best autofocus 645 for concert / night gig...

[howard_pyle]

Hi all,

I've got a shoot coming up a club in NYC. I'm shooting a series of live bands for my

agency. I'll have the stage lights and some small strobes held by assistants but no studio

lighting. I'm looking for advice on the best autofocus 645 or 67 to rent (has to be MF).

 

Given that there will be motion on stage and the light will be lowish - what AF system will

respond best? I was thinking about the Fuji GA645zi for simplicity (I don't need TTL,

detachable backs, etc.) but then it seems that I can't really manually focus with that one

easily. From the posts I've read the Pentax 645n II suposedly has the best AF system for

lower light.

 

any guidance is greatly appreacited!

 

thanks -howard

[stb]

I once considered an 645 system. I went to shops to play with the different models. I tried the Mamiya 645afd, Contax 645 and Pentax 645Nii.

 

Regarding AF speed, there was no contest, the Pentax was way above the other two. Absolutely nothing to compare.

 

I found the Pentax to be much better on other regards as well: ergonomy, compactness, viewfinder.

 

The only drawback of the Pentax is that it has no digital option.

 

I finally did not buy any.

[ellis_vener_photography]

Absolute best medium format autofocus camera?From lens quality to

handling while shooting to loading & reloading: The Hasselblad H1.

[stb]

I did not mention the H1 because I did not touch it. It was a prejudice I took because of the H1 price :)

[dale_dickerson2]

Renting and in NYC, I would recommend the Rolleiflex 6008AF with the 645 back. The back can be turned vertical or horizonal. You do not have to turn the camera. The current production 6008AF has had some fine tuning and works better in low light and low contrast then the first release of this camera.

 

You get flash sync at any speed. (Maybe a plus: You can used a 2.8/180mm lens in manual focus only, but get focus confirmation from the camers. With 800 Portra pushed a stop or 2, this combination will give wonderful low light images of a concert.)

 

My second choice is the Contax.

 

I always recommend Zeiss or Schneider lenses. In AF 645, these are my two choices.

[howard_pyle]

thanks for all the responses...

 

Dale: who rents the 6008AF in NYC? none of my usual shops (trec, alkit, adorama, etc)

carry Rollei stuff for rent...

[donald_brewster]

Try Ken Hansen or Eli Kurland in NYC for Rollei rentals.

[howard_pyle]

Hi all,

so just to report back: I ended up renting the Pentax 645n (had a limited budget) and

sucess of it's autofocus system was low. The AF is indeed slow and in lower light

situations, it is useless. In this case, lower light is CBGB's with all the stage lights on high.

In general, the AF kept tracking and often couldn't lock onto anything. I'd knew I'd loose

key shots if I kept up like this! Within 20 seconds I was focusing manually and left it that

way for the entire shoot.

 

Lesson learned.

 

Thanks for all the responses, hope this thread helps someone in the future...

 

cheers -howard

[howard_pyle]

Hi All,

Another follow-up... about autofocus 645 and low light shooting. Tonight I did the second

round of shooting for the project I posted about above. This time I rented the Contax 645

and to my surprise, the AF was usable for 90% of the shoot. As long as I focused on an

element that had high contrast (was in the stage lights, etc) the AF was fast (relatively) and

accurate. I would definately use the Contax again...

 

cheers -howard