photographing olf computers/parts

From: Roger Merchberger <zmerch_at_30below.com>
Date: Fri Jan 29 18:50:01 1999

On or about 08:23 PM 1/29/99 +0000, Tony Duell was caught in a dark alley
speaking these words:

>Of course larger-format conventional films are good as well. 5"*4" sheet
>film can produce some pretty amazing images....

Or, if you can find these two things:

An old Argus camera from the 50's (pretty easy to find at garage sales --
car boot sales for those of you in the U.K... ;-)

The associated 620 format film - it's 70mm and with a decent camera, gets
some really nice pix. (This is the tough part - I haven't played with it
for years, and I have *no* clue if anyone (offered as a service) could
still develop it - you might be limited to a home darkroom to work with the
stuff.)

>Yes, Polaroid film has very fine grain for its speed, but I am not sure
>how (say) 3000 ASA polaroid compares to 100ASA conventional film. I would
>think that very slow conventional films are probably better.

Another question: What is the longevity of Polaroid film? I know well-fixed
negs can last many, many years - but what of the stability of that funky
internal acid-bath of the self-developing films? I have some that have
lasted ~ 15 years, but I've not looked at them for a decade and couldn't
tell you if the picture quality has degraded.

=================

Another area where long exposure times, a good tripod and a timer setting
come in handy is when photographing the image of a computer monitor,
especially a classic one.

To get a good photo of a monitor, you need to have a shutter speed at least
2x of the refresh rate... as in:

if your monitor refreshes at 30Hz, which means each refresh is 1/30 second,
you need at least a 1/15 sec. exposure to get a fairly decent pic of the
image, else your pic will look like this horizontally:

1/2 bright
little brigher
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
brightest
darkest
little brigher
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
little brigher yet
1/2 bright

and the bright-spot is actually where the electron gun is scanning at the
time the shutter snapped.

most articles I'd seen on the subject recommend a 1/2 second, which
requires a good tripod.

There was an article in Rainbow or HotCoCo (don't remember which) about
this very topic -- I'll try to dig it up if I get the chance.

See ya,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
=====
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- zmerch_at_30below.com
SysAdmin - Iceberg Computers
===== Merch's Wild Wisdom of the Moment: =====
Sometimes you know, you just don't know sometimes, you know?
Received on Fri Jan 29 1999 - 18:50:01 GMT