasty and punchy film but not like Velvia, or the more vivid, Ektachrome 100VS. The new Ektachrome is just right. Remembering you can always punch contrast up in Photoshop – it’s nice to have a more ‘normal’ base line starting point.
Reciprocity Failure: honestly, I didn’t do a whole lot of math here – I just bracketed. Here’s a link to Kodak Alaris data sheet for Ektachrome 100. If the frame metered at 10 seconds, I bracketed three shots. Typically the longer exposure was better – but it’s not an exact science. Exposure times and +/-EV is listed for each image. You can see the F6’s meter – once again – did an excellent job resolving the scene. Always manual, always mirror-up with cable release.
Upper Wacker and Chicago River, Chicago, Illinois (2018).Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @f8, = +0.8EV
When I bought my F6 I’d already been familiar with the advantages of L-brackets, having them mounted on most of my other contemporary cameras (they’re not available for my older Nikons and consequently I find I don’t use them as much for this type of shooting). At first what I liked was the additional element of protection for the camera – against bumps and shocks, setting it down on a wet surface, etc. So outfitting the F6 with an L-bracket straight away was a natural thing to do. At the time I didn’t think, “now that I have an L-bracket I’ll shoot a lot more verticals.” But that is in fact what has happened.
Shooting verticals with an L-bracket is a snap. You simply mount the camera upright and shoot. Simple. And with a ball head and spirit level, it’s a snap getting the frame perfectly level too. There’s no contorting the stem of the mounting platform into the groove, and wondering if it’s really vertical because that’s as far as it will go.
TRUMP Tower, Chicago, Illinois (2018). Manual Matrix Metered 8 sec. @ f8, = +0.3EV
Another thing that just occurred to me… I’ve been trying to figure out instagram (show of hands.. anyone else?) and realized something important – at least in regard to viewing social media on your smart phone. Verticals are good again – better than horizontals. For the same reason people shoot video vertically (which drives me nuts) – when you look at social media on your smart phone there’s a pretty good chance you’re holding your phone upright – instead of on its side. When you look at images on your computer screen you’re most likely looking at them horizontally. But in social media, on your phone – it’s almost always vertical. This makes vertical photographs ‘in’ again.
These images were made with the famed Nikkor 35mm f1.4 AI-S manual focus lens, shot from the Penthouse of the Wyndham Grand Chicago River Hotel. Late one night I headed up the elevator to the Penthouse hoping there wasn’t any kind of event scheduled for the large, wide open room with windows all around and stunning views of the city. With the room found empty, the next challenge was trying to compose shots that didn’t include the few, random interior lights that I couldn’t find switches to turn off. At first I was composing frames that minimized reflected distractions, but it was getting in the way. Putting on my Macgyver hat I scoured the room for a solution and spotted a black table cloth. I found that by standing on a chair behind the camera and holding up this black table cloth the reflections in the windows were eliminated – the glass reflecting only black – which of course worked for the subject matter surrounded by night sky.
Make sure when you use any non-CPU lens with the F6 you set the profile up in camera. There will be a blog post about this in the near future. There was minor barrel distortion/pincushioning with these frames, but (very) minor and easily corrected using Photoshop’s Lens Correction filter and dialing in manual settings in the 2-4 realm. So not much at all.
If you’re looking at possibly shooting some of Kodak Alaris’ new Ektachrome, you’ll be pleased. It’s a great film and I’m super excited to have fresh film stock now available. Thank you Kodak Alaris. And if you’re going to shoot in a city at night and reflections are a problem – pack a big, black table cloth in your tripod bag next to your cable release. You’ll be glad you did. And don’t worry too much about reciprocity failure unless you’re getting really crazy long exposures (longer than 2 minutes). Just use a good meter and bracket if in doubt. And get an L-bracket for your camera to make shooting verticals easier. Your social media followers will like you for it. If you’re a chrome film shooter wondering who to send your film to, look no further than Denver Digital Imaging Center. They’re friendly, reliable, fast and do great work. And finally, if you’re an F6 shooter, learn Custom Setting B5: Extended Shutter Speeds. It opens up new avenues shooting in dimly lit, long exposure situations.
Thanks for reading
by John Crane | Jan 21, 2019 | MV-1 Data Reader, Technical, Technical Features
It’s pretty simple really: Just hook the 10-pin connector to the camera and hit “START.” The camera does the rest.
This evening I received an e-mail from someone wanting to know how to use the MV-1 with the F6. At about the forth or fifth step, I wondered if a brief video might be more appropriate. So without further delay, here’s a brief how-to with the Nikon MV-1. You’ll see it’s pretty straight forward. Cheers, JBC.
A couple of finer points:
- You’ll notice the odd angle (it seems odd to me at least) the MV-1’s cord connects to the camera. My digital camera’s 10-pin port connects ‘normally’ – as in, the cord flowing down the camera instead of up as shown above. Make sure you don’t try to force the cord’s plug in the wrong way. It’ll damage the pins and cause all kinds of problems.
