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Moronic Design Department

You'd think that Epson's high-end "Perfection" series of film scanners (V600, V700, V750 ,V800 etc.) would be able to handle the most basic of tasks, allowing three negatives of a 6x7cm strip to be scanned at once. Nope. Their stupidly designed film holder handles only two full frames. The third frame gets severely chopped. Scanning three 6x6cm square images isn't a problem but, really, 6x7 is just as common a format. What is ridiculous is that the scanner bed can easily handle the larger 8x10 sheet film, so it technically *can* cover a three negative 6x7 strip. The only reason it doesn't is because A MORON DESIGNED THE FILM HOLDER. And don't get me started about the dumbass interface of Epson's large format 7900 printer and its incessant nozzle cleaning annoyance. Epson are idiots.

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Brooklyn artist Simon Smith sat for a portrait recently. We shot this on 8x10 film using the 405mm Kodak Portrait lens and the big Vitax lens as well.

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Bloody Nose

Sally Mann isn’t best known for her color work, but when she uses it, she uses it.

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Cameras I Love: Leicaflex SL

Leicaflex SL (1968->1974) Leica's legendary M series rangefinders get all the glory, but I'll take a Leicaflex SL any day of the week. This hefty and beautifully sculpted camera takes refined simplicity to another level altogether. You really have use one for just a bit to appreciate it. Extraordinarily solid and silky smooth in operation. No frills whatsoever, the SL excels in that unquantifiable quality called feel. Plus, superb mechanics. Built to last forever, really. The SL was Leica's second SLR, after the original Leicaflex, in an attempt to complete with the pro Nikon F and Canon F1 systems. While the SL (and the somewhat more complex SL2, 1974->1976) never made a real dent in market share, it really was the crown jewel of sophisticated German mechanical camera design and manufacture. I don’t think it ever got better than this. It has been written that the SL cameras nearly bankrupted the company because they cost more to manufacture than what they had sold for in stores. That’s right, Leica actually lost money with each sale. The idea was to get you into the Leica system and subsequently buy their legendary (and expensive) lenses. SL stood for "Selective Light" metering, but to me it means "Sleeper Leica." Love the camera.

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More portrait grabs with the Pentax 6x7. I’m liking the 75mm AL f2.8 lens a lot, a recent purchase.

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Empire State Building

Empire State Building, Observation Deck c. 1982

In the '80s I'd often go there, set up my 4x5 camera on a tripod and just ask people to pose. There's no way building security would allow me do this today. Also, going up there was free back then. Now, the cheapest adult ticket is $34.

I used Polaroid Type 55 film (print and negative).This is a photo of an original 16x20 print. Photo © Bruce Polin

Large picture here

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Customized Copy Stand

Most fabulous copy-stand ever. It’s a modified Beseler 45v-XL enlarger: innards removed, metal panels reshaped, camera platform machined with aluminum and oak, 30 pound steel bar installed to counterweight the column's strong springs. Norman heads with beauty dishes for lighting. Four beautiful vintage Leicaflex cameras keep the print corners flat. That's how I roll.

Large picture here

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That odd thing that happens when you are are walking towards a random stranger and suddenly realize that it's your amazing daughter.

I made more good use of the Pentax 6x7 (with 105mm lens) while the 21cm Heliar lens for the 4x5 Gowlandflex is being worked on by Grimes. Cable release socket kept popping out.

Photo © 2017 Bruce Polin

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Amy, Bloomfield Hills, MI

While I await the return of my 21cm Heliar lens for my 4x5 Gowlandlex, I dusted off my trusty Pentax 6x7. Breaking in a new (to me) 75mm f/2.8 AL lens for the 67. It is very small and lightweight and very sharp. The wide 2.8 aperture makes it easier to focus than the 75mm f/4.5 that I used prior.

Photo © 2017 Bruce Polin

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Cameras I Love: Pentax 67

This rig is configured with 105mm lens, chimney finder (nice diopter adjustment), wood grip, and compendium lens-hood. ‘60s->’70s design. Built like a friggin’ tank and renders a gorgeous negative. Massive and heavy, but engineered to handle like a 35mm slr. Great, great camera. Love it.

for a deeper look, see Pentax 67 System: Beauty and Beast

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Some images I shot at the Women’s March on Washington 2017

First major outing using the Fuji X-T2. It handled well.

Photographs © Bruce Polin

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Who likes upgrading?

