18 Apr
2004
18 Apr
'04
7:55 a.m.
Err... I am not tlaking about the horrible
point-n-shoot things made in
the late 70's/early 80's. I am talking about quality old cameras. Many of
them had a good range of shutter speeds, and the shutter will still give
repeatable timing (much more important than accurate times for most work)
if it's cleaned and lubricated _properly_ (note that flooding a shutter
with lubricant will do a lot more harm than good, I am talking about
putting 1 drop of watch oil on the arbors of the escapemnet mechanism,
and so on). And some older cameras haev pretty decent lenses.
Put it this way : I am sure a good 1950's or 1960's camera will give
better resolution than a consumer-grade digitial thing!
While the older 2D cameras are often very good (my one Nikon lense is
older than I am, and the body itself is fairly old), the same can't
be said for the 3D cameras that I have experience with.
As for the quality of consumer grade digital cameras, some of them
are surprisingly good. Though they all seem to insist on recording
the images as JPEGs :^( As long as all you want is a 3x5 photo, the
Kodak 3.1-Megapixel model we have with the Kodak photo printer
actually produces results that are about as good as film based!
Though the same couldn't be said if you wanted a larger picture. On
the other hand, HP makes a similar printer for their cameras, and
it's total junk (worse than their cheap inkjets).
For some of what I do with pictures, a digital camera wins hands
down, as it offers more than enough resolution, and better quality
than I can get from film without spending a small fortune. The Kodak
is also able to do some really amazing wizardry with its flash that
works surprisingly well.
Where the consumer grade cameras are bad is the levels of zoom. I
really want one of the nice Nikon SLR digital cameras.
max of 100
speed film, though I did shoot 1600 speed once in a cave
in Majorca. I think the max shutter speed is something like 1/200th
of a second.
Hmmm.. Most old focal plane shutters will do 1/1000 s. Some will do
1/2000. Leaf shutters are generally limited to 1/500 (and cheaper ones to
1/250 or 1/300), although the Prestor shutter in the Werra does 1/750
(that's one interesting shutter...)
But if the only reason you need faster shutter speeds is to be able to
use fast film in daylight without stopping the lens down too much (if,
indeed it will stop down far enough) then consider using neutral density
filters. There is a
really impressive difference between projected Viewmaster,
Realist and standard 35mm 3D images!
I am going to have to try this. I've
actually been looking for a slide bar to try on some experiments
with a digital camera. They seem to be something of a rare item
It shouldn't be that hard to make one. What about the focussing slide
from the bottom of a set of close-up bellows, suitably modified (I can't
be the only person who digs in the junk box at camera shops looking for
items to mofify...)