Originally posted by: spike spiegal
How do I make an exposure for Zone I for each ISO. I need to shoot two stops under and one stop over the indicated speed on the box in 1/3 increments.
You can start with using a decent, conventional B&W film like FP4 or Plus-X, or even Tri-X -vs-a starved for density range "save the silver" hack like TMX 100. If you can't find the classic films in sheet format, it's because most professionals shooting 4x5 are shooting trannies, scanning, and desaturating. If forced to use film I'd do that anyways given it affords more flexibility.
IMHO - zone system is an excuse not to think, Ansel Adams is WAY over-rated, and you should be processing your film according to contrast range and scene conditions, not faking a linear scale of intensity ranges when B&W film is not linear in the first place.
As for some of the other questions, Walmart is my preferred "online" lab of choice because they will give me my digital pictures in an hour, and they use the exact same machines, chemicals, and papers as Mpix, etc. So, unless you feel the urge to keep Fed-Ex and the UPS guy in business.......
As for zooms vs primes, be aware that the smaller APS sensor in most digital cameras are far pickier than the 24x36mm frame of SLRs of old. My lenses of choice for my Canon dSLR's are all primes because even a cheap 50mm 1.8 will mop the floor with $1,000 L series zooms I've rented or borrowed. Unlike Canon, Nikon is doing something about the issue along with Sigma.
Don't mock point -n- shoot digicams. Some of the newer ones I've used like the Fuji F30 are shockingly good at ISO 800.