How to use Strobes with a Pentax 67 

Amazing video, thank you guys, please post more 🙂🙂

U can also take multiple exposures by setting it to bulb, holding it in as long as u want and use another cable release to manually release the leaf shutter on the lens

man i love the sound of that double shutter honestly!

Super helpful, thanks guys. Looking forward to seeing what Mike does with strobes!

We used to sell these camera's in my father camera shop in the 90s... by far the highest margin camera's we sold, business with Pentax was always good.

I bought my Pentax 67 last year for a bargain. It’s good to see it go up in value! Excellent teaching video gentlemen👍🏾!

Hallelujah...finally. Thank you. I'm going to buy a LS lens. I've only owned the 67ii for 30ish years and never knew this!!!

The X-synch socket is for use with electronic flash; the FP socket means "focal plane" or "forward point" and is meant for use with flashbulbs which were still in use way back when the Pentax 67 was first sold. The FP setting gives the flashbulb a brief 20-to-40 millisecond head start to begin its burn so the bulb reaches its maximum light output when the focal plane shutter begins its travel across the film plane. I believe the 67, even with non-leaf shutter lenses, can synch at ANY shutter speed when using flash bulbs because the bulb's relatively long burn time makes it, essentially, a constant light source. I had a complete Pentax 67 system in the early 1990s and sold it when I realized that this camera--because of the vibration caused by its large FP curtain shutter and mirror--can't make a truly sharp image unless you put the camera on a tripod, lock up the mirror and use a cable release to trip the shutter.

Fantastic, I work in studio with digital cameras that I've been working with but I have a pentax 67 sitting on the shelf that I've wanted to use in studio. Thanks, Tyler super informative.

ok 👌 this i definitely needed !! i couldn't fire the flash with that beast . oo thank youuu!!!!

Thank you for refreshing that topic Based on my manuals (I own the 90LS) 1/8 of a second would be sufficient, but with 1/4 you are on the save side. On the other hand non-LS lens are not realy to be handheld for flash photograpy. If you do have extreme highlights in the frame (like in usual studio conditions) 3-f-stops difference between ambient and flash exposure is sufficient to prevent visibel ghost pictures due to motion blure. In my celar studio ambient exposure for 400 ISO is f=2.0 @ 1/30s - so pictures for f=5.6 of smaller are quite save - if distance is less are you want to be more save a grey filter can provide that advanced distance PS: One practicle hint: Put a lable with the LS-Sync-settings inside the lens cap!

Great video! Love your channel as well as Mike's. If you can control the ambient light in your studio and and have enough strobe power to shoot at around f11, even 1/30th of a second works really well. I've gotten ridiculously sharp images this way. Of course a leaf shutter makes it much easier.

I just find it amazing how I just found you on your recent interview about shooting with intent, and I had already just seen some video on a 6x7 by some dude named Mike and followed him because I just loved his authenticity and love for photography and learning. How it was all about photography and not the 6x7. (Those type of videos of course are helpful and we always appreciate them). But when I realized the two guys I been liking equally or anticipating videos of, were straight homies and had a student teacher relationship. Man, amazing isn't even the word. It's like crack for my inspirational juices and outright pleasure of watching photography for entertainment. Keep going guys. Swoop me up when or if you ever pass through the central valley otw to the bay or something 🤭😎

Already have my Leaf Shutter Lens! They are sweet!

Really interesting tutorial! Helped a lot.... And i don't even own a Pentax 6x7😅

To clarify a bit. The major limitation of the Pentax 67 family of bodies with strobe flash is the 1/30th maximum shutter speed limit. This was not an arbitrary design choice. It is a physical limitation imposed by the fairly massive focal plane shutter system and the need to have the shutter fully open at point of flash exposure. If you are shooting in a studio or anywhere at night, the ambient light level can be low enough so natural light does not contribute to the total exposure, so shutter speed is no issue. The problem comes when trying to mix ambient light and flash in a combined exposure, such as daylight with fill flash. Only a leaf shutter will practically work for this mix. Pentax offered ONLY two lenses which sort of manage the problem by adding a leaf shutter to a lens, the 90mm 2.8 and 165mm 4.0. The 90mm 2.8 is very old now and there are zero repair parts for the shutter (and it is optically inferior to the normal 90mm 2.8) - avoid. It was replaced by the 165mm 4.0, which is optically a bit inferior to the normal 165mm 2.8. So, neither leaf shutter lens is desirable unless you need the leaf shutter feature. With such lens, you set the focal plane shutter to 1/15th or slower, and then control the actual film exposure with the leaf shutter in the lens. You advance film and cock the camera shutter normally. You set shutter speed and aperture on the lens. Then you separately cock the leaf shutter. Normally, you trigger the whole process from the body, which goes: leaf shutter closes fully and aperture closes to setting; focal plane shutter fully opens and mirror swings up; leaf shutter fully opens and triggers flash from flash terminal on lens; leaf shutter closes; focal plane shutter closes and aperture reopens; and mirror returns. This not a process you want to handle regularly in a studio, so just get a leaf shutter system for use there. Weddings - forget about it. The leaf shutter can be locked open, allowing the lens to operate just like a normal lens. The leaf shutter speeds available are 1//30 up to 1/500. Below 1/30, you just use the focal plane shutter.

