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Subject: TL-120 my first roll
Date: 2006-12-29 06:59:54
From: David W. Kesner
I just got back my first roll from the TL-120. I will sacn the images and
get them up on my site this weekend so you can see what I am about to
talk about.

First the shooting condidtions:

I have placed 46mm UV filters on all three lenses. On top of that I have
screwed on rubber collapsable lens hoods on the two taking lenses. All of
the images were taken with the lens hood extended.

I used a slightly outdated roll of Fuji ProviaF 100 ASA film. All images
were taken at either 1/30 or 1/60 and from f5.6 to f11 and all were hand
held. I used the built-in light meter for all. It was 12:00 noon on a
cloudy winter day in Boise Idaho, USA (about 43 degrees North latitude).
Lighting ranged from shadowed alleys to wide latitude dark/light areas.
None were taken into the sun.

I was not able to get a flare on any image although one side of the last
frame did show a light leak almost the entire side of the farme (top to
bottom).

What I did get on all images was slight vignetting on all four corners on
all frames. I am going to assume this came from stacking the lens hoods
on top of the UV filter. I will change the order (lens hood bottom and UV
filter on top) and see if that is the cause.

As for the images themselves I couldn't be happier. The exposures were
right on, they are very, very sharp especially considering I was hand
holding at 1/30th on some, and the color and contrast are great. Final
judgment will come after I mount and look at them in a hand viewer.

As for the camera I found it very easy to hold and use. I can hold the
camera with both hands and still use my fingers to adjust both the focus
and fstop. The light meter can be activated by either a button on the
back left (using your free left thumb) or by half depressing the shutter
release. The viewfinder was easy to look through while wearing glasses
and the adjustable diopter brought the image into very sharp focus.

I do not have the neck strap on yet so I was carrying the camera with one
hand by the right grip while I walked around town for about 30 minutes
taking the one roll. I covered four or five city blocks. I didn't find
this to be too cumbersome, but I wouldn't want to carry it that way for
hours *{;-)

The only thing that I found to be a little "weak" was the advance lever.
It was a little "sticky" and didn't always spring back at the end of a
stroke and didn't always catch if I made less than a full stroke.

That's it for now.

David W. Kesner
Subject: Re: TL-120 my first roll
Date: 2006-12-29 09:08:59
From: Dale Yingst
David W. Kesner wrote:
>
>
>
> What I did get on all images was slight vignetting on all four corners on
> all frames. I am going to assume this came from stacking the lens hoods
> on top of the UV filter. I will change the order (lens hood bottom and UV
> filter on top) and see if that is the cause.
>






I took another look at a roll of mine with the same UV first then lens
hood. There was indeed a very tiny bit of vignetting on the corners but
mine was barely higher than the flocking fuzz that shows up on the film
edges, so that I doubt it would ever affect my mounting. That said, I
may still reverse my filters.

Dale Yingst
>
>
>
Subject: Re: TL-120 my first roll
Date: 2006-12-29 20:34:37
From: scott.youmans@scyphoto.com
My second roll through the TL-120 had the characteristic flare we have been observing.  This occured on all frames whether the sun was behind me or in front of me.  I have since installed 46mm lens hoods from B&H.  As other have observed the hoods touch slightly in the middle but not enough to be of concern.  I have since taken three more rolls and observed no flare at all.  Some of the conditions were similar enough to the problematic exposures that I would have anticipated flare.  This is a big relief although I want to do more tests.  I did notice just a tiny bit of vignetting at one or more corners but this gets covered by the mounts.  The quality is outstanding!  Very crisp.
 
As observed by others the meter is very good.  Every esposure has been right on although I did do some educated guessing on some backlit situations to get proper exposure on my main subject.   I would have done this with my EOS 5D too.
 
Same experience with winder not catching every time because it doesn't return all of the way but this is not too big of a deal.
 
Provided the flare is now cured I have only one significant complaint and that is that I discovered small cracks around many of the srews that hold on the rear plastic frame that surrounds the film door.  They are also visible near the upper door hinge point on that same piece.  I was told that these are cracks in the paint but whatever they are they shouldn't be there on a brand new ($1,300) camera.
 
In addition the plastic rail that the finder slides into is cracked (broken).  This appears to have been a result of having the camera shipped with the prism in place.  If you take a close look at that piece you can easily imagine it breaking if the camera were dropped while in the shipping box due to side loads on the very heavy prism.  I don't think the prism is going to fall off but I am going to recommend to the manufacturer that they remove the prism for shipping.  The glass inside was also not seated in the prism casing causing the view to appear tilted when looking through the eye piece.  Once I figured out what was going on I was able to get it to seat itself by lightly tapping the base of the finder against my palm!  There might be a spring clip of some kind holding the glass in place and it's not overly strong.
 
I will post some photos of all of these "features" soon.
 
I have mentioned all of these issues to the manufacturer and they have been very responsive although I'm still not sure how I'm going to get the cracked components replaced.
 
This sounds like a lot negative feedback but I am so pleased with the quality of the photos that my overall impression is still good.  This would probably not be the case if I weren't having a constructive dialogue with the very kind representative at the factory.  I'd like to continue to work with them to make their product even better.
 
Scott Youmans
Phoenix, AZ

----- Original Message ----
From: David W. Kesner
To: MF3D-group@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 5:57:54 AM
Subject: [MF3D-group] TL-120 my first roll

I just got back my first roll from the TL-120. I will sacn the images and
get them up on my site this weekend so you can see what I am about to
talk about.

First the shooting condidtions:

I have placed 46mm UV filters on all three lenses. On top of that I have
screwed on rubber collapsable lens hoods on the two taking lenses. All of
the images were taken with the lens hood extended.

I used a slightly outdated roll of Fuji ProviaF 100 ASA film. All images
were taken at either 1/30 or 1/60 and from f5.6 to f11 and all were hand
held. I used the built-in light meter for all. It was 12:00 noon on a
cloudy winter day in Boise Idaho, USA (about 43 degrees North latitude).
Lighting ranged from shadowed alleys to wide latitude dark/light areas.
None were taken into the sun.

I was not able to get a flare on any image although one side of the last
frame did show a light leak almost the entire side of the farme (top to
bottom).

What I did get on all images was slight vignetting on all four corners on
all frames. I am going to assume this came from stacking the lens hoods
on top of the UV filter. I will change the order (lens hood bottom and UV
filter on top) and see if that is the cause.

As for the images themselves I couldn't be happier. The exposures were
right on, they are very, very sharp especially considering I was hand
holding at 1/30th on some, and the color and contrast are great. Final
judgment will come after I mount and look at them in a hand viewer.

As for the camera I found it very easy to hold and use. I can hold the
camera with both hands and still use my fingers to adjust both the focus
and fstop. The light meter can be activated by either a button on the
back left (using your free left thumb) or by half depressing the shutter
release. The viewfinder was easy to look through while wearing glasses
and the adjustable diopter brought the image into very sharp focus.

I do not have the neck strap on yet so I was carrying the camera with one
hand by the right grip while I walked around town for about 30 minutes
taking the one roll. I covered four or five city blocks. I didn't find
this to be too cumbersome, but I wouldn't want to carry it that way for
hours *{;-)

The only thing that I found to be a little "weak" was the advance lever.
It was a little "sticky" and didn't always spring back at the end of a
stroke and didn't always catch if I made less than a full stroke.

That's it for now.

David W. Kesner