In response to the orange mask of color negatives. When the neg is photographed, be sure to include the outside edge of the negative. That is the edge that is processed but not exposed. In Photoshop go to adjustments, levels, and choose the white point. Click on the edge of the negative. Invert the negative, it won't be exact, but it will be closer than anything else I have tried. I did a short video on this and it should be under my name somewhere. Lots of luck in your endeavors.

I've got a 35mm Minolta film scanner that I've had for years, works great, no problems other than it's not on the market anymore. For my 120 and 4x5 negs, I built a light box out of foam core, a piece of glass from a photo frame, and some LED puck lights I had lying around. I used my Canon T-6i to copy my negs. I don't use a macro or extension tubes on my kit lens. I find that the sharpness is more than satisfactory for my needs. I have printed 11x14 prints from these negatives, with the biggest issue being dust. Just my thoughts on what I have done in the past.

I spent 30 years as a photographer working for the Army (read civil service). I would spend hours in the darkroom, processing film, printing black & white and color along with transparencies. In spite of everything I enjoyed my work. I felt like to had value and I was always trying to improve my techniques, whether in the dark or behind the camera and I wouldn't trad those time for anything. Then digital came along, I assisted in drawing the U.S. Army kicking and screaming into the digital world. Yes, I had issues with it in the beginning. We had low grade software, believe it or not there were other vendors out there besides Adobe and it was in its infancy. Our computers were 208086 (?), limited RAM and speed running Windows 95. We finally upgraded to faster computers and went to Photoshop, it was a difficult change as PS had a STEEP learning curve! I locked my self in my office one day, took my phone off the hook and worked through the manual, yes, an actual printed manual! When I came out the other side I was convinced this was the only way to go. All of sudden I was able to do all the things that I had read about, but lacked the equipment and/or the expertise to make it happen. I eventually sold off all my darkroom equipment with the exception of a few items. Yes I can still shoot 4x5 and process the film in the kitchen sink with minimum effort. But now I will scan my film and work on it in either PS or LRC. I can sit there with the window open watching the world go by, my blues music softly playing and "two finger of Jack Daniels and a splash of branch water". Living in an RV and traveling about, my days in the dark are done. Yes, I have all my cameras, but now they are displayed as a collection in my living room.

I don't have much to add to what has already been said by people that are smarter than me, but here is my experience with low memory in a MacBook. How much "stuff" do you have on your desktop? My two aging MB have shared memory, that is part is used for the display. I keep all of stuff I'm working on, on an external hard drive, it seems to help. Just my rambling thoughts.

Personally I wouldn't go back to a Windows machine, that's just me. Be careful with buying a windows edition to go on a MacBook. As I recall that was only workable when Macs had the Intel chips, I don't know if that is possible today with the new M series of chips. If it still works, then be sure to check which version of windows you buy. I've got my old MacBook and a copy of Windows that would run on it. However the version I have is no longer supported by MS, so I can't load it up. When I could it ran great. As for parallels, I have not used it. Good luck. One positive note, I did run into the situation where I got hijacked when I clicked on a link. Things looked semi legit, they wanted my credit card to restore my system. All I had to was delete the portion and reload windows!

Personally I wouldn't go back to a Windows machine, that's just me. Be careful with buying a windows edition to go on a MacBook. As I recall that was only workable when Macs had the Intel chips, I don't know if that is possible today with the new M series of chips. If it still works, then be sure to check which version of windows you buy. I've got my old MacBook and a copy of Windows that would run on it. However the version I have is no longer supported by MS, so I can't load it up. When I could it ran great. As for parallels, I have not used it. Good luck.

When I'm out and about I use a "long" camera strap in a cross chest mode. I find that it keeps my camera from banging around when I move and it's easy to shoot either portrait or landscape mode.

I recently bought an ET-8550 and really like it. The prints I've gotten out of it have been superb It's been sitting for a couple of months now, we've been on an extended emergency trip, I'll see how it does when we return. I'm expecting to have to do a lot of deep cleaning.

Excellent!

Seems to be the topic de jour. I have had success digitizing my 120 and 4x5 negs using my digital camera. You end up with a RAW file, but thats ok. I'v used Photoshop to convert my color negs to very acceptable color positives. B&W is not a problem. Good luck!

I can understand wanting to start using 4x5 film. Here are some of my experiences. I used a changing for years and still have two. Dust was never a problem,besides, photoshop makes it easy to get rid of spots. As for processing the film. I have used a 120 film processing tank with a sheet film holder. The last time I checked these can more than likely be found on Ebay, or do an internet search for Jobo products, no telling what will show up. I have digitized all my 4x5 and 120 negs using my digital camera and a makeshift light box. It is best to keep things as "square" as possible when copying your negs. I copied mine through the base side just so I wouldn't have remember to do a horizontal flip to get it right. This will most likely draw a lot of negative comments pun not intended), but these are some of things I've done and they have worked. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me. Happy shooting!

96% of te EV’s are still on the road, the other 5% made it home!

You might take a look at Red River Papers. You can purchase sample packs for a reasonable price.

The five second rule is null and void if you have a two second dog!