Re: [photo-3d] MF / window violations!

[Brian Reynolds <reynolds@xxxxxxxxx>]

boris@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Tomorrow I am shooting a session with Betty using a friend's medium
> format camera.  (it's a Hasselblad.  Is that a good camera?)  It
> will be my first time shooting MF.
> 

Hasselblad's are OK.  I think their pricing (like that of Nikon and
Leica) has more to due with their reputation that their quality
relative to the other brands.  By the way, you might notice that the
bodies are pretty low cost.  That's because once you have the body you
are stuck getting the (extraordinarily expensive) lenses from them.

> I was planning to shoot with the Hassie on a slide bar, just to
> simplify my life, and to minimize film wastage!  But using a slide
> bar I don't get to do what I enjoy most, which is toe-in!  So I will
> be losing quite a bit off the edges when I want to mount these
> slides (some of you know I like to get in close).  From what I
> recall of the twin aperture MF slide mounts, there is not a lot of
> room for shifting chips to set the stereo window.
> 

A 6x6 film frame is 56mm by 56mm.  The aperture in the Spicer MF
mounts is 50mm by 50mm.  You have plenty of room to fiddle.  With my
Lubitels (the other end of the price spectrum :) I don't always keep
the cameras as well aligned as I would like to and I rarely have a
problem mounting my slides due to camera alignment (but I may be more
loose about it than others are).

You can also get 6x4.5 mounts from Rocky Mountain Memories in both
Landscape and Portrait orientations.  They should provide lots of room
for adjustment of 6x6 slides.

> There is an opportunity to get another 80mm lens for shooting two
> hassies side by side (my friend has two bodies, but only one 80
> lens.  Cheapskate!), and then I would be able to toe in.  But the
> session is Fri.  evening, and I'd have to drive an hour to fetch the
> second lens.  An hour I can barely spare tomorrow.
> 

If you can do it I would try twinning the Hasselblads.  How often are
you going to get a chance to try this?

> (Also, if I am set up for slide rail, as I am presently, I get to
> try some other lenses, too - such as the gargantuan 40mm planar
> summicron varioplex hypercubic macro something like that.)
> 
> The other option is to shoot the cha cha's handheld.  I tried that a
> bit today, just handling the camera and running the winder.  But I
> am not used to the weight and the motor drive is quite a bit slower
> than my Ricohs, which makes the cha chas a bit more difficult.  Also
> handholding, though it may allow me toe-in, invariably will
> introduce other alignment errors, which is what I am trying to avoid
> in the first place, because I fear the 6x6 aperture mounts don't
> give much leeway.
> 

I've done hand held cha-cha's with my Yashicamat.  The grid on the
focusing screen makes alignment pretty easy.  Of course my subjects
don't tend to move.

With twin cameras you probably want to use a tripod on a dolly or
perhaps a studio stand if you have one.

-- 
Brian Reynolds                  | "Dee Dee!  Don't touch that button!"
reynolds@xxxxxxxxx              | "Oooh!"
http://www.panix.com/~reynolds  |    -- Dexter and Dee Dee
NAR# 54438                      |       "Dexter's Laboratory"