- Make sure you do this with the camera OFF. Anything that might cause problems – especially in the electrical components of the camera – can be neutralized by making sure the camera is turned off when you attach something. This includes mounting and un-mounting lenses, by the way.
- You may notice I have a roll of film in the camera in the video. It’s on frame 35. This roll’s data will not be extracted from the camera during this session. Just the rolls that are complete.
- When I remove the MV-1 from the camera, the only data left in the camera’s memory will be that of the still-loaded roll. You should use the MV-1 when the camera is empty – but not for any technical reasons other than you’ll get all the rolls shot until that point. You won’t hurt anything using the MV-1 mid-roll.
- I leave all previous roll’s data on the CF card as a back up. They’re also copied into the computer, but having another copy of them on the CF card just makes sense to me. They’re small files and even the relatively small 128Mb CF card can last several life time’s worth of the tiny shooting data files.
by John Crane | Nov 26, 2018 | Black and White, Film Emulsions, Technical, Technical Features
A brief follow up on the previous post.
As a recap, while photographing Scott Lenaway, Artist I figured Delta 100 would be my optimum film so began with it. I burned through 2 rolls pretty confidently, knowing essentially what I’d get because of the previews on the digital camera.
(frame 01) Scott R. Lenaway, Artist – Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Moving to ISO400 Delta, I figured these images might be better, relying less on flash and more on ambient light.
After those 4 rolls were shot there were more photos to make, so I reluctantly reached into the bag and pulled out a roll of Ilford PanF ISO50 film, honestly not expecting much. My digital camera can’t mater at ISO50 so essentially I left the settings the same as for ISO100 (1/100 @ƒ2.8) film assuming the flash would kick up a notch using TTL. I’d never shot flash with PanF before and had no idea what would happen. But I knew I already had a lot of good frames so wasn’t risking anything.
(frame 06) Scott R. Lenaway, Artist – Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
When it came time to develop I did so in the same order according to my expectations: Delta100 the best, Delta400 second best and PanF, well… whatever I got was icing on the cake. All developed in Ilford DDX chemistry at 1:4 at 68°. I developed the last roll – PanF – yesterday and was shocked.
It was far and away the best of the bunch. I’m still trying to understand why – but it is, and has me re-thinking my approach to an upcoming shoot.
(frame 22)-Scott R. Lenaway, Artist – Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
After years of searching to acquire one of each single-digit F-series Nikon camera has concluded, I’ve been focusing again on 35mm with the F6. The ‘total package’ the F6 offers makes it uniquely capable of super high-resolution, high-quality images using the right film, right lens, good light and of course the (creative lighting) system behind it. On top of those things its relatively small footprint allow ease of set up on location and make it easy to work with.
The F6 is creatively satisfying because it’s uniquely positioned to make unique film photographs. Now with this discovery of Ilford PanF50 and flash, I’m excited to see how far it can be pushed. Not just for bright light and landscape photography, Ilford PanF Plus ISO50 film is capable of much more.
by John Crane | Nov 19, 2018 | Black and White, CLS (Creative Lighting System), Hybrid Workflow, Technical, Technical Features
Recently I had the privilege of photographing my friend and artist Scott Lenaway on location. Scott, a talented printmaker here in Fort Collins, wanted portraits in his studio. Photographing artists doing their thing – is really my thing.
frame 05-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018). Creatively, black and white film fit the assignment perfectly.
For those who don’t know – printmaking can be messy business (Scott always has ink on his hands when I see him). Given the nature and method of printmaking I envisioned deep, rich blacks and long tones – making black and white film the perfect creative direction.
frame 08-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Because his studio is rather dark, bringing any light needed was required. Though the studio isn’t small – it is a little crowded with breakable objects – that are also messy and expensive if they smash on the floor. This made setting up the big Speedotron Black Lines impossible. Not enough space and too many obstacles to block the light path.
Thankfully, the Nikon designers took it upon themselves to include Creative Lighting System (CLS) circuitry in the F6, making off-camera flash a breeze. For those who don’t know – CLS is one of the most unique and powerful attributes of the F6 – but perhaps the least understood. The F6 is Nikon’s only film camera that includes this circuitry making it capable of creating unique images. This meant CLS and my suite of Nikon SB speed lights were the perfect solution for this assignment.
frame 02-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
The brain behind CLS, the F6 is the only Nikon film camera with the circuitry to communicate with the SU-800.
After conferring about goals for the session, the idea was to have Scott go through the process of making a real print and photographing him doing so along the way. There were three main stations used in his print making process, each station requiring a different lighting setup.
Using the digital camera and the SU-800 commander head as a ‘polaroid,’ I worked out light levels for each strobe, then transfered the SU-800, lens and desired settings to the F6 and confidently shot away.
When it came time for the next station we’d stop – move the lights – run a new set of digital proofs, then repeat the process. By the end of the 2+ hours we had 5 rolls and a few digitals to choose from.
frame 17-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Hanging the first two rolls to dry after developing in Ilford DDX.
