Mamiya 645
The Mamiya 645 is a medium format film camera that takes 120mm film with negatives that are the size of 6x4.5mm, hence the latter part of the camera name '645'. The standard lens for the Mamiya is 80mm and 45mm for the wide angle. There is a small silver switch on the right side of the camera that is used in order to remove the lens. However, for the Mamiya 645 pro the switch to remove the lens is a black slider button on the right side of the camera. This camera has a shutter lock so that you do not accidentally waste a shot by pressing one of the shutter releases. In order to engage this shutter lock all you need to do is turn the small black dial, until it is on the red dot. Due to the negatives being much larger than 35mm film for standard format film cameras, they have 15 shots on each roll of film.
It has two shutter releases, one found on the front of the camera and the other on the top right, which is best used when using the waste-level viewfinder. The front shutter release has an input for a cable release if you are working in a studio or close-up macro shots. In order to change the shutter speed on the early models, you will need to push in the middle of the shutter dial. The winder on the right side of the camera is used to reel the film on to its starting frame, as well as move it from frame to frame.
The Mamiya 645 has a mirror up function that gets rid of the shake given by the mirror going up, but as it is already up it is only the shutter that moves. This is very useful with the older models, as the mirror causes quite a lot of movement.
There is a multi button on the right of the camera under the winder, that allows you to check that it fires without wasting any film. When loading the film you need to push in the back plate and slide the button above it in order to open up the back. Once this is done you will need to pinch the film holder in order to get it out. There will be a spiral there from the last film that was used. On the side of the film holder you should see a sign labeled 'start', this is where you should put the new reel of film in and place the old reel in the other slot. You need to pull the film around the back of the holder, making sure that the black side of the paper is facing the lens, then offer it up to the other spiral. Once this is done turn the film around slowly until two arrows are facing directly up, then place the film back into the camera and close the back. On the right side of the camera is your shot counter, turn the winder to wind the film on to the first frame, this is indicated by a clicking sound and the shot counter going to 1.
The Mamiya 645 is quite an old camera and as a result of this it does not have a built in light meter, so when taking a photo you will need to use a light meter with a lumigrid adapter, or just use a Sekonic L-308, as it has one built in. After you have finished a reel of film you will need to turn the winder 6 times to make sure that the paper is wrapped onto the other spool. When removing the film pull it tight if it is loose to stop light getting in. At the end of most 120 films there is a tape that you should use to secure the film, making sure it does not unravel.
Scanners
Nikon Coolscan ED9000
The Nikon Coolscan ED9000 is a scanner that allows you to get your pictures that you have on film onto a computer. It can scan 16mm, 35mm and 120mm film all at 4,000 DPI (dots per inch), giving you a high resolution image on your computer so that you can further edit them on Photoshop etc. The scanner also has a special dust removing software that removes the dust from your picture. However, it does not remove the dust from the film itself just gets rid of the black specs that would appear when developing your image. From doing this it just means that when your file comes onto the computer these black specs will not be found.
There are separate holders for each film that you want to scan in. The scanner is capable of scanning up to twelve images at once. When scanning your images in it is best to aim for the highest resolution possible, which will make a very large file of 135mb. These machines are not made anymore and therefore it is quite an old piece of equipment, thus making scanning your pictures in quite the ordeal. For a full set of twelve it takes half an hour.
When you have turned the scanner on a green light on the top left of the front of the scanner will flash, once it has stopped you can start to scan your film. To get your film to fit in the scanner you will need a holder, there is a different holder for each film. Line up your film within the holder shiny side up and lock it in place. Once you have done this open up Nikon Scan 4, (as this is the software for the scanner) then slowly push the holder, making sure that the it is going in arrow first with the shiny side of the film facing upwards. When the holder is about halfway in the scanner will then begin to take it.
After this has happened you will need to set the preferences to fit with whatever film you are using, i.e. in my case I was using 120 transparency film so I set it to 6x4.5 positive so that it knows what film it is working with. When you have chosen the picture you want to scan you will have a list of options to choose from as to how you want the picture to come out as. Most of these options are pointless, however the 'Digitial ICE 4 Advanced' is needed, as it is the software that takes the dust off the film, make sure it is on 'fine' as this means it will do it at a higher standard.
The only other things worth using are found in the scanner extras, as these are options about how to make your image a greater quality when scanned. For example, the multi sample scanning is worth setting to the highest, as the more times it scans the image the better quality the picture will be when it is transferred to the computer. Nevertheless this does mean that it will take a lot longer for it to scan your image. Always save your image as a .TIFF file when scanning as it is the best file type that won't ruin your image.
Epson V750
- Software is Epson Scan
- Takes time to load up when turning on as it has to be a certain temperature.
- Easy to use magnetic holder for your film to hold them in place.
- Its highest resolution is 3200 DPI, so it is not as good as the Nikon Coolscan.
- Do not touch any of the adjustments apart from dust removal, as the software will distort your image, best to make any adjustments in Photoshop.
Reflecta MF5000
- Unlike the Nikon Coolscan, you have to manually feed each image of your film in.
- To secure film you must open up holder and place film in-between the bars.
- The software for it is Cyber view X
- When placing film into the scanner you must line up the arrow on the holder to the arrow on the scanner
- Push holder until it clicks, indicating that is on the first frame.
- Up to 16Bit depth
- Can scan normal and quality prints
- Highest resolution is 3200 DPI
- Does not have dust removing software
Filters
There are many different types of filters, such as; colour correction, neutral density and ultraviolet filters. A type of corrective filter is a circular polariser which is a circular disk that clips/screws onto the front of a camera lens.
Polarising
They are mostly used to remove reflections, as with the use of being able to turn the filter you can angle it to counter the light reflecting off the part causing glare.
How these filters work is in three stages, linear polarising, a quarter wave plate and finally circular polarising. The first stage is when the unpolarised light is absorbed through the linear polariser, where it continues on through the quarter wave plate that compresses the light, to which it goes on to become circularly polarised light. From this happening it allows you to control the direction of the light like a blind, allowing you to both diffuse and direct the light before taking the picture.
Neutral Density
Neutral Density filters are used to reduce exposure without affecting the image and keeps the colours the same. From it reducing the exposure it can allow you to have much longer shutter speeds without bleaching out the image, ideal for capturing movement in water and clouds.
Neutral Density filters are darkened squares of glass that you place in front of your lens in order to reduce the amount of light passing through your lens to either your sensor or film. So the darker the filter, or the more you use, the stronger the effect you can ultimately get. The greatest effects created from using these filters are when using more than one filter and capturing the movement in water from using a long shutter speed, which creates a misty surreal effect of the water.
Graduated Filters
Graduated filters can keep the exposure the same on one part of the image, while making the other part a darker exposure. For instance if you wanted to get the whole image balanced, yet when you take the image the ground is perfectly exposed yet the sky is bleached out, you can use a graduated filter to fix this.
They work by obstructing more light from getting through to one side of the filter, by having one half darker and the other plain. There are two parts of a photograph that Graduated filters affect, the dynamic range and the local contrast. The way in which it changes the dynamic range of the image is by allowing you to capture landscapes with a great tonal range that exceeds what your camera can ordinarily achieve. The local contrast is affected with each region of the photo when using one of these filters, ultimately improving the appearance of colour and detail.
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