laser distance meter

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Mark Kononczuk

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Hello,
I have recently been trying to do hand-held 4x5 Graflex shots. I measured the distance from subject to lens whilst looking through the ground glass. with full extension of the bellows this was about 45cm.
my lightmeter told me to set the lens at f45. ( using flash). so i took the shots. they are all slightly out, either the sharpness is 2 cm too near or 2cm too far. it is incredibly difficult to judge exactly 45 cm when you have a film holder in place and no way of viewing what you are about to shoot.
so, i was thinking, has anyone tried attaching a laser distance meter to a camera? they're reasinably cheap and might solve the problem?
 
Why aren't you using a tripod? Especially at that kind of distance. And what are you trying to photograph?

I somehow doubt a laser measure will be accurate enough. How would you know which part of the measure to line up with the film plane?
 
my whole aim is to avoid that static character of a shot that a tripod creates. i was experimenting with close up shots of my cat.
 
in terms of the laser, i thought that if i tape it to the side of the camera and then focus on the subject and take a reading whilst being able to see thru the ground glass the i would have a number. after loading the film i would just move the camera until the reading on the laser meter was the same.
 
The Dam-Busters measured their distance above the water (which was mission-critical) by having two angled beams of light that intersected to form a single spot when they were at the right height. You could use something similar, but you might need to integrate an ”off” switch into the shutter release so that as you fired the shutter, the lights would switch off. Rather like a reverse flash sync connection. If your lights were different colours, you’d know if you were too near or too far.
I don’t want to underestimate your cat, but if it works under enemy fire at 120mph...
 
Actually, if you left two red laser lights on whilst exposing what would happen on black & white film? Maybe nothing, I'm not using infrared but fomapan 100.
 
Mark Kononczuk said:
my whole aim is to avoid that static character of a shot that a tripod creates. i was experimenting with close up shots of my cat.
Click to expand...
I believe in the golden rule of LF photography, which says, if it moves, don't shoot it ;)

We use tripods because you need to set the focus on the ground glass screen, then insert the dark slide without moving the camera at all. At distances like 45cm, focus becomes all the more critical and closing down the aperture to f/45 will only tend towards getting diffraction.

Press photographers used to use Graflex cameras hand-held but they were usually shooting something further away than that where depth of field was not so critical.

You don't state what lens you are using, as that plays a very important part in just how much depth of field you will have to play with. And what shutter speed are you using?

But, honestly, don't waste money on laser measures for this purpose. Instead, realise there are limitations to what you can do. The rules are very different for an LF camera compared to a smaller format.
Mark Kononczuk said:
in terms of the laser, i thought that if i tape it to the side of the camera and then focus on the subject and take a reading whilst being able to see thru the ground glass the i would have a number. after loading the film i would just move the camera until the reading on the laser meter was the same
Click to expand...
At small distances difference in focus are too critical to do anything other than to put the camera on a tripod and use the ground glass screen. Where are you going to find the "focus point" on a laser measure to match up to the film plane?

Finally, since you need to ensure that the eyes are the sharpest point of the image, how are you going to avoid blinding the cat by shining a laser onto its eyes?
 
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If you've ever had to sit through a business presentation and stayed awake, you'll have seen a small battery-powered pen-like laser pointer produced from the borer's top pocket. They are surprisingly cheap and not particualrly dangerous, although you should obviously avoid the cat's sensitive eyes. No problem with ordinary still life subjects but you might be worried. There are also small non-laser torches using LEDs that might be better, although you may want to mask down the beam. Kitchen foil with a hole should work.
I can't really advise on the on-off switch. It’s possible that your powerful flash would overwhelm a much weaker focus spot, which would make the on/off switch redundant.

It’s a daft enough project to be worth trying. Be very careful with your cat. They have very sensitive eyes. Cats are more precious than cameras.
A reasonable person would use their iPhone.
 
In addition, assuming a 127mm lens, the depth of field at 45cm at f/45 is only 8cm, which. is hardly enough to focus the face of a cat, let alone its whole body.
 
Parallax is also being forgotten.

A large format SLR would be better than the Graflex you are using. I have a 5x4 Soho reflex, and a 9x12 Mentor reflex to fix, also a postcard format Compact Graflex Reflex that I'll adapt to usemoder film holders I'll use 9x12 DDS as that's closer to the format and te film is slightly cheaper than 5x4, the DDS are the same dimensions.

Ian
 
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