Actually really useful for a RU-vid! thank you.

Thanks for the PSA, like 67 LS lenses weren't already rare and expensive enough 🥲

Tyler, thanks for another great video. Any chance you could do a single light studio tutorial?

You don’t have to use strobes for portraits, Sante D’Orazio use to shoot Victoria’s Secret catalogs and supermodels all day with Ari hot lights, you could also use LEDs. A lot of pro photographers are switching over to LEDs. I got two Pentax 67 that I bought new and they’re still in mint condition with six or seven of the lenses including the 165 leaf that I used to shoot portraits with all the time love these cameras, great video guys.

this was really helpful, thank you !!

Looking forward to watching this

Basically it just means turning the 67 into a hassie👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

*prices go up* 😂😅 Great vid!

Thanks a lot!!!💓💓💓💓

if only i had that leaf shutter for the challenge....

YESSS I DM’d Mike about this last week!!!!

Amazing video!

Thank you!

I love my 67 dearlyv

I love my 67 but I feel like the viewfinder is super dark compared to the mamiya 67

Will this work for something like an RB67? Also how does one meter while using a strobe on an older camera?

New cut??? That’s more fire than the video lol

I am planning to get a Pentax 67. What 2-3 lens setup do you recomend to get? I will gladly use the Pentax in combination with my Hasselblad 501cm where all lenses have leaf shutter.

but how much sharper is the smc 90mm & comparable rb67 lenses vs the 90mm LS?

Another question. I’ve just received the 90mm ls lens, I can see through the lens the whole time, around the 5:20 mark you say that when you look through the viewfinder you can’t see anything because you need to cock the shutter on the lens, but I can see through it even if I don’t cock the shutter, is this a problem? Thanks

funny to see these video just now hehe, Ive got te 90mm leaf shutter did some test and most of the photos turn out black. Another issue that I have is wich transmitter to use and do you guys use Flash or Speedlight (manual or TTL?), how do you guys expose,? thanks for the video

I find that my TTLL meter reading is close to the negative sign. I decrease my shutter speed and it moves toward the positive sign, then I get camera shake in my images. Should I rely on my external light meter over the prism light meter. And is there away to recalibrate the prism light meter. Thank you for your help

Is the shutter speed on the body always supposed to be set to 1/4th of a second when using the LS mode on the lens? Are there any variables/reasons you would change it from 1/4th?

Or buy the Mamiya 7ii ?

strobe sync is not what manufacturer can choose because it is dictated by physics. You see if you have 6x7 frame 1/30 it's fastest time when a frame is for a fraction of a second fully open. So if you have smaller format this time is even faster. And thats why leaf shutter have so fast sync: because thir travel is shorter.

Tyler, how is the glass quality of the 90mm LS? I’ve seen reviews saying that the non-LS is superior

can you do the mamiya rz67 next!

Audio of this video is a nightmare for me. Audio is so low that you turn it on max and than suddenly youtube comes in with they crappy ads with pumped volume and your ears are bleeding in first seconds till you throw headphones out :D

Using the LS (leaf shutter) lenses, you can set the camera speed at X or ay speed slower than 1/60th. You then set your actual exposure speed on the lens shutter. In the video, he says you must set the camera shutter to 1/4 or to allow the mirror to cycle and not interfere. This is error. If he is having this [problem, then his camera needs a repair. Contra the implications of the video, there are only two LS lenses, and the 90mm is so old and unrepairable that its purchase is questionable. Overall, this process is clumsy such that anyone who regularly uses a strobe flash should just buy a different camera using leaf shutters. (I own three Pentax 67 bodies and most of the lenses, including the 165mm LS.)

90mm and 165mm are the only leaf shutter lenses for Pentax 67 unfortunately there is no wide angle with LS, same goes to the Pentax 645 you only have 75mm and 135mm leaf shutter lenses

Please remove your tea bag from your cup, it will be sour and bitter. 😂

Man, please fix your audio. You can do better 💪💪💪