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645 Newbie I fear my 645

I've taken the following equipment to local soccer matches and been able to sell prints off of the inkjet. But the clients are fully aware of what they are buying. Many of them say the same thing outloud 'why didn't I think of that?'

Canon D60/Epson 980/Laptop/Rayovac car battery booster/rayovac 12v converter

I thought the battery stuff was funny too, but fully charged, it gives me 3.5 hours of printer/laptop power. Back to the quality issue...

Clients seeing their prints come off an inkjet are satisfied with the proofs and I only charge $20 - 8X10, so I don't worry about the quality. However, portraits, event prints, etc. - I don't know how comfortable I'd feel selling inkjet prints in these situations. If someone has had some good results in this area, I'd love to hear it. It would definitely make it easier to convince my wife that I "really need to get that kodak digital back."
 
I'm not sure how going digital would increase your sales anyway. That is a function of talent not process. However, capturing more profit from existing projects is a real possibility with digital photography.

Concerning having to tweek color and doing retouching, that was an existing expense with film anyway. The difference is that it's easier doing it in the computer.

I have been providing ink jet prints for my wedding business for 2 years now. None of the clients care what it is as long as it looks good. The quality of a 94 meg file printed to 11X14 exceeds that of a conventional print...IF you know what you are doing when at the processing stage, and have the right 3rd party programs and plug-ins.

Longevity is something I tested before offering inkjets to wedding clients. I put a conventional print, and a scanned version of the same neg printed on an Epson 2000P, in the sun, covered half of each picture and left it there for a year. Both showed some fadeing in the magenta range ( magenta being the most fugative color), but the ink jet showed less fadeing by a good margin ( in fact, it showed very little fade). This would stand to reason, given that conventional prints have a live span of 50-75 years if you are lucky, and Epson claims 100 years + .
 
Good news for digital printing...inkjet printing that is. I have sold inkjet prints from my Epson 2200 and an Epson 9600 that were scanned from transparencies. First, the clients couldn't tell the difference. Second, I used to print Ilfochrome but am now able to tell clients that the archival capability of professional inkjet printers is twice as good as chemical color prints. They seem to be comfortable with that.

Guy
 
I'm back from my first trip, Monument Valley and Antelope Canyon in Arizona/Utah shooting my 645. It really is a great camera to use but OH BOY DOES IT EAT BATTERIES!!! I shot everything on full manual but due to shooting all Fuji Velvia with a polarizer all shots were long exposure using mirror lockup at anything less than 1/8 sec. I shot 22 rolls of 220 film and used up more than 3 batteries in 3 days. I am planning a 3 month trip to Southeast Asia in November. Last trip I shot 120 rolls with my Canon. I think I may have to ship an extra suitcase just for my batteries! How cumbersome are the external battery packs for hiking in the wilds? Oh, BTW, a super wide angle equivalent to my 17mm Canon lens would be great!
 
Lynn,

Were the prints you saw from the Epson 2000? I have a 2200 and can say that for portraits my clients have been very pleased. It takes me less than 10 minutes in photoshop just to tweak them a bit to get them where I want them. Using the best paper is a must. Guy
 
> You've three options for an external battery holder. The MP-1 is the large battery holder with a vertical grip. This adds maybe 35 or 40mm to the overall height which may be too much for easy storage in your kit bag, furthermore many photographers dislike the added height when flipping the cammera to the vertical on a tripod, as it pushes the centre of gravity further away from the tripod's centre post. The advantantages of the MP-1 include a separate vertical shutter release, a wrist strap option, and the ability to switch between the lithium cell and the four AA size cells.

Second is the P-8 power pack, again taking four AA size cells (re-chargeable or otherwise, as you wish). It plugs into a socket on the base of the camera via a cable about 1.5 metres long. It weighs next to nothing, is relatively cheap and compact, and allows you to keep the power source next to your body in very cold weather. The down side is that you're tethered to the camera and because it plugs into the base you have to set the camera down on its side should you wish to rest it on the floor.

Thirdly I believe there's a new power pack, that I've never seen, which takes four C size cells for even more capacity. From what I can gather it's identical to the P-8 just bigger.

For many users the biggest advantage of a power pack is that the firmware recognises an external power source and no longer shuts the camera down after sixteen seconds, so you can shoot without a delay. This only applies when there's film in the camera so you won't notice the feature when evaluating a filmless body in a camera store.

Now here's the thing, a month or so ago I returned my 645 to the main Contax European service centre in Germany for an unrelated repair and now it no longer shuts down after sixteen seconds even if I'm NOT using an external power source. I've only just noticed this as I almost always use a P-8 or MP-1, and I wonder if there's been a firmware upgrade which is automatically applied at the service centre?

Can anyone shed any light on this? Has anyone had a similar experience or bought a brand new camera and noticed that it doesn't shut down after sixteen seconds?

Regards, Gary
 
> GUY WROTE: > Lynn, > > Were the prints you saw from the Epson 2000? I have a 2200 and can say > that for portraits my clients have been very pleased. It takes me less > than 10 minutes in photoshop just to tweak them a bit to get them > where I want them. Using the best paper is a must. Guy >

Guy, you are correct, it was the 2000 that I dealt with. It sounds like the 2200 must be better. This makes me feel better to hear your experience with it. Thanks, Lynn.
 
HI Gary, I purchased my Contax 645 a year a half ago. My 645 never shut down after 16 second. I didn't use any external power. I have never sent it for service. I beleive Contax have an upgraded firmware to solve the 16 seconds shut down problem for the later 645 cameras. My Contax 645 has the same heavy battery consumption problem as other users have--the 2CR5 luthium battery only last 5 to 6 rolls of 220.
 
Could this get any weirder. I have two Contax 645 cameras. The first one I got just after they came out, and the second one a year and a half later. Neither one shuts down after 16 seconds. I never heard of or experienced the 16 second problem until I read it here on this forum.

And, get this, the first one use to eat batteries and now it doesn't !!!! The second one never was bad on batteries.

HUH? This has GOT to be user error. Okay, now I'm interested...so first chance, I'm running a test.
 
Gary,

My 645 is 3 months old and it doesn't shut down after 16 seconds. Only the mirror lockup releases after 16 seconds. But I have another unusual problem. I have the 220 vacuum back as I shoot mostly 220 rolls to minimize reloading in the field. I just got back 20 rolls of film from my lab and many of them have very tiny holes in the emulsion. My lab, which is a very good one who has processed many rolls of film for me checked to see if it was a transport problem in their E6 equipment. Doesn't seem to be. I'm wondering if it's a bad batch of film (Fuji Velvia and Provia) or a problem in the film back. The vacuum back doesn't touch the emulsion side of the film so I find it hard to believe it's from dust in the back. I bought all my film from B&H (not gray market) and never had a film problem before. Has anyone ever had this problem? Guy
 
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