Author Topic: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review  (Read 6239 times)

LT

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Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« on: November 18, 2011, 07:44:37 AM »
Hi All

Our video podcast #8 is now online at vimeo in both SD and HD versions.  We are yet to sort out the downloadable versions for other devices, and the main subscriber podcast page, but will update you when these are available. (UPDATE: These are now online here) We are so excited about this episode that we thought we'd announce it a bit early :)

08: The Mighty TiTAN Review - November 2011

Contents:

The wonderful people at the ILFORD Photo factory have kindly loaned us their HARMAN TiTAN pinhole camera to review. As soon as Leon saw the box, he knew he was in for some fun times! Also, Filmwasters-regular Francois Laverdure shows how to build a budget darkroom and Leon shows some of the trials of being a mushroom photographer

hope you enjoy :)

Leon
« Last Edit: November 18, 2011, 10:57:03 AM by ed.wenn »
L.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2011, 09:02:18 AM »
Great stuff! Titan is now on my Xmas list.

Francois can I have your darkroom please?  ;D

Ed Wenn

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #2 on: November 18, 2011, 11:03:20 AM »
This is a great podcast, Leon & Francois....thanks a million for taking the time to put it together. The music during the mushrooms gallery is a little jarring, but it was really late last night when I watched it and I was a little shell shocked already  ;)

If you want to savour the details (and pricing) of Francois' dark room setup just pause the video during the bits where the text flies across the screen.

....and usual, please pass the news about the podcast on via your usual channels (Twitter, Flickr, FB, a chat with a real person over coffee, semaphore, telegraph, sign language, sky writing etc.).

LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2011, 11:20:32 AM »
Jarring?
L.

DS

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2011, 12:36:06 PM »
Ha! Another ISB fan (the song at the end)! I salute you.

Francois- thanks for the view of your darkroom. i'm planning mine as I've rebuilt part of the cellar, got the electricity sorted. Now just need to build a plywood wall and get an enlarger from somewhere.

That Titan looks pretty good.

Paul Mitchell

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2011, 12:55:22 PM »
Excellent review Leon and found Francois darkroom tour fascinating... great to put another face to a name too!!

Paul
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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #6 on: November 18, 2011, 03:50:32 PM »
I'm glad you enjoyed the darkroom trip :)
I must say I never expected it to come out this good considering all the curbside stuff I've used in making it!
I also never thought I'd come to a point where I'd go dumpster diving for stuff... like all the plywood I've used for the walls.

But hey, when you ain't got any budget, it's no reason to put off a dream like that considering all the good stuff that goes to waste.
Francois

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DS

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #7 on: November 18, 2011, 04:57:03 PM »
But hey, when you ain't got any budget, it's no reason to put off a dream like that considering all the good stuff that goes to waste.

I try to avoid paying for anything if I can. That might be because I'm Scottish or living in Yorkshire ;). Our local dump is amazing- I've found wood, most of my tools (including a box full of snap-on sockets and some beautiful planes), bits of furniture and a nice teapot from there recently. I honestly can't believe the stuff people chuck out. Some of the tools cost a fortune and I couldn't afford to buy them used, never mind new.

Regarding the enlarging exposure meter- any recommendations?

LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #8 on: November 18, 2011, 05:08:25 PM »
Regarding the enlarging exposure meter- any recommendations?

I'd recommend one of  these ... but they are expensive.  I use one of these for a timer and couldn't do without it.
L.

LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2011, 05:14:49 PM »
Ha! Another ISB fan (the song at the end)! I salute you.

YES! I love the ISB. but ... I saw them live at the Canterbury Fayre festival 2003 (although I think Robin Williamson was not part of it then) and they were dreadful - mind you, Roy Harper followed them and was just as dismal!  thankfully, robert plant headlined and blew the clouds out of the sky with his Strange Sensation. The original Incredible String Band recordings are great though.
L.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2011, 05:31:36 PM »
Regarding the enlarging exposure meter- any recommendations?
Mine is from Peterson. It works as it will get you in the ballpark... but I find it rare that it will give me exactly what I want on first shot... but at least I don't have to do a test strip (something I hate doing). I must say I also did a ballpark calibration of it... It usually brings me within 1 stop of what's needed. It uses a diffusion disk to calculate the exposure. So, for a scene with a lot of clear negative, it underexposes and vice versa.

Ilford used to make some very nice meters. I've read good things about the Ilford EM10 meter which you should be able to find used for really cheap
Francois

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2011, 06:33:42 PM »
Podcast is great!

Love Francois' darkroom and the cool factor of making it out of some found materials!

I really like the pinhole camera too, and thanks Leon for doing a thorough review.

I probably won't buy one since I'm in the make your own group of people that have power tools and a shed full of materials.

