FOBA Baby FOBA

[FOBELIO]

Just out of curiosity...is there any weight difference between a black P70 and one of ye olde grey ones? I've noticed even the grey ones can vary a bit in weight depending on the age and specifics of the design or manufacturing run...same with some of the FOBA combitubes.

But I do like the look of the black reflectors in Bron's current marketing. Black is boring in any other brand, but given Bron's long history with the grey, black is kinda cool for them. In saying that, a grey P70 will always be somewhat iconic for me as it was one of the first bits of studio equipment I handled when I was starting out as an assistant, and I have a lot of fond memories from back then.

I don't think so! I have a black P45 and a grey one and they are the same... I assume they same counts for the P70...
I have and had many P70 (from new to well beaten but never a black one) and I didn't notice any difference.

There is a rare reflector of Bron that looks like a P70 and have the same geometry but don't have the ridge for holding grids or barndoors:
the R70
It is probably from the early days when the Pulso lamps are introduced and I think it was intended as a more economic variant of the P70.
I have one and the weight difference is barely perceivable.


Speaking about the COMBITUBE:
there are the aluminium and steel variants. The weight difference is very noticeable.
The old COMBITUBE in aluminium came also in a grey variant and later FOBA started to offer them in black.

Then I have some 6cm COMBITUBE: some are made from full material (and have black anodized tips) and others are made using a short tube (as the longer ones) and have the silver threaded tips...

I will post soon (next weeks) a little overview of variants of the COMBITUBE that I have in my collection and some interesting oddities 😉

here the tips of the COMBITUBE that are also different... on the left for the steel variant and on the right with the special thread for the black aluminium

 

[FOBELIO]

SONY DSC by Nokton48, on Flickr

About $2400 if I'm figuring correctly, looks new in every way. Paid about $300 I figure. Works great and this one I'm keeping. Best of the Best of the Best, as they say. Another copy of this is coming in exchange, as well as a Grafit A4+. I've been studying the instruction book, it's quite a step up for me. $8900 strobe pack for about $500 US I figure. More bonanzas IMO. The Grafit A4+ was designed for digital.

$300 is a good price for a F4 in good condition.
Often on used and abused Pulso lamps the connector housing is partially broken, also the glass dome and the cables are often very curly... fortunately I sold all of these abused Pulso lamps... to service them was to expensive for me.
A Bron technician told me to be cautious with them because it can be dangerous... the connector have always to be well plugged in the generator.

 

[dxp]

I don't think so! I have a black P45 and a grey one and they are the same... I assume they same counts for the P70...
I have and had many P70 (from new to well beaten but never a black one) and I didn't notice any difference.

...

Speaking about the COMBITUBE:
there are the aluminium and steel variants. The weight difference is very noticeable.
The old COMBITUBE in aluminium came also in a grey variant and later FOBA started to offer them in black.

Oh the weight differences aren't huge, and I only discovered it when I had to provide a shipping quote for an assortment of combitube and figured I weigh a couple of bits and then multiply it out. But with the black 80cm aluminium combitube, I had a relatively new copy that weighed 323g, and a quite old one that was 371g, and holding them side by side you definitely could feel there was a difference even though it wasn't great. Perhaps that was due to differences in the ends rather than the tubing itself.

And there were two 80cm sections of silver, steel combtitube dating back to the same era (both stamped with FOBA ZURICH but without any logo) that were 644g and 680g respectively, and what I assume is a slightly newer version of the same (with the logo) that was 687g. Two others with the logo were 654g and 663g respectively.

With the pieces I ended up weighing. ('cause I found the variations interesting) the weight of older pieces was definitely less consistent than newer pieces, and also seemed to trend to lighter weights for newer copies of the same lengths.

With the P70 reflectors (which I also measured due to curiosity) the lightest one I own is 421g and the heaviest is 494g, which is again noticeable if you're holding one in each hand.

Ultimately it's inconsequential in use, I was just surprised that they varied that much.

 

[Nokton48]

Reshoot Black Creature CFV16 500CM 120 S Planar Diopter 1 Polarizer 1600J by Nokton48, on Flickr

Reshoot with Black Seamless Paper, Hasselblad B50 Polarizer zaps the reflections in the glass. Broncolor Hazylight overhead 1600J. CFV16 Hasselblad 500C/M Anniversary, Zeiss 120mm S Planar Zeiss Diopter 1.

 

[Nokton48]

oops dupe...

 

[Nokton48]

Studio Renovation 3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The studio has evolved from a total 60's 70's retro vibe, to pretty much the full Broncolor range. Why not?

