Hardware and history

Most of my gear in the ‘80s. A Nikon F2, a Nikon F, motor drives, my original Nikkormat, lenses, a light meter, my Leica M4 and summicron 50, my Minox etc. Shot on my Linhof 9x12 cm View Camera.

There is that moment when you discover photography as something you can actually do yourself instead of something you only see in magazines, or the contemporary version, you have your phone, snap away and want to get more serious with ‘photography’, whatever that may be.

We have all been there or maybe you are at that moment in life right now. For whatever reason you discover a big want to have a camera. What’s next?

The first step will probably be an online inventory of how other people solved this issue.
And there begins the trouble.

Everyone, including me, can write down whatever we feel like saying, we can create any video with whatever opinion we like to vent, nobody will stop us or monitor our contribution to the world heritage of on-line opinions. And that is a good thing, in general.
But it also inevitably means that there is a lot of untruth and half truth or complete nonsense among these opinions and examples.

Anyway, here is my two cents worth of opinion and advice about the gear one could obtain in order to step into the adventurous journey named photography. I will include some why’s and why not’s to provide a whisker of a background to allow you to develop some idea of where all my thoughts originate from.

History

I like to put things in perspective and talk about what I know of things of yesteryear that might relate to our present abstraction of time. So here we go.

I started with photography when I was about 16 years old.
After some investigating, without internet -which did not exist at the time- I came to the conclusion that I had two options to get myself a camera:

1) Go relatively cheap and buy a camera from Eastern Europe, like a Zenith, a Zorki, a Pentacon or Praktica. At that time these where available in great numbers in Europe.

2) Go for a quality brand, I might end there anyway later when I would chose option 1), but this was much more expansive and would take more time to fulfill.

At that time I was not aware of things like second hand markets or other formats then 135. With my current knowledge I might make a different choice, more on that later.

I went for option 2) and selected the Nikon system as the mystical realm to obtain my photographic dream.
Of course it had to be the low-end option because I had no money and in those days that meant a Nikkormat FT3.
Body only, I had no money. But owning a real Nikon brand camera was so exciting that I wanted to get at least something as soon as possible. After a while I was able to buy a Nikon 2.0/50 mm lens. Wow.

In those days there was no such thing as the Internet or digital whatever, so owning a camera was only part of the story.
How to make my efforts visible? I had not much knowledge but found out about slide film offering a direct visible result of one’s photographic effort. There was also a family friend who was so very kind to give me a very basic slide projector. Now I could make picture and see the results.

To this day I remember the first roll of film I shot, the feeling of walking around and photographing the things I saw. It was on Agfachrome film.
I kept the results of this first effort for a long time and I have always been pleased with the results. There definitely was something there.

Not all slide film can withstand the years including this one, so I had to basically throw it all away at some point in time. I did try to recover what I could digitaly but the colours had deteriorated in a non-linear way and it was not possible to digitise these. Oh well. You cannot keep everything you gathered in time and that’s not a bad thing. Lighten the load. I did keep this Nikkormat though. It has seen a lot of use, been in a burning house and I used it for years as a backup body under camera unfriendly conditions. It does not function reliably anymore, but it stands on display right in front of me.

Ok, let’s move ahead.

I discovered black and white film through my grandfather who was a lifetime photo enthusiast and we developed our first film together. I will never forget the moment that the developed film came out of the tank, transparent images that I created .

Sometime later I went to a professional photography school because I had decided to become a real professional photographer.
Here I learned the craft in-depth, a very good and thorough technical education. Unfortunately only technical, the creative side of things was definitely underexposed at that institution, but I only realised that later. You can read a little about that period here.

Gear in those days

At photo school I used their view cameras and Hasselblads and professional lighting and what have you. We had to and I did not mind at all. It was Walhalla. I could try out lenses that I could not afford myself, experiment and learn-learn-learn. Some of the stuff I bought in those days, like my Linhof ball head, I still use today.

But of course I had to get my own camera’s and lenses and enlarger and 100 little things you need or think you need when starting a professional career. There was never much money so I made do by selling gear to finance other, much needed or wanted materiel, all second hand. A good learning period, I found out what makes sense and what is marketing blah blah, how different camera’s work and what combinations do not work.

Hasselblad, Linhof, Cambo, Mamiya, Canon, Nikon, Beam, Broncolor, Godard, Kodak, Rollei, Leica, Pentax, Liesegang, Gitzo, Manfrotto, just a few and I am sure I forgot a lot, I used them all, different types, lenses, 35mm, 120, 4”x 5”, you name it. And an extensive darkroom and we made slideshows with sound and multiple projectors etc. etc.

Enough about all that, suffice to say I learned a lot about ‘gear’ and what works for me and what does not.

Nowadays I work with the small analogue and digital Leica M system. I learned. Keep it simple, stupid.

Some general thoughts

I already expressed some ideas of mine in previous posts, I suggest you read those first, especially the article about Focus.

My basic philosophy on gear after all these years is this:

• Keep everything as simple as possible.

• Don’t buy anything unless you have a real and proven need for it. A potential new item will not expand your options just like that.

• Don’t sell what basic gear you have. You will always regret it.

• Glass is much more important than camera.

For me, that means

• I do not want to own more then one camera system.

• I do not change or add any camera body or lens unless really needed, never because a new model is available.

• I do not own more lenses then I use on a regular basis. No exotic models that are seldom used

You need to know your own system through and through. How does my lens behave, in all conditions, what can I expect. How does my camera work. Know every button and every option. You should be able to operate the basic functions like aperture, shutter speed and -on modern digitals- ISO with your eyes closed, in total darkness, without thinking.

You should never run the risk of pushing the wrong button, choosing the wrong option. Keep it simple, stupid.

Why?

Because I am a photographer. When making photographs, I need to be able to focus on my subject and the way I want to capture that subject. What do I want to expres with that photo. Every interruption of that process must be avoided. It is difficult enough as it is, my gear must be an extension of my hands without any need for attention.

Buying a new camera or lens every year or even worse, changing your whole system, will destroy that process. Owning different systems at the same time, same story.

Not a problem if that’s what makes your day, but then don’t aspire to be a photographer. You collect cameras and gear.

The details

Let’s get practical.

I talked about different view finders before in Focus. For me, theses differences are essential. NB, I will not discuss anything related to video or video options, this is about photography.

Mirrorless and (D)SLR

A mirrorless or a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera system is extremely versatile, a jack of all trades.
That makes it a good beginners choice.

But realise that it will not excel at anything except sports and wildlife photography.
These models are middle-of-the-road tools and can quickly become boring and uninspiring. Don’t make the mistake of replacing a boring camera with a newer version.

You will feel a need to expand or replace your system just because there are some other options or add-ons available. Be very carefull, that goes against my principle of a simple just-what-you-need system.

(D)SLR systems are not very well suited for photographing people or street scenes, what’s now called street photography but what I know as documentary photography. This has to do with the viewfinder and the way these system lenses are constructed nowadays, I will discuss that later when talking about Leica.

The latest technology is usually applied to these systems but that is not an advantage.
Realise that camera makers feel a need to beat the competition by introducing novelties as soon as possible, usually without thorough testing or without giving these new ideas the time to mature or prove themselves. As an example, at this moment we see a stupid race in megabit sensors. Nobody really needs them or knows how to use them with the exception of some dedicated specialists. All these megapixels make no sense at all for the average prosumer or professional. Not many have a need for prints of the size these megabit sensors are meant to produce. A big print will be viewed at a considerable distance to see the complete picture and at such a distance all small detail is lost to the human eye. Megapixels look good on a digital monitor. How large will your final photograph be? Will you use it on websites, blogs, facebook or instagram? Then you will not need megapixels.

The discussion of what is better, mirrorless or dslr makes not much sense either.
A mirrorless system will provide instant feedback in the viewfinder about the way your photograph will end up looking and that is nice, especially if you lack some experience. A really good optical viewfinder with a groundglass or equivalent, something like a Hasselblad with Acute-Mate groundglass or Pentax 6x7 with a BriteView will be a joy to work with but these can not be found new and shoot on film. The digital Leica S seems to be magic in that aspect.

The option to use ‘old-style’ glass on a mirrorless system is not much more then a gimmick. Nice to try for some experiments but in general not suited for serious picture taking.

I used my Leica lenses on a Fuji body for a while. But the camera must be operated in a very specific way with these, the lenses feel and function completely different compared to the Fuji lenses. It ruins my flow. Especially the M Elmarit 135 mm works wonders on the Fuji, but only for specific stand-alone pre-conceived shots or scenario’s.

What else

Let’s say that you are looking for a camera without al these functions that you hardly use, with fewer buttons and a simpel menu. The less-is-more approach. Keep it simple…
Lets’s assume you know by now what type of photography suits you and what you need from a camera, and especially what you don’t need.

You want a more essential approach to photography, just the basics. You have enough experience and knowledge to do your own exposure bracketing, you don’t use these rediculous burst rates because you can decide when to click the shutter for yourself. Maybe you dare to use manual focus. Or you can do without an auto exposure option and don’t need multi-matrix light metering.

Don’t worry, some very different options are available. But when you already know that much about photography I think you know about these options as well. Never the less, here we go:

Fil versus digital

Unfortunately the Japanese dictate the digital market and create mainly very complicated, menu driven camera’s. They like to put every option or gimmick they can think of inside which results in cameras that are a Jack of all trades but master of none.
I don’t doubt their quality but this is not what I am aiming for.

You don’t have to work with digital systems. Film has been around for decades and has a proven record of excellency. Film cameras can be bought second hand and new for less money than a digital system will cost. Film can be integrated in a digital workflow but it is a different medium with the need for a different skill set. If you started with digital there will be a lot to learn, digital knowledge can not be applied to film.

Do realise that digital photography does not cost much per-click. Film has to be bought and used, you pay for every click of the shutter.
When using film you must choose if you want to get yourself a dark room and make your own prints, let someone else do the silver printing or go for a digital workflow that includes your negatives. See some of my other posts for some pointers on that. Film may cost some money per shutter click, but you will take a lot of images on film before you have spent the amount of money you would need for a full digital camera system.

‘Your 10.000 first pictures are your worst’ (HCB). You will have learned a few things by then. In other words, you can buy some nice analogue film gear and make plenty of pictures for that money not spent on digital equipment.
Any film format gives results that can compete with today’s digital camera, very good indeed.

Colour and black and white

When discussing anything film, please be aware that the combination film + colour is a complicated one. Do your research, results will vary and it is a different process and skill then needed for digital colour photography.

Black and White film is unsurpassed and if handled with skill results will be better then any digital option available.

There is a big difference between 120 and 35mm film. There is a reason why pro photographers used mainly 120 film.
Grain will be visible on almost all 35mm film types unless you go for very low ISO options and develop accordingly. If you like to work with high ISO settings then film might not be for you. But grain is also a very important visual feature of 35mm and 120 film photography. To get an idea, have a look at my film black and white series in my Portfolio.

Mobility

If you want a more mobile system that meets our simplicity criteria you will end up with analogue camera’s from yesteryear or with a digital Leica system.

All known and some unknown brands of 35mm film cameras are ‘simple’ compared to most of today’s cameras, just select the mechanical ones and steer away from the automated elektronic versions.
Nikon F4, F3, F2, FM, Canon F1, older Minolta cameras all fit the bill. So does Leica, but I prefer to discuss those in a separate article.