I was an early adopter of digital cameras. They made life easy and better as a 20-something traveling engineer, parent, mountaineer, and cyclist. The old CF cards littered my desk and luggage. I still have like 8 digital cameras from 2001 (Canon 2.1mp Ixus) and onward. They are mostly point & shoot or small travel handhelds. I still shoot digital with a Canon – EOS R6 and a Canon Rebel T7 that I blog and shoot YouTube content with. You will come to see that I am a Canon nerd, tried and true, but that is only trivia as it pertains to this post…
In the vain of transparency and honesty, I take a lot of pictures and video with my phone as well. I mean a LOT! There may be 10,000 photos on my current iPhone. 98% of my social media images have been shot with an iPhone.
However, when I want to take pictures outside of people or cars or architecture – pictures that I want to be either iconic for family, or have just a little more gravitas to them, I shoot them on film. 35mm and 120 Medium Format is my go to. I will take color pictures, especially with slide film, but mostly I shoot in B&W.
I don’t have a closet full of random cameras and I don’t trade cameras or lenses constantly. I have been mostly methodical in my choices of gear, gotten to know it, and tried not to introduce a bunch of extra stuff or gimmicky accessories to my general and simple set ups. I feel that by doing so, I can concentrate on the shot or subject instead for fiddling with the gear.
So, here is what I shoot with:
After years of looking and waiting for a unicorn and after shooting thousands of pictures with a very old/crusty Canon AE-1 (more about that later), I found my dream 35mm for a fair price at a shop in Kamakura, Japan – just south of Tokyo. It is a Canon F1n from 1983 that is in perfect shape and takes stunning pictures even when I try and screw them up.
My favorite medium format camera is a Rolleiflex 3.5a or Automat MX from 1951. It is one of my tangible loves. True Rollei connoisseurs want a model 3.5F or if they have deep enough pockets a late model 2.8F. Now, I wouldn’t say no to either of them if they show up at my house, but my Automat is a fine camera that was in my budget range in 2006 and is in perfect working order. I have been lucky enough to have composed some very memorable photos with it – some hang on my wall at home, on friend’s walls, and even a couple are on public display. I had the screen replaced by Bill Maxwell and recently a full CLA and rework by Harry Fleenor, the current guru of all things Rollei. The work was not cheap, but it is a lifetime camera for me. If all of my other cameras went away, my Rollei is the one that I would want to keep/run into a fire for. I hope to take my last picture with it and that one of my children uses is for decades after I don’t need it anymore.
Someday, when I am long-dead, and when there is a retrospective of my life, craft, criminality, art, madness, I hope that there is a display of pictures that were originally taken on film with this camera.
My “studio” medium format portrait camera is a Pentax 6×7 that is a BEAST. I only ever shoot with it sitting on a tripod. I have a lighting set up, shutter speed, and lens combo that is dialed in for Black & White face and sitting portraits in my shop. I also have a setup that is sort of mostly worked out for using it set up in the field – like taking it to VW meets or for posed pictures of family and friends “en plein air”
I got the Pentax and all the lens for a screaming deal from a local shop. I never get great deals and usually pay full retail, but I am proud of this snag. I wasn’t even shopping for a new camera, but couldn’t pass this one up! The image quality is outstanding and I would say that it rivals my Hasselblad – seriously I will stand by that statement. I have a 200mm Zoom lens, a 135mm, 105mm, and the 75mm is what gets the most use. As far as accessories, I have a few filters (red and amber only ones really used) and a 3D printed right body grip. I WANT the wooden left body grip, but they are pricy ($175ish)! It is a want and not a need, so I will do without unless I find one cheap at some point.
Then there is my Hasselblad 500C/M… It is the Mercedes Benz of medium format cameras. I wanted it years and it takes amazing pictures. Amazing. I splurged during the last days of Velvia slide film availability and actually bought it is a camera shop in Hamburg, DE in 2008. After using it constantly for two years, I sold it to a photographer friend when we left Germany and actually bought it back from him a couple years later for half because he just never used it and needed some cash. I like it that much. I wish I used it more. It is just SO heavy – between the Rollei and the Pentax. Because of the heft, I just don’t pull it out as much as I would like.
My set up only includes 2 lenses: the Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 and the Zeiss 50mm f/4. I would LOVE a 250 zoom lens, but I would also love to be 6’2″ and have a body Fat percentage hovering at around 5%… It is a crazy expensive lens for a hobbyist whos Hasselblad looks pretty on a shelf. of all my film cameras, this is my “Shelf Queen.”
There are a few other cameras that I shoot with and love to use: The Olympus Pen-FT Half Frame that gives a lot of bang for the buck in relation to film cost savings and is fun to use for artsy diptych portraits and architectural stuff. I have 4 different cool lenses for it as well.
Then, there in my Father’s Zeiss Ikon Contina 1a that he bought at an Airforce Base Exchange in Italy in 1954 and that he used for 20 years before it went into a shoe box. I remember seeing it here and there and it even sat on his desk as a memento for a few year (next to the cigar box). It was packed away again at some point in the late 1980’s for me to find many years later and after his passing. After a decade of it holding down a bookshelf in various houses, I had it CLA’ed and sourced a new leather case for it as the original had turned to dust. Because of the lens configuration, it shoots pictures that are VERY 1950s – Fun to run a roll of Provia 100F (I sure do miss good old Kodachrome!) through and I keep it in my backpack/laptop bag to pull out here and there.
Lastly, there are four (!) old and really battered Canon AE1s, the camera that I learned to shoot film on. People just keep giving them to me. Only 1 is presentable (my original) in public and the other three are the aesthetic equivalent of Quasimodo and one has the battery door permanently glued shut. However, all are solid cameras and I have all the lenses, flashes, and filters for them one would every want. They don’t see much action anymore, but with an eBay price hovering between $30-$60, I will hang onto them.
Some of my Medium Format shots that mean something to me.
Film at the lowest ASA (ISO) speeds is getting hard to come by, as is film in general, but Film Photography Project and Glassers, among others, are good sources for specialized film stock. I can still find Fujifilm Velvia50 here and there, but slide film is as scarce as a snake in heaven. I shop locally whenever possible, more than anything to keep some resources local. In Eugene, I shop at Dot Dotsons and The Shutterbug, the former being my favorite. When we lived in Seattle, I used Glazer’s and Ken’s Camera. When in Portland, I go to Advance Camera, who also get the lions-share of my cleaning and repair work. Quality work and they stand behind their warranty.
I am a firm believer in Peak Designs straps and accessories. I have their little buttons on every camera, but the Pentax 6×7 and the Hasselblad. I also have Peak Design Quick deploy strap clip. love it for my F1 and the Half Frame. I also use a Voigtlander external light meter. I don’t trust the ones in my 35+ year old cameras 🙂
I will continue to use film as long as it is offered. I am a hobbyist, at best. I will never make a living with a camera in my hand, so I can afford to be as anachronistic as my little heart desires.