Lots of Olde FOBA here, lots of goodies. All boxed up now so I can find things.

Lens Pairs for Twin Lens Norma so far by Nokton48, on Flickr

This was a fun project, barrel lenses are often not expensive. Went with Olde Vintage Sinar Norma lens boards I have a good stock of them. After I cut the metal I brush paint Flat Black Krylon to cover up the surgery. JB Weld plugs up holes, sometimes remove the micky mouse automation if I need just the flat board. Some of these pairs need final finishing, good winter project finally done ahead. The Famous Repair Guru Ken Ruth (restored my Automatic Makiflex took a year), told me to get a complete set of Schneider silver chrome Componon lenses. So I did, and WOW was he right! Great for exposing film, not just enlarging. Very similar to my Schneider Symmar collection, almost identical really. I believe might be flat field as well that can be a plus?

 

[FOBELIO]

Oh the weight differences aren't huge, and I only discovered it when I had to provide a shipping quote for an assortment of combitube and figured I weigh a couple of bits and then multiply it out. But with the black 80cm aluminium combitube, I had a relatively new copy that weighed 323g, and a quite old one that was 371g, and holding them side by side you definitely could feel there was a difference even though it wasn't great. Perhaps that was due to differences in the ends rather than the tubing itself.

And there were two 80cm sections of silver, steel combtitube dating back to the same era (both stamped with FOBA ZURICH but without any logo) that were 644g and 680g respectively, and what I assume is a slightly newer version of the same (with the logo) that was 687g. Two others with the logo were 654g and 663g respectively.

With the pieces I ended up weighing. ('cause I found the variations interesting) the weight of older pieces was definitely less consistent than newer pieces, and also seemed to trend to lighter weights for newer copies of the same lengths.

With the P70 reflectors (which I also measured due to curiosity) the lightest one I own is 421g and the heaviest is 494g, which is again noticeable if you're holding one in each hand.

Ultimately it's inconsequential in use, I was just surprised that they varied that much.

You have very good feeling for weight! 😳😲😂😂🤣
I didn't notice nothing like this...

I think slight differences are normal but you notice differences >10g what I assume it can only explained with choosing different materials or changed manufacturing procedures like variations in the inner diameter of the tubes?
Before CNC machines become common (around in the 70ies according wikipedia) differences could be even higher. But I am not a machinist and I can be (very) wrong! 😉

With introduction of the SUPERBALL FOBA actively promoted itself using CNC machines. I have a anniversary booklet where the advert of the SUPERBALL is published...

 

[FOBELIO]

Studio Renovation 3 by Nokton48, on Flickr

The studio has evolved from a total 60's 70's retro vibe, to pretty much the full Broncolor range. Why not?

Lots of Olde FOBA here, lots of goodies. All boxed up now so I can find things.

Lens Pairs for Twin Lens Norma so far by Nokton48, on Flickr

This was a fun project, barrel lenses are often not expensive. Went with Olde Vintage Sinar Norma lens boards I have a good stock of them. After I cut the metal I brush paint Flat Black Krylon to cover up the surgery. JB Weld plugs up holes, sometimes remove the micky mouse automation if I need just the flat board. Some of these pairs need final finishing, good winter project finally done ahead. The Famous Repair Guru Ken Ruth (restored my Automatic Makiflex took a year), told me to get a complete set of Schneider silver chrome Componon lenses. So I did, and WOW was he right! Great for exposing film, not just enlarging. Very similar to my Schneider Symmar collection, almost identical really. I believe might be flat field as well that can be a plus?

You are probably the best SINAR equipped guy around here! 😌🤩 Impressive!

I have "only" two Sinar p3 (one digital and one with 4x5 frames) and my seven-decennia Sinar/Nikon/Mamiya hybrid camera made from a Norma rail (60ies), p1 blocks (70ies), p2 rail holder (80ies), Mamiya RZ lens (90ies), p3 frames (2000ies), Nikon Z6 body (2010ies) and original Sinar adapter plate (2020ies)... 😂

Have fun!

 

[Nokton48]

1000mm f16 Rodenstock Apo Ronar 8x10 Norma Fuji XRay by Nokton48, on Flickr

1000mm F16 Rodenstock Apo Ronar at F32. 8x10 Fuji XRay Film Broncolor Octobox 150 with supplemental diffusion. 3x4 ft foamcore panel camera right. 8x10 Sinar Norma. Two FOBA C40 Tripods support both ends of this special camera. I got the idea of this from my books by Reinhart Wolf. Same basic setup.

