Building a 35mm film landscape kit from scratch.

[antonroland]

Hello all you fine folks

I hope to find one or two like-minded folks who are doing this type of thing or have done it recently?

The plan is to build a system like no digital exists.

I own a 645 and getting a RB67 soon but let's keep this to 35mm.

What I have are 4 Pentax K-1000 cameras, each with a 50mm lens. A fresh purchase is a 24mm/2,8 lens just bought on eBay today. Next would be the 35mm and hopefully the f/2.

I am looking at the 50mm/1.4 and also f/1.2 but these are no big priority since I already have 2 f/2's, a 1.8 and a 1.7.

Now, when it comes to filters and all the likes I need to cater for mostly black & white and also some colour slide.

Red and yellow filters come to mind and then some big number ND filters for LONG exposures. Possibly a 3-stop soft grad.

Now I prefer screw-on filters but will probably consider Cokin A-series. I would like to keep it as minimalistic as possible though...Less bits-n-bobs to lose or fall and break.

Oh and I would like to fit all of this into a Pelican 1500...

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

 

[sirch]

I would like to keep it as minimalistic as possible though

Sounds like that ship has already sailed

 

[Knikki]

HI.

Think you have a good setup already however filters and screw in types especially the Graduated ones really don’t work it is far better to have a Cokin style one so you can move the Grad to cover the area you want, maybe sky off to one side and near the top of the frame as an example. Cokin filters are good because instead of having loads of the same filters in different sizes you can just have various rings to match the lens and then attach the adaptors to them.

Just thinking, if you found a Cokin Pro filter kit used or new, they are bigger so could also be used with your medium format kit as well, might be worth a thought.

As for breaking them, I have filters that I bought back in the 80's that I still use and are fine.

Lens: effectively you can use any lens for landscape photography from ultra wide to super telephotos, your only limited by your own imagination and what you want to capture. The set you have so far look good.

Pelican 1500? I guess that is a case but I have no experience with them, generally most photographers have N+1 cameras and N+1 camera bags cause we can rarely find the right one to fit our needs.

Have fun.

 

[antonroland]

No need to be nasty now

But seriously, actually referred to filters and other related gizmos when I said minimalistic...

 

[antonroland]

HI.

Think you have a good setup already however filters and screw in types especially the Graduated ones really don’t work it is far better to have a Cokin style one so you can move the Grad to cover the area you want, maybe sky off to one side and near the top of the frame as an example. Cokin filters are good because instead of having loads of the same filters in different sizes you can just have various rings to match the lens and then attach the adaptors to them.

Great idea, thanks! I have some P-series holders. Any chance there are mount rings as small as 49mm and 52mm that will work on the P-series?

As for breaking them, I have filters that I bought back in the 80's that I still use and are fine.

Have you ANY IDEA how clumsy and scatter-brained I can be?

Lens: effectively you can use any lens for landscape photography from ultra wide to super telephotos, your only limited by your own imagination and what you want to capture. The set you have so far look good.

Yeah, agreed on that but I am not sure I am brave enough for stitching scanned negs so will limit 35mm film work to single frame 24mm, 35mm and 50mm images for now...Oh and macro...

Looking into the 50mm/4 macro as an alternative to current 50 + Vivitar macro-focusing converter...

I did not yet see or look for medium telephoto primes in the SMC Pentax-M range.

Pelican 1500? I guess that is a case but I have no experience with them, generally most photographers have N+1 cameras and N+1 camera bags cause we can rarely find the right one to fit our needs.

Yep, member of that club too, much to the dissatisfaction of the Missus. If I had to pack all my toys now they would probably fill my 110 Defender...

Have fun.

Cheers and thanks for the input!

 

[antonroland]

@Knikki Bless you!! P-Series rings go as small as 49mm so sorted for the soft grad!! Rest will be screw-mount...I believe...

