Re: 4x5 camera suggestions

[Howard Wells <sandwell@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vaughan Bromfield wrote:
> 
> At 2:54 PM 13/2/97, George L Smyth wrote:
> 
> >Zone plate photography involves the use of concentric circles which
> >cause diffraction, which focuses on the film plane.  The images are a
> >bit "fuzzier" than pinhole, though the speed is faster and "hot spots"
> >tend to glow.  That's the short answer.  Confused yet? <g>
> 
> You know, I've never heard of this or seen it before. Is it a DIY
> technology (like pinhole) or does ot require some specialised equipment?
> 
> Can anybody point me to some examples of this interesting work, especially
> on the WWW?
> 
> Thanks for taking the time George and others to answer these questions. I
> for one really appreciate it.
> 
> Vaughan

George's explanation, as usual, is right on the money. You can make zone
plates yourself but I'm not capable of explaining how. As I mentioned my
source for zone plates, pinholes and information is Pinhole Resource's
journal Pinhole Journal.  They are on the web at www.yatcom.com/~pinhole
and may even have some zone plate work there.  The co-editor of the
Journal Eric Renner has a marvelous book oublished by Focal
Press--publishers of some of the most useful volumes in my
library--entitled Pinhole Photography:  Rediscovering a Historic
Technique.  Anyone interested in pinhole or zone plate or what I call
altered lense should have the book and subscribe to the journal.

As for the loupe with a gel method.  I have a standard 4x Schneider
loupe which I shoot through by holding it in front of a camera body w/o
a lense.  Moving it back and forth or rather forward and back focuses
it, and it gives a dreamy glow to things.  The light coming in from the
side adds to the effect I'm sure.  Sort of like having a single element
lense in a transparent barrel.  The gel of course is just filtration for
the HIE and has nothing to do with the technique.  Something else that
produces an interesting effect is reversing a zoom lense such as the
lovely old nikkor 75-150mm. And I hasten to say that interesting effects
alone are not sufficient to produce good photos, nor does a Mac a
desktop publisher make.  Cheers to all,

Howard

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