charles_ryan_barber

<p>Thank you so much, everybody! I appreciate everyone's advice greatly. Alexander O, that guide was especially helpful. I have decided to hold off on buying a medium format digital back, at least, and instead putting the money toward a Nikon D600 or D800E or so. But I won't sweat the lenses quite so much this time around. Instead, I'll be preparing and looking forward to about 5 years or so from now, hopefully finding a MF digital back from today affordable at that point. In the meantime I will start renting MF for big shoots and get to know the gear more. Possibly I will even buy a body and some lenses and do some film shoots while I wait for a suitable back to be in my range. (Or just try to make more money so I can spend $$,000.00 haha) I can see that I'll always need a DSLR system for a backup, at least, so I'll be smart and invest in that first. Thanks again!</p> <p>Charles-Ryan</p>

<p>Oh wow, those look amazing! I want to try to get my hands on them in person to try them out. I will try to find a place that rents this stuff and use them on my upcoming shoots. Thank you!</p>

<p>Hi there! I am a professional photographer in Los Angeles. Recently I had an accident where basically all of my equipment was destroyed and thus I get a rare if unfortunate opportunity to start completely fresh. For the last 6 years or so I had been shooting with old 80's era manual focus Nikon lenses on a full-frame digital Canon body using adapters, but had long suspected that Medium Format might be more my style. I don't have much money to spend, but I am hoping that I can gather up enough to buy an old used digital back and save a lot by pairing it with a much older film camera/lenses. I have read other posts on this forum and others looking for info, and I realize that "which camera should I buy" questions are discouraged-- but as I have a bit of a unique situation I thought I should post my own question to you guys. I'll take no offense if it gets taken down, but please hear me out. Here's what I am looking for:</p> <p>I have zero interest in autofocus. In fact, I prefer not to even have the capability in the body and especially the lenses. The more rugged and "dumber" the lenses and camera, the better. I don't need or want auto-anything, for that matter. I went to school and I know my stuff. I don't need metering or TTL or any of that. I use "dumb" wireless remote triggers and various strobes. I'm okay with not having 2nd curtain sync but being able to use leaf shutters in the lenses would be nice I bet. I don't care about frame rate. I would love to find a body & lenses from the 50's, 60's, 70's or so that would still accept a digital back.</p> <p>On the flip side, I do want the highest quality digital sensor I can afford. I realize that on a reasonable budget this probably doesn't include anything made in the last 10 years or so, but still. My photographic philosophy is to pair the beautiful, simple, timeless manual lens look with the digital sensor technology of today for a "best of both worlds" result.</p> <p>I need something that doesn't require me to be tethered to shoot. I ride a motorcycle and prefer to travel light. I can get creative and fit quite a bit on the bike, but still, I draw the line at having to bring my laptop too. Also I'd have to adapt from Firewire to Thunderbolt (it's a new Mac) so it wouldn't provide power to the camera anyway, if I understand correctly. This will be used almost exclusively in the field, not the studio, so weather-sealing is also a plus, though not strictly required if i can get away with using an umbrella and taking extra care.</p> <p>I'll want to upgrade the digital back down the line, of course, but I would like to have a body and lenses that I could ideally use indefinitely. I'm prepared to "marry into a family" as my professor used to put it, and so choosing that family carefully in advance is important. I'm leaning toward Hasselblad currently but I would love advice on this. Maybe PhaseOne backs? I am worried that the newer digital backs don't seem to want to work with anything that isn't autofocus-- is that correct? Unfortunate if so.</p> <p>I think that's about it for now. You can see my work & info on my website: www.charlesryanbarber.com. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!</p>