Dawid Loubser
Member
Hi All,
Regardless of the possibilities that digital stitching brings us (and which I used to once practice) there is something completely different about that process to using a 6x17cm panoramic camera, the Linhof Technorama 617S in my case (on a budget, the Fotoman 6x17 wil do very much the same thing).
I've been shooting this camera for about a year, after picking it up for a very reasonable price second-hand (they are, to put it mildly, hellishly expensive new). The inertia of the heavy camera body, together with the shock-less leaf shutter, mean that this camera is indeed very hand-hold-able (even down to 1/15s, I've never dared slower). I could happily climb a mountain with this camera and take no tripod along, although of course when possible, it's always better to use one.
The two primary challenges I find are
Something one does appreciate with the Technorama is the extreme construction quality of the camera, and the helical focusing mount, so that even with the Super Angulon 90/5.6 lens wide open, guess (or measured with external rangefinder) focusing is surprisingly accurate, and the image stays sharp right to the corners. Shot from f/11 to f/22, and you are in magical territory, the images are a real pleasure to behold. And the customer service from Linhof is exemplary, even to second-hand customers such as myself!
Both of my shots below were done with a 1-stop graduated neutral density filter, one to the top, the other to the right-hand side, to try and tame dynamic range. This flter (Cokin X-Pro series) is also the cause of the flare in the first image, which I have come to quite like in this image, it conveys the harsh brightness of the sun more vivdly without being distracting I thought. The Schneider lens does not flare, no matter where you point it.
From the top of the Berlin Falls:
The Ant Café:
Process: Both images were captured on Fuji Provia 100, and scanned with an Epson V700 to ~120 megapixels. The epson is decent enough when you fiddle with the little tabs that adjust filmholder-to-lens distance, but to be honest, if I down-scale them to ~60 megapixels each, not much is lost, so I think this is the practical limit with the standard film holders etc. Would love to try a Flextight X1/X5 on these slides, because the V700 does not come close to capturing it all.
The bottom-line is, there is something special about having a glorified point-and-shoot which shoots large-format quality images, without having to turn the whole experience into a technical/engineering stitching process, just walk and photograph. Just *see*. But one really has to think about composition with this aspect ratio! I cannot imagine how difficult it must be with the couple of 6x24cm cameras out there (again, by e.g. Fotoman), though this becomes a bit extreme for my abilities and/or expression. I sure have never felt the need for a wider angle of view, and would rather crop one of my 3:1 panoramas to 4:1 if the image suits it, with tens of megapixels left to play with
Regardless of the possibilities that digital stitching brings us (and which I used to once practice) there is something completely different about that process to using a 6x17cm panoramic camera, the Linhof Technorama 617S in my case (on a budget, the Fotoman 6x17 wil do very much the same thing).
I've been shooting this camera for about a year, after picking it up for a very reasonable price second-hand (they are, to put it mildly, hellishly expensive new). The inertia of the heavy camera body, together with the shock-less leaf shutter, mean that this camera is indeed very hand-hold-able (even down to 1/15s, I've never dared slower). I could happily climb a mountain with this camera and take no tripod along, although of course when possible, it's always better to use one.
The two primary challenges I find are
- Obvously, composition: Composing a pleasant 3:1 image which is something more than a "look, me too" stitch that just tries to "get everything in"
- Dynamic range over such a large area: I love to shoot slide film (because viewing a 6x17cm slide on a light table is a life-changing experience) and to fit the subject matter in a 90º angle of view into this shallow dynamic range means you really have to think about your exposure. Though I use incident light metering (until my meter broke, and I am now usig the meter in my head) I find that religiously following the meter is not good enough, because the odds are that it's not the same light falling on the whole of the vast area you capture.
Something one does appreciate with the Technorama is the extreme construction quality of the camera, and the helical focusing mount, so that even with the Super Angulon 90/5.6 lens wide open, guess (or measured with external rangefinder) focusing is surprisingly accurate, and the image stays sharp right to the corners. Shot from f/11 to f/22, and you are in magical territory, the images are a real pleasure to behold. And the customer service from Linhof is exemplary, even to second-hand customers such as myself!
Both of my shots below were done with a 1-stop graduated neutral density filter, one to the top, the other to the right-hand side, to try and tame dynamic range. This flter (Cokin X-Pro series) is also the cause of the flare in the first image, which I have come to quite like in this image, it conveys the harsh brightness of the sun more vivdly without being distracting I thought. The Schneider lens does not flare, no matter where you point it.
From the top of the Berlin Falls:
The Ant Café:
Process: Both images were captured on Fuji Provia 100, and scanned with an Epson V700 to ~120 megapixels. The epson is decent enough when you fiddle with the little tabs that adjust filmholder-to-lens distance, but to be honest, if I down-scale them to ~60 megapixels each, not much is lost, so I think this is the practical limit with the standard film holders etc. Would love to try a Flextight X1/X5 on these slides, because the V700 does not come close to capturing it all.
The bottom-line is, there is something special about having a glorified point-and-shoot which shoots large-format quality images, without having to turn the whole experience into a technical/engineering stitching process, just walk and photograph. Just *see*. But one really has to think about composition with this aspect ratio! I cannot imagine how difficult it must be with the couple of 6x24cm cameras out there (again, by e.g. Fotoman), though this becomes a bit extreme for my abilities and/or expression. I sure have never felt the need for a wider angle of view, and would rather crop one of my 3:1 panoramas to 4:1 if the image suits it, with tens of megapixels left to play with