I am wondering if the camera might be susceptible to high heat or melting and distorting if left in a hot car?  I imagine the plastic is quite thick on the cone and would not warp unless exposed to extreme heat....

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #12 on: November 18, 2011, 07:28:22 PM »
A great review, Leon. Made even more sweet with the music to Vision On - I could sense Pat Keysell smiling!

Francois

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #13 on: November 18, 2011, 08:53:28 PM »
I am wondering if the camera might be susceptible to high heat or melting and distorting if left in a hot car?  I imagine the plastic is quite thick on the cone and would not warp unless exposed to extreme heat....
Somehow, I really doubt it... though I don't live in the south...

Plastics are incredibly tough. If a Holga doesn't melt, I'm pretty sure this thing won't either even though the cone is obviously vaccuformed.
Francois

Film is the vinyl record of photography.

LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #14 on: November 18, 2011, 09:07:50 PM »
Apparently the cameras are made using ABS mould-injected plastics - not sure how that makes a difference heat-wise.  I think there have been occasions when Holgas have become slightly malleable in a hot car (I'm sure I remember someone saying similar in the old Toycamera.com days), but the TiTAN plastic feels very different to Holgas - it is much more rigid.

Not sure if this has been posted here before, but I just found it on YouTube - this is the guy who makes the pinhole camera:

How Its Made - Large Format Cameras - Walker Titan SF 4x5
L.

sapata

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #15 on: November 18, 2011, 10:34:22 PM »
Great review Leon, the whole packaging looks quite smart.

Interesting video about the making of 4x5 cameras...he made it look so simple.
Mauricio Sapata
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Ed Wenn

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #16 on: November 18, 2011, 11:18:17 PM »
I'm pretty sure it was Becky herself who had the melting camera incident back in the day.

Leon: Yes, jarring  ;D I'll go and listen to it again.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2011, 11:35:20 PM »
Apparently the cameras are made using ABS mould-injected plastics - not sure how that makes a difference heat-wise.
Well, thing is there are two families of plastics: Thermo-plastics & Thermoset plastics
The difference between both is that thermo-plastics are formed using heat and can be re-shaped the same way. Thermoset plastics are more like those kitchen spatulas. Once they are formed and heated, they tend to keep their shape even with siring heat.

BTW Leon: I showed my mom the podcast and she just LOVED the mushroom pictures!
I wonder if you had to pick off the grubs from your camera when you were done ;)
Francois

Film is the vinyl record of photography.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2011, 05:11:03 AM »
As has been said, w00t!

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #19 on: November 19, 2011, 05:19:18 AM »
Damn it. I thought I was over my camera lust but now I want an Ilford Titan.

Great podcast. Loved the dark room tour. A tour of my darkroom would be very quick. 364 days of the year it is a very small bathroom but once in a blue moon there are trays in the bath, an enlarger on the floor, and a small stool for me to sit on.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #20 on: November 19, 2011, 05:55:12 PM »
Just watched the podcast. Fantastic, and thanks Leon & Francois!

But I have to say, what I noticed most is:

a) how well Leon's dog is behaved, and
b) that your beach looks distinctly different from mine.

It's currently -17F/-22C here, and I may have been just a little more jealous of the weather than the camera, though I suspect it holds up well in these temps. No lens to fog.

Jon Butler

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #21 on: November 20, 2011, 04:14:37 PM »
Good one Leon, thanks for posting.
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mikeg

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #22 on: November 20, 2011, 09:42:15 PM »
Thanks for another great podcast. I don't know what you've changed but this is the first one that I've managed to download in iTunes. All the other video podcasts have given me an error about half way through downloading. (Audio podcasts download fine.)

Cheers

Mike

Ed Wenn

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #23 on: November 21, 2011, 03:44:40 PM »
That is fascinating feedback, Mike. Thanks. Sorry that you'd had problems previously....but please do let us know when you have issues like this because we don't always know something's not working.

The irony is that this is first video podcast that I've decided to include a generic MP4 video file in the RSS feed and not the more Apple-centric (according to handbrake) M4V format. MP4 works on my Nokia smartphone and my wife's Android too, so given that your iPhone like it to, I'd say MP4 is the way to go.

I'll re-encode all of the other video podcasts as MP4s later this week, so you can DL them if you haven't seen them already.

BTW, Leon, we're at well over 1000 views of the video so far. Nice!!

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #24 on: November 21, 2011, 04:26:37 PM »
Hi Ed,

I think I mentioned it way back when you first uploaded video podcasts to iTunes. It's nothing to do with an iPhone (I don't have one!). This is iTunes only. I'm running under Windows XP SP3. I can't remember what the error number is (I'm at work at the moment). I'm subscribed automatically to the podcasts in iTunes, so whenever I start up iTunes it tries to download the video podcast and then always fails about half way into downloading. However, this time, I noticed that it had got further than it usually does, so I watched it download successfully.

