Giles schrieb:
> The best way to take shots using a tripod and any OM without aperture and
> shutter pre-fire is to use the method Olympus recommends for longer focal
> lengths. They recommend treating the tripod as a support to just take the
> weight of the camera and lens and to hold and steady the lens with the
> left hand while holding the camera with the right hand and pressing the
> shutter release with your finger. This way your body is in contact with
> the camera & lens at two points and so can absorb and damp any vibrations.
This is comes close to the method Zeiss recommends for ultimate sharp
tripod photos:
10 Steps to Success in High Performance Photography
The following article is meant to be a ten
step guide to images that are significantly
sharper than average ones. Images that
exploit the enormous optical potential of
Carl Zeiss lenses, their ability to produce
photos with phenomenal sharpness and
impressive information content.
(So hopfully, images produced by Zuiko lenses might benefit too)
This is the ten step method used by Carl
Zeiss applications specialists to shoot the
high resolution demo photos which
challenge today?s sharpest color films to
their very limit.
1. Select a high performance optic!
If you don?t, all subsequent steps are a
waste of your time and effort.
(Well, an Zuiko might serve as well)
2. Attach your high performance optic to
an adequate camera. To be adequate, the
camera needs to have an all metal die
cast housing, strong and large bottom
plate with tripod thread preferably located
under the center of gravity.
(Thats true for OMs, in contrast to many plastic AF wonderbricks)
If the camera has a detachable winder or moto
attached underneath, you may want to
take it off for better rigidity of the whole
system. Do not simply assume that your
camera is in perfect condition, rather
have it double checked for correct back
focal flange distance, and, in case your
camera is an SLR, for perfect alignment
of mirror and focusing screen in relation
to the film plane.
3. Place your camera and optic in a very
rigid way onto a very stiff tripod and
head, preferably with virtually no
elasticity. Photo tripods usually prove
insufficient for real high performance
photography.
You may wish to use a carbon fibre television
tripod instead, with a fluid head
featuring adjustable damping devices.
Balance your camera properly on the fluid
head, adjust the counterbalance dial for
the weight of your camera and lens,
choose high values on the damping
system dials (e. g. 5 to 7 on a Sachtler
"Video 18 Plus"), and do not fasten the
brakes! This is the special trick with fluid
heads: Use their damping systems,
originally invented to enable the
cameraman to perform smooth pans, to
absorb equipment vibrations triggered by
the shutter, instead. These vibrations
could otherwise reduce or even destroy
the optical resolution of fine structures.)
4. Select a high performance film like
Kodak Ektar 25 Professional or Kodak
Royal Gold 25 (color negative), or Kodak
Technical Pan (black & white) or Fuji-chrome
Velvia (color transparency) and
make sure it will be processed
adequately. Films like the ones just
mentioned offer a resolving power of
150 line pairs per millimeter and beyond.
5. Use the split field indicator for focus-ing.
Make sure the aperture is wide open.
You may want to use accessories, small
telescopes like the Carl Zeiss MiniQuick®
5 x 10 T* with 5x magnification are pretty
handy for this task, to enlarge the center
of your viewfinder image during focusing.
(An Olympian will use the Vari Magnifinder)
6. Prefer f-stop settings in the region of
5.6 to 8. (To close the aperture down
further will cost too much resolution due
to the unavoidable phenomenon of
diffraction (At f/8, diffraction will limit the
resolution to 200 line pairs per millimeter
or below, at f/5.6 the diffraction limit is at
280 line pairs per millimeter; see CLN 2).
To open up the aperture more may cost
too much resolution due to thermal
expansion effects, film curvature due to
moisture and temperature (The Real Time
Vacuum System in the Contax RTS III does
away with this problem). Mechanical
tolerances due to wear and tear, rough
handling and other influences like
residual warpage of the focusing screen
also recommend to open up no wider
than 5.6 or 8.)
7. Use the mirror pre-release feature, if
your camera has it (Every camera that has
it, needs it. The opposite is not true! Not
every camera that comes without, can
achieve high resolution photos.)
8. Wrap your hands around the camera
to absorb most of the vibrations that occur
upon opening the focal plane shutter
(you may not need a cable release at all).
If your camera system gives you the
freedom to use either focal plane or
central shutter, like the Hasselblad 200-
series cameras or the discontinued
Rolleiflex SL 66, when combined with
central shutter lenses, prefer the central
shutter because of its inherently lower
vibration levels.
9. Take written notes of all parameters
and settings (like: Carl Zeiss Distagon
28 mm # 7.500.123, @ f/8, Contax RX
# 10.531 @ 1/125, in Av-mode, Mar 3,
1998, focusing done with split field
indicator for license plate in center of
image, damping on fluid head: 7 on
vertical, 5 on horizontal, license plate on
truck 350 feet away, character line width
on license plate: 3/8 inch.)
10. Select a lab that is very quality con-scious
about equipment and materials
and uses high performance optics in
printers and enlargers. The best optics
ever used in a lab for enlarging are Carl
Zeiss S-Orthoplanar 4/60 and Carl Zeiss S-Biogon
5,6/40 for prints from 35 mm
originals and Carl Zeiss S-Orthoplanar
5,6/105 for prints from medium format
originals. These optics were originally
developed for the extreme resolution
demands of microdocumentation (beyond
150 line pairs per millimeter) and are, at
magnifications of 10 x to 70 x, far
superior to even the very best enlarging
lenses currently available.
Understanding and using these tech-niques
will surely give you a better appre
ciation of the extremely high limits which
Carl Zeiss has spent so much effort
designing and manufacturing into their
lenses. More than ever before, extremely
careful and deliberate technique must be
used to obtain the results of which the
equipment is capable.
Found at:
Camera Lens News (CLN) No. 4 June 1998
You may use all the information presented by
CLN in your own publications freely if you sen
a specimen copy to us. Although CLN does no
contain photos itself and is written in English,
we may be able to provide you with images in
many cases and German versions of the
articles.
Publisher:
Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen
Camera Lens Division
Regards
Richard
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