MY PHOTOGRAPHIC GEAR

 

It is correct to say that “equipment does not make the photographer”.  The camera, the lens, and the processing techniques are the tools of the craft, but the photographer uses those tools to make wonderful images that abstract reality or present fine art that inspires the viewer. 

 

We all have seen very poor photographs taken with very expensive gear, and absolutely wonderful images from very remedial equipment—the difference being the artful craft of the photographer. [I remember my college photography professor, Bernie Freemesser, bemoaning the fact that it was all too easy to “click” the shutter in front of a scene and then think that one has made a “great photograph”.  This was often his expression as we’d go through critiques with him.] 

 

My first camera was given to me just before I went off to church camp when I was in the 5th grade.  It was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye box camera, and I still have photos of my friends taken with that old camera. 

 

In college [1966...that's 40 years ago!] I scraped up a very few dollars and ordered an Exa 2A SLR from East Germany [yes...during the "Cold War" and Viet Nam] through a cheap tabloid magazine.  It was “cheap”, had no meter,  was fully manual, but it had a Carl Ziese Jena 50mm lens. 

 

I remember Professor Freemesser taking that camera out of my hand one day…he looked at it and said that it was about the funniest looking little SLR that he had ever seen, but then added that it had “good glass”, provided sharp images, and he encouraged me to keep using it...it would keep me "using the fundamentals".  I did and each of my college portfolio images were shot with that camera.

 

After my “photo noir” experience on the Nile [see "Essays/On Photography"], I purchased my first professional quality camera.  It was the summer of 1996, 30 years after my basic photo training in college.  It was a Pentax 645 medium format system.  With it I purchased a 45mm wide-angle lens, a 120mm Macro, and a 200mm telephoto with 2x extender.  And a tripod.  And filters.  And…yes, it hasn’t ended yet.

 

Living in Israel at the time provided a wealth of location opportunities for world class photography.  My favorite photographic activity was to walk the Old City wall with my camera and monopod and capture images of the unique surroundings of the Old City.  I also liked to walk the Old City streets, visit the Western Wall, the Holy Sepulcure, the Dome of the Rock, and the many other sites in the City.  Travels to Massadah, En Gedi,  the Jordan, the Galillee, Mt. Hermon, Acre, Haifa, Carmel, Netanya, Tel Aviv, the Arabah, were easy and I grew my portfolio significantly with visits to those and other locations.

 

With a desire to get into large format photograph, I built my own 4x5 view camera from a Bender kit.  It is truly a beautiful camera, and works fine.  But for truly accurate movements and sharp critical focus I obtained a more sophisticated 4x5 system, a second hand Cambo. 

 

[By the way, I have recently given the Cambo and its lenses to one of my nephews who recently completed his photography degree at Northern Arizona State University and an internship with Art Wolfe in Seattle.  I’ve also given him my original Pentax 645 system as I have upgraded that system over time.  Most recently I gave him my Pentax *istD which served me very well, but my need for a higher resolution DSLR directed me to the Canon 5D making the *istD no longer needed in my system.  I recommend that every serious photographer find a young photography student to whom you can give your used professional equipment—what an encouragement it is to them to have good equipment to use in their studies/studios, and in their young businesses.  The blessing you get is far better than the minimal resale cash you get from any used photo equipment!]

 

After completing my work in Israel, our family returned to the USA.  By that time my wife and I were “empty nesters”, with the kids all grown, married or in college.  We moved to Seattle WA where I began work on the Experience Music Project for Paul Allen’s Vulcan NW.  This was a wonderfully collaborative project working with the latest state of the art in design and construction techniques.  It also provided wonderful opportunities for amazing photography—the eye candy just kept on a comin’.

 

At that time, I built my own dark room.  I was able to do both black and white and color processing and image developing.  I obtained a used Jobo developing unit and a used Saunders enlarger and lenses for enlarging 35mm, 120-220 and 4x5 film.  I spent many enjoyable hours working in that dark room over the next 6 year.  I have recently moved to the Porland OR area leaving that dark room behind.  Since most [not all] of my photographic capture is now being done digitally I have opted not to replace the chemical dark room since it is now obsolete.  I have all of my dark room equipment nicely packed up with no home.  I have tried to give it away but no one wants it!  It is amazing how things have changed in the last few years!  Any film processing I now need is done at an outside lab.

