Here are a few images taken with my Mamiya RB 67 SD.  I am starting to like the RB but it remains a challenge to remember so much before shooting.  Compared to other medium format cameras, the RB is quite a bit more sophisticated.  Probably my biggest issue with the camera to date is the way the "T" or in most cameras "B" mode works.  It is very easy shoot 1 second instead of "T" especially after disengaging the mirror lock using the shutter ring.

The ubiquitous shot of Crabtree falls (Sekor C 65mm, Fuji Velvia 50, f32, 16 seconds)

On my list of waterfalls I wanted to shoot as soon as possible was Crabtree Falls in North Carolina.  Well today I made the trek two and a half hours to the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Pisgah National Forest to do just that.

I arrived at the campground area at about 7:30am and parked at the first trail head leading to Crabtree Falls.  This was the first mistake I made.  Leaving from this trail head will add another half mile to the falls.  Go down further to the second trail head and save yourself some issues.

After about 1.5 miles of hiking downhill, I arrived at the bottom of the falls. I was truly stunned at this falls beauty and at the same time relaxing sounds.  This is in the top three falls in NC in my humble opinion.  It lacks the overall power of Linville and Looking Glass falls but it makes up for it in height and cascading beauty.  For the photographer, there are seemingly endless angles to photograph the falls and the cascades which flow in steps down and under the bridge.  The water is shallow enough to wade out into the current and get some nice closeups of the cascading water.  To get a full image of the falls, it is best to hike up the opposite side of the hill and shoot it from that vantage point.  If you have a wider angle lens like a 25mm you can get everything in the frame from the base of the falls.    

Don't wait too long to get there.  If you get there on a sunny day the falls will partially fall into the sunlight which will make exposure difficult.  I was shooting the scene at 8:00am and the sun had not hit the falls yet.  My exposure was F32 at 16 seconds and I bracketed down to 8 seconds.  As soon as my film is back from processing I will display some of the images. I used a combination of a polarizer and warming filter.  This is a common setup for falls.

One final thought:  Unless you are an olympic athlete or are used to very long strenuous hikes do not do the entire loop trail.  It is long and very difficult.  This was the second mistake I made.  It says on the web sites that it is medium difficulty but this is not true.  When you are carrying 20 lbs worth of camera gear it is very difficult and this shoot was in the fall with cooler temperatures.  I would recommend leaving on the same trail you came in on.

Well, by now you may know that I really don't like spending a ton of money on anything, but especially hobbies.  Hobbies suck money out of our households like no other.  Sometimes even bills can't compare.  So in my quest to find cheap and effective solutions, I recently purchased a used Epson 4180 Photo flatbed scanner off from Ebay.  Mainly I was looking for a solution to get my negative and positive film into a digital format that can be shown on the web.  Printing the final scan is not really important to me as I can easily have them printed from a local lab when needed.

This scanner is different from most flatbeds in that it was designed for the photo enthusiast.  The photographer can scan photos, 35mm and 120 positive and negative film with little effort.  I have been using it primarily in "Professional Mode" which allows for better control exposure and cropping, and  I have to say that so far the results have been quite good.  Below is a quick scan I created using the 120 film attachment.

AddLower Cascades - shot with my Kiev 88.  Note that with no mirror lock there is a very slight vibration.  Hopefully that is a thing of the past with my new Mamiya RB 67 SD. caption

In my last post I wrote a quick review of my first test shots using the Mamiya RB67 Pro SD.  Below you will find a square cropped finished shot which was taken using the Mamiya Sekor 65mm lens at f32 for about 1 second.  The film was Fuji Acros 100 unfiltered and the lighting was provided by a single diffused photoflood .  Contrast was added post production so shorter shutter speeds could be obtained.

First, Let me say that the sharpness was better than I had expected.  The apple is just a little soft which I attribute to my own focusing mistake, but look at the corn in the lower right.  Not only is it tack sharp but there are no distortions which are common to wide angle lenses in the corner.  Had I used my 35mm with my cheapo wide angle it would have looked quite distorted near the right corner.

Secondly, notice there is no camera shake even at a 1 second exposure.  This was due to the use of the mirror lockup feature.  This really is a must have for those shooting macro, product shots or landscapes.

In conclusion, although the shot was rushed a bit and not the best composition, I think you can see just how versatile and high quality the Mamiya RB 67 remains in the 21st century.

Just for kicks I took another shot on the roll and did a little creative burning to give it more of a paint like effect in places.

Round 2 of testing my "new" Mamiya RB 67 SD.  My RB 67 SD body arrived several days ago so I figured it was time to put it through its paces.  In my last post, I outlined the jamming problem with my Pro S body and how it ruined my first shoot with the camera, but I was determined to not let that stop me, so I decided this time to setup a still life of harvest/fall type items.  At least this time I wouldn't drive at the crack of dawn to a waterfall and have it fail!

First let me just say that the shoot went very well. I set up some typical gourds, apples and Indian corn so I could test the lens and the mirror lock feature to its fullest.  For a lens I used the Mamiya 65mm Sekor C.  The shutter seemed accurate, the mirror lock worked, and the focus knobs were very smooth.  Anyway just a quick follow up until I actually get the film back from the lab.  Below is one of the compositions I created.

