Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
Hello,
Some time ago, a great comment by Tom Abrahamsson about trying to make things as simple as possible, made me start some tests on shooting bright sun and dull light scenes on the same roll, instead of carrying two cameras for different contrast scenes and development... Then, I found using box speed was a nice compromise between both more precise situations. That was close to pathetic, but I really haven't exposed or developed differently for different kinds of light since... And it's been a lot of time, and shots are OK...
Later I went on shooting 400 at 1600 including direct sun and weak light scenes on the same roll, and yet I felt it was more than OK for sunny scenes with a healthy bit of overexposure... The simple advantage is -later- being ready for low light, always...
Then I decided to save time, and looked for a new development time after I decided to shoot at 1600 only. I'm set a month ago: I call it 7 - 14 - 28, to remember it easily. 7ml Rodinal, 14 minutes at 28ºC. Three very gentle inversions at the beginning and every next minute. No presoaking.
So I started to work like that with all my cameras... On my most used ones, the Bessas and the FE2, I control direct sun (in case of no filtering) with 1/2000 f/11 if I want to shoot with great depth of field... As I'm giving film lots of light when light is strong and generates deep shadows (to fill them), I know when a cloud comes it doesn't mean I should open three stops, because I was overexposing for high contrast scenes, so I found it's enough going from 1/2000 to 1/1000: with a simple dial movement I go from the sunny side of the street to the one in shades... It meant things were simpler to me than ever...!
Well, it's been a lot of fun... I carry my 40 1.4 now as my only lens. I carry with it (in my pocket) two filters, screwed always and used together always... I have the same set for 43mm and for 52mm (these ones for the Nikkor 50 1.4) so I screw them if I want to shoot at 1.4 (half my shots), and I haven't used anything but 11 and 1.4 for months! What a pleasure! With my orange+ND64 filters I do direct sun at 1/1000 f/1.4, so in the shades I just open to 1/500...
Now the reason for this post:
I love the Olympus XA. But it couldn't fit in the push to 1600 always story... I use it daily, even when I carry other cameras, but I always felt its 800 top ISO was its only weak point (lots of us know how impossible it's been to find a way to fool the camera and change that), and (at least in my XA) we're talking about an 800 that's more a 400 setting because it gives film twice the light other cameras give at 800, so my XA (stopped down and prefocused always) was a bright light camera only. But... not anymore...
A few weeks ago I read somewhere that it was possible to change some cameras' metering systems by changing the amount of power we give our camera: in some cases higher voltage can damage a camera, but in other cases, it doesn't, and produces underexposure or overexposure...
There were ruomurs about the XA underexposing with higher voltage (my dream, to be able to push to 1600...), and even too sweet rumours about Maitani&Friends leaving that future option for photographers, with circuits and a meter (or has it 2 meters?) that were designed to hold higher voltage... Mmmmm...
I decided to risk my beloved XA, and after setting its ISO to the middle, with wires I installed one more 1.55 and then two more 1.55 SR44 cells (externally) to see if the meter was fooled or the camera circuits dead... So I gave it a little more than 4.5 and a little more than 6v... It didn't die. It was metering, the needle was moving, everything seemed normal, and it was firing! Yes, it was underexposing, and the difference was about three stops !!!
So I started testing, looking for batteries and options, and trying to imagine, as there are two screws around the battery holder, how to use those screws to hold a new yet to be built external holder (how big?) for the extra battery... To make it short:
I'm shooting my XA at a real 1600 ! Two stops faster than ever !!! It was true it could be done !!!
How do I feel shooting street with the tiny black thing, at f/8 on dull days with very fast shutter speeds?
🙂
Technical details later...
Some time ago, a great comment by Tom Abrahamsson about trying to make things as simple as possible, made me start some tests on shooting bright sun and dull light scenes on the same roll, instead of carrying two cameras for different contrast scenes and development... Then, I found using box speed was a nice compromise between both more precise situations. That was close to pathetic, but I really haven't exposed or developed differently for different kinds of light since... And it's been a lot of time, and shots are OK...
Later I went on shooting 400 at 1600 including direct sun and weak light scenes on the same roll, and yet I felt it was more than OK for sunny scenes with a healthy bit of overexposure... The simple advantage is -later- being ready for low light, always...
Then I decided to save time, and looked for a new development time after I decided to shoot at 1600 only. I'm set a month ago: I call it 7 - 14 - 28, to remember it easily. 7ml Rodinal, 14 minutes at 28ºC. Three very gentle inversions at the beginning and every next minute. No presoaking.
So I started to work like that with all my cameras... On my most used ones, the Bessas and the FE2, I control direct sun (in case of no filtering) with 1/2000 f/11 if I want to shoot with great depth of field... As I'm giving film lots of light when light is strong and generates deep shadows (to fill them), I know when a cloud comes it doesn't mean I should open three stops, because I was overexposing for high contrast scenes, so I found it's enough going from 1/2000 to 1/1000: with a simple dial movement I go from the sunny side of the street to the one in shades... It meant things were simpler to me than ever...!
Well, it's been a lot of fun... I carry my 40 1.4 now as my only lens. I carry with it (in my pocket) two filters, screwed always and used together always... I have the same set for 43mm and for 52mm (these ones for the Nikkor 50 1.4) so I screw them if I want to shoot at 1.4 (half my shots), and I haven't used anything but 11 and 1.4 for months! What a pleasure! With my orange+ND64 filters I do direct sun at 1/1000 f/1.4, so in the shades I just open to 1/500...
Now the reason for this post:
I love the Olympus XA. But it couldn't fit in the push to 1600 always story... I use it daily, even when I carry other cameras, but I always felt its 800 top ISO was its only weak point (lots of us know how impossible it's been to find a way to fool the camera and change that), and (at least in my XA) we're talking about an 800 that's more a 400 setting because it gives film twice the light other cameras give at 800, so my XA (stopped down and prefocused always) was a bright light camera only. But... not anymore...
A few weeks ago I read somewhere that it was possible to change some cameras' metering systems by changing the amount of power we give our camera: in some cases higher voltage can damage a camera, but in other cases, it doesn't, and produces underexposure or overexposure...
There were ruomurs about the XA underexposing with higher voltage (my dream, to be able to push to 1600...), and even too sweet rumours about Maitani&Friends leaving that future option for photographers, with circuits and a meter (or has it 2 meters?) that were designed to hold higher voltage... Mmmmm...
I decided to risk my beloved XA, and after setting its ISO to the middle, with wires I installed one more 1.55 and then two more 1.55 SR44 cells (externally) to see if the meter was fooled or the camera circuits dead... So I gave it a little more than 4.5 and a little more than 6v... It didn't die. It was metering, the needle was moving, everything seemed normal, and it was firing! Yes, it was underexposing, and the difference was about three stops !!!
So I started testing, looking for batteries and options, and trying to imagine, as there are two screws around the battery holder, how to use those screws to hold a new yet to be built external holder (how big?) for the extra battery... To make it short:
I'm shooting my XA at a real 1600 ! Two stops faster than ever !!! It was true it could be done !!!
How do I feel shooting street with the tiny black thing, at f/8 on dull days with very fast shutter speeds?
🙂
Technical details later...
