New Nimslo Owner

[thorpe@xxxxxxxxxx (Robert Thorpe)]

Grant,
Don't let these guys get you down. They're purists. Everything they said is,
of course, true. But... If their pictures are 100 on a 100 point scale, yours
are going to be at about 95 or 96. Here are some disadvantages of the Nimslo:

1. You have a fixed focal length so your close-up shots could be a little
blurry unless you have a really bright day and can rely on depth of field to 
compensate for close focal distance.

2. Since the camera is auto exposure you may have some limitation on the dim
end of exposure. That is, you can't set the camera for say, 1/2 a second. But
hey, you can always use your flash.

Here are some of the advantages:

1. Since the camera is auto exposure you never have to lug around an
exposure meter or another camera with a built-in meter. And you don't have
to rely on the
REVERED but highly unreliable sunny sixteen rule. In bright sunlight it works
fine, but in overcast, partly cloudy or other changable light it is a chancey
business to say the least.

2. The camera IS light and easy to use. You can stick it in your shirt pocket.
Try that with a Realist or twin rig.

Non-factors:

1. Format size. You can buy mounts for Nimslo slides. They will be a little 
smaller but who cares. If they are projected they might be marginally blurrier
for a given finished size but a projectionist doesn't move the projector back
a few feet when a Nimslo slide comes on. In a mixture of 5 perf, 7 perf and
Nimslo slides, the projected view is just a couple inches narrower. Big deal.
Besides, what if you are into vertical composition?

2. Lens acuity. I have never seen any figures on the superiority of Realist
lenses over Nimslos. They may be better, I just don't know. But a lens that's
40 years older could easily suffer from antique design and production 
techniques. The real question is whether the lens performs adequately for the
job you intend it for. And the Nimslos do just as well as the Realists if you
are making Holmes cards. You are only going to have your negs enlarged about
3 1/2 diameters. This is true for Realist or Nimslo. This is hardly any 
enlargement at all compared to projection. And it is well within the range of 
the Nimslo's capabilities. My prints are as sharp as I will ever need.

-----

One other thing about your lab. You said they make the prints two-up. This can
be a problem unless you get two completely full frames. At my lab they tried 
this and couldn't quite get two full frames on the print. They cropped a little
off the outside of each print to compensate. It is exactly this cropped off area
that you need. You will be cutting off and throwing away the inside part of the
print so you don't need them artificially narrowing the outside. This is very
difficult to explain in a short letter so I will be happy to discuss this more
at length if you want to e-mail me. Have your lab shift the prints over so the
outside edges of the two outermost frames of the 4 frame Nimslo set are sure to
be included; this will be the left side for one pair and the right side for the
other. Or get them to use a half frame mask if they have one and only print the
end pair of prints. Forget the middle ones.

Robert Thorpe


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