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M8 and BEOON


RexS

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I thought I’d share this experience as it is M8-related…

 

This weekend I loaded Ilford FP4 Plus in my IIIc + Summicron and walked down to the riverfront to try out this film. I used a light yellow filter (0) and shot it at ISO80 – 100. I’ve never developed FP4, so I tried the same developer/time combination as I would with my favorite film (APX100) out of shear ignorance on my part.

 

I couldn’t get into the darkroom this weekend because of some construction work (and the dust!), so on a lark I shot the negatives with the M8 mounted on an old BEOON stand with a Canon FD 50/3.5 macro lens.

 

I opened the .dng files with Apple Aperture, reversed the curves to produce a positive image, and then grey-scaled the image to get rid of the color cast produced by the light box I was using.

 

The low-resolution .jpg here is not a great photo as I was experimenting with film exposure and development. But I was pleasantly surprised by the detail and tone produced by a minimum of effort. It really was more satisfying than any of the negative scans I’ve made.

 

I admit that some more manipulation with Aperture (or Photoshop) would no doubt improve the digital image, but at least I have a place to start.

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Using a digital camera as a scanner substitute is a firmly established procedure among professionals. It gives 2 big advantages:

 

1. short time, because scanner can need minutes to scan a medium or large format film,

 

2. a nicer looking digital file, because the grain structure is rendered in a more pleasant way when photographed.

 

The time needed to prepare the film is roughly similar in both methods, and the retouching is unavoidable in both as well. But if you must digitize more than a few negs the difference between the instantaneous clic and the long scanning really does matter.

 

And it is of course possible to photograph a negative using a stitching method, and then the resulting file will be even better.

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Photographing negatives is a nice and quick way to digitize a negative, I advise for black and white film to shoot in DNG open in photoshop and invert, then export as a TIFF and use that file as your master in Aperture or Lightroom, so your curves are performing like normal, while in photoshop you can also clean some of the dust of the negative maybe with the clone tool, that works much better than in aperture or lightroom.

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I can answer myself now that I received the BEOON. It only works with 50mm lenses but changing the rings combination one can change the reproduction ratio.

This object is wonderful.

 

The lenses just mount via a LTM to M bayonet adapter so other focal lengths will fit, but one cannot judge the area covered. However, the metal picture framing masks correspond to 50mm on a full frame sensor so a 35mm or 40mm lens should be usable with them on the M8 with its 1.33x crop factor.

 

Nick

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Thanks Nick,

I had to put the LTM to M adapter to mount the camera, not the lens.

I tried with a Summicron C-40 but somehow the distance from the lens to the plane is too big no matter what rings combination I use, and it's therefore impossible to focus sharp.

These are my first attempts, I will try again.

With the 50mm the focus is OK but, as you say, 1:1 is not possible because of the M8 sensor size. You can have smaller or bigger field photographed. The latter is ok although.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Resurrecting this thread, and with a similar question to "suchislife".

I received with my Beoon a set of instructions, but in German unfortunately for me. If anyone knows where to obtain the English equivalent, I'd be appreciative.

I realise the use is not rocket-science, but I'd still like to get some.

Gary

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  • 1 year later...

I have a BEOON on the way and wondered if anyone can advise what adapters I'll need for using an M9 and 50mm Summilux-M with it? Do I need an LTM-M Adapter?

Just one?

 

Thanks. Difficult to find much information at all on the BEOON, a little through the Wiki and one review from a few years ago but nothing else. 

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... Difficult to find much information at all on the BEOON, a little through the Wiki and one review from a few years ago but nothing else. 

ah, naa, there are lots of pages looking in the net:

 

http://sculptingwithlight.blogspot.de/2013/02/the-other-day-i-bought-leica-beoon.html

http://www.lausch.com/beoon.htm

 

 

Thomas

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Thank you Philipp, I'll wait for it to arrive and see what I have.

 

Thanks Thomas, the first page is linked through the Wiki, the second is new to me but doesn't really go beyond describing what it is (in German with missing pictures.) I'm hoping to use it for some 645 film and the occasional 35mm frame. Will see how I get on.

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  • 1 year later...

These posts are very helpful. Thank you/danke sehr!

 

I have an M8 with a BEOON on the way from the UK. Pretty excited. It was difficult to discern the correct lens though most posts indicate 50mm.I thought about the point made about 1.33 meaning a 40mm such as perhaps a 40mm Summicron F2. I bought a Voigtlander F3.5 50mm lens just for this purpose.

 

I, too, would be interested in instructions for the BEOON. Even a diagram showing how the adapter(s) are used with the lenses.

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These posts are very helpful. Thank you/danke sehr!

 

I have an M8 with a BEOON on the way from the UK. Pretty excited. It was difficult to discern the correct lens though most posts indicate 50mm.I thought about the point made about 1.33 meaning a 40mm such as perhaps a 40mm Summicron F2. I bought a Voigtlander F3.5 50mm lens just for this purpose.

 

I, too, would be interested in instructions for the BEOON. Even a diagram showing how the adapter(s) are used with the lenses.

 

I have seen your post at RFF.

 

To be sure I just try to mount the setup M8 + BEOON + 50mm.

My conclusion: to copy 24x36, the device can be used 50mm with two rings that come with BEOON : A + C + 50mm M mount (I tried with Summarit-M 2.5/50mm)

 

Slides are copied with 2mm to 3mm of plastic mount each side.

Very difficult to have full frame copy by elevating a couple of millimeters the 1:1 slide holder.

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