Re: slide conversion

[Greg Erker <erker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Does anyone have any first hand experience converting MF into Realist
>format or superslides?

  My brother has duped some of my MF slides
for himself using a non-macro Pentax 50mm lens
and his bellows. He uses Kodachrome 64 and
TTL flash and got okay results. The sharpness
seems fine but there was noticable contrast
buildup from my Velvia originals.

  My second experience is when Elliott was
looking for hyper fireworks slides. I loaned
him my best ones so he could makes some dupes
for himself (on 35mm) and some copies for myself
and my brother Pat. Elliott's dupes are better
since he used duping film so the contrast build
up is negligable.

>I would assume that the resulting reduced slides would sharper,
>proportional to the reduction.  I don't know where I would run into
>the physical limitations of the film grain.  Any experience?  Any
>guesses?

  With a sharp original and a good duping system
the result should be close to the sharpness of
a 35mm original. My Finale slide looks good in
Elliott's dupe but if you compare it to the original
you can see that fine detail has been lost. As a
standalone slide it still looks very good.

>There must be a duplicating film made for slides.  Any suggestions? I
>assume is would be e-6.

  Duping film is best. If you don't want to go that
route pick a lower contrast slide film (Astia maybe)
to lessen contrast built up. You may also get some
benefit from preflashing the film to keep the shadows
from blocking up (3 or 4 stops down).

>One last question.  Will I have any problem with depth geometry?  I
>would think the on-film deviation would scale proportionally.

  None. The scaling will take care of it.

>Why 5 perf?  I'm thinking of preparing a slide show for
>non-enthusiasts.  I don't think they will care about or notice super
>sharpness, certainly not enough to warrant fooling with MF
>projection.  Simple setup and transport is my aim with 5 perf.
>Still, I don't want them to look like crap, either.  :^)

  Good plan.

  The superslide idea that others have discussed
is nice except for the lack of 120 duping film.
Though if you have low contrast originals you might
get away with using regular 120 slide film (Astia again?).

  For that plan a 645 camera with macro lens and
the Mamiya superslide cutter is what you'd need.


Good luck - Greg