UNDER CONSTRUCTION
More coming soon ...

INDEX
Introduction
How-to
What you don't see on the Internet
Photo gallery
... Today's Big Sur photo
Photographs for sale
Book: How to convert a Mamiya camera to 6X12 format
Book: Build a 6X17 panorama camera for $500
Book: Convert a 120 camera to 35mm film
Art and photo preservation
Coming attractions: 200 MEGAPIXELS !!!
Links
E-mail

INTRODUCTION
I can hear you say, "Wait a minute. A digital Leica is 5 megapixels, a Nikon digital SLR is 6 megapixels, and the new Kodak Pro SLR is 14 megapixels; these are all from well-established, reputable camera manufacturers, and you are saying that some beach bum from Big Sur is doing one hundred and forty-four megapixel photography?"

First, let me say that I have taken some great pictures with a Nikon, and the family Leica M3 has been in continuous use since the nineteen-fifties. These are, however, old 35mm cameras. For the new age of digital, something more is needed, something spectacular. That something is super-high resolution photography. After all, you no longer have to manipulate large, awkward, sloshing trays of chemicals to get big prints, you just use a large laser or ink jet printer to get huge photos. It's "faster, better, cheaper" (as they say at NASA.)

That brings us to Xtreme Digital Photography. How do we do it? How do we beat Nikon, Leica, and Kodak? The secret is in outsourcing.

"Hugh?" you say. No, we don't have the work done in some third world country, but let us go back a step.

How digital photography works
Standard digital cameras use a charge-coupled device (CCD) to convert the light coming through the lens into digital information. The CCD is a grid with each cell representing a pixel. For example, a 100 X 100 grid would give you 10,000 cells or pixels; a 5 megapixel camera (in square format) would have about a 2,200 X 2,200 grid of cells. The more cells, the higher the resolution of your photograph. However, not all cells are created equally. For example, the Nikon SLR uses larger cells that do point-and-shoot cameras with the same "megapixel count." Furthermore, some cameras process the information from those cells faster than others. That's why Nikon cameras cost more than SiPix cameras.

How film works
Black and white film cameras use light-sensitive grains of silver--these are analogus to the grid cells in digital cameras. The larger the grains of silver, the faster the film; the smaller, the slower, however, smaller also means that there are more of them per piece of film, so with film you can actually increase your resolution by using a "slower" film. For more resolution at a given print size, you can increase the size of the film used. An eight-by-ten print made from a 35mm negative will be much lower in resolution than that same size print made from a 4" X 5" negative. That is why photographers like Ansel Adams used those huge cameras. An 8 X 10 view camera can give you about sixty times the resolution of a 35mm camera. Color films are similar, but use dyes instead of silver.

How Xtreme Digital Photography works
We have taken the best of both systems and combined them. We use a large piece of film, and then we "outsource" the function of the charge-coupled device. For seventy-two megapixel photographs we use 120 roll film in 6X9 format. For field work, we have Mamiya press cameras. For studio work, we have a 4X5 view camera which has been modified to take the same film backs as the Mamiyas. For ninty megapixel photographs we have enlarged a Mamiya camera to 6X12 format. It is a panorama camera with a ninety degree angle of view. This camera features a Mamiya Seikosha 65mm lens.

(This version features an optical viewfinder and a center neutral density filter.)

Advantage vs. advantage
The primary advantage of the digital camera is the ease with which shots can be taken. Most digital photography seems to be shoot-review-delete-shoot some more. Since bad shots can be deleted and re-shooting done, speed is emphasized.

Xtreme Digital Photography is exactly the opposite. There is no editing on the shoot, so the composition of each photograph has to be carefully planned before the shutter is pressed. Any editing that might be required would have to be done after-the-fact with Photoshop. The advantage here is that you approach things the way an artist approaches a painting and the results are comparable.

See the Salmon Cone photo below as an example from the 144 megapixel camera.

HOW-TO ...

We have started a discussion group related to modifying Mamiya Press cameras. The location is here:
http://groups.msn.com/ModifiedMamiyaPressCameras/general.msnw

However, we will not be able to devote much time to this until the fall ... late October, or November.

PHOTOGRAPHS FOR SALE It is difficult to see the quality of art and photographs on the computer screen. (Your computer screen may be 1,000 pixels wide, whereas our prints may be more than ten thousand pixels wide.) It is, of course, much better to see the item itself. You can see and buy our photographs at: The Lumiere Gallery at Ragged Point, California Salmon Creek Falls This is one of my "Hudson River School" landscape photos. It was taken in May of 2006. For this photo I used a Mamiya 50mm lens on the "6X12 format" camera. The angle of view is about 93 degrees. It is available as a 12" X 18" (image size) print in an 18" X 24" mat. $100 A larger, limited edition version with a 23.5" X 32.5" image area in a 32" X 40" mat is also be available. Salmon Cone Salmon Cone and the Pauling Ranch at Big Sur. This photo was taken on January 28, 2005 with the 6X18 camera set at f32 for 1/15th of a second. The print has an image size of about 10.5" X 34.5" and is mounted in a 16" X 40" mat. $150 Leaving Hearst Ranch Photo taken in 2005 of the "China Gulch" section of Hearst Ranch. The print has an image size of about 10.5" X 34.5" and is mounted in a 16" X 40" mat. $150 Another version of this photo is available as a 10.5" X 40" print, mounted, but without a mat. (I don't yet have mats larger than 32" X 40.") $100 Tour de Sur Highway One is a great place to ride a bike ... except for the dangers posed by the lumbering motorhomes and the zooming sports cars. However, if you are a giant corporation you can get the Highway Patrol to sweep clean a path for you. Then you can get all your friends together had have a great ride. This photo was taken on February 23, 2006 near Villa Creek, Big Sur, with a custom 6X12 camera using a 65mm wide-angle lens and Fuji Reala ISO 100 film. The print has an image size of about 10" X 33" and is mounted in a 15" X 38" mat. $150 Big Sur Sunset This photograph was taken while there were wildfires in southern California and the smoke drifted northward and over the ocean. (Sunsets are not normally this red.) Three sequential shots were taken with a 35mm camera. Those prints were scanned into the computer, then "Photoshopped" into a single panorama. The print has an image size of about 9" X 33" and is mounted in a 16" X 40" mat. $150 Many more spectacular Big Sur prints will be available soon. Bookmark this page!

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Working on ...
... a 200 megapixel panorama camera featuring a ten inch wide negative.

This camera uses a 121mm Super-Angulon lens from a Linhof Technica camera mounted on a Polaroid MP-4 bellows.

To transition from the Polaroid 4X5 format to the 2X10 pamorama format, a wood and aluminum spacer is used. The film back uses a Surdam 6X9 film holder insert mounted in an aluminum expansion box. (The red arrows below indicate the edges of the film.) Exposures are taken at the 2, 6, and 10 marks to get three pictures from a roll of 120 film.

In the finished camera, all parts will be painted flat black to eliminate internal reflections.

I consider prints at 200 dots-per-inch to be the minimum quality for art photographs; 300 DPI is preferred. At the mimimum setting, with the 2X10 camera you will be able to shoot photos which will look good at twelve feet wide. At the 300 DPI level, you will get spectacular 20" by 96" panoramas!

Select this to go to the top of the page

Use your back button to return to your previous place.