Swamp Sedge, Alexandria Bay.

[Maris Rusis]

Swamp Sedge, Alexandria Bay

Gelatin-silver photograph on Agfa Classic MCC III VC FB photographic paper, image size 16.3cm X 21.3cm, from a 4x5 Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Tachihara 45GF double extension field view camera fitted with a Voigtlander Heliar 21cm f4.5 lens.

[Asher Kelman]

Originally Posted by Maris Rusis

Gelatin-silver photograph on Agfa Classic MCC III VC FB photographic paper, image size 16.3cm X 21.3cm, from a 4x5 Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Tachihara 45GF double extension field view camera fitted with a Voigtlander Heliar 21cm f4.5 lens.

Swamp Sedge, Alexandria Bay

How large is this plant? This is so sharp so I guess you likely had the Heliar at f16 or more. I'd love to see how this lens performs wide open. Do you actually use the Agfa paper or is this ADOX? Just wondering what you think of the replacement?

Asher

[Maris Rusis]

Originally Posted by Asher Kelman

How large is this plant? This is so sharp so I guess you likely had the Heliar at f16 or more. I'd love to see how this lens performs wide open. Do you actually use the Agfa paper or is this ADOX? Just wondering what you think of the replacement? Asher

Small things have a perfection often missing in large forms. These tiny plants flourish in their beauty and complexity at a scale barely half the dimensions of their screen image.

Given enough bellows extension all lenses are macro lenses when mounted on a well deployed view camera. The 21cm f4.5 Voigtlander Heliar didn't quite get me to 1:1 repro ratio because the Tachihara 45GF camera offers only 310mm of bellows all out. Extra magnification came from cropping and enlarging in the darkroom. Yes, the paper used was preciously hoarded original Agfa Classic now all gone. The Adox replacement is just as sweet with a somewhat whiter base.

The Voigtlander Heliar is a lens famous for wide aperture portraiture because a whiff of uncorrected spherical abberation softens and flatters skin textures. But stopped down it delivers wiry sharpness. The tiny sedges were photographed at f32 and the only precaution was to focus initially at f11 to avoid a bit of focus shift that intrudes when stopping down from wide open.

Even though the camera back is parallel to the ground the lens axis is actually oblique. The lens is shifted off axis (to maximum rise) so that the camera is not directly above and shading the plants. You may notice many more black squiggly lines reflected in the water meniscii at the bottom of the picture than the top. Those black squiggles are mostly images of the tripod legs holding up the camera. I'm well to the side firing the shutter with a cable release at arm's length. The delicate forms of tiny sedges don't need my bulk looming over them.