Equipment

Introduction

I am reluctant to write this page because I worry about people who worry about gear! I have even read of a few bemused artists whose clients assume that they could create as great an image as theirs if only they had the same equipment. Put it this way - I could go and buy the best cooking utensils in the world and still not be able to cook! Your camera is just a tool. But if you're interested then here's the story so far: -

In the beginning

Aged not many, my first camera was a Kodak A1 which used 110 film, a freebie that came following the collection of many Weetabix tokens! It had a huge blue shutter release button and I took 100’s of pictures of our young family and pets with it. It was far better than my dad’s medium format camera which I couldn’t even lift and which showed everything as back-to-front in its viewfinder. My first ‘real’ camera, a 35mm SLR, was a Practica LTL3. I guess I was about age 10. I spent longer playing games with its swing-needle metering system than I did actually taking photos. My most hi-tech 35mm SLR was a Canon EOS100 which was quiet and really great to use. It's life ended in Morocco in 1998 following a very foolish leap from my not-so-well-closed rucksack!

Moving on up

I replaced the EOS100 with a Pentax MZ5 and a single fixed 28mm lens. A single lens allowed me to concentrate my efforts and technique on what I could shoot, and happily walk away from what I couldn’t (this may frustrate some, but it has worked for me). The camera was compact & lightweight, had few controls, and did exactly as it was told. I didn’t miss having a zoom lens, started using a quality Fuji slide film, bought a tripod and polariser, and started to believe that I had the ultimate camera system. Slide shows felt far more impressive than paper photo albums, but before long I began to wonder just what quality improvement medium-format projection could offer over 35mm. Whilst everyone else was moving forwards by jumping on the digital bandwagon, I was considering stepping back ten years and buying some antiques! And then I saw it…

Blown away

If you have never seen a medium format slide projected then you are missing out. It blows you away. It’s like looking out of a window. It’s as close as you can get to being outside whilst in reality you are just at home on your sofa on a miserable winter’s evening staring at a big screen. OK, I exaggerate slightly, but IMHO digital just cannot do this yet. I quite enjoy working with a square image format too – it seems to add so much more depth to a landscape image. I use two Rollei P66s projectors with quality Schneider AV-Xenotar lenses.

In the bag - Analogue

My current camera is a Mamiya 6 with a 50mm lens. This camera produces 6x6cm images on 120 film. It’s simple to use, offers almost no automation, and is smaller and lighter than a pro-body digital SLR. People think that because it has such a primitive metering system that exposure accuracy must be all over the place. It isn’t. Most of the time it is pretty good, and you soon learn when it’s time to step in and compensate. Apart from the camera and single lens I tend to carry just a couple of filters, a hotshoe spirit level, cable release, cleaning tissues, and a lightweight tripod with me on my travels. I have become so dependant on the spirit level that everything is wonky without it!

In the bag - Digital

Digital is incredible, and I’m very impressed with the quality of prints that I've made from my current DSLR (Olympus E410) and compact (an old Canon Powershot A540). I have taken shots with these cameras that I couldn't have achieved with my medium format gear. This is especially true of the compact camera, primarily because it has been close at hand/in my pocket. I am often tempted to go 100% digital but then am reminded why I don't when I see my film projected. I also quite like the analogue workflow. I sit in front of a computer all day at work and have little desire to do the same at home. If I shoot film on the fells I get home, post it, wait for its return, mount it, project it. The end. No PC, no messing in Photoshop, just free time to drink beer and plan my next adventure!

What now?

Maybe you'd like to hear more about my digital workflow, my darkroom experiences, about me making contact prints in my bedroom under a desklamp, about seeing my first 20-inch print slowly come to life under the glow of a safelight made from a Nescafe tin, about my dad’s ingenious mini-printing machine constructed from washing machine and record player parts, or about his room-sized home-made vacuum-cleaner-powered camera that is still in use today. Please get in touch and let me know :-)