 

[Asha]

Yes p mounting rings go down to 49mm and upto 82mm

As for breaking, the square p filters themselves are plastic and not glass although mine aren’t cokin, in fact I’ll have to check them to see what brand they actually are

One thing to bear in mind is that although the plastic holders will accept as many as 3 square filters and one round polarizing or infra red filter, some third party versions will not accept the round filters.

EDIT: These are what I use: https://www.formatt-hitech.com/85mm

 

[antonroland]

Yes p mounting rings go down to 49mm and upto 82mm

As for breaking, the square p filters themselves are plastic and not glass although mine aren’t cokin, in fact I’ll have to check them to see what brand they actually are

Not so much breaking but scratching that worries me...

One thing to bear in mind is that although the plastic holders will accept as many as 3 square filters and one round polarizing or infra red filter, some third party versions will not accept the round filters.

Cheers!

 

[Asha]

Not so much breaking but scratching that worries me...

Cheers!

I’ve added a link to my previous post to the filters that I use.

I think you will find some scratches to be inevitable.
Tbh my filters tend to get abused a bit and without doubt are not in top top shape .
They do what they need to do though without any noticeable degradation of the image captured on the negative ( I’m talking LF negs here up to 10x8).

 

[lindsay]

Asha mentioned it in passing, have you considered getting a polarising filter?
Re macro there is a very nice Pentax bellows unit (that I have one of) or Pentax extension tubes?

 

[antonroland]

Asha mentioned it in passing, have you considered getting a polarising filter?

I have yes. I have 58mm and 77mm screw-mount and also a big round one that works with the Cokin P-Series, thanks!

Re macro there is a very nice Pentax bellows unit (that I have one of) or Pentax extension tubes?

Not sure I really have a need for those and never really worked with one. I might eventually try one but so far I manage hand-held with the Vivitar converter.

Cheers!

 

[antonroland]

I am playing with the idea of hunting for a yellow and red soft grad for B&W skies...Not sure those even exist?

 

[Asha]

Light lemon YELLOW graduated color filter - 84.5mm camera filters

This filter offers a wide range of applications. Fine, lemon yellow filter with a wide range of applications. It has the ability to warm-up certain colors such as orange tones of clouds during sunset, green yellow or brown tones of summer landscape or paradox add light turquoise tone to the clouds.

www.84dot5mm.com

I am playing with the idea of hunting for a yellow and red soft grad for B&W skies...Not sure those even exist?

 

[sirch]

Not sure what that would achieve, yellow blocks blue but lets through red and green so makes blue skies darker but leaves the land as-is. Red blocks blue and green so if it was a grad it would be more or less the same as a yellow.

So as I typed that Asha posted and I was forgetting that we are talking camera accessories so of course such a thing exists and is surely a must-have accessory

 

[Kevin Allan]

My idea of a minimalist kit would be a 35mm lens and a screw-in yellow filter. Light enough to easily carry up hills.

 

[Asha]

My idea of a minimalist kit would be a 35mm lens and a screw-in yellow filter. Light enough to easily carry up hills twice after realising the camera body is still sat in the car!

 

[antonroland]

Not sure what that would achieve, yellow blocks blue but lets through red and green so makes blue skies darker but leaves the land as-is. Red blocks blue and green so if it was a grad it would be more or less the same as a yellow.

So as I typed that Asha posted and I was forgetting that we are talking camera accessories so of course such a thing exists and is surely a must-have accessory

Well, black&white film, more often than not is overly sensitive to blue so blue sky on a sunny day is easily over-exposed to moderately washed-out. Yellow tones that down a bit for a darker blue sky or, shall I say, better / darker grey tones in the sky.

Red makes for very dramatic dark sky and cloud really pops quite dramatically…

Back in the day guys would use a screw-on filter but, me being me, I’ll want a grad so I can keep the yellow or red in the sky and have the rest of the scene unaffected…

 

[Kevin Allan]

Light enough to easily carry up hills twice after realising the camera body is still sat in the car!

