MPP micro technical / large format newbie questions

[Hamish Gill]

I'm going to start a thread Pete as PM's get lost and I like to refer back...

Firstly ... Shading the screen
Coat?
Is there a shade available? Are they any good?

Focusing
Not as easy as I had thought!
Stopping down in daylight makes the screen very dark!
Is it actually possible to check focus when at f32 for eg?

DOF
Being a big fan of scale focusing I felt completely lost without it ... Or am I just missing something?
Do I need to carry charts with me or somthing?

I havent even got as far as adjusting the movements yet!
This is going to be a learning curve!

 

[Pete Askew]

Yes there are fold-out hoods for them but they are useless as then you can't use a loupe (has the Nikon one arrived yet?). A coat or a cloth is best if you are outside. You should focus at maximum aperture as, even with a modern LF camera, the screen will be too dark at most working apertures (although I suspect you'll love the wide open look). You'll need DoF tables if you want to work that way I'm afraid but then as soon as you start moving things all of that will change of course! You could make some template tp pt on the baseboard. Best idea is the play around with movements etc indoors to work out what effects you can get.

 

[Pete Askew]

There's some stuff here that might help.

MPP USERS' CLUB

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yes the loupe arrived but I forgot it :/

Focusing wide open is what I did before stopping down so at least I got that bit right

I don't understand though how you are supposed to know exactly what to expect from the movements if using them in combo with smaller apertures when you can't see the effect of the smaller apertures very easily on the screen?

I was looking at some wide open LF shots from one of those moded Polaroids ... Absolutely stunning they were!

 

[Pete Askew]

These seem pretty good and will help to make sense of it all.

Scheimpflug / Plane of focus - YouTube

 

[Hamish Gill]

... Easy when you know how eh!
I'll get my head around this ... Eventually!

 

[Hamish Gill]

... Back to DOF whilst I think about it
Without any sort of chart, without seeing the effect on the screen and imagining we aren't taking into account any movements
How is the user of one of these things supposed to know or decide on what aperture to use to obtain the desired DOF?

 

[Pete Askew]

The true DoF resulting from a selected aperture (or the other way round) is often derived from a table or a scale on one of the standards. But first you need to separate out the effect of plane of focus (in a similar way to a T&S lens) with adjustments created through the use of camera movements. So, in the example in the video, all parts of the pack are in focus because the camera has been adjusted such that its plane of focus matches the angle etc of the box even at maximum aperture. I think I need to try and create some examples when I'm back in Potsdam to help understand the impact of the two.

 

[Hamish Gill]

So like I say, ignoring te movements, once I have a flat lens board I would take a distance reading from the scale then use a chart to work out DOF...
I want to get to grips with the basics before I start messing with movements ...
That said, any info will be helpful!
You can see why I wanted to start a thread now

 

[Hamish Gill]

I found an app

£2 but it doesn't have 150mm

 

[Pete Askew]

That's right Hamish.

No 150, how bizarre. Given that 150 mm is one of the most common lenses for 5x4!!

 

[Hamish Gill]

... Bugger, that was a waste of £2, just found out "simple DOF" does it... And better!