Clueless In Seattle lighting question

[CraigVM62]

I didn't even know what to search for, nor thought the questions as basic as mine have been asked before. If this were I bicycle forum, I would need to find the "Training Wheels Section"

Many years ago I was completely infected by the shutter bug. This was back before auto focus lenses had come out. Getting married caused me to quit cold turkey and it is like I have been locked in a time vault regarding photography once I said "I do". I have only owned a couple very basic digital point-n-shoot cameras since.
Along with boxes and boxes of old SLR bodies, lenses, motor drives..... which I know are now worthless, I still have a good bit of studio lighting. Again I come from the "get flash meter reading, set F-stop as needed with camera at correct sync shutter speed" era and am clueless as to how todays digital SLR's work with studio lighting. I am guessing that they still utilize some kind of PC connection to trigger lighting. Will my old Minolta Flash Meter III be of any use ? Will any of my F-Stop and Shutter Speed knowledge be of any use with todays Digital technology or do I need to start fresh and go buy a copy of "Digital Photo's for Dummies"

I appreciate your patience with someone who just fell off the Digital Turnip Truck

Craig, you may be pleasantly surprised by what still works. My DSLR still has a PC Sync port to connect my lights to and there are many companies that make cheap triggers that sit on the hot shoe but have a PC Sync built in for that purpose. Depending on how your old system works, you may need to look for a "safe sync" adapter that will protect a DSLR from power surges into the camera from older systems with powered cables or bad grounding.

I have not found the older analog flash meters to be fully-accurate with digital, but that is not to say they are not at least close.. or that I am not the trouble more than the meter!

Those old lenses may still be of use too. With the recent advent of small mirror-less systems, adapters can be purchased to adapt most any mfg lens to current cameras (Look at Olympus Pen if you are interested in that concept)

Good Luck and welcome back.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by CraigVM62

Along with boxes and boxes of old SLR bodies, lenses, motor drives..... which I know are now worthless,

I actually wouldn't assume that about the lenses. If you have Minolta AF gear, then you can just slap those babies onto a Sony Alpha, and you should be ready to roll. Sony's using Minolta's camera expertises in their dSLR line, so they're still using that funky Minolta hotshoe and everything. And, as Papa Rotzzi says, if they're the old MC/MD manual lenses, they can be used on compact mirrorless systems like micro four-thirds, Sony NEX, and Samsung NX cameras.

Hell, there's the nearest thing to a cult that worships the Rokkor 58mm f/1.2 and adapts it for use on Canon dSLRs. If you have that one, you won't have to chuck it. Just get a conversion kit from Leitax. (Most of the other MC/MDs, alas, though, don't have that option). The conversion is completely reversable, so it could still be used on Minolta film cameras.

I still have a good bit of studio lighting Again I come from the "get flash meter reading, set F-stop as needed with camera at correct sync shutter speed" era and am clueless as to how todays digital SLR's work with studio lighting.

Same deal. Hasn't changed a lot. With the on-camera speedlights, you can use TTL schemes and whatnot, but when you hit studio strobes, you've still pretty much just got a simple sync signal, either form a PC port, or using the hotshoe.

I am guessing that they still utilize some kind of PC connection to trigger lighting.

Yes.

Will my old Minolta Flash Meter III be of any use ?

Yes. Although, cameras now can display a histograms of the image you just took, so you can judge the exposure after you take the shot, too. Instant feedback gives you a lot more visibility into what you're doing than you had with film.

Will any of my F-Stop and Shutter Speed knowledge be of any use with todays Digital technology...

Yes. That all still works the same way. The two things that work a little differently now are ISO/ASA and "developing", and both are much more convenient than they were in the days of film.