In the past, I've just downloaded it manually and then either viewed on my PC or imported it into iTunes to sync with my iPod.

I'll check what the error message is when I get back, but it looks like using the mp4 format has fixed it for me.

Cheers

Mike

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #25 on: November 21, 2011, 08:40:01 PM »
You might want to ditch iTunes (unless you really need it).
For managing podcasts, there's a better alternative called gPodder.
It's free, open source, available as a portable app (portableapps.com) or as an installer (http://gpodder.org/). It's available on just about every platform you can imagine (Linux-Windows-Mac-BSD).
It will scan the URL of the podcasts page, checks for updates, automatically downloads, can sync with any MP3 player, plays through any MP3 player (like Winamp or my favorite Foobar 2000)... Fantastic piece of software. Best of all, it's completely trouble free...

I forgot to add it also works on mobile platforms like Nokia and soon Android based phones and tablets...
« Last Edit: November 21, 2011, 08:41:44 PM by Francois »
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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #26 on: November 22, 2011, 05:57:32 AM »
But I have to say, what I noticed most is:

a) how well Leon's dog is behaved, and
b) that your beach looks distinctly different from mine.

OK Leon, I braved the beach at -2F/-19C today just for you.

Well, for me, too.

It turns out, rangefinders don't like to range after about a half-hour at those temps. I didn't make it much longer. It's an untested camera (new to me), but hopefully I'll burn the rest of the roll and have something to show by the weekend.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #27 on: November 22, 2011, 08:19:43 AM »
Good review Leon.
I wonder how many recipients will open all the nice little boxes on Christmas morning to examine the contents before reading the instructions. :'( I also question the necessity of having to have a tripod as the use of this camera without one, given its narrow base is problematic, but as it cannot be used out of the box without a further purchase of at least one DDS maybe that won’t be so much of a problem.
I feel that this is a good product for sale to schools and the hobbyist, but that it almost certainly will give trouble to the casual purchaser; and that needs addressing by Harman if they are to encourage that section of the market to continue into photography.
The second part of your review should be to give a new boxed camera to someone unversed in photography to see how they get on with it without further tuition.  ;)

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #28 on: November 22, 2011, 08:20:12 AM »
Great work,  i watched this on the weekend  - very impressed.

over 1000 views as well...


LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #29 on: November 22, 2011, 09:30:06 AM »
I take your points about inviting brand new consumers to the market Dave - I can't see that this product was ever designed to do that though. I question the usefulness of giving one of these to a "new to film photography" tester.  The mere fact that it is large format is enough to put off most people who know nothing about film photography - just getting the film developed is going to be a real pain for those who don't home develop.  That said, there are detailed instructions with the kit which show how to use it (provided they are read of course).

I reckon the most likely (non-student) markets are either people who already have LF gear, or those who want to move up and try LF. Either way, the requisite foundational gear (tripod, developing equipment etc) is likely to already be in their armoury - with possibly the exception of the DDS, but ilford have mentioned how easy these are to buy on the used market these days, so its not really an issue.

Having handled the camera, I think the Tripod matter is not too much of an issue - the camera will stand up relatively easily, and most of the people likely to be buying these will already have tripods.  Or, a cheap mini pod/ bean bag will work fine also.  

The more I use this, the more I regret that there is no shutter mechanism though. If it is off the tripod, the effort to take the lens cap off can cause movements which might ruin the picture if the exposure time is short.
« Last Edit: November 22, 2011, 09:32:06 AM by leon taylor »
L.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #30 on: November 22, 2011, 03:24:08 PM »
But since the thing is so modular... watch out for a bunch of add-ons to come!
Francois

Film is the vinyl record of photography.

LT

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #31 on: November 22, 2011, 06:01:01 PM »

OK Leon, I braved the beach at -2F/-19C today just for you.

Well, for me, too.

It turns out, rangefinders don't like to range after about a half-hour at those temps. I didn't make it much longer. It's an untested camera (new to me), but hopefully I'll burn the rest of the roll and have something to show by the weekend.

-19 already?  That's madness.  I'm chuffed that I inspired you to visit the beach, but sad that your RF didn't cut the mustard. keep warm!
L.

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #32 on: November 22, 2011, 09:31:06 PM »
At that temperature with the wind chill, I'm surprised it's not the fingers on the cold metal that stopped working first!
Francois

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Re: Video Podcast #8 - The Mighty TiTAN Review
« Reply #33 on: November 29, 2011, 04:11:58 AM »
Thanks for the Titan review, I already have one on order but it was still very interesting. Looks like a great little pinhole camera should be fun.

Roger
formerly rtbadman