The very, VERY best and finest STUFF!

More than any other art form or image-making discipline, photography seems

to be about STUFF. Now, I don't mean to suggest that the NON-stuff aspect of

photography isn't equally important, isn't WAY MORE important. But kit, gear,

equipment, junk, s**t, carry-on, check-in, special-delivery I've-got-to-have-it-

by-tomorrow STUFF occupies a particularly hallowed spot in our chosen field.

The name of the predecessor to this forum paid homage to that idea:

rec.photo.large-format.EQUIPMENT. With the immediate proximity of

Christmas, and the delivery today of a certain item (***see below), I thought it

would be interesting to ask the group: what single piece of STUFF

encompasses the promise of photography most keenly to you? What's the

single thing that, even if you've owned it for twenty years, just seeing it under

the tree again on Christmas day would get that old heart racing after all these

years? Now, I don't of course mean to suggest simply NEW stuff, or

EXPENSIVE stuff. It could be that old lenscap that Pappy peeled off his

rangefinder with his dying hand and thrust into your pocket with his last

breath...

 

Well, for me....it seems I got this delivery today from Ilford, a box of 12X20

film...I think there's nothing that quite speaks to the promise of photography

like film. Every image that's ever been shot, or ever will be, anything that the

human eye has ever seen, absolutely anything could wind up on that simple

blank sheet. And talk about a rara avis! People hike thru the Amazon jungle

for days to sneak a single peak at a rare bird. But you'll never catch even a

moment's glimpse of a sheet of unexposed film. By the time the first photon

hits your eye, that bird has flown! And of course, film is the Platonic ideal of

photography: no print will ever quite match the detail and tonal range of the

negative. It's where the miracle of "writing with light" really happens! And the

promise of all that real estate: a sheet of 12X20 is the equivalent of 159

thumb-size divots of 35 mm midgetry. Having 25 sheets is like being

commissioned to paint a mural on the wall of the White House; as if it were

you, the Sistine Chapel, and a can of paint. Just do the math! (I'm sure I can't:

rather a nice bottle of Chardonnay with dinner tonight...)

 

Anyway, don't let ME influence your choice! What's the finest, sweetest piece

of photographic stuff to you? Lens? Camera? Tripod? Lightmeter? What are

they going to have to bury you with?

And, of course, WHY?

They're going to have to bury me with my leica M6, 35mm lens firmly attached!

Oh? Now you want to why? Well, that Leica sees things! I carry it around with me and it lets me know when something will look good on film. Never happens when I have my 4x5 or 8x10. They just sit there, inert, waiting for me to do something, but that Leica kicks up a fuss and everytime, sure enough, there is something worth making an image of.

Leica w/noct or DR 50mm, Rollie tlr, Brooks veriwide , Linhof 2x3, 12x20 w Ries. Any Leica enlarger or unusual lens. But I'm getting cremated, so my cameras will continue to live without me.Couldn't bear to see them go up in smoke, even from the other side!

Hmmm and where does one pick up one of these haunted Leicas? I want one. ;-)

Ed, you have to buy them,(Leicas) only on the full moon!

Film! I agree! BW large format film!

In a simple boring box, not covered with advertising slogans comes the potential of new images, discoveries and expressions.

It could be called a magic box!

Ok I'll tell Santa to bring you guys film and with the money he'll save, me a new Ebony. ;-)

ground glass

I'd like several 250 sheet boxes of 11x14 Portriga Rapid (#1,2,&3) still frozen where it's been since new. Other than that, I guess the only camera that still gives me priaprism is my IIIf/RD/ST Leica with f:3.5/50mm Elmar (in its red clamshell box). Uh-uhhh....!

I really miss my old Rollei TLR with the f2.8 Schneider Xenotar lens. Would love to take it out for a spin again. Sold it twenty-two years ago. Made the down payment on a Schneider 210 lens for my Calumet with the money from the sale.

Well, I've kept my Rollei TLR all these years--an f/3.5 Xenotar. It sat in my camera locker for decades unused, but a little less than a year ago I got myself an Epson 2450 scanner and suddenly had the possibility of making medium and large format prints again, so I had it CLA'd, and even as I type this, a new image is forming from the scanner in my editing program (Picture Window Pro). I learned on it beginning in 1958 when it was given to me for Christmas.

 

Then there's my Leica M3 (which needs repair)--like the fellow above, when I picked that up I began to see things in a new way (which is part of why the Rollei was exiled to the closet).