Back in the darkroom I processed each film in Ilford DDX, two rolls at a time, then reviewed each frame on the computer screen as it came up from the scanner. The idea was to put together a contact sheet of selects for him to choose from, showing only the best frames. Acquiring focus was a challenge in the dark studio, as was the fact he was moving around quite a bit – but the F6 did a great job tracking and the percentage of usable shots was high.
The overall look and feel of the photographs is exactly what I had in mind when the decision was made to go with Ilford Delta 100 film (my favorite black and white film).
Ultimately we’ll print a few final images as wet silver prints on fiber paper, completing the analog process from beginning to end.
Having shot mostly film again for the past 8 years, my catalog of digitally-originated frames drops a little each year. But- using the digital camera as a tool to figure out lighting on the fly has immense value.
frame 26-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Something worth mentioning: the idea that a photograph is created on film doesn’t preclude the necessity of editing. The image below is a good example. We all like to ‘get it right in camera.’ For the majority of shots I focused on the subject’s head, eyes and face. There were a few shots focused on hands and what they were holding – as in the shot below. Because of the very shallow depth of field to reduce the distracting background, there wasn’t much room in the focal plane. I wanted his hands to be the point of the shot, but to stop and relight everything to reduce brightness on his face would have been a waste of time and interrupted the flow of the shoot.
Instead I opted for a good base exposure, knowing I’d re-work values during print. So shooting film in a hybrid workflow is a great blend of bringing the best attributes of both film and digital together to create something unique.
frame 06-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
frame 15-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Shooting digitally does provide a bit of a safety net because you know for certain what you have when you’re done. Admittedly this is comforting. Working without that feedback again takes a little getting used to. I’ll admit a smile crossed my face upon seeing dripping wet rolls of film unwind from the reels, dense and healthy with tone. Never a doubt.
frame 04-Scott Lenaway-Artist, Fort Collins, Colorado (2018)
Do something different. Shoot film using Nikon’s Creative Lighting System and challenge yourself to make unique, creative photographs. Having a tool like the F6 that is able to respond to virtually any photographic situation is a true blessing.
by John Crane | May 3, 2018 | Film Processing, Technical, Technical Features
One of the great joys of shooting and developing one’s own film is the ability to tweak and experiment. While it’s true one needs to be prepared to have experiments fail – it’s also true that when they succeed, it can introduce a new component to your shooting, furthering your unique creative vision.
Behind Bellvue, Colorado. Nikon F6, Nikkor 24mm 1:2.8 Ai-S, Nikkor Y48 yellow filter, Mirror-Up, cable release, 1/15 @ ƒ22. Stand developed in Rodinal for 2 hours.
Initially I thought of this last roll of my favored Delta 100 as a bit of a toss-away roll. Having spent the first half of the roll playing, around frame 25 I found subject matter that may actually make a nice photograph.
When it came time to develop I decided to try Stand developing with Rodinal again. I’d done so a few times before with medium format film and it turned out well. Images are extremely sharp and contrasty, and a bit on the grainy side. This was my first attempt with 35mm.
From what I’ve read and what little I’ve learned thus far from personal experimentation – it sounds like slight underexposure is the rule. Without getting technical about Stand developing (again, limited experience), you essentially dilute the developer (not all developers are suitable) more than usual, then let it “stand” for a longer period of time, like hour(s), not minutes – with very limited agitation. Temperature isn’t as important either.
The idea is the developer that’s in contact with the film tires, and because of this – works more slowly to bring up shadow detail than it otherwise would when agitating-which puts fresh developer in contact with the film every minute or so. This ‘tired’ developer works slowly to bring up the dark areas of the neg and because it’s so diluted, in theory – avoids blowing your highlights. If you’re a Stand development expert and I just totally butchered the description please forgive the radical condensing and feel free to correct me.
I picked up a great e-book (Iridescent Light, TheArt of Stand Development by Michael Axel) a while back explaining Stand developing and was immediately intrigued. I thought this would be a good roll to have another go at it because I didn’t think there would be many (any) frames worthwhile.
Behind Bellvue, Colorado. Nikon F6, Nikkor 135mm 1:2.8 Pre-Ai, Nikkor Y48 yellow filter, Mirror-Up, cable release, 1/60 @ ƒ11. Stand developed in Rodinal for 2 hours.
From one point of view, Stand development is easy. It requires little intervention once the process has begun. After the diluted chemical is poured into the tank you agitate as normal. After 5-10 minutes, agitate again. After that, set the timer on your iPhone and go find something to do for a while. It’s the “for a while” part that’s the unknown, and where the book really helps explain the variables. I had a lawn to fertilize and wanted to watch the news so I set my timer for 2 hours.
When the timer went off I poured, stopped, rinsed as usual. This roll began the practice of PermaWashing after a water rinse, and also saw me switching over from Ilford Ilfotol wetting agent (couldn’t find it anymore) to Kodak PhotoFlow.
As I always do when I hang my films to dry, I hold a light up to the strip and visually inspect all the way down. What I saw was a healthy, thick neg down the line. Encouraged, I knew I’d have something to work with in scanning and ultimately wet printing.
Pick up some Rodinal and give Stand developing a try. I guaranty you’ll learn something. Viva la F6, Viva la film.
