"The educators choice" ???

[DrEntropy]

Yup. And some "spectral" shadow with the scan. That's why I'm thinking about the old film scanner.

A chunk of each of the full size shots:

 

[DrEntropy]

Haven't taken a loupe to the neg, but I ~think~ I can see the grain in the scan.

And that AiS lens is good and sharp!

 

[GregW]

I did a quick edit with the film shot. Used "local contrast", "levels", "shadows and highlights" and "contrast equalizer". No "sharpen tool at all. Still no information in the sky however.

 

[DrEntropy]

Yeah, with some work on it, it looks better, but still not as wide a latitude WRT tonal range. As you said, no sky info. It was an obvious "expose for the shadows" choice. Actually did the meter read with the F-2 aimed at my palm in shadow. That will usually approximate 18% gray. Did run it thru GIMP and gave it a bit more contrast, but that was it.

 

[DrEntropy]

Thinking on it, if the neg were put in an enlarger to print out, burning in the sky would be possible, but as I've joked before, no "sharpening fluid" for the image itself.

Anyone interested in some well used Nikon film cameras?

 

[GregW]

There are people out there buying that stuff because they say they "like the look" of film.

 

[DrEntropy]

BUT I'M KEEPIN' TH' GLASS!!

That 35~70 AiS has proven itself today!

 

[DrEntropy]

Another thing is, the D7200 will couple with the AiS diaphragm and also allows me to hit an Fn button to see DoF preview. Pretty handy IMHO.

And as an aside to the Epson's accurate scan focus, this image was severely underexposed, almost "thin" enuff to blow thru. And a good example as to why you should always "clean yer plate." Dirt on the scanner or neg... but the point here is the grain in the T-Max 100 is in fact fairly apparent when "zoomed in" on the original scan:

 

[GregW]

Left field question. Do you shoot with your glasses on? I usually take mine off but the 610's stock diopter won't focus far enough. So I added a higher power diopter. If you have diopter on the F2, I wonder if your vision has changed since you installed it.

 

[DrEntropy]

Glasses off, a -4 diopter correction eyepiece on all bodies. Used to be a -2, but since the retina surgeries things changed. Have a scleral buckle around the left orb. Can't use the right side, the replacement lens has moved out of alignment just before the CoV-2 BS started and correcting it was forestalled.

As you mention that, my thoughts go to the possibility the F2 ground glass may be out of sync with the film plane... have to check that.

Meantime, I'll put the last roll of T-Max in the FE and do the same shot and bumble around to shoot the rest so as to process it right away.

 

[GregW]

The reason I ask is the focus on the cat seems off. Especially with the fiber on either the scanner glass or the neg itself seems sharper than the whiskers. I feel that the focus on my 610 with the stupid green dot is not very accurate. That was the main reason I installed a split focus screen. I think we talked about that in the past.

 

[DrEntropy]

There would be small wonder the cat is out, whole frame seems soft. Likely due to low shutter speed and shake. But the magnified section seems to show grain is fuzzy too, the contamination likely on the scanner plate sharp as a tack. That's another reason to try a scan with the Pacific scanner or shoot the neg with bellows/macro.

We did go over the split screen change. I've not done anything about that, I seem to have no issue focusing manually with the digitals (evidenced by the street shot with one). I will tripod mount the F-2 with some tracing paper on the film plane and see if it matches point-of-focus with the viewfinder. Meanwhile the FE will have a roll of the T-Max run thru it and souped, likely today.

EDIT: Someplace along the way I've lost a glass microscope slide that was "frosted" on one side to use as a film plane surrogate for focus testing/checking. A loupe and well placed tracing paper will do, tho.

 

[GregW]

EDIT: Someplace along the way I've lost a glass microscope slide that was "frosted" on one side to use as a film plane surrogate for focus testing/checking. A loupe and well placed tracing paper will do, tho.

Never seen or heard of that. I'll have to investigate.

 

[DrEntropy]

Never seen or heard of that. I'll have to investigate.

Learned that as a kid (17-ish) working part-time in a Ma & Pa camera store, did some repair work there. A lot of leaf shutters and apertures cleared of oil or spring replacements, too.

A funny aside: It was fairly common to have someone come into the store with a Pentax SLR, shutter stuck. Most times it was due to self-timer stopping part way from lack of use. Instead of a tear-down, once figured on nothing to lose and gave one a sharp rap flat on its base, onto the workbench... "bzzzzT"!!

After that it was: "Sir, if you love this camera you may want to step outside for a few minutes."