To overcome that problem, use a fixed lens camera such as the Olympus 35RC with a 42mm lens. Sorted.

 

[antonroland]

My idea of a minimalist kit would be a 35mm lens and a screw-in yellow filter. Light enough to easily carry up hills.

I hear you…but as much as I am in love with the idea of hiking up a hill…and we have all the gear…but I’d much rather drive my Landy up that hill…

 

[antonroland]

Lens: effectively you can use any lens for landscape photography from ultra wide to super telephotos, your only limited by your own imagination and what you want to capture.

May the fleas of a thousand camels…!!LOL

There I went onto fleeBay and saw Pentax-M telephoto lenses…the 85/2 looks BEAUT and we’ll rather not say anything about the 135/1.8… but it is Pentax-A so voted off the island…

 

[Karl.t1965]

Keep the accessories simple, a square filter kit is the way to go because it can fit any filter thread, all you need is the right adapter for each lens.
The basics I would start with:
Polariser
2 stop soft ND grad
3 stop soft ND grad
3 stop ND
6 Stop ND
Red filter
Yellow filter

Your chosen filter system has to be big enough to prevent vignette when fitted to your widest lens with a filter holder of 2 or 3 slots.

 

[antonroland]

Keep the accessories simple, a square filter kit is the way to go because it can fit any filter thread, all you need is the right adapter for each lens.
The basics I would start with:
Polariser
2 stop soft ND grad
3 stop soft ND grad
3 stop ND
6 Stop ND
Red filter
Yellow filter

Your chosen filter system has to be big enough to prevent vignette when fitted to your widest lens with a filter holder of 2 or 3 slots.

Cheers for that!

My only really wide lens is a 21mm I will not be using with film so, whether 35 or 645 I am fine with vignetting.

It really now simply comes down to deciding what I will really need frequently and then sourcing it.

Red soft grad, yellow soft grad…probably no 2 stop or 3 stop solid grad either.

3-stop for soft grad, 6 stop and 10 stop…I believe that would be a good start…oh and polarisers I have.

 

[Asha]

It really now simply comes down to deciding what I will really need frequently and then sourcing it.

Exactly!

I am wondering if by wanting a minimal amount of gizmos, an orange filter accompanied by your polariser won’t suffice.

Yellow, unless a deep yellow, offers little to skies , sometimes it’s effect is barely noticeable .

Red on the other hand is perhaps OTT unless of course you purposely want that very powerful and aggressive approach .

Orange of course comes between the two .

Although I carry a selection of square P filters for large format togging , it is rare that I use anything more than orange ( the most used filter) and occasionally ,if the light/ scene dictates, à polariser.

This relates to all my subject matter , be it landscape , architecture or other. Often I simply don’t filter….. it has its place and can be very effective, however it can also backfire and degrade what would have been a good contrasty result without its presence.

 

[antonroland]

Exactly!

I am wondering if by wanting a minimal amount of gizmos, an orange filter accompanied by your polariser won’t suffice.

It’s almost as if you are in my mind…
Also, I will mostly be shooting B&W so I am not convinced the polariser will be used that often…

Slide film is becoming more and more difficult to source on my side of the pond. Supply is sporadic since few still shoot film in my neck of the woods.

Yellow, unless a deep yellow, offers little to skies , sometimes it’s effect is barely noticeable .

Again, orange possibly worth looking at?

Red on the other hand is perhaps OTT unless of course you purposely want that very powerful and aggressive approach .

Yes, at times (definitely not often) I would like that OTT look simply because our local weather rarely gives us cloud that justify that look so when I travel somewhere where I do get it… I would want to make the most of it.

Orange of course comes between the two .

One filter, two goals without the OTT red filter look?

Although I carry a selection of square P filters for large format togging , it is rare that I use anything more than orange ( the most used filter) and occasionally ,if the light/ scene dictates, à polariser.

