25 pounds to 20 ounces

January 21, 2009

Sunday I took over 25 pounds of SLR  bodies and lenses down to Adorama in NYC and converted it (along with a fat stack of cash on my part) into a Voightlander Bessa R3A with the Nokton 40mm f/1.4 lens.   A huge amount of shelf space is now reduced to something that’s not much bigger than a couple of blackberries duct taped together with an espresso cup glued on the front.

Rather than delve into the specific reasons behind choosing the Bessa rangefinder I’d like to talk about the differences I’ve found between buying digital equipment and film equipment.   This is written for people like myself who started out using digital cameras but were curious about that film thing they keep hearing so much about.

Buying digital requires a simple strategy.   Get all the money you have and go buy the most expensive body you can afford.  $$ = quality.  Keep in mind that you’re looking at buying a sensor more than a camera.  The camera just lets you use the sensor more effectively but your image quality is going to depend entirely on that sensor (yes, lenses are a big deal but a great lens on a sensor that’s crap in low light will not reduce noise).    There are other concerns but when it comes down to it, a camera is a light tight box with a hole on one end and light sensitive material on the other.   For a digital camera that light sensitive material cannot be replaced so you’re stuck with it.  Get a good one.

My suggestion for getting into film takes the opposite tactic, start cheap and move up as necessary.

There are three factors encouraging you to start out cheap:

1) Digital broke the back of the film market so its all used equipment and its dirt cheap for the most part.

2) Film photography has evolved over the past 100 years so there’s been a great deal of both innovation and specialization.

3) Your image sensitive material is identical between cameras.  Film is film is film.   So your investment in image quality is all about your glass and that difference can be more about build quality and speed than a sharpness you’ll notice on an 8×10.

You can get exactly what you want and you can get it cheap.

The primary advantage that film equipment holds over digital is its wide variety of formats and shooting experiences.   The majority of digital cameras fall into one of two camps, the SLR and the compact.  There are some medium and large format backs but they’re ASTRONOMICALLY expensive for the non-professional.   Film on the other hand offers 3 major categories of camera based on film format.  35mm, medium format (roll film), and large format.   35mm is primarily covered by SLR and rangefinder cameras and large format primarily use view cameras in a variety of film sizes (4×5 and 8×10 being the most common).   Medium format is the most flexible format as it uses a roll of film with a standard width but each camera determines what the frame size is (most commonly 6×4.5, 6×6, and 6×7).

In addition to different film sizes you have a wide variety of types of cameras available.   These range from your traditional SLR’s to rangefinders to folders to Twin Lens Reflexes to component based cameras like the Hasselblad to view cameras and then there’s the wonderful world of lomography.    You can also build your own camera like the time honored Quaker Oats pinhole camera. Susan Burnstine makes her own cameras and produces absolutely enchanting images.

The number of options for getting into film photography are absolutely stunning.   The good news is that with a few exceptions film equipment is dirt cheap on the used market so the ability to experiment with a variety of formats and equipment types is relatively inexpensive.    Chances are you can simply ask your parents or a friend if they have an old beater that’s sitting in their closet which reduces your entry costs to zero.

For the $1350 it would cost to purchase a Canon 50D with a 50mm f/1.8 lens you could easily purchase:

• Canonet QL17 (rangefinder)
• Canon AE-1 with 50mm f/1.4 lens (SLR)
• Yashica 124G (6×6 TLR)
• Minox GT 35  (Miniature 35mm)
• Bronica SQ-A outfit (6×6 component based medium format)
• Holga or Diana (or both!)

And have enough for a box or two of film left over.

I suggest this array of equipment as it covers the bases for the most commonly available systems for film photography.   Its complete overkill for a single purchase but it shows how cheap and easy it is to experiment with a variety of formats.   These cameras aren’t crap (except for the holga, but that’s a special kind of crap) either.  The lenses are usually very sharp and these are generally reliable cameras if they’ve been well maintained.   Exploring each of these options (buying new lenses, accessories, upgrading to a more expensive model) will require more substantial investments but getting your foot in the door and seeing how a particular setup works for you is quite reasonable compared to the cost of a single mid-range digital SLR.

If you’re going to shoot film, shoot something that matches your style and your needs.  Street photographers are likely to favor rangefinders and compact TLR’s due to their discrete nature.  Portrait photographers are going to gravitate towards the monsterous Mamiya RB67 for a larger negative and high reliability due to mechanical simplicity.  Landscape photographers will want the big negative medium format offers but have to worry about weight and may pick a Hasselblad.  Sports photographers may opt for a modern Nikon F4 or F5 for metering and compatability with autofocus lenses.

Even among medium format systems like the Hasselblad, Mamiya, and Bronica the difference between 6×4.5, 6×6, and 6×7 is significant due to changes in composition depending on the format of each frame.

Experiment.  Find what you like on the used market.  Sell the rest.  Buy more of what you need.   Put off a serious investment in a high end system until you’re certain that’s what you want.   More expensive systems do give you more options and do have an edge on quality but its not the difference between a little point and shoot canon and the 5D Mark II.  After all, every roll of Tri-X is exactly the same so the potential to capture light is exactly the same.

Posted in Product Review, Technique