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!

 

[Tony Warren]

This may be off the mark Gary but have you checked that the GG is the right way round? Sounds silly but the glass thickness can make a difference especially at larger apertures. Glad to hear you are making progress with the big stuff.

 

[Tony Warren]

This may be off the mark Gary but have you checked that the GG is the right way round? Sounds silly but the glass thickness can make a difference especially at larger apertures. Glad to hear you are making progress with the big stuff.

PS. And is the Fresnel on the lens side?

 

[Gary R. Smith]

And is the Fresnel on the lens side?

Well, that could be part of the problem...

The Fresnel was on the "outside" of the ground glass (the side you could touch while focusing to shoot) with the circular etching on the outside as well.

The Fresnel should have been positioned with the etchings touching the ground glass on the lens board side!

Thanks Tony!!

It seems that at one time I took those apart to clean both and I guess I didn't get them back in the correct sequence. I even have the Toyo sheet describing how to assemble the Fresnel to the gg.

I suspect that the positioning of the Fresnel on the wrong side could affect the focus on the film plane.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I'm going to shoot a couple of exposures today with my new Fresnel/GG sandwich sequence.

 

[Tony Warren]

Glad that helped Gary. Stroebel's View Camera Technique goes into detail and suggests some focus problems occur if the Fresnel ridges aren't against the ground surface of the focusing screen.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

Still not thrilled. Toyo on the left f/32 @ 1/25th v. Sony on the right at f/22 @ 1/50th.

 

[Gary Ayala]

It must be getting frustrating. What did you focus on? Maybe it is time to check out the lens.