This relates to all my subject matter , be it landscape , architecture or other. Often I simply don’t filter….. it has its place and can be very effective, however it can also backfire and degrade what would have been a good contrasty result without its presence.

I also could blend multiple exposures since I mostly shoot scapes off a tripod anyway?

Cheers and thanks for some great points.

 

[FujiLove]

I have 24mm and 50mm primes + a telephoto zoom (Minolta 70-210mm f4 'beercan'). I used to think landscape photography was all wide angles, but I use the telephoto half the time.

These rain covers are light, cheap and very handy: https://www.wexphotovideo.com/optech-rainsleeve-1017072/

Adox CMS 20 + Adotech developer will give you Medium Format resolution in a 35mm negative, in case you want to print big: https://www.adox.de/Photo/films/cms20ii-en/

Good gloves/mittens, depending on where in the world you live. These seem to be universally recommended for standing around for hours in the perishing cold: https://www.theheatcompany.com/en-gb/gloves

I use slim (so you can stack them without vignetting) 77mm circular filters and keep step-up rings attached to my lenses. If you go that route, try and find brass step-up rings. I've found non-brass ones can be a b*stard to remove.

A polariser is essential-ish. Yellow and orange filters too if you use B&W film. I think the rest depends on what type of photos you take. I have a 10 stop ND, but I think the 'milky water look' is a bit cliched, so don't use it much. I used rangefinders quite a bit before which are hard to use with grads, so didn't bother with them. I just burn in the darkroom.

The Photopills app (https://www.photopills.com/) is really useful for location planning.

Plus you'll need a big, noisy alarm clock to get you up at 4am, a partner to shout at you, so you actually get out of bed, and a head torch so you can see your lens cap rolling down the hill into the pitch black abyss.

 

[ChrisR]

Not sure what I can add to this. The 50/1.4 is very nice, but doesn't really add much over the 50/1.7.

Sorry I was late replying to your M24 thread, but I see you've already bought. I added a comment there on the M35 versus A35.

I very often use an orange filter rather than a yellow, and rarely use red, mainly due to the extra light loss in the latter. Fantastic for highly dramatic skies though. Light may not be something you'd be short of! I don't use a polariser very often with b&w, but it does of course have the use of reducing reflections, so can have its place.

If I wanted a grad I'd probably use a yellow filter plus a grad ND filer, though I haven't tried this. I do have a "tobacco" Cokin A grad kicking about somwhere, and have wondered if it might have something of the yellow filter effect, but I've never checked it out.

The K1000 is a bigger camera, so the Cokin P series may be fine (and if you've got one you'll know), but I think it would be really weird on my MX!

On the macro lenses, I chose the 100/4 rather than the 50/4 and have not regretted it. Helps get a bit further away from the subject and reduces distortion. Either of them will only go to 1:2 without extension rings, IIRC.

 

[antonroland]

Not sure what I can add to this. The 50/1.4 is very nice, but doesn't really add much over the 50/1.7.

Are you saying I would be OK without it using a Vivitar 2X macro-focusing teleconverter? But I WANT to need one…

Sorry I was late replying to your M24 thread, but I see you've already bought. I added a comment there on the M35 versus A35.

Thanks, saw and responded!

I very often use an orange filter rather than a yellow, and rarely use red, mainly due to the extra light loss in the latter. Fantastic for highly dramatic skies though.

Brilliant confirmation of what I thought and learned from a few great responses here and elsewhere in other threads (?) on TPF.

Sourced some coloured grads at less than a pound each locally so, knowing myself, I will probably buy one of each and test…what can I really lose at that price?

Light may not be something you'd be short of!

Nope, not in Africa! LOL…

I don't use a polariser very often with b&w, but it does of course have the use of reducing reflections, so can have its place.

Makes a lot of sense, yep!