 

Then there was about a 20 year hiatus from photography.

 

Then I found a used Nikon F2 for a price I couldn't pass up. Bringing that monster to my eye again refreshed my vision and the hiatus was over.

 

Then last year I sprang for my Shen Hao field camera. Once again, a whole new way of seeing (upside down and backwards).

 

I guess I've cheated and listed more than one thing. Perhaps it has been one thing per era.

Actually if it were a single thing, it would be the 12x20 Wisner lightweight I ordered come early. Not much chance for that though!

Or better yet a long conversation with my father on photography. A subject I never got a chance to speak with him about since his passing a long time ago.

i agree with you nathan. when i use a sheet of 20x24 inch hp5 in my camera

i believe gold has less value and i am blessed with the chance to make something

beautiful happen with every sheet.

i really love the challenge of ultra large format photography.

Nathan, I had to give this a lot of thought---at first I just wanted to blurt out: Deardorff! But now that I've had some time to think about it, I think it would be this: I've bought very few brand new things for my kit---cable releases, a Silvestri loupe, mainly little things. When those new things start to look like old things, looking like stuff thats been used, I guess "salty" is the term I'm looking for, I think those things will be among the very best of my stuff.----Cheers!

Two things:

 

1) The last Leica outfit I sold ( Now 4 of them -- Damn!!!)

 

 

2) My first successful Pt/Pd print; a portrtait of my daughter that will long outlive her and HER grandchildren.

 

 

But seriously folks, the MOST loved item is the little nut driver I havee to keep to tighten the nuts on the leg clamps on my Manfrotto tripod.

 

Cheers

Hi Nathan

 

It changes very fast in my mind! But these days it is a Schneider XL 47mm wich made a picture possible (wich I had in mind for a long time) but was not possible with the wonderfull Rodenstock 55mm and now I get it!!

And now the only wish for me would be the Master Technika 2000!

But first I have to make the money for it!

"what single piece of STUFF encompasses the promise of photography most keenly to you?"

 

Box of film and box of printing paper.

Isn't this the LARGE FORMAT forum?<br>Then what's all this talk about that crappy little invention of Oskar Barnack's? Burying's about all those toys are good for anyway!

I would never want to be buried with any of my equipment. First of all, it's the photographer, not the equipment, that makes a great photograph. Also, it would be a terrible waste and inhumane to boot.

 

A brief aside: A friend of mine recently gave me (not sold - gave) his Rolleiflex 3.5f with the planar lens because he knew I would use it, rather than let it sit on a shelf as it had for the past 20 years. He was right, by the way, I do use it even though I also have a 4x5 camera and 2 Canon bodies that I keep pretty busy.

 

Cameras are for taking pictures. They were not meant to be collected, sealed in plastic or in their original boxes, kept until they appreciate in value, or admired as items in a curio cabinet. No camera could be happy living a life like that. They want to be with you, in the studio or in the field, a boon companion hanging by a strap around your neck or royally seated on the throne of your favorite tripod, with their clear glass eyes open to the world, looking for the next great image to impregnate the virgin sheet of film with their photon seed. (author stops to wipe a tear from his eye at the beauty of that particular metaphor) And, when you're gone, they will miss you. But their sorrow will be brief if they are passed on to another photographer who will cherish their light-tight bodies and clear lenses and, above all, use them for their intended purpose rather than imprisonimg them in a closet, or a box, or a display case. Or a casket.

Emile de Leon's second contribution is by far the best comment to date. That kind of conversation (or the desire for that kind of conversation) is the real content, the real stuff. But of course, Emile, you are in truth having that conversation all the time in your imagination, which is where all art is born.

Thanks Michael! And thanks Nathan for bringing up this post, I havnt thought or felt this deeply about my dad in a long time.Peace.

For me Xmas comes every time I get a print I really like. Nothing like the feeling you get when everything just clicks and you get a great negative that produces a great print.....this does not happen often, but is happening more often now....

 

Stuff.....no need I had a clear idea of what I wanted and have everything that I need....12x20....no need to buy another one, the old Korona works fine, 8x10...4x5 and hassy....after buying equipment for most of my life, I have come to the conclusion equipment is what we become infatuated with, but not really necesary to have absolutely every piece of equipment under the sun to make a good pic....I love all my cameras, but some get more attention than others....