anyone know about skink zone plate and pinhole f numbers with fuji acros 100

SueEley (e2 Member)

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2 Jan 2012 - 8:46 PM

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My husband just got a Skink pinhole/zone plate/zone sieve system for his camera (from me for his Christmas present). We went out together and both took pics - my husband on film and me with a pinhole from pinhole factory on a Nikon D300 body, and also a Lensbaby pinhole/zone plate on a composer, set parallel to the camera body (as near as possible). Even at the time I was a bit surprised by the timings my husband was getting from his light meter and f stop calculations.

My husband found the Skink pinhole which is rated at f110, when developed and scanned, looked about right having allowed about plus 1 or 2 stops for reciprocity failure at 20 secs. The zone plate, rated at f46 and the zone sieve at f 71 seem to have been rated very low. The resulting shots look up to 4 stops underexposed. The big advantage my husband had - and will continue to have - is that he uses a rangefinder so composition was a doddle for him, compared with my careful use of spirit level, and trial and error.

Has anyone else got experience of these 'lenses' and this film?

SueEley (e2 Member)

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26 Mar 2012 - 7:39 PM

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My husband says, 'They're okay, yeah'...... And I know someone else who uses them and seems satisfied.... I have seen some negative reviews online but also some okay ones. Some people seemed to think that the pinholes which are brass needed to be coated with matt black inside. Anyhow, I would recommend looking at the reviews. One alternative is to get a pinhole body cap made, and maybe make yourself a zone plate (I am told there is a site that will give you a zone plate 'image' and instructions for use, and, indeed, I think I have seen this in the past). As to the zone sieve, not sure I've seen one outside skink. Martin certainly got weird but interesting effects with his pro skink set on film. On a digital camera, it would be different anyway, and in unpredictable ways. I am told that pinhole etc don't work the same on digital as the brains of the camera try to make sense of the image for you. Certainly my lens baby zone plate images were very odd on my Nikon D300, though I liked the pinhole. On the whole, if you've got the money, why not have fun?!? Will be interested to see what you get. BTW as they come via German from Hong Kong (and, I have been told, before that from America) they take their time in arriving!

SueEley (e2 Member)

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27 Mar 2012 - 7:16 PM

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Quote: If you are having trouble composing your pictures using a pinhole attachment try the live view

John

Does the K20d have non TTL live view? My D300 and my Pen both require a view through the lens for live view to work. Would be a nice feature.

SueEley (e2 Member)

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29 Mar 2012 - 5:08 PM

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Well, I mainly rate pinhole, though I quite like Martin's zone sieve pics (though they don't look like the ones skink show!). Actually, you can make a pinhole for yourself for the price of a body cap http://www.pixiq.com/article/diy-pinhole-for-dslr shows you how, though in the instructions I saw once before the aim was to indent with the pin then use glass paper to work through, not make a hole, but I think this way would work, just maybe make a larger hole. I've been told the trick is to make sure your pinhole is really in the middle of the body cap.

http://www.mrpinhole.com/zp.php which I found via the world pinhole day site shows you how to make a zone plate. When I eventually get time, I think I might experiment with these to find out if they produce a different effect from what we already have. Seriously, why not try to do a body cap one as a first step? And have a look at the world pinhole day site, too.

BTW if you can't see anything on your live view screen when you have a lens cap on, then you won't see anything with a pinhole on. It's only if your camera is a rangefinder or something else that doesn't produce the focusing view through the lens that you will be able to see anything.