Shooting with old tech makes me feel confident that my vision is the driver, not the technology.
It's tempting to look outside yourself for your power but you'll feel like less of a photographic wimp if you don't depend on your gear for your sense of value.
In the end it's the image that matters, not how you got there.
Camera: Nasty old Kodak SLR/n. Lens: Ancient Nikon 70-200mm f4.5-5.6.
8 comments:
SLRn has a great sensor (no Bayer) as long as you don't push the ISO above 160 or so.
Ya got to ask yourself who's making the photographic decisions with newer digital cameras.. you or the folks who wrote the firmware?
- salty
That's no Bayer Filter.. Bryce Bayer lives on that sensor.
salty
I thought it was just me. My Canon F-1 is on it's third roll of film since Thanksgiving, while the A33 has since then...shots of stuff I'm selling on eBay. The family enjoyed passing pictures around at my Dad's recent birthday and my nephew saying loudly to his sister "Madeline what's with your hair?!"
Back in the 1980s I bought a Mamiya C330f and a couple of lenses for it. At some point I wasn't satisfied with the results I was getting. I figured I needed to upgrade to Hasselblad. Then I read an article on how to get the most out of your lenses. I followed the given advice and saw an immediate and substantial improvement in images I was getting. I never bought a Hasselblad - I instead spent my money on film and spent my time on going out on taking shots rather than worrying about my gear. I still have, and sometimes use, the Mamiya.
This post reminds us that making the effort to get the most out of our equipment, new or old, film or digital, is extremely important. And that is, ultimately, what leads to the results we seek.
Which article is that? I'm a young shooter, learned to shoot digital and have never shot film. Looking for a used Mamiya MF camera with the 80mm 2.8 lens. Big fan of Kirk's work and books.
Thanks!
As I recall it, the article was from a now-defunct magazine called Petersen's Photographic, and was published in the mid 1980s. I tended to shoot with my camera handheld, and my technique was often sloppy. The tips offered in the article were, I suppose, "no brainers" - things like:
- Use a tripod.
- Select apertures 2-3 stops slower than maximum aperture (middle apertures) for sharpest results.
- Carefully focus.
- Use hyperfocal distance for best depth-of-field results.
- Use a lens hood.
- Keep your lens clean.
These were tips from the film era, predating VR and IS systems, nano coatings, and hyper-narrow-depth-of-field bokeh obsessionism. They are still valid today, although I admit I rarely use a tripod these days.
An addendum to the above. Petersen's Photographic is not as defunct as I thought. It is now an online publication and printed quarterly called Photographic. Google "Petersen's Photographic" and you'll get links to the Photographic website.
Thanks for the info! I'd have to agree about the hyper-narrow-depth-of-field bokeh thing. I know a photographer who uses his 85 1.2L and Canon 5D mark II body purely as "bling" around his neck. Although his shots are not bad, he seems to target clients who care more about the 1.2's bokeh - forget about things like composition, background, proper focus, artistic quality and basic elements of a photo.
I'm ready to give film a try. Take a break from all the latest and greatest that digital has to offer.
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