Re: [Rollei] Rollei TLR use in my work

[rworthy@kna.to]

> Nolan,

>      I own a 'Cord IIa that takes the lovliest portraits. I have a picture
of my oldest daughter hanging on the wall that I took about ten years ago
with this camera. Shot on Tri-X in cloudy-bright light at f/11 and 1/300th
sec., it imparts a smooth, sharp-but-unsharp look to the print. Shots taken
with T-Max 100 have a definite sharpness to them with full tonal scale,
particularly at f/8 or thereabouts. In other words, it appears choice of
film, its exposure, and its developing regime has more effect on the "bokeh"
(ugh!!! I hate that bull) than the lens itself. Although it is my preferred
camera for portraits, especially naturally-lit ones, it is capable of very
sharp, clear results for other uses, too.

I agree, to a point. No matter what film I try, I get much the same "tone"
with something like a triplet Yashica lens, as opposed to a Tessar-type (or
an actual Tessar itself) which almost always was sharper corner-to-corner
with more contrast.

Still, I understand your point, and agree with you completely about Tri-X. A
pal threw a couple of rolls at me about a year ago and I've been a fan ever
since. I used to do lots of B&W work for a popular motorcycle newsletter
that printed everything in two color, and it repeated better with B&W. These
days, I'm shooting almost 100% color slide. Given the chance, I'd love to
pick up a 'Cord, although I've been "using" what I have a lot more these
days than buying more.

Nolan Woodbury

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