Really, I hate to ”upgrade.” I still use Photoshop CS4 from 2008. True. And for the past eight years I’ve been using a full-frame Sony A900. It’s also from 2008. That’s 105 in digital years.  I still love it. It’s built like a tank, has a terrifically large viewfinder, and delivers shockingly detailed images.

Although I still make use of the Sony (really, it’s a great camera), lately I’ve been wishing for something smaller and lighter. The buzz is that advancements in sensor technology have greatly lessoned or obliterated the need for full-frame. So I got myself the mirrorless Fuji X-T2 (APS-C sensor). It produces nice files and has nice knobs and dials that I could access just like my old analog film cameras. The less reliance on nightmarish menu navigation the better. I’d be perfectly fine with no menu at all. 

The Fuji is light. The lenses are too. And they’re sharp. Did I mention how light everything is? I just take it with me. It’s fun to shoot with.  Really though, these days there’s no shortage of great small cameras, all delivering wonderful results. Since excellent image quality is no longer hard to come by, I made Fun an important criteria.

Pictured with the small and fast-focusing 23mm f/2 lens (35mm view on full-frame)

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Presumably this photograph of Alfred Stieglitz was taken during the period he was taking cloud studies for his "Equivalents" series.

===== Paul Strand Alfred Stieglitz, Lake George, New York 1929 (taken) 1960s (print)

Gelatin silver print 9 3/16 x 6 13/16 ins (23.4 x 17.3 cm) (image) 9 3/8 x 7 ins (23.8 x 17.8 cm) (sheet)

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Paul Strand Collection, partial and promised gift of Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest, 2009, Accession Number: 2009-160-43, © Paul Strand Archive/Aperture Foundation

LL/72365

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THE LENS VADE MECUM

This enormous unpublished work was written from the notes and records of lens collector, Matthew Wilkinson and friend, Colin Glanfield. Matthew unexpectedly passed away from Cancer in 1994 and never had the chance to write a formal book on camera lenses. Colin Glanfield and Dr. Neil Wright (and countless others), put this draft book together over many years. This enormous volume of this work is unprecedented in its size and scope of information on photographic lenses from 1839 to present day. This huge volume of work is what I think anyone would consider to be the bible of photographic lenses. You'll find information on the earliest brass lenses; turn of the century beauties like the Heliar; classics such as Leica, Contax, Nikon and Canon Rangefinder lenses; all the way to modern lenses from Pentax, Zeiss, Canon, Minolta etc.......all lens formats are represented including Large Format. This is a must have reference.

http://antiquecameras.net/lensvademecum.html

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Artist Ken Brown sat for a portrait just before heading back to his home in Munich. The session ran long (was it nearly 4 hours?) and Ken nearly missed his flight back. Shot on 8x10 film using Vitax and Kodak Portrait lenses.

photos © 2016 Bruce Polin

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First Love

This pic was recently sent to me by an old friend. It’s of me with my first “real” camera, a Minolta XE-7. I must have been 15, maybe.  It was truly a lovely and very well made camera, built like a tank, and of the first generation of SLRs to offer auto exposure, something pros looked down upon back then. Hard to believe now.

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Artists in Exile

So I see at this photo many times throughout the day because it is situated squarely between my coffee grinder and my meds, both of which are part of my daily ritual to remain functioning and relatively clearheaded. I’ve had the picture for many years, and, as such, it has become somewhat invisible because of its familiarity. But recently the image, “Artists in Exile”, has taken on an unusual new resonance and agency with the impending inauguration of a new administration. It’s a picture of notable artists who escaped Nazi Europe with the help of journalist Varian Fry and others. Many of the artists found their way to NYC where Peggy Guggenheim exhibited their work at her Art of this Century gallery. She was an important figure in helping with their survival and integration once they landed safely in America. The photo was taken in 1942, in Guggenheim’s apartment, by Hermann Landahoff who died in 1986. He is pictured below with his Rolleiflex camera. That our own artists and writers might be left no choice but to go underground, or even flee this country altogether, is really not some wild notion. Far from it. Donald Trump has made it quite clear he will not tolerate dissent or criticism of any kind, and is quite ready to punish those who cross that line. The leap, sadly, is not that great. Front row: Stanley William Hayter, Leonara Carrington, Frederick Kiesler, Kurt Seligmann. Second Row: Max Ernst, Amedee Ozenfant, Andre Breton, Fernand Leger, Berenice Abbott. Third Row: Jimmy Ernst, Peggy Guggenheim, John Ferren, Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondrian.