RockNRoll Band-Leica M5,Canon F1.2 Neopan 1600?

Nokton48

Nokton48

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Hi All,
My younger son has been practicing his electric bass with our neighborhood band, and he will be performing Saturday night (with the band) at the local Buffalo Wild Wings eatery. I'm planning to make some Leica M5 photos, with my Canon 50mm F1.2 and 85mm F1.5 lenses. Normally I shoot Eastman XX, but I think something faster is called for, in this case. So I've loaded Fuji Neopan 1600, which I'm rating at EI640 with the M5's onboard spot meter. I plan to use Ilford DDX developer, which has worked for me, with this stock, before.

Any other suggestions? Thnx!
 
My son plays guitar, he's played a few gigs but they were in really "dark" places. I would go by and meter the location before hand, get an idea if the film speed is sufficient. A fifty may be too tight, if you want to get anything other than a single band member. How close can you get to the band?

My kid's band plays mainly "retro punk", meaning everyone is jumping around alot, so most of my pics were taken in between "songs"...when the action was slightly slower 🙂

Good Luck,
Todd
 
A lot of places have some really bright lighting on the stage area, although the lightinng can be extremely contrasty. Is there any chance that you could go by there tonight and check out the lighting?
 
If cannot check lighting beforehand, you can always take along a few different films and use the one that is most appropriate for the light that turns out to be.

Diafine is a good low contrast developer that can tame such lighting with high speed films. Neopan at 1600 to 2000 works fine in diafine, or tri-x at 1600.
 
I do a lot of concert shooting where, beside my D3, I use my Leicas & at times a F5 all rigorously loaded with B&W film; there are 2 films I always get great results with: Tri-X @ 1250-1600 in Diafine, and Neopan 1600 @ 1600 in 510-Pyro.

I am sure either Kodak or Ilford's 3200 ISO films would yield very good results, but I wouldn't be able to suggest a developer-ISO combination for neither of these.

Good luck, and post some results! 😀
 
Tri-X all the way

Tri-X all the way

Hi!
These last months I´ve developed 🙂p) a firm belief in the virtues of Tri-X in XTOL (stock solution). At 400, 1600 and even 3200. A fantastic combo in my experience! 🙂
 
Nokton48 said:
Hi All,
Normally I shoot Eastman XX, but I think something faster is called for, in this case. So I've loaded Fuji Neopan 1600, which I'm rating at EI640 with the M5's onboard spot meter. I plan to use Ilford DDX developer, which has worked for me, with this stock, before
Click to expand...


If you are going to rate neopan at 640, you might as well just shoot xx, in regards to exposure, both will perform the same.
 
Thanks for your responses, guys!

Enoch, my brother was a bouncer at the Newport for a time, he had some funny stories to tell my kids at XMAS this year, they were fascinated.

Concert isn't until 9:00PM, so I'll try to slip over there, for a preliminary look-see. I'll stick with the Fuji Presto 1600 (I think), not sure how tight things will be in the room, so I'll pocket my Canon 35mm F2, as well. Have a gallon of Diafine, might as well mix it up, try it out and possibly use it for this project. 1600 is pretty far off of XX's nominal rating (of EI250, for me) but I can bring some rolls of that, so I should be covered. So I can shoot at EI 250 with the XX, or EI 640 or EI 1600 with the Presto 1600, depending on development.

So I'll be eating Buffalo Wild Wings, drinking Beer, and pretending I'm a great RockNRoll Photographer. I've always admired Jim Marshall's website, he uses an M4, Tri-X, and a 28mm, I believe.
 
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Gad, that's a sweet M4! Georgeous!

Woolenmammoth,
Set the M5 to EI 400 or EI 640, with Diafine & XX?
What works for you?
 
Forget the dinner and drinking, go early when they are setting up. Get meter readings so you know where/what is happening. Every band checks the sound and the lighting. Write down the readings you get on a post-it and stick it to the back of your camera. You can use an incident meter to get the best readings. Do not forget to meter the bright areas as well as the darks, think zones.

Have dinner later with your son, work comes first.

B2 (;->
 
MikeL said:
......Everyone on the internet says it isn't sharp and flares a lot. Same with the Canon 28mm Winogrand used.
Click to expand...

Does make you think about the drive for perfection. Also that idea of one camera, one lens. Find what is you and use it.

That camera shows what I think we should all strive for. A lot of use but no abuse. There are no dents on it anywhere, but yet it is worn just about everywhere.

B2 (;->
 
Lenses that fast + TriX (@1250) or Neopan 1600 (@1600) in Diafine do the trick for me every time. I've done an awful lot of this sort of thing, both digital and analogue. But not with a rangefinder yet!

I posted examples many times before, PM me if you want to see some.
 
MikeL said:
Everyone on the internet says
Click to expand...

sorry I overlooked that. In that case you are probably right. They just stuck that lens on there for the auction. Certainly when you look at his body of work you *never* see the very obvious fingerprint of the 35 lux. silly me. 🙂

nokton, xx is good for me past 3000 in diafine, it really all depends upon what the lighting is like. Ive been using neopan 1600 and xx interchangeably for a while. Very different looks though, pretty much the choice between grain and no grain.
 
WoolenMammoth said:
xx is good for me past 3000 in diafine, it really all depends upon what the lighting is like. Ive been using neopan 1600 and xx interchangeably for a while. Very different looks though, pretty much the choice between grain and no grain.
Click to expand...


OK That's very helpful. Thanks. BTW those photos in the link you sent me, have an AMAZING quality. So I will shoot some up-rated XX as well as Presto 1600.
 
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It turns out the neighbors vehicles are completely filled with equipment, so we will be taking Zach to the gig, two hours before the show. The wife and I will be eating and enjoying ourselves, this is -not- work, it is play. Based on what I've been seeing, I'm also bringing M2, loaded with up-rated XX, in Diafine. And also Neopan 1600 in M5, I'll alternate between the two bodies, trying the different lenses. Will post something ASAP.
 
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