If I wanted a grad I'd probably use a yellow filter plus a grad ND filer, though I haven't tried this. I do have a "tobacco" Cokin A grad kicking about somwhere, and have wondered if it might have something of the yellow filter effect, but I've never checked it out.

I have a P tobacco grad and another fairly similar one…no idea what exactly but when the time comes and I play I will note the number and Google it.

The K1000 is a bigger camera, so the Cokin P series may be fine (and if you've got one you'll know), but I think it would be really weird on my MX!

On the macro lenses, I chose the 100/4 rather than the 50/4 and have not regretted it.

Cheers for that, thanks!

Helps get a bit further away from the subject and reduces distortion. Either of them will only go to 1:2 without extension rings, IIRC.

Will check out the 1:2 vs 1:1 thing when I play.

Thanks again, LOTS of food for thought here!

 

[ChrisR]

Are you saying I would be OK without it using a Vivitar 2X macro-focusing teleconverter? But I WANT to need one…

Bothe the 50/1.4 and the 50/1.7 have a minimum focus distance of 45 cm. I'm not quite sure what the application of your teleconverter would be (probably being thick here!). Typically, I've found additional glass like "macro filters" or tele-converters of this sort of age really downgrade quality.

BTW you can use the 100/4 at infinity for those ladnscape "details". But it has a veeeeery long focus so you'd be doing a lot of turning. The 135/3.5 is light and OK. The M 85/2 is brilliant, still a 49mm thread!

 

[antonroland]

Bothe the 50/1.4 and the 50/1.7 have a minimum focus distance of 45 cm. I'm not quite sure what the application of your teleconverter would be (probably being thick here!). Typically, I've found additional glass like "macro filters" or tele-converters of this sort of age really downgrade quality.

I believe it is not TOO crappy…been using it since WAY before pixel-peeping in the digital era…expecting my first neg scans back soon and then I will really see if it is as good as I remember it being…

BTW you can use the 100/4 at infinity for those ladnscape "details".

Gotcha on that, been trying it on the Missus…

But it has a veeeeery long focus so you'd be doing a lot of turning. The 135/3.5 is light and OK.

Recently saw a 135/1.8…looks amazing but at about 1200 quid I would have to keep drooling…

The M 85/2 is brilliant, still a 49mm thread!

Probably the longest SMC I will buy but only in a while…

Cheers!

 

[StephenM]

Years ago, I used OM cameras and my choice of a small light outfit was a 21mm and a 90mm macro lens. For black and white, my filter choice (I still use black and white, so I still use this basic set) is a minus-blue (basically, yellow but a specific variant), orange, red and two different greens, a light and a dark. I prefer screw in filters, and try to ensure that I can minimise the size variations as much as possible. I do have Lee filters in the basic black and white colours, but always carry a set of 49mm filters screwed together with screw in end caps for protection in a pocket. For colour, a polarising filter is useful - but not so much so with a very wide angle lens.



That's the stack that sits permanently in my pocket, even when I don't have a camera with me.

So that's my take on a basic landscape kit. At a pinch, everything could fit into my pockets without a bag. I sometimes switched the 90mm macro (a more useful focal length than 50mm in my opinion for macro) for the OM 75-150mm zoom. My aim was always light weight.

The greens are very useful for differentiating green foliage, as well as making clouds stand out more. It's usually reckoned that a yellow-green filter gives the best approximation to the way the eye sees (in black and white).

 

[Winslowe]

I did not yet see or look for medium telephoto primes in the SMC Pentax-M range.

I did a review of Pentax M when they first came out. I was shooting Leica R at the time, but was really impressed with the IQ of the 120 f/2.8 M that Pentax loaned me.

 

[antonroland]

I did a review of Pentax M when they first came out. I was shooting Leica R at the time, but was really impressed with the IQ of the 120 f/2.8 M that Pentax loaned me.

And then I saw some rather nice SMC 85/2 lenses on eBay...