View Full Version : Zero Image
Perry Way
12-02-2009, 03:37 AM
I'm so excited!
I just got done sending my Paypal payment to Zone Image for one of their fancy schmancy 4x5 models - the 75B Deluxe model. A bit pricey, but not really, at $265. It comes with a cable release shutter, three pinhole sizes on a turret and also three zone plates on the same turret so I could shoot some zone plate photography too, with the very same camera.
I am so stoked! Can barely wait! :D
It's a framed site so you need to go to the home page to navigate around but here's the camera I bought:
4x5 75B Deluxe (http://www.zeroimage.com/web2003/ProductPage/45/Zero45_2003.htm)
Their home page:
http://zeroimage.com
I bought one of these a while ago and love it... The images are a lot sharper with a pinhole than I expected... Be prepared for long exposures even in reasonable light... This one took 96 minutes @ 75mm...
http://www.redbubble.com/people/mal64/art/4032698-1-still-life-seed-pods-pinhole-image
bobwysiwyg
12-02-2009, 04:48 AM
I bought one of these a while ago and love it... The images are a lot sharper with a pinhole than I expected... Be prepared for long exposures even in reasonable light... This one took 96 minutes @ 75mm...
http://www.redbubble.com/people/mal64/art/4032698-1-still-life-seed-pods-pinhole-image
Nice shot, definitely worth the wait. ;)
bobwysiwyg
12-02-2009, 05:53 AM
I bought one of these a while ago and love it... The images are a lot sharper with a pinhole than I expected... Be prepared for long exposures even in reasonable light... This one took 96 minutes @ 75mm...
http://www.redbubble.com/people/mal64/art/4032698-1-still-life-seed-pods-pinhole-image
I thought about this shot after making my previous post. I'm curious, how did you arrive at what appears to be such an extreme exposure time?
Pinholemaster
12-02-2009, 06:19 AM
Congratulations. Great camera.
I made this image with the ZeroImage 4x5 using only the front 25mm section.
http://www.walterpcalahan.com/Cheers/Portfolios/Pages/Washington_DC.html#11
Wrobel Photographic
12-02-2009, 07:10 AM
I have the 75B Deluxe as well. Great camera and as Mal said, the images are sharper than you would expect. Especially if you have gotten used to using homemade pinholes.
I thought about this shot after making my previous post. I'm curious, how did you arrive at what appears to be such an extreme exposure time?
Well... I used my light meter and it gave me a reading (can't remember what it was)... The Zero Image scale suggested the at f216 I should use a particular shutterspeed and at that shutterspeed I should multiply the time by 12 to account for the reciprocity failure of the film...
I'm pretty sure there is a significant amount of leeway in these times but that's all part of the fun of "low tech" photography... Working it all out in your head adds to the fun of getting it right.
PS: Take notes... ;)
bobwysiwyg
12-02-2009, 04:12 PM
Mal,
Thanks for the follow-up. It does sound like fun and something I would like to try. I might wait until I get a better handle on figuring out how to use a traditional 4x5 cam though. :)
Perry Way
12-02-2009, 05:15 PM
I have the 75B Deluxe as well. Great camera and as Mal said, the images are sharper than you would expect. Especially if you have gotten used to using homemade pinholes.
After seeing Thomas Bertilsson's results with his Zero Image and wondering just how come he was getting much sharper images than me, I decided to investigate and this is when I decided to make this purchase.
Does anyone want to buy my 4x5 pinhole camera I will no longer be using? It's only a few months old, and I've replaced the thick brass pinhole plate with a much much thinner material. It no longer produces overly swirly streams of reflected light in backlit images. Dirt cheep price! :D
nsurit
12-02-2009, 05:59 PM
You will love your Zero Image. Buy a good book. You might need one while waiting on your superb exposures. Biill Barber
Poisson Du Jour
12-02-2009, 06:15 PM
I second nsurit. You will go head over heels for the beautiful Zero Image cameras. Really, the quality and attention to detail is astounding.
My 6x9 deluxe multi-format I purchased is a joy to use, though an often brutal reminder of how darned lucky we are with modern SLRs or even MF/LF cameras: so primitive yet so successful: we're going back 600 years I think and the results achievable are quite startling against the clinically perfect and tack-sharp images we normally strive for. I don't know anybody at the moment using a Zero Image 4x5 but that may change. Some local images on Zero Image pinhole are beginning to bob up on Flickr.
Chazzy
12-02-2009, 06:30 PM
I bought one of these a while ago and love it... The images are a lot sharper with a pinhole than I expected... Be prepared for long exposures even in reasonable light... This one took 96 minutes @ 75mm...
http://www.redbubble.com/people/mal64/art/4032698-1-still-life-seed-pods-pinhole-image
That's sharper than I expected from a pinhole image.
