Picked on my morning walk.
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Gorgeous colors in a very small bloom.
With the bloom just 3/4″ across I used the 80mm El Nikkor reversed on the Nikon BR2A ring for best resolution, all on the Nikon PB-4 bellows, making for a twice life-sized image on the sensor.
Leica SL2-S, 80mm El Nikkor f/5.6N reversed at f/16, PB-4 bellows, 3 strobes, 10 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Picked on my morning walk.
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Aptly named – a real showoff.
Taken using the 200mm Micro-Nikkor IF AiS at f/22. Leica SL2-S, 3 strobes with one set for strong side lighting, ISO100, 19 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Large format, Leica quality.
Mention of my recently acquired Linhof Twin Shank Pro tripod prompts a further piece on the Linhof company.
The Linhof Company of Munich started business in 1887, which makes it the longest surviving camera producing business. They make medium and large format cameras to this day, and their web site is here. I’m not too sure who uses these large format film cameras any more as medium format digital easily manages to compete on output quality with far lower production costs and faster turnaround, at a comparable price. But they remain things of beauty.
Back in the 1940-1970 time frame Leica made a bewildering range of accessories for their film cameras but they were mere pikers compared to the prodigious output of Linhof.
Click on this image to download their 1957 70th anniversary product catalog which is no less than 119 pages long:
In addition to a long section on the care and training of employees – right down to a picture of the resident nurse standing by to deal with machine shop injuries – there’s this wonderful image of a Leitz optical measuring machine:
Have fun perusing this wonderful journey into a past of exceptional mechanical engineering.
If 4×5 is something you want to experiment with be warned that used Linhof prices are high. A lower cost of entry – with similar functionality if lower engineering quality – can be found in the affordable Graflex range of US made cameras. I had a lot of fun with my Crown Graphic.
Using Helicon Focus’s Retouching feature.
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Because of the depth/tilt of the subject I used the tilt and shift functions of the Nikon PB-4 bellows to get the top and central bud/flower groups sharp:
With subjects like this with considerable depth and complexity Helicon can struggle and may render ghosted images in certain areas. The app has an excellent retouching tool which permits selection of the sharpest constituent image for that area and allows you to brush over the area with ghosting, replacing it with the correct/sharp area from the single constituent image. I had to use that tool on a couple of the leaves here which Helicon originally ghosted. It takes less time to do than to describe and is a unique feature of Helicon specifically aimed at stacked images, and not something that is available in regular processing apps like Lightroom. If you look at the leaves just above the central petal group in the enlarged version you can see a couple of ghosted areas I omitted to remove.
Here’s the setup – the camera is turned together with the bellows through 90 degrees on the tripod, whereupon the bellow’s swing front panel becomes a tilting one and the shift becomes rise/fall. Then tilt and rise are applied. The 135mm Leitz Elmar used here has a decently broad image circle, allowing this approach without robbing edge definition so long as the tilt is not too extreme. The shift function also helps by restoring the image toward the center of the image circle. Very cool and you can focus stack with far fewer images than would otherwise be called for. The 80mm El Nikkor with its larger image circle would have been a better choice for tilt and rise use, but the greater working distance of the 135mm Elmar makes lighting easier.
Leica SL2-S, 135mm Elmar at f/16 on the Nikon PB-4 bellows, 3 strobes. 30 images focus stacked in Helicon Focus.
Über Alles.
I have been a contented user of a Linhof S168 tripod for some four decades. A sturdy support it weighs 6lbs 5.3oz. and you can see the extension in that link.
However, as I really need that tripod for display purposes in the home theater, when the opportunity came along to acquire a mint 1950s Linhof Twin Shank Pro for all of $125, I snapped it up. Weighting a light 7lb 2.0oz thanks to all alloy construction the dual shank cantilevered legs provide for just one extension and, with the center post extended that means a maximum of 73 3/4 inches from the low point of 29 1/2 inches. That’s good enough for basketballers, and while I used to be 6 feet tall age seems to be taking me down a bit. Anyway, it’s more than tall enough.
All that was needed was a very thin swipe of silicone based Silglyde on the sliding parts to remove stiction. WD40 and related paraffin-based lubricants are probably not a good idea as they may rot the seals over time. Luckily the retractable rubber feet are in excellent shape, no cracks showing and a coat of rubber preservative on these is just what the doctor ordered.
The head has a 3/8″ thread and I use a heavy duty Artcise ball head atop. Despite the width of the Linhof’s mounting plate the controls on the head are easily accessed. The Linhof Twin-Shank Pro, without a head, retailed for $89.95 in 1957, which figures to $1,350 today and, indeed, Linhof still makes tripods which you and Elon Musk can find at B&H.
These Linhofs regularly turn up on the used market – they made a vast range – and if you can find one that has not been brutalized in a pro’s studio at a good price I say “Go for it”.