Fuji G617 help

[mrgazzer]

Hi

Can anyone help with 2 questions re the fuji G617.

Has someone done a lens test to see what the sharpest aperture is..?
Comming from 35mm & 6.45 i normally use two stops down from the largest aperture, ( suject to wanted depth of field ) and on these cameras the smallest setting wasn't always the sharpest, but i understand that the 105mm lens is a large format optic & people often used small apertures for these...

So is f45 the sharpest aperture?

Second question is on the metering, i seem to be using loads of film to get a good exposure technique... I use a incident meter that i know is acurate, but on E6 film this seems to be 1.5 /2 stops too dark ( underexposure i think )
Also i metered from another camera that i know is also acurate & this seems a bit hit & miss, is there something i'm doing wrong..
I'm not using the centre filter, i know this will even things out accross the picture, but want to get a good basic exposure first.  
Any help would be great.

[urbanpicasso]

I've found that you'll get better results around f/16- f/22, diffraction will begin set in beyond that. With about a 3mm-4mm spot meter set the lens at  1/3 to 1/2 of a stop below brightest . Set focal distance centered 1/2 way between infinity and closest part of the scene you want in focus.
Dig into the sites below for more knowledge than I can offer you right now..Good luck!!

http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/
http://www.fotomancamera.com/download/2006...amicCameras.pdf
http://www.fotomancamera.com/download/2006...MMinFocDist.pdf

[spotmeter]

Hi

Can anyone help with 2 questions re the fuji G617.

Has someone done a lens test to see what the sharpest aperture is..?
Comming from 35mm & 6.45 i normally use two stops down from the largest aperture, ( suject to wanted depth of field ) and on these cameras the smallest setting wasn't always the sharpest, but i understand that the 105mm lens is a large format optic & people often used small apertures for these...

So is f45 the sharpest aperture?

Second question is on the metering, i seem to be using loads of film to get a good exposure technique... I use a incident meter that i know is acurate, but on E6 film this seems to be 1.5 /2 stops too dark ( underexposure i think )
Also i metered from another camera that i know is also acurate & this seems a bit hit & miss, is there something i'm doing wrong..
I'm not using the centre filter, i know this will even things out accross the picture, but want to get a good basic exposure first.  
Any help would be great.

I found the middle apertures the sharpest on my G617.

I also had the same underexposure problem and used an accurate incident meter. I just changed the effective ISO of the film until I got the correct exposures and then used that ISO for that film.

Hope this helps. Great camera.

[photodan]

When I owned this camera I found I had to use it mostly at f22 or a hair smaller aperture opening (like f22 1/2) to get the best overall sharpness from left to right. I found that the sides of the photos were not tack sharp at wider apertures (perhaps due to film flatness issues at the sides, or maybe the lens). This situation applies mostly when the entire subject is at one distance.

For metering I used a Pentax digital spotmeter.  For color transparencies I metered on the highlights (like the brightest rock in a landscape I wanted to see some detail in, not on water reflections, for example). Then I set the camera around 1 1/2 stops over (more exposure) the meter reading (otherwise the overall photo would be overexposed, because most of the scene had elements darker than the bright rocks).  Say the meter showed 1/30 second at f32 1/2 (meaning 1/2 stop from f32 to f45). I would set the camera at 1/30 second at f22.

I used a spotmeter because sometimes the incident meter is not in the same light as the subject, and with a reflected light meter (like a spotmeter) no matter how dark or light the subject is, you'll know pretty much how the image will be exposed on the film (once the meter is calibrated and you know how your film responds). To calibrate the meter there are various ways, but I just took a bunch of shots in different conditions at different exposures and made notes (with just one film stock). When I got the film back I could see that the meter was consistently giving readings that resulted in photos too dark by one stop. I adjusted in the future by setting the ASA on the meter lower by one stop (e.g. instead of ASA 100 I would use ASA 50).
Dan

[mrgazzer]

Great!

Thanks for all the comments guys. they are really usefull, and will save a fortune in film/process costs... while i puzzled things out.