Most of the shots had a shutter speed of 1 second and I bracketed between f16 and f32.  I used a single 250 watt photo flood for illumination and a fill card to fill in some of the shadow.  The specular highlights seemed a bit hot so maybe next time I will add another sheet of parchment paper to make the diffusion a bit stronger.  Film was Fuji Acros 100 black and white.  I have never used this film so I am curious to see how it does.

Only a week ago I was singing the praises of the Mamiya RB 67 PRO-S, but that praise was cut short today by a total equipment failure.  Let me begin by saying that about three weeks ago I pieced together what I thought was a nice medium format system.  I bought an RB67 PRO-S body, backs, prism and two lenses from Keh camera. The system  looked clean and ready to take on the toughest photo assignment I could throw at it.

 At the top of my to-do list was the need to test the camera as quickly as I possibly can so I headed out to a nearby waterfall which was easy to access from the roadway.  I left for the falls about 5:15 am so as not to miss the nice morning light and longer shutter speeds this time provides.

I arrived at about 6:30am and got everything setup for my first shot.  The camera body was cocked,  mirror up knob rotated, removed the dark slide, placed my release into the side of the lens and fired the main shutter.  The mirror locked up as I expected.  So far so good, I thought to myself.  I was now ready to make my exposure.  "Click", the shutter fired or so I thought.  I released the cable release and re-cocked the camera.  The cocking lever stopped most of the way forward and it would not cock the shutter or return to its original position.  My heart sank as the light was now perfect for the exposure, but the lever would not release.  No matter what I did the camera would not cock and the lens was jammed on.  It was a total equipment failure and actually the first one I had had after many years of photography.

Disgusted and totally defeated by the camera, I headed to work.  I sat at my desk with a worthless hunk of junk sitting in front of me.  A quick search online showed that this camera was indeed subject to this type of jamming and the only solution was to push a safety pin into a hidden hole located on the front of the body to release the lens.  I finally was able to do this and release the lens but the body was a total loss.  It is totally junk.

So I am sending the body back to Keh for replacement or money back and I ordered a new PRO-SD body, hoping they might have fixed this fault in the latest manual iteration of the design by Mamiya.  I am still not convinced that the body failed at all.  It might have been the lens that caused the issues.  I did notice another problem with the body though.  The red guides in the body do not come down when I rotate the adapter to horizontal.

Stay tuned, I will keep you posted on the next trip to the waterfall and hopefully I will have some transparencies to show with the new RB body.

Every once in a while I have a kind of health heart to heart conversation with myself.  You know the kind of I am talking about.  The kind where you are looking in the mirror and notice that the love handles are slightly more than handles now.  The kind where you find it more of a challenge to turn around in the car to look behind you when backing up.  The kind where bending over to tie your shoes leaves you short of breath.  Well I could go on and on but I know you get the idea.

Inevitably the conclusion you come to after this one on one conversation is that you are just plain fat.  Immediately you begin to think about all those diets in your not so healthy history where you would lose twenty pounds only to put back on thirty.  So about a month ago I began a new angle on this whole fat loss problem.  So I started this journey by asking myself two crucial questions.

1.  Why is that I am fat?  The conclusion I reached is because I don't do anything and on top of that I pretty much eat what I want to.  It really seems quite simple when I put it like that but that is exactly in my mind what the problem is.

2.  What will it take to loose the fat?  Well certainly not by diets alone as this does not solve my health issues and only make me want more and more food.  Essentially you starve your body until it hits bottom and you go berserk on some cannolies.

I am sure everyone who has ever been overweight has asked themselves these questions in  the past but it is the second question that is the real "stump-er."  So I want to address what I am doing in response to #2.

The biggest change for me is joining the YMCA and using their Fitlinxx system.  For those not familiar with Fitlinxx, it is a computer based workout program that tracks calories burned, strength training  and overall cardiovascular fitness levels.  These categories when calculated together end up giving you fitpoints which give you an overall rating of your progress.  http://www.fitlinxx.net/

Cybex Chest Press - Can be used in the Fitlinxx system

So after a month of training it is giving me more strength and is meeting my fitness goals, but it does this in a way which is appealing to me.  The reallity is that it appeals to my sense of competition.  You see with Fitlinxx, not only do you compete with yourself, but you also compete against the entire YMCA branch.  Each month, the YMCA posts the top 15 males and females in strength, calories burned and total fitpoints.  This is a great way to keep yourself motivated.

The second part of the Fitlinxx health program is the equipment itself.  For example, strength training uses Cybex machines which the member utilizes in a circuit to target about every major muscle group in the body. This workout alone can be quite brutal.  Add to that a daily cardio workout such as speed walking, cycling or running and you are talking about a quality workout indeed.

Although Fitlinxx is a powerful system, I cannot simply ignore my diet.  I have chosen to go with a high protein diet mixed with fruit and veggies.  This combination gives me adequate energy and good muscle building.

In conclusion, I don't know if this will completely work for me. Only time will tell.  I have lost about 12lbs and have a great deal more strength so I do know that it works.  Now it is up to me to make it last.