Good morning, I came across your channel yesterday. Have found it very very useful! I am also obsessed with Polaroid. Bought my first SX-70 nine years ago and today I use primarily an SLR 670-X. It has been a love-hate relationship. Sometimes I absolutely love it, sometimes I want to throw all the cameras to the bin. The variability of the results from batch to batch, year to year has been too great, but, in spite of this, I keep buying Polaroid film... In any case, I have been testing the SLR 670X with strobes for a while for portraiture work and my conclusion has been that it is best to stick to the Mint Flash II. I take a portrait, against a flat white wall, of everyone that enters my flat (would love to have a Big Shot and the proper film). My strobe is a Godox 200AD and I place it as close as possible to the camera. I have tried several modifiers (including the bare bulb), and a simple shoot-through umbrella seems to give the best results, from a quality of light perspective. However, there are issues with this set up. I use a simple cable to connect the SLR-670X to the strobe via the Time Machine. With this set up the f-stop in the camera is set at f/8.0. I use a Sekonic L-308 to dial in the strobe’s power using an ISO of 640 (using 600 Film) placing the meter below the chin. Issue number 1 : underexposure. In all my tests the images end up being underexposed by 2/3 to 1-stop. I need to bump up power to f/11. Issue number 2 : depth of field. At f/8.0, and being 1m away, the depth of field is very narrow, and given I mostly take these pictures at night time, it is difficult to nail focus. Come in the Mint Flash. With this option, at 1/2 power (for 600 Film), and 1m away, the f-stop is f/22. This increases the depth of field and almost guarantees in focus results. Now, at least with my copy, I need to turn the exposure wheel on the SLR-670X by half to one full mark. Otherwise, I get seriously overexposed images. One thing I have yet to try is to plug the strobes via the Mint Flash and fire both the flash and the strobe at the same time. Have to guess that the camera will still use f/22 at 1m. It would be great if you could do a video on this. I have wasted so much film and time (as well as many lost portraits) getting to where I am now. Maybe other people can benefit from this. Greetings from Peru. Victor
A lot has to do with the narrow latitude of the film itself and at that distance as you mentioned f8 is very shallow DOF. I would do the last test you mentioned - measure everything out and lock that formula in- I do portraits in a similar manner in my studio but use continuous light source so what I see is what I get and only take one shot to nail the exposure-
Thanks for the prompt reply. I actually got curious and decided to do a test tethering the strobes to the Mint Flash. It actually does keep the f/stop in the camera at f/22, so it helps with the focus. Tried it just with the strobes, taping the flash head of the Mint Flash, as well as firing both the strobe and the Mint Flash -both gave great result. I have thought about using LED lights for a while. Need to research the topic more. Cheers, V.
Excellent summary of some of the flash options. The three image series using the SX-70 of your wife in the kitchen shows the value of the Mint Flash bar. I had read reviews saying how poorly illuminated it can sometimes offer but that third picture impressed me. Ha ha. The Mint Flash bar 3 will have a dial to please you !!!! I recently borrowed a Mint flash bar 2 and compared it with a old but still working flashbulb strip. Similar to your second kitchen set both images came out but I did have the preference for the flash bulbs picture. Have you tried one of the older electric flash units that many third party companies made - such as Nissin ? It would fit your SX-70 and there were versions for the Pronto as well. Of course as they were designed to work with SX-70 film a strip of ND filter material would now need to cover the flash source. I am awaiting delivery of one of these to attach to my SX-70. Yes big and bulky but it will be interesting to compare the picture quality.
My favorite use of on-camera flash is for fill light on back-lit portraits on bright days with b&w film.
Very informative, I experimented a lot with Christmas lights and Polaroids with and without flash. I love how many options you show 😂
Good morning, I came across your channel yesterday. Have found it very very useful! I am also obsessed with Polaroid. Bought my first SX-70 nine years ago and today I use primarily an SLR 670-X.
It has been a love-hate relationship. Sometimes I absolutely love it, sometimes I want to throw all the cameras to the bin. The variability of the results from batch to batch, year to year has been too great, but, in spite of this, I keep buying Polaroid film...
In any case, I have been testing the SLR 670X with strobes for a while for portraiture work and my conclusion has been that it is best to stick to the Mint Flash II. I take a portrait, against a flat white wall, of everyone that enters my flat (would love to have a Big Shot and the proper film).
My strobe is a Godox 200AD and I place it as close as possible to the camera. I have tried several modifiers (including the bare bulb), and a simple shoot-through umbrella seems to give the best results, from a quality of light perspective. However, there are issues with this set up.
I use a simple cable to connect the SLR-670X to the strobe via the Time Machine. With this set up the f-stop in the camera is set at f/8.0. I use a Sekonic L-308 to dial in the strobe’s power using an ISO of 640 (using 600 Film) placing the meter below the chin.
Issue number 1 : underexposure. In all my tests the images end up being underexposed by 2/3 to 1-stop. I need to bump up power to f/11.
Issue number 2 : depth of field. At f/8.0, and being 1m away, the depth of field is very narrow, and given I mostly take these pictures at night time, it is difficult to nail focus.
Come in the Mint Flash. With this option, at 1/2 power (for 600 Film), and 1m away, the f-stop is f/22. This increases the depth of field and almost guarantees in focus results. Now, at least with my copy, I need to turn the exposure wheel on the SLR-670X by half to one full mark. Otherwise, I get seriously overexposed images.
One thing I have yet to try is to plug the strobes via the Mint Flash and fire both the flash and the strobe at the same time. Have to guess that the camera will still use f/22 at 1m.
It would be great if you could do a video on this. I have wasted so much film and time (as well as many lost portraits) getting to where I am now. Maybe other people can benefit from this.
Greetings from Peru.
Victor
A lot has to do with the narrow latitude of the film itself and at that distance as you mentioned f8 is very shallow DOF. I would do the last test you mentioned - measure everything out and lock that formula in- I do portraits in a similar manner in my studio but use continuous light source so what I see is what I get and only take one shot to nail the exposure-
Thanks for the prompt reply. I actually got curious and decided to do a test tethering the strobes to the Mint Flash. It actually does keep the f/stop in the camera at f/22, so it helps with the focus. Tried it just with the strobes, taping the flash head of the Mint Flash, as well as firing both the strobe and the Mint Flash -both gave great result. I have thought about using LED lights for a while. Need to research the topic more. Cheers, V.
I love continuous light for portraits- smooth and clean and easy to adjust.
Excellent summary of some of the flash options.
The three image series using the SX-70 of your wife in the kitchen shows the value of the Mint Flash bar.
I had read reviews saying how poorly illuminated it can sometimes offer but that third picture impressed me.
Ha ha. The Mint Flash bar 3 will have a dial to please you !!!!
I recently borrowed a Mint flash bar 2 and compared it with a old but still working flashbulb strip.
Similar to your second kitchen set both images came out but I did have the preference for the flash bulbs picture.
Have you tried one of the older electric flash units that many third party companies made - such as Nissin ?
It would fit your SX-70 and there were versions for the Pronto as well.
Of course as they were designed to work with SX-70 film a strip of ND filter material would now need to cover the flash source.
I am awaiting delivery of one of these to attach to my SX-70.
Yes big and bulky but it will be interesting to compare the picture quality.
👍 And the Mint Flash Bar 2 has also a 2.5mm jack
Yep!
Quel film a été utilisé pour les tests ? 600 ?
Yes, 600