 

[dxp]

You have very good feeling for weight! 😳😲😂😂🤣
I didn't notice nothing like this...

I think slight differences are normal but you notice differences >10g what I assume it can only explained with choosing different materials or changed manufacturing procedures like variations in the inner diameter of the tubes?
Before CNC machines become common (around in the 70ies according wikipedia) differences could be even higher. But I am not a machinist and I can be (very) wrong! 😉

With introduction of the SUPERBALL FOBA actively promoted itself using CNC machines. I have a anniversary booklet where the advert of the SUPERBALL is published...

One other thing I noticed with some of the earlier combitubes I've had is that the lengths don't always match up perfectly...I've had tubes that were 2mm or 3mm difference in length, so I assume at some point a while back they were being manually cut, or at least the cutting machine was being set manually, and not always that precisely.

 

[Nokton48]

Sinar Norma Technical Camera 75mm Norma F5.6 Schneider CFV16 by Nokton48, on Flickr

FOBA Baby FOBA.

 

[Nokton48]

Not sure why all of the sudden I'm getting hot pixels. I did make a few long time exposures (with the back set as such 15 seconds) hope I can remedy this.

 

[FOBELIO]

Not sure why all of the sudden I'm getting hot pixels. I did make a few long time exposures (with the back set as such 15 seconds) hope I can remedy

it's probably sensor noise!

I am not familiar with the camera that you are using (Hasselblad with a CFV16 digitalback if I assume correctly, right?) but I got similar results in long exposures (>1min) with my Nikon D800 using ND-filtres.
Nikon has for this a build-in function for noise reduction in long exposures. You take after the photo (= light frame) a second one with the same exact setting but you need to darken the lens using the lens cap (= dark frame). You don't get any photons on the dark frame but instead the noise of the sensor itself (dead pixel, hot pixels and more).
On Nikon cameras this dark frame gets "subtracted" from the light frame and produce a cleaner image...
Check if your CFV16 or the Phocus software have a similar function.

I do also astrophotography and we use this technique for get cleaner images...and there is more that can be done for getting even more cleaner images (flat frames, bias frames...).
We are stepping here in a quite technical topic in which I not feel very competent...🤯🙄

Older digital backs work very similar as modern astro-cameras (the tech is more or less still the same).
Moderns sensors instead as used in Nikon, Sony, Canon cameras are so refined that many corrections of the early days of sensors technology are not anymore needed because became irrelevant (=very low noise) for everyday use.
Some backs as my Sinarback 86H have a Peltier-element for sensor cooling (for reducing noise, still standard in many astrocameras). Other very old backs have a 3-color filter wheel (with red, blue and green filters) for taking 3 pictures consecutively, which on the computer get composed to a RGB-image (similar as in mono-astrocameras). Sinar calls "white-shading" what in astrophotography we call "flats" for correcting brightness differencesm, dust spots...

Hope this helps...

 

[Nokton48]

Thanks Fobelio! Great explanation. Very Helpful 🙂

This is initial test of CFV16 Digital Back on 4x5 Sinar Norma WA Technical Camera. Matching set of Barrel Mounted Chrome Sinar Norma Super Angulons (with Mickey Mouse Aperture Controls) and Sinar Norma Shutter all strung together with original Hasselblad cables and WORKING. Retro Vintage Technical Digital Norma. Original Back was $17K US in early 2000's. Paid $2400 for latest CFV16II. These do not come up that often, I searched for over ten years. People keep them.

 

[FOBELIO]

Thanks Fobelio! Great explanation. Very Helpful 🙂

This is initial test of CFV16 Digital Back on 4x5 Sinar Norma WA Technical Camera. Matching set of Barrel Mounted Chrome Sinar Norma Super Angulons (with Mickey Mouse Aperture Controls) and Sinar Norma Shutter all strung together with original Hasselblad cables and WORKING. Retro Vintage Technical Digital Norma. Original Back was $17K US in early 2000's. Paid $2400 for latest CFV16II. These do not come up that often, I searched for over ten years. People keep them.

here a really great chart of how thevcalibration process in astrophotography is done made by Raymond Letulle.

New sensors in everyday cameras have also this kind of noises but they are so well corrected that they became negligible... not so in old sensors.

Photos of the night sky have usually extreme contrast (very dark background and very bright stars!) and in the same time we want preserve dynamic range (for pleasant color transitions) what from the view of a sensors is very challenging.

 

[FOBELIO]

my pics of the last two months...

I thought my FOBA Swiss army knife needs some friends... 😄