vandevantersh
Member
and the batteries are very hard to find."
That sounds like a deal breaker.
Steve
That sounds like a deal breaker.
Steve
I just got a Pro Back Plus (works a charm on ELD) but want to use it on EL/m or 500c... I have 2 sync cables (which end in a headphone jack) and a Kapture Group cable (for Lg. Format)... also does anyone know if I can tether W/O being on a body?
Thanks for taking the time...
Jeff
well, that and off body? It's for an experiment, not regular shooting.Without a body? Do you mean on a viewcamera?
I just got a "new" one (Only 576 actuations) today with an ELD.The original 16 meg Kodak Proback was designed primarily for use on the ELD camera (and with an adapter the Mamiya RZ,) but could not be used on my 503CW. It had two CF slots, and a back LCD panel that could be tilted upwards for overhead viewing. The draw back was that it had to be powered by a huge tethered Quantum battery and featured any ISO you wanted as long as it was ISO 100 : -) I used it primarily on a camera stand in the studio tethered to a computer.
I purchased the pro back pluss from ebay for 2400 USD. This is cheap compared with the normal prices. The reason was probably that my set lacked the powersupply, any cables and view finder underlays.
The first thing that happened was that the battery broke. This is a quantum battery 2. Unlike some claims in this thread the replacement battery is very easy to get and its not expensive. Its also very easy to replace in the leather caging. You can get it from DASAGA or other providers.
http://dasaga.com/
The company who sold me the back provided a replacement for me. They paid 20 dollars for it.
BTW I had to buy a new charger for the battery sinse it had american plugs. Its 12 V DC 0.5 A you need.
The other way you can power the pro back pluss is via the fire wire cable.
After some research I got the info about the power supply. this is 24V DC 1.5 A. you need a firewire hub with a normal standard power plug. I bought the powersupply in an el-shop for little money. It works perfect.
I use the back on my 500 cm. For this you need a special cable. This cable lets you connect the back on virtually any V-series camera. This cable you can get from Kapture group. They have them on stock. Its quite expensive but it works very well. Check the cable here
http://www.kapturegroup.com/proback/plus.html
Though Kodak discontinued the back it is still serviced by midwest camera repair
http://www.midwestcamera.com/
Though i in the end didnt use them i was communicating quite a bit with them and they are very helpful and responsive.
One thing to be aware of: never remove the filter. Rather let midwest do this if needed. A small spring will easely brake and ruin the back beyond repair. Check the story elsewere in this thread.
I have only tested the back a little bit and i must say i am very happy with it. Despite its shortcomings like the clumsy battery and only 100 ISO setting, the image quality is very nice. I am not a profesional and am not updated on the latest digital technologies but to my mind its really nice. Especially the colors are very natural. The image comes out of the camera a little blurry but this is the camera setting with default next to no sharpening in the camera. The file is very "responsive" to sharpening and does not create any artefacts when sharpened. I use a little white ballance correction and sharpening in the photoshop raw file processing and then use smart sharpen if needed.
I think there is so much software processing going on indside digital cameras. like the high ISO are to my knowledge mostly software and not features of the sensor. The pro back plus seems to be very "honest" providing the ISO thats best for the sensor and only processing the RAW file very little.
In the end i think the KODAK pro back plus is a priceworthy solution and it works for almost all V series and not only the ELD or 503 cameras, but you need to budget with the kapture group cable.
Here is a test of a brass chandelier detail. the image is 1:1. Its 600x600 pixels cropped out of a 4072x4072 picture.
View attachment 2251
Ok, sorry for the mistake and thanks for the correction Marc. Will certainly read more carefully in the futureAnd thanks for info on the difference between the backs.
What do you consider the difference between 12 and 16 bits colour? What is the visual difference? I guess the CFV/16MP is superiour but its also quite more expensive to what i could see. Beyond my limit.
BTW my back came without flash storage. I bought the san disc extreme III and it works fine. With two slots it gives 8 GB of storage.