Iskra shooting recommendations?

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minoltist7

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I took Iskra to my holiday trip to Western Ukraine. It was my first (with exception of test film) "serious" use of this camera.
Weather was nice, and I shot a roll of b/w Fomapan 200, and color Portra VC 160. Since Iskra doesn't have a meter, I glued sort of "exposure table" from Fuji and Kodak datasheets to the back of the camera. But I did some mistake - I used Portra 160 VC with meter setting from another camera , which was loaded with ISO 400 film. So most of my shots are underexposed :-(. With Fomapan 200 I used "sunny 16", so it should be Ok.
I'm new to medium format, but I'm aware of it's shallow DOF (comparing to 35mm). I used mostly aperture setting 11-16. Is it OK for this lens, or it is not it's "sweet spot"?
What F-stops do you usually use for lanscapes and other situatons which require deeper DOF, with this camera?
How it handles flare when you shoot against the sun ?
 
f8, f11 should be fine for landscape. 5.6 should be fine. DOF really comes in to play with close in subjects. Don't fret, we all lost a roll or two, or ten to the learning curve.
 
minoltist7 said:
I took Iskra to my holiday trip to Western Ukraine. It was my first (with exception of test film) "serious" use of this camera.
Weather was nice, and I shot a roll of b/w Fomapan 200, and color Portra VC 160. Since Iskra doesn't have a meter, I glued sort of "exposure table" from Fuji and Kodak datasheets to the back of the camera. But I did some mistake - I used Portra 160 VC with meter setting from another camera , which was loaded with ISO 400 film. So most of my shots are underexposed :-(. With Fomapan 200 I used "sunny 16", so it should be Ok.
I'm new to medium format, but I'm aware of it's shallow DOF (comparing to 35mm). I used mostly aperture setting 11-16. Is it OK for this lens, or it is not it's "sweet spot"?
What F-stops do you usually use for lanscapes and other situatons which require deeper DOF, with this camera?
How it handles flare when you shoot against the sun ?
Click to expand...


as Nick says it comes more into play with subjects closer.

you should be able to get an basic idea from reading the DOF scale on the lens. looking down on lens they are all the lines with f numbers angling toward the distance scale..if you want to sure you have all in focus using those then just stop down one extra f stop..at least until you are more familar with the camera....for lanscape at f;8 in focus subjects would be about 9 meters to infinity..f;11, is about from 7 meters and f;16 is about from 5 meters ..f;22 from 3 meters


this is one of those topics where you could ask ten different people and get ten different answers!
depth of feild is a bit beyond me to explain easily, it is calcualted from COC which is a human assigned figure (that can be different dependng on the camera or lens maker) and math applied to that to get the depth of feild. what is certain is that COC stands for 'Circle of Confusion' which is spot on i rekon...

i prefer instead of getting all caught up in the math to take a few pictures and simply get a feel for how they turn out using that camera, lens and format.

apples for apples meaning f stop for f stop, and same subject distance and apparent size in the picture frame it will be good enough to simply take the picture the same as you would with 35mm. you will notice a difference but it will usually be more pleasing...i notice you take a lot of portraiture and very nice i might add! i think you will be very, very impressed with the results from using a larger format. more so from the extra film size and tonal range than the DOF
 
I too struggled with the DOF going from 35mm to 6X6. I once asked Michael Kenna about his transition from 35mm to medium format.
He replied he got the hang of it in about a year.
 
Maybe if you are making very large enlargements. It won't be more than the sharpness you would loose by hand-holding.
 
minoltist7 said:
Is there a loss of sharpness at F/16 comparing to F/8,F/11 ?
Click to expand...


as wpb says only with very large enlargements...
and then that also depends on veiwing distance of the final print


even then it is not to do with DOF but optics and the way light travels through small apertatures (defraction) and the resulting resolution in the print. e.g consider pin hole cameras!depth of feild will always increase with smaller f stop...basic rule

all lenses perform best if not fully open or stopped down but if you need the DOF then you have to use it and trade off some resolution. much better to have what you intended in the final photograph in focus with less resolution than a picture that is out focus on your intended subject

the loss of resolution you will hardly notice at all, unless you enlarge huge and stand close to the picture...if you want better then you have to move to a larger format.

but apples for apples (same f stop etc) even tho 35mm may have greater DOF ...if you enlarged the same subject/picture taken with 35mm to.. hmm whatever.... say 20x20 against 6x6 format to 20x20 which picture do you think will be more sharp.

basically if you use the DOF scale on the lens until you get a feel for it (or if you prefer get a DOF calculater but i like to take pictures not sit around doing math) and try to work in the sweet spot for your lens, great! but if you have to close the aperature because of too much light, chose too fast a film, left your ND filter at home, simply want something close and far away in focus or a miriad of other reasons then using a small aperature will still yeild a good picture ...and you can perfect it next time!
 
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