Finally!

[Gary R. Smith]

Five months after getting the Toyo 45A field camera, I finally got some decent exposures. Shot on ISO 100 Fomapan 4 x 5 sheets. (All) exposed at f/8 for 1/250 second. Developed for 6.5 minutes in Kodak D-76. Digitized with my a7R3. These jpg's are reduced size files.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I'm underwhelmed to say the least.

The shots look soft but the focus looked good on the ground glass.

Maybe it's me, maybe it's the Fomapan?

 

[Beth Anthony]

yea, looks pretty soft to me too. nice tones though.

 

[Paul Taylor]

I'm underwhelmed to say the least.

The shots look soft but the focus looked good on the ground glass.

Maybe it's me, maybe it's the Fomapan?

Gary, Did you use a magnified loupe to fine focus on your ground glass? I have found this is imperative for accurate fine focusing. I have two different ones I use depending on the subject matter and I rarely, if ever miss focus. I have a Carson 4.5x and a Carson 10x.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Thanks Paul, I did use the B-L 4x, I had tried the 10x and got lost in the magnified edges as rendered against the ground glass finish.

It's been suggested that I might try shooting with a smaller aperture. The Nikkor 150/5.6 goes down to 64.

My left eye used to be my strong eye but since the retina damage from the stroke I have to use my right eye. I wear glasses for reading and driving so using a loupe is really the only way I can focus on ground glass.

 

[Paul Taylor]

The Carson 4.5x I use is a large loupe (it barely fits on the ground glass) and due to the size of it I find it is easy to fine focus. I don't think it would be attributable to the film, as I have had good luck with the Fomopan films in terms of sharpness and resolution.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

The two Bausch+Lomb loupes that I have are intended to pop into you eye socket and the lens is only about 1" in diameter.

To be fair, I haven't looked at the negatives under a loupe on the light table and possibly re-shooting them with a more precise leveling of the camera to the light table would improve the apparent focus.

 

[Paul Taylor]

Perhaps take a friend for focus confirmation? If I was local I would volunteer. Then you could narrow down the cause.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

So, the scans that I did weren't "square" and I adjusted the corners with a perspective tool. In this version (below right) I used the un-adjusted negative AND applied sharpening. While it is somewhat better, the fundamental problems were: should have used more precision while focusing, should have used a smaller f-stop, should have done a better job shooting the negatives.

Paul, I like your idea of having a second set of eyes look at focus!