Owning multiple formats and using only one at a time?

[RaymondC]

<p>Those of who who have different size format of cameras and film and digital. Do you guys just decide to go with one format per outing? Can get confusing if you tripped up right? You may forget something, forget to confirm focus, ISO 100 vs ISO 50, frame it a bit too quickly ...</p>

<p>I have this debate, a digital SLR would be very user friendly and also when it involves people. Then again, I would like to have a nice slide esp a 120 format. I guess you then have duplicate shots over different formats ... .</p>

<p>Cheers .... </p>

[SCL]

<p>I never take both, so as to avoid confusion.</p>

[paul_wheatland]

<p>When I take my medium format camera on an outing or vacation, I also carry a small point and shoot digital camera with a program mode as backup.</p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>This is actually why I avoid having multiple formats: my brain can't cope. I used to have 3 systems and now have only 1. It makes life easier for me.</p>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>I tend to use different formats for different applications (for example, medium format film for more "formal" portraiture and 35mm film or digital for candid shots), so this conflict rarely arises for me. </p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>I have done it in the past, carried both medium format (Hasselblad) and 35 mm. With film, medium format has a striking advantage over the smaller format. At other times, I have carried two 35 mm bodies, one with reversal film the other with negative color. With digital, especially high resolution digital, neither is necessary nor desirable.</p>

<p>For one thing, it's too much weight to carry two full, mutually incompatible systems. Secondly, medium format only has an advantage if you use a tripod and take your time. For family and informal photography, small format is easier to carry and more facile. For the last 8 years or so, my principal "travel" camera has been a digital Hasselblad. Now, with an A7Rii, the image quality and resolution surpasses that of medium format film, and certainly my 16 MP digital back.</p>

<p>A slide show with transparencies is completely passe. My last slide projector was recently donated to GoodWill Industries. High resolution digital projectors offer much more flexibility and actually higher quality than slides. MF projectors were never popular, and increasingly hard to find and maintain. For a group presentation, I can insert a thumb drive into a house system. For home I can use an HD television screen or, more likely pass around an iPad or share on line.</p>

[barry_r]

<p>I have Nikon DX and FX cameras. I pretty much only use the DX for so-called extra reach with longer focal length lenses, the FX for everything else.</p>

 

[henryp]

<p>When I was shooting full-time I owned 35mm, 645, and 67 systems. I used whichever seemed most appropriate for each individual assignment but often carried more than one.<br>

Henry Posner<br /><strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

[sknowles]

<p>I've always used 35mm camera with my 4x5 work with comparable focal length lenses. The 35mm allows me to get ready access to the images while waiting for the 4x5 film to come back from the lab. I will shoot the range of (separate) exposure readings with the digital, but use the light meter for the final 4x5 exposure.</p>

[Sanford]

<p>My problem is switching between two models from the same manufacturer. The XE1 and XT10, so similar yet so different in many ways.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>Doesn't it all go back to why you bought more than one format anyway? I'd suggest you need a reason to buy a different sort of camera which relates to a need for a certain photographic capability. The only reasons for confusion about what to carry on a specific occasion probably relate to being unsure what you're going to find on a trip; or confusion about why you bought the different formats to start with. </p>

[Dieter Schaefer]

<blockquote>

<p>I have Nikon DX and FX cameras.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Same here - tend to use one or the other. About to change though as my walk-around will be a DX with mid-range zoom, to be replaced with "proper" FX equipment when the shooting turns "serious". Don't foresee issues because of the different formats - would expect issues to mostly arise if different brands are involved. Carrying my Nikon and my Sony at the same time will certainly get me confused.</p>

[bethe_fisher]

<p>I nearly always have at least two different formats with me. Sometimes it's MF and 4x5, sometimes dSLR and either 4x5 or MF. Much of the time, I'll have all three in the car and start out with the dSLR and MF. If I find something that's worth the 4x5, I'll go back to the car and switch.<br>

I think what I mostly do is use the digital for all the "in case I like it" shots and the MF and 4x5 for the ones I'm fairly sure are keepers before even pressing the shutter.<br>

The only time I take two of the same format is if both are film and one has color and the other has B&W. FWIW, I have a harder time switching between color and B&W than between two different formats. </p>

[rossb]

<p>These days I just take a 35mm with a single lens and shoot HP5. I Process the film at home. That consumes the time and money I have for photos. </p>

[AlanKlein]

<p>Bethe, The advantage of shooting a single Mamiya RB67 camera is that you can easily change the backs so you can go from color (Velvia) to BW within seconds, like these.<br>

<p>Relating to what David said, I once took my RB67 6x7 and my wife to Yosemite by plane and car. I think my camera bag weighed more than my wife's. That was the last time. Now, I use it at home where I can leave it my car and pull it out to get the shot. </p>

<p>I'm going on another trip soon, again with my wife, this time to the Southwest to visit America's national parks. So I bought a new P&S 1" RX100M4 with 4K movies to replace my M43, both extremely light by any measure. The M43 shoots video in only 720p and I was aching for 4K video to match my new 4K UHDTV. I''ll turn the results into a show I can play on the new TV. I don't remember my old slide shows from years ago. But I think my TV's screen is a lot straighter than the old screen with less wrinkles as well. </p>

<p> </p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>I've never really had a problem switching format - no worse than shooting different films or with different lenses. I took a full-frame digital and a crop digital on my recent holiday, deliberately for the different features of the cameras - the D810 was usually at ISO 64 with a polariser on the 24-70 or with a bare 14-24; the [hired] D500 was usually at ISO 100 and with nothing on the front of a 200-500 or a polarised 70-200. The biggest problem I had was switching between shooting with and without an IR filter, which required huge exposure and ISO changes (and for which I didn't trust the meter) - and even then it was focus which was the big problem. I was generally in manual, but I was watching the meter readings anyway. I also had an RX100 with me, which got occasional use but was most helpful when a fellow shooter's camera died (I just let them put their card