 

My camera gear has continued to expanded over the last decade to include a Pentax 67 II system with a variety of lenses, and my normal setup until very recently was the Pentax 67II with Manfroto and Gitzo tripods, with Really Right Stuff ball heads and panoramic hardware.  When shooting film  I shoot Velvia 50 and 100 or Provia 100 Fujichrome in most situations.  I also upgraded my 645 system to include a Pentax 645N and 645NII with lenses ranging from a WA 35mm up to a 400mm auto focus telephoto lens with 2x extenders if needed.  This gives me full coverage of nearly any medium format situation that I may face.  I also regularly use a Horseman View Camera Converter with Rodenstock Rodagon lenses.  This unit allow me all of the advantages of a view camera with the advantage of through the lense metering, through the lens focusing, and roll film at the 120-220 format.  It attaches to the 67II, the 645 NII and to a Pentax DSLR *istD that I own.  All that is needed is a simple adapter, and the images that I get from this assembly are outstanding whether it is a grand landscape or a macro shot of a flower.

 

I also added the Contax G2 to my kit, with its full series of lenses.  I use this 35mm camera for street shooting and travel photography when it is not practical to take my medium format gear.  The optics are terrific, and the automatic features of this range finder film camera are a joy to use, and it fits nicely into a fanny-pack, making it ideal for street and travel work. 

 

With the wonderful development of digital photography over the past several years I have kept pace.  I now digitize my chromes into digital files using a FleXtight Precision II drum scanner.  Then, using Adobe PhotoShop CS2, I process the files into final images and print them on an Epson R2400 for smaller format prints, or on an Epson 9800 printer for large format production.  I use a ColorVision spider for calibrating my monitor/printers, and Practical Fractals for transitioning my digital files for larger format printing.

 

A couple of years ago, when affordable DSLRs began to come on the market I purchased a Pentax *istD digital camera at 6.1 MP, with an 18mm-35mm wide angle zoom and 70-300mm telephoto zoom.  I selected this camera because it would accept the use of all of my medium format lenses when using a Pentax K-adaptor, so I didn't need to buy a lot of additional lenses for this unit.  It is a great little camera, and was for me a start of things to come.

 

As you have noticed, nearly all of my camera gear is Pentax.  I settled on Pentax because it is truly wonderful professional medium format equipment, has an interchangeable series of lenses that can be used by the 67II, the 645NII, and the *istD, and is durable for the kind of photography that I do.  I have damaged some gear from time to time and have found that the service that I get from Pentax in Colorado is timely and excellent.  Pentax gear is also “affordable” when compared to other medium format gear. 

 

But times change.  With the advent of more sophisticated digital cameras, and the need to have very high resolution sensors in these cameras in order to equal the quality of a final print afforded by traditional medium format film cameras, I have found it necessary to transfer from the Pentax system to Canon because Pentax has not kept up with the development of high resolution digital cameras [though they have published several times that they are working on a digital medium format DSLR.  I've waited two years for the Pentax medium format DSLR to arrive...and it hasn't].  So, I was foced to switch to a manufacturer that did provide such high resolution camers, and that company is Canon.  I am now using a Canon 5D, and have added a full range of outstanding EF lenses, including the 16-35mm WA zoom, the 24-105mm zoom, the 24mm TS, the 70-300mm tele-zoom, and the 400mm telephoto lense.  The result of this change now allows me to produce 13x19 images that are as good or better than what I was able to capture on 645 or 67 film systems.

 

I still have the Pentax systems, and use them from time to time.  I have not gone to the Canon D1s Mark II 16.8 MP camera yet because I am still hoping that Pentax [Pentax-Samsung] will finally come out with the DSLR 645 using the 18 [or 22? or 30?] mega pixel Kodak sensor.  I have a whole series of Pentax lenses that I can use with such a camera, but if it isn't produced by the Spring of 2007, I will migrate to Canon's highest resolution DSLR and say good by to Pentax for good [which saddens me].

 

So, that is where I'm at regarding my current gear.  ...but, as I've found in photography, there will always be the "next great thing", and I'm sure that will come along, and then I'll have to change with the times...again.

 

 

 

 

Powered by Alpine Internet Solutions