Should I be expecting less from medium format?

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nickyspaghetti

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I have recently got myself a Yashica mat and developed my first few rolls, and I have been a little disappointed with the sharpness of the pictures.
Grain wise I am satisfied, but all my pictures have come out a little fuzzy and soft and visually the negatives are not as sharp as the 35mm ones - any ideas what is wrong, or am I expecting too much?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51341489@N03/4906747489/
 
It may be my eyes....

But the model's left shoulder seems in better focus than her eyes. Remember with 6*6 format you focal lengths double for the same "anti-crop" and hence the depth of field gets smaller than you would get on 35mm.
 
Love that pic (I don't say that a lot). maybe a better film. a proper b&w would've helped as well. plus have to get the focus right especially when shooting wide open.
 
Maybe I should have chosen a different picture but that was the only one I had available - For portraits I don't find it too annoying, but on landscape shots, when I'm focussed on infinity and it still comes out less sharp than I expected?
 
Starastin said:
Love that pic (I don't say that a lot). maybe a better film. a proper b&w would've helped as well. plus have to get the focus right especially when shooting wide open.
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:thinking: What's not proper about FP4+ and Rodinal??

Now XP2 and C41.... :naughty:
 
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I'm guessing you mean adjust the levels so the blacks are blacker?
I just gave it a go in photoshop and sharpened it some and it does improve it a good deal, just not as much as I thought. Could it be that the scanner uses more unsharp mask on the 35mm than the 6x6? I should probably have turned it off and done it myself.
 
First guess would be too slow a shutter speed for the subject. If a setting is slightly too low for hand holding - the thing you're pointing at -t can come out looking 'soft'. Second guess is your scanner is not holding the neg completely flat.
 
Can't remember the shutter speed, but I wouldn't have set it below 125 without a tripod - I hadn't thought about the scanner. I only got it recently and I had heard that the film holder is a bit poor(Epson V500).
Would a glass sandwich work to keep them flat?
 
I don't think you're expecting too much, I've got a Yashica Mat and when the negs are in focus they're tack sharp. The lens is somewhat soft wide open but I'd definitely take a look at your negs with a loupe (an upturned 50mm lens works great if you've not got an actual loupe) and see if the neg itself is sharp. If the neg is fine then take a look at the scanner.
 
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The other problem with trying to diagnose the problem on here is that by scanning the negative you add another area where the image focus and sharpness could be degrading. Have you checked the negatives with a loupe to see if the negs are sharp and the scans aren't?

If the V500 is anything like the 4490 then the film holder is garbage, especially for 120 as they tend to sag in the middle. A glass sandwich would help but then you run the risk of Newton rings (which require a special type of glass to eliminate) and unless you buy something like a "betterscanning.com" film holder then you might not get the negatives to the right height for the focussing distance of the scanner.

edit:bah typed too slowly.
 
Having used glass neg holders in the past I have an abhorrence of them. Not only are Newton rings a possibility but you have six surfaces to keep dust free, upper and lower on each glass plus either side the negative. Chasing various spots, hairs and fluff on successive prints is a receipe for madness.

edit: should have made clear I meant in an enlarger but a similar principle applies to scanning - but with fewer glass surfaces.
 
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Kev M said:
The other problem with trying to diagnose the problem on here is that by scanning the negative you add another area where the image focus and sharpness could be degrading. Have you checked the negatives with a loupe to see if the negs are sharp and the scans aren't?

If the V500 is anything like the 4490 then the film holder is garbage, especially for 120 as they tend to sag in the middle. A glass sandwich would help but then you run the risk of Newton rings (which require a special type of glass to eliminate) and unless you buy something like a "betterscanning.com" film holder then you might not get the negatives to the right height for the focussing distance of the scanner.

edit:bah typed too slowly.
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Well I didn't seem to have a problem scanning medium format negs up to 6X7...mind you that were well flattened after storage for years but some sagged a bit, but my thinking is:- Epson engineers/designers of negative holders were complete idiots or thought the sagging wasn't much of a problem, as surely they checked out their own equipment in practice.
 
I'm going with the idiot theory as it removes some of the blame form me (but not much). My negs do tend to curl in quite a lot for some reason which exacerbates the sagging though.
 
Kev M said:
I'm going with the idiot theory as it removes some of the blame form me (but not much). My negs do tend to curl in quite a lot for some reason which exacerbates the sagging though.
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Some of my old MF B/W negs esp FP4 I had to trim because they sagged quite a bit forcing them into the holder.
 
TheBigYin said:
:thinking: What's not proper about FP4+ and Rodinal??

Now XP2 and C41.... :naughty:
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oh ! yeah ! that's the old mighty ilford fp4+ :love: . rodinal is ok as well ! so it's just the process went wrong a bit I guess, or the day wasn't sunny enough for contrast. eh ! I have so forgotten stuff about this. used to shoot ilford and dev with rodinal or something like that :naughty: .
 
Jakska said:
I don't think you're expecting too much, I've got a Yashica Mat and when the negs are in focus they're tack sharp. The lens is somewhat soft wide open but I'd definitely take a look at your negs with a loupe (an upturned 50mm lens works great if you've not got an actual loupe) and see if the neg itself is sharp. If the neg is fine then take a look at the scanner.
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I concur.

I've got very good results with my 124G, even at quite wide apertures.

I dont' see any evidence of motion blur.

With the narrow depth of field, I think the focus point may be a little off - I think it's actually slightly behind her ears. If you apply some sharpening in Photoshop, the hair just below her chin, on her right shoulder becomes apparent as sharp.

I find with my V700 that it takes a fair bit of sharpening to get the detail out that's in the scan. It's there, but it takes some work.

The fact that some parts of the image (hair) appear to be in focus, while others quite close by (such as her mouth) aren't, suggests that it's not the scanner.

The pop up magnifier in the finder on the 124G is invaluable for checking focus.
 
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