Re: Why doesn't my lens work?
Butch Black said: Gregory L. Hansen wrote: I'm having trouble figuring out why my Kalimar 500mm f/8 reflex lens, manual, doesn't seem to work. Pictures I've taken with it seemed grayish, grainy, low contrast, under-exposed. snip I would do a couple tests. First, take a good look at the negatives. Are they very dark or very thin compared to a negative that prints well? Thin means you are underexposing, dark overexposing. Both could give you that flat, grainy look you were describing. Negatives always look thin to me. The prints, without extra brightness, came out pretty dark from the machine at CVS. I tried a Motophoto, I think they removed some of the red, and they came out much nicer, but still low contrast. The guy that handled it wasn't working last night, I'll try to find him tonight and see if he can tell me how much brightening he had to do, if he has any opinions on it. Also, I realized that the sensor arm tells the camera how much the lens will stop down when the picture is taken, but the lens is always f/8, so it wants to tell the camera that this is as much light as it's going to get. So setting the arm to f/1 doesn't necessarily mean anything. Second. Were you shooting in program or an auto exposure mode. I don't think reflex lenses work properly in auto exposure. Aperture priority. Third. If the negs were underexposed, were you compensating for shooting snow. You should open up 1-2 stops for snow or sand. +1 exposure compensation and bracketing, I'd thought +- 1 EV but the camera was set to +- 0.5 EV. Fourth. Inexpensive reflex lenses have a reputation of being slower then marked. I would test the lens on a wall indoors with and without the TC. You should get a reading 2 stops slower with the TC on. I would also test against another lens (not reflex) preferably telephoto at f8 you should get the same readings which is a good way of telling if your lens is slower then f8. I was just testing it last night, setting camera parameters on my K1000 and in manual mode on my ZX-L with other lenses set to f/8, and then with the reflex. For instance, 400 ASA, f/8, 1/8 second. And it did actually seem to meter right, although my SMCP-M 50/2 seemed to want half a stop more light than my other lenses. I wasn't using the TC at the time, I only used that to see where the sensor arm moves to. Finally. As mentioned by others, inexpensive reflex lenses are notorious for being flat with poor color and adding an inexpensive TC would only make matters worse. I'm starting to think this is it. It's supposed to be warm tomorrow, maybe I'll look for some birdies and try Sunny 16, comparison with other lenses (but none of them have that much telephoto), and a wide range of exposure values, and see if I can get a definitive opinion. I was thinking of trying to push e.g. 400 film to 800 or 1600 to see if I can increase the contrast a little. But if the lens is just naturally washed out, I might have to just put up with it for a long time until I can save up for a decent one. And I'm not sure what that would be, but I'll be aiming for $500 or $600, and the Sigma 170-500mm seems to be about all there is. There's the Sigma 600mm reflex for $379, but I don't think I want another manual fixed aperture. People have said how expensive the Limited lenses are, but I've been pricing telephotos that seem to run $2000 to $11,000, and then I saw the Limiteds for $500 to $800 and thought pshaw, for the best money can buy that's pretty darn cheap.
Re: Why doesn't my lens work?
Brendan said: The age old grey snow metering error, the camera tried to make the snow ( white ) 18 % grey. The low contrast tho is the lens, the kalimar 500mm F8 is the same as my vivitar 400mm, low not contrasty flat shots, Low contrast lens, huh? I think I'd just about reached that conclusion independently. That means I'll just have a low contrast lens for a long time, until I can buy something decent with that kind of telephoto.
Why doesn't my lens work?
I'm having trouble figuring out why my Kalimar 500mm f/8 reflex lens, manual, doesn't seem to work. Pictures I've taken with it seemed greyish, grainy, low contrast, under-wxposed. I took pictures of animals in snow and the prints came out kind of dark showing snow texture and animals too dark to see many details. I had the shop do a few reprints and the normal setting on the machine turned out a truly dark print, they'd been done with considerable brightening as-is. I put the lens on a TC and put a pencil mark where it brought the feedthrough, and compared it with other lenses I have. And it seemed to be telling the camera that it's about an f/1 lens! But then when I put that and other lenses on my ZX-L and K1000 and set parameters for proper exposure (in my room with incadescent lighting) they all matched. E.g. 400 ASA, f/8, 1/8 second. That says the camera is metering correctly through the lens, but the pictures and the TC say different. So what's going on?
Re: Why doesn't my lens work?
Gregory L. Hansen wrote: I'm having trouble figuring out why my Kalimar 500mm f/8 reflex lens, manual, doesn't seem to work. Pictures I've taken with it seemed greyish, grainy, low contrast, under-wxposed. I took pictures of animals in snow and the prints came out Using a TC with a Kalimar Reflex lens, that's what I would expect. I owned one of those reflex lenses for just long enough to see how bad they really are and I did not use a TC. I shudder to think of the low contrast with one... -- Later, Gary
Re: Why doesn't my lens work?
: Re: Why doesn't my lens work? My first question would be, what kind of pictures does it take when used without the TC? When shooting normally lit subjects, i.e. not as brightly lit as snow. As already stated shooting snow is tough anyway and the reflection can fool even the best meters. That f8 lens would be become an f16 with a 2X TC...or is it f32, i.e. 2 stops? Ignore the hardware elitists that take every opportunity to dis those who whose equipment they disdain and do not try to help. Jerry in Houston was the actual exposure with the tc and lens correct? snow can trick a meter and cuase it to underexpose . . . Gregory L. Hansen wrote: I'm having trouble figuring out why my Kalimar 500mm f/8 reflex lens, manual, doesn't seem to work.
Re: Why doesn't my lens work?
Gregory L. Hansen wrote: I'm having trouble figuring out why my Kalimar 500mm f/8 reflex lens, manual, doesn't seem to work. Pictures I've taken with it seemed grayish, grainy, low contrast, under-exposed. snip I would do a couple tests. First, take a good look at the negatives. Are they very dark or very thin compared to a negative that prints well? Thin means you are underexposing, dark overexposing. Both could give you that flat, grainy look you were describing. Second. Were you shooting in program or an auto exposure mode. I don't think reflex lenses work properly in auto exposure. Third. If the negs were underexposed, were you compensating for shooting snow. You should open up 1-2 stops for snow or sand. Fourth. Inexpensive reflex lenses have a reputation of being slower then marked. I would test the lens on a wall indoors with and without the TC. You should get a reading 2 stops slower with the TC on. I would also test against another lens (not reflex) preferably telephoto at f8 you should get the same readings which is a good way of telling if your lens is slower then f8. Finally. As mentioned by others, inexpensive reflex lenses are notorious for being flat with poor color and adding an inexpensive TC would only make matters worse. My best guesses. Underexposed negs you didn't compensate for the snow. Overexposed negs you were shooting on auto and the set up doesn't work that way. I hope this helps. BUTCH Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself. Hermann Hess (Damien)