Perry Way
12-02-2009, 10:52 PM
Congratulations. Great camera.
I made this image with the ZeroImage 4x5 using only the front 25mm section.
http://www.walterpcalahan.com/Cheers/Portfolios/Pages/Washington_DC.html#11
Wow, those are some nice photos. Color sure looks good too with pinhole. I have shot some Ektachrome from 1980's recently. Most of it looking pretty good for how many years expired. I can't wait to shoot all the rest of this Ektachrome and Fuji Velvia I have when my Zero Image is in my hands. It got shipped today! Yay!!
While looking around the Zero Image site, I found this in one of the galleries, from Scott Speck:
http://studiogallerydc.com/artists/scott.speck/images/1215043875.jpg
This is one of the most interesting pinhole shots I've ever seen.
vdonovan
12-02-2009, 11:27 PM
I bought one of these a while ago and love it... The images are a lot sharper with a pinhole than I expected... Be prepared for long exposures even in reasonable light... This one took 96 minutes @ 75mm...
http://www.redbubble.com/people/mal64/art/4032698-1-still-life-seed-pods-pinhole-image
That is a damned nice picture.
Poisson Du Jour
12-02-2009, 11:48 PM
Many pinholers sharpen their scans before placing on the web; I'm assuming this image might have been sharpened to increase definition on the web, as images are generally not so sharp or well-defined by pinhole nature: they are soft, fuzzy, but a lot depends on the quality of the pinhole itself (the brass shimmy). That is what can really have an effect on the image.
All the same, it is a great pic; either angling the camera steeply up or, even more whacky, lying on your back looking up/sitting up. Terrific. Something to try when I visit a sea cave...
I have been shooting w/pinhole cameras for the past couple of years and i still do not understand why people keep talking about the images being,
"generally not so sharp or well-defined by pinhole nature: they are soft, fuzzy" I have made and have seen some amazingly sharp images. Sharp enough the my photography teacher has trouble telling when I shoot with a lensed camera or with my pinhole.
Sorry if this rubs anyone the wrong way but it is very tiring.
Arthur
Perry Way
12-03-2009, 01:35 AM
I have been shooting w/pinhole cameras for the past couple of years and i still do not understand why people keep talking about the images being,
"generally not so sharp or well-defined by pinhole nature: they are soft, fuzzy" I have made and have seen some amazingly sharp images. Sharp enough the my photography teacher has trouble telling when I shoot with a lensed camera or with my pinhole.
Sorry if this rubs anyone the wrong way but it is very tiring.
Arthur
I agree with the possibility for very sharp images. From what I can grasp, the sharpness has a lot to do with several factors.
1. Diameter of pinhole. The smaller the diameter, the sharper the image.
2. The material the pinhole is made out of. Shiny thick brass plate or sheet metal yields fuzzy image. If any backlighting conditions exist, it causes reflections inside the pinhole "tube" and causing major swirls and refractions or aberrations on the negative. Thin, dark, opaque material makes sharper image.
3. Dimmer conditions where lighting is more even (such as interior shots with ambient lighting) make for long exposures but very sharp images.
4. Bright lights tend to scatter light inside of the cheeper or home built pinhole cameras and while faster to expose, result in more fuzzy or rather less contrast which makes it look less sharp.
5. Camera shake. Or wind shake, like photographing trees outside in the wind with a 3 minute exposure. You will not get ANY sharp image that way.
Likely I am missing some more.
Ross Chambers
12-03-2009, 01:56 AM
You may be interested to see what the zone plate setting is capable of. It's highly trial and error, to me anyway.
BTW I find the 50mm pinhole setup the most interesting, sometimes the 25mm can be extreme (watch out for the tripod in shot), the 75mm starts to look a little like a not so good LF wide angle lens.
Regards - Ross
Ross Chambers
12-03-2009, 02:01 AM
You may be interested to see what the zone plate setting is capable of. It's highly trial and error, to me anyway.
BTW I find the 50mm pinhole setup the most interesting, sometimes the 25mm can be extreme (watch out for the tripod in shot), the 75mm starts to look a little like a not so good LF wide angle lens.
Regards - Ross
I have been shooting w/pinhole cameras for the past couple of years and i still do not understand why people keep talking about the images being,
"generally not so sharp or well-defined by pinhole nature: they are soft, fuzzy"
Ditto. I've been having fun this past year with the classic Quaker Oats DIY pinhole camera. Not to brag, but my first results were so sharp that I was almost disappointed (I was specifically hoping for something soft, artsy, dreamlike). For example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35166624@N03/4093582101/