ISO/ASA is now done by voltage gain across the sensor: like turning the volume up on a stereo. The higher the ISO setting you use, the more noise you're going to get. It looks a lot like grain, so the same thinking pretty much applies. But now you can switch ISOs around shot-for-shot (rather than roll-to-roll), and we can use a lot of much higher ISO settings than we did with film (e.g., iso 800 and iso 1600 are standard on all dSLR bodies, and some go up as high as iso 25600. It's a little nuts).

Where the workflow completely changes is after you download the photos from your camera onto your computer and start processing them in a package like Photoshop or (if you have no money), the Gimp. Things like color filters for correction are mostly a thing of the past. White balance settings in the camera, or shooting RAW and then adjusting the white balance in post processing is far more common. And color to B&W conversion can pretty much simulate a color filter of any hue you can possibly imagine. There's a lot more flexibility, here. You essentially have a fully-equipped COLOR darkroom at your disposal with digital.

[OsmosisStudios]

You may also be pleasantly surprised to know that your gear may not be worthless: take a look on eBay for going rates.

[CraigVM62]

Thank you for the quick replies and great info. I will have to take an inventory of the lenses which are all Nikkor purchased new between 1980 to 1985. They range from 20mm to very fast 400mm if I remember correctly, so it would be great to be able to utilize them again to some degree.

I can remember back when I went into my local camera shop to buy my first SLR. The sales guy convinced me to buy Nikon because "in 30 years it will work like new where lower end equipment will be broken and collecting dust"



I am looking forward to leaning what can be done with photo editing software. Funny to think that those boxes full of Cokin filters which I spent so much on can be replace with a software package that cost so little.

Again, thanks for the info which is encouraging. It is a real slap in the face to think that some items which you just had to have and ate Top Ramen for a month to afford, can't even be given away today. Anyone want some FREE Nikon Polaroid Backs and Power Processor for Instant Slide Film

[OsmosisStudios]

If it's all Nikon stuff, it'll port right over no problem. If it's autofocus, the only limitation is that it wont autofocus on the lower-tier bodies.

[inkista]

+1, if it's Nikon glass, you're in like Flynn. As OS mentions, the entry-level tier bodies do not have autofocus motors in them and will only autofocus with AF-S lenses. Get a D7000 or higher-end camera, and no problems. [Canon FD/FL, Olympus OM, or Minolta MD/MC are the dropped-before-digital mounts. Nikon F and Pentax K are still going strong in digital.]

And if it's not autofocus gear and you don't mind stop-down metering, then you could happily choose among all the brands, since, Nikon manual focus lenses adapt pretty well to most dSLRs these days, either with an adapter ring (Canon EOS, Pentax K, four-thirds [Olympus & Panasonic]), or a mount replacement kit from Leitax (Sony Alpha).

You can still use the Cokins if you want to! In-camera is going to be faster and easier to play with than the hours you can spend dinking with things in Photoshop. It's up to you. It's all about your tolerance for sitting in front of the computer.

Just as an example, to deal with the higher dynamic range of a landscape shot making the skies too light when you expose the foreground properly, you could use a graduated ND filter in front of the lens, or you can use a digital ND filter in Lightroom, or you can bracket shots and do HDR or exposure fusion processing. Digital gives you a lot more choices and control.

Also, in terms of off-camera lighting, things have kind of taken a big leap forward, thanks to the Strobist. Over the last few years a lot of new equipment for using speedlights rather than studio stobes for off-camera lighting has been coming out. I've got a three-light radio setup where two transmitters and three receivers cost about a total of $100. I'm just a hobbyist, so obviously, these aren't pro-reliable like PocketWizards. But then again, today's PocketWizards now do TTL.

Jump on in. The water's just fine.

Aaaaand one more random link I'd direct your attention to, if you're feeling there's nobody around who remembers film ... I'd recommend reading the online photographer blog. It's edited by Mike Johnston, who used to edit for Camera & Darkroom magazine. It can be a blessed blessed relief from all the pixel-peeping technobabble that often dominates a lot of digital photography websites, now that computer geeks have found photography.