What kind of camera(s) do you use for your lighting-pictures?

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Topic: What kind of camera(s) do you use for your lighting-pictures? (Read 11959 times)

Mandolin Girl
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Quote from: Max on April 17, 2023, 12:51:25 PM

Nice! Now let's see pictures taken with it

Here you are Max...

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FrontSideBus
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Digital:
Main camera that I use is a Canon EOS 5DMk4. Had it years and it is a solid bit of kit.
Had dozens of lens' over the years, most of which I have sold but have settled on the following:
EF 50mm f1.4
EF 180mm Macro L
EF 24-105mm f4 L
EF 100-400mm L Mk2

"Walkabout" camera is a Fujifilm X100V which is a 23mm f2 fixed lens compact with an APS-C sensor which gives a 35mm equivalent focal length.

Film:
Main one that gets most use is Canon EOS1N (all the above lens' work with it).
Normally use either Kodak Ektar 100 or Portra 400 depending on lighting but the best film IMO, is Fuji Velvia 50 or 100. Takes skill to use but the results can be staggering.

I also have Hasselblad 500EL/M with Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 lens and a PME45 metered prism viewfinder which comes out to play sometimes.
That thing gives your wrist a good workout, not just from that really precise long throw focus ring, but the sheer weight of the thing!

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Mandolin Girl
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This was the model of camera I started out with. I did get a couple of zoom lenses and a wide angle one to go with it.

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BGPATTERSON403
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The camera on my Samsung s9

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RRK
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Roman

@FSB - You definitely need to give Portra 400 a go for night lighting scenes and lamp portraits. As it still has phenomenal exposure latitude, and also clips gracefully on highlights, unlike semiconductor sensors, even modern ones. In 24x36 it is grainy, but gorgeous in medium format (I did it in Fuji GW690 at 6x9

Today a bit of $$$ experience unfortunately, and it has become hard to find a lab that does not ruin the film even for a simple C41 development...

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Rommie
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Andromeda Ascendant

When I still used 35mm regularly, I mainly used the C6 slide process. You could get kits of the required chemicals to do it at home, I had excellent results just using the bathroom sink. Wonder if you can still get the developing stuff these days..?

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joseph_125
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I've seen the stuff (dev tanks, chemicals, dark bags, paper, etc) for sale at a few specialist photography retailers in my area. I'd always thought it would be interesting to give it a go, perhaps with something easier such as B/W but there's a big upfront cost in getting all the stuff.

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Rommie
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Andromeda Ascendant

I've seen the kits of stuff (tank, dark bag, etc.) on eBay, but the C6 chemicals seem to be hard to find. We don't really have any specialist photographic dealers around here any more, unfortunately.

I preferred the C6 slide process as for colour it was by far the easiest and didn't require a darkroom with an enlarger. Nowadays it's easy to scan slides into a computer for printing, so for us, with limited space, it would be the preferred option.

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joseph_125
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The shops here seem to sell chemicals for slide film in kits, which I suppose makes it easier for first time DIYers to do. Too bad they don't exist in your area. The remaining ones here typically cater to a mix of professional and hobbyist photographers and also sell digital equipment too.

I think most labs do the scan and print process now for 35mm prints, finding one that does proper 35mm optically enlarged prints seem to be a rarity. I picked up a rather cheap 35mm scanner from a thrift store. It was only a few dollars and seems to give ok results for non critical use, colours are a bit off compared to the lab scans though.

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Mandolin Girl
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@ Joseph:

Lab scans eh.? Those pooches are getting clever...

I'll get me coat...

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RRK
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Roman

The problem with DIY color development is mainly economical. Commercial C41 and E6 chemicals kits are created for large scale machine development with constant replenishment and are impossible / or too expensive to do a single-shot development for just a few rolls. And prepared solutions and even open bottles do not store well. Alternative small hobbyist kits are sometimes available, but often cut some corners with reduced bath count so the quality may be somewhat compromised. And still the price is quite steep. And yet the chance to screw up your own valuable work is high, even if it was from just one outing to a night city. So bottom line is still to find a trusted lab that does not screw up.

Things are lot more easier for black-and-white work. If you absolutely wand to do DIY color, people found out that relatively cheap sous-vide machines with a water bath could be a reasonable substitute to expensive 38C thermostat needed for color development.

Also to pull all that great dynamic range from Portra you need to do your own scanning/adjustment in Photoshop which is extremely time-consuming and requires a lot of experience. But the end result is superb.

« Last Edit: May 09, 2023, 08:17:15 PM by RRK »

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Rommie
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Andromeda Ascendant

I liked doing E6 processing myself, it gave me a sense of achievement, I think that's why a lot of people do a lot of things, it's not all about quality, it's that you did it yourself.

I had perfectly acceptable results doing it in the bathroom sink. It might not have been as good as a professional lab could have done it, but that wasn't the point.

« Last Edit: May 10, 2023, 12:06:15 PM by Rommie »

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joseph_125
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Yeah, I think economics is why most people don't process C41 and E6 by themselves, especially hobbyists who only shoot small amounts of film. The lab I use charges a fairly good price for a basic develop and scan too.

I don't know how much of their stuff is available in your area, but over here there's a company called CineStill that has C41 and E6 chemical kits in hobbyist quantities.

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RRK
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Roman

For serious lamp (and overall general) photography I used Fuji S3 pro and Nikon D700 DSLRs. My favorite lens is Nikon 35-70/2.8 AF-D. Fuji has a unique double pixel matrix, with different sensitivity, not unlike multi-layer color film and thus can capture highlights in a film-like manner with graceful overload. Of course it is slow today and noisy at low light. Also, now forced to use a built-in camera in Google Nexus 5 phone, which captures okay images when there is enough light, and is good for macro. ND1000 filter is a must for bright things like arc portraits.

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Mandolin Girl
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Hmm, I'll have to get one of those filters.

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