A few years ago, I used the tagline “The Art of Engineering” and blogged about the Gibellini ACN45 4×5. Since then, I have purchased a lighter Gibellini TCN45 for when I need the portability. Gibellini also overhauled my ACN45, making it a practically new camera. Recently I took delivery of an ACN810 from Gibellini. This is their mid-range 8×10 model, sitting between the mostly 3-D printed Bellatrix 810 and their GP810 professional model. While nominally not their “pro” model, I was assured by Alessandro Gibellini that it will be able to handle my large barrel lens, including the 3+ lbs […]
Yearly Archives: 2020
10 posts
These are some photos I took during my trip to Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year in 2014. Because I grew up in Hong Kong, I wasn’t looking for the tourist-attracting glitz or cyberpunk-type city celebrated in Blade Runner, or Pacific Rim. My deeply-buried memories of small religious temples and the narrow paths situated between worn houses came rushing back to me as I walked the streets that echoed with familiarity. Seeing people who try to make a living any way they can, and of course, all the food. Dried fish maw, marinated cuttlefish, roasted ducks hanging here and […]
The Hasselblad XPan continues to be a cult favorite. I love my Fuji TX-2 (XPan II) since gotten it in late 2000s. With its wide aspect ratio (a negative size of 24mmx64mm), one issue is that it’s not easy to make darkroom prints or make digital scans of the images. In fact, one might say that my scanner purchases had been to get the best out of this ridiculously good film format and camera. After settling on the Pakon F335 fast 35mm scanner and the Flextight 848 high quality scanner for the bulk of my work, plus an Epson V700 […]
Asian Americans are generally not known to be political active. However, the growing Black Lives Matter movement is getting support even from this normally apolitical segment of our society. On June 23, 2020, the San Francisco Chinatown Art Center sponsored an “art actions” event. They provided paints and other materials, and a number of people showed up drawing murals on the ground of the Portsmouth Square. People of all races and ages came together and did some amazing arts. Almost everyone wore masks and observed physical distancing. Here’s a few more from the iPhone
I wrote a post in October 2018 (originally written in 2016 on Medium site) on the Gibellini ACN45 4×5 large format camera. My ACN45 was one of the first cameras made by Alessandro Gibellini. It’s solid, works great, and just beautiful to look at and to use. It’s a bit heavy so when I was traveling, I usually took the lighter weight Chamonix F1 4×5. About a year and half ago, as the Chamonix F1 had some difficulties handling the large Cooke PS945 lens (which is the lens I use the most), I decided to sell the Chamonix and bought […]
So with nothing much else to do (who am I kidding? there are plenty of Things That Need To Be Done, but I don’t wanna…), I built myself a guillotine shutter for the Pinkham and Smith Visual Quality IV No.2 lens. Notes: a Guillotine shutter works by gravity – a blade with a slot opening drops and the film is exposed during the time the open slot is traveling down in front of the lens. A Packard Shutter is one of the other few ways to use a shutter with these larger lens (the PS VQ IV is 3 1/2″ […]
While the Hasselblad Flextight scanners still produce some of the best scans available, it is unfortunately a product line that had been discontinued. The software has not been updated for nearly a decade, and there have been a number of people asking for help to get their units with Firewire interface working under Windows 10, with no definitive answer that I can find. I have recently gotten a new PC running Windows 10 Pro. The good news is that my Flextight 848 scanner works perfectly after some digging around in the new setup. There are different models of Flextight scanners […]
The Cooke Portrait PS945 is a modern classic large format lens, designed to recreate the soft focus look of the classic lens of old. At an aperture between F8 and F11, it is sharp where it counts, with a 3-D rendering that rolls off into the out of focus area like butter. Of course the soft focus effect is best demonstrated with a large aperture opening, something at F4.5 to F5.6: Dreamy… but wait, that’s not an image from the Cooke PS945! What is this? It’s a Pinkham and Smith Visual Quality Series IV (PSVQ IV from now on) No. […]
My friend visited from a land-of-far and gifted me some boxes of 2012-2013 Arista 100 (rebadged Foma 100). So, with nothing much else to do, other than dayjob, cleaning, filing for Small Business Disaster loan, taking care of a departed friend’s estate as I am the executor, cooking, cleaning, dog walking,… anyway, I have some times on my hands. Luckily, now I have a lot of films, and a reluctant but mostly cooperative model. First up is the incomparable Cooke PS945. First effort was a MEH, because my XTOL just went up and died on me. Sadly, I have not […]
This is not a review of the new Hasselblad CFV II 50C digital back. For a quick introduction to what the CFV II 50C is all about, see the promotional video from Hasselblad below. Currently the CFV II 50C is only available as part of the “907X Special Edition” package, which is already sold out. At a list price of $7995, and even at half the price, the 907x Special Edition is not affordable for me. Fortunately, I have friends. In this case, Godfrey received his 907x package recently and he generously allowed me to ogle and fondle the back. […]