[Outer Limits]

Going Large

by Reviewer Rob

I’m kind of hitting a brick wall here with these digital conversions. It’s been over 15 years since I left film gear behind and took up digital photography as a primary medium, and unlike some photogs I never looked back. So I’m realizing now that I was an habitual full-frame photographer. That being, I used to always fill the viewfinder with the image whenever possible, leaving very little room if any between the subject and the edge of the picture. This means when printing reprints back then I’d usual have to tell the photo print store to “do the whole neg,” meaning I wanted the complete image printed, even the sprocket holes on the edges if possible.

Unfortunately now that I’m converting the 35mm film to digital the Nikon conversion product I have currently, the sliding frame and bracket for the special 40mm Nikkor Micro lens, doesn’t get the edges, and it’s those precious edges with the last bit of detail that can’t be left out.

I asked the guy at Nelson’s camera store if they had something for sale that would fix this problem but he suggested I make by own cardboard frame and reconfigure my set-up to a tripod mount. Maybe I need another Macro lens. The old analog Vivitar one I have isn’t auto focus.

Well, I’ll figure it out. It’ll just take more experimenting.

Here’s some images I shot tonight from old negs. Nine Inch Nails wailing onstage at the old Bacchanal on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, and a nude torso of Angela when we shot up in the attic of The Abbey restaurant on Fifth Avenue by Balboa Park.