R
Randy
Guest
I have been a pro photographer since 1973, recently I was asked by a youngster just entering the profession what were the best cameras and equipment I have used over the years, having used all formats from half frame 35mm (for social functions etc) to 10"x 8" sheet film cameras (for large group work) in my working life, that question took me a few minutes to ponder over, and the conclusion I came to will probably surprise many, not least of all myself.
For medium format cameras, my favourite will probably not come as too much of a surprise, it is the Hasselblad 500CM, a rugged workhorse that was optically superior to any other medium format camera on the market at that time, but in terms of image quality, i.e sharpness, contrast, etc. my best 35mm camera will dismay all Nikon/Canon/Leica etc enthusiasts, it is the Russian made Zorki 4K.
This camera was a copycat version of the Leica M3, which retailed in the 1970's for less than £20 brand new (at that time all Russian export cameras were heavily subsided by the communist government), it was a very basic rangefinder camera, it had no metering and the flash synch speed was 1/30 second, but the results it could achieve were superior in terms of image quality than both the Nikon F and Leica M4 that I owned at the time.
My favourite 35 mm SLR (as opposed to rangefinder), was not the Nikon, but a Pentax Spotmatic 11, technically there was no specific reason for this, I just liked it, and lenses were much cheaper (screw thread).
Although not used much nowdays, back in the 70's and 80's, when in camera metering was mainly centre weighted, and not always very accurate, an essential piece of kit for any photographer was an exposure meter, in my opinion, the very best was the Weston Master V, a pretty basic selenium cell meter (no batteries to worry about changing), but very accurate, I bought mine over 30 years ago and I still use it for weddings etc and it is as accurate then as when new. Another essential piece of kit was a flash, I can't quite make my mind up over this one, being a bit of a Luddite, I am not a fan of camera dedicated flash, I much prefer the flash to be independent of the camera so that I have control of how much or how little power I want to use, so my choice is either the Metz 45 series or the Sunpak 3600, both of these flashguns are of the hammerhead variety, have plenty of power and are extremely rugged and can take a lot of abuse. I am still using a Sunpak 3600 now (and it has been very heavily used) that I bought 20 or so years ago and it is still working fine.
Having worked with film for most of my working life, only switching over to digital less than ten years ago, I cannot really compare digital cameras, I mainly use Nikon D100's, which for me are fine, they do the job they are supposed to do and given that they are digital I cannot complain about the results (I still prefer 'real' photography though)
For medium format cameras, my favourite will probably not come as too much of a surprise, it is the Hasselblad 500CM, a rugged workhorse that was optically superior to any other medium format camera on the market at that time, but in terms of image quality, i.e sharpness, contrast, etc. my best 35mm camera will dismay all Nikon/Canon/Leica etc enthusiasts, it is the Russian made Zorki 4K.
This camera was a copycat version of the Leica M3, which retailed in the 1970's for less than £20 brand new (at that time all Russian export cameras were heavily subsided by the communist government), it was a very basic rangefinder camera, it had no metering and the flash synch speed was 1/30 second, but the results it could achieve were superior in terms of image quality than both the Nikon F and Leica M4 that I owned at the time.
My favourite 35 mm SLR (as opposed to rangefinder), was not the Nikon, but a Pentax Spotmatic 11, technically there was no specific reason for this, I just liked it, and lenses were much cheaper (screw thread).
Although not used much nowdays, back in the 70's and 80's, when in camera metering was mainly centre weighted, and not always very accurate, an essential piece of kit for any photographer was an exposure meter, in my opinion, the very best was the Weston Master V, a pretty basic selenium cell meter (no batteries to worry about changing), but very accurate, I bought mine over 30 years ago and I still use it for weddings etc and it is as accurate then as when new. Another essential piece of kit was a flash, I can't quite make my mind up over this one, being a bit of a Luddite, I am not a fan of camera dedicated flash, I much prefer the flash to be independent of the camera so that I have control of how much or how little power I want to use, so my choice is either the Metz 45 series or the Sunpak 3600, both of these flashguns are of the hammerhead variety, have plenty of power and are extremely rugged and can take a lot of abuse. I am still using a Sunpak 3600 now (and it has been very heavily used) that I bought 20 or so years ago and it is still working fine.
Having worked with film for most of my working life, only switching over to digital less than ten years ago, I cannot really compare digital cameras, I mainly use Nikon D100's, which for me are fine, they do the job they are supposed to do and given that they are digital I cannot complain about the results (I still prefer 'real' photography though)
still use mine regularly.
