While shooting with my Contax 645 I have been having significant trouble getting focus on my subjects eyes. I shoot with the 80 and 140 and while doing portraiture I've notice that it's very difficult for me to tell when I've focused correctly. Viewing the scans after a shoot enhances this problem. I'm getting a decent keeper rate, but I do see a great deal of room for improvement. I have a split field diopter installed but focus and recompose does not work well when shooting wide open in medium format. Are there any techniques I should work on or any other advice? Thanks.
Cineski,
One other thing.
This is an equipment forum about 50/50 bias towards new equipment.
Remember the great master photographers that shot film (with manual focus) rarely bought the latest and greatest, even holding on to equipment that was many generations old.
They learned their equipment like the learned how to breath and used the equipment's limitations to their advantages.
I could make a list but it would be too long and probably not what you want to here.
Anyway, my suggestion is stick with you contax, try some different lens options, give the original screen a try and trust yourself.
9 times out of 10 if you really know your camera, that ability to trust yourself in all situations will make for more focused images but better yet free your mind to be creative rather than spending you time learning new knobs, buttons, menus and tech.
Once again I am biased because I think the contax is the finest 645 camera ever made. It has a waist level finder, right angle grip with dual power, great variety of sharp zeiss lenses, with adapters nearly any medium format lens will work and most of all it's really solid with very few glitches.
(just keep the shutter curtain covered and never lift the camera by the prism. Also clean all contacts regularly for solid connection.)
Anyway.
I am positive I've shot a million frames on my main bodies and the only thing I would like that I don't have in medium format would be a higher iso cmos chip, a back that fired as fast as film (my p21+ is close, my p30+ much slower) and a back that made not only a great lcd preview but offered a large embedded jpeg with noise reduction and real time live view.
That back will get my check, but the contax will be with me for a long time.
IMO
BC
P.S. I was just in Tokyo and came close to buying a pentax 645d. Not for the camera but for the price, the slightly better iso and the lcd that produces a preview file with noise reduction.
The only thing that stopped me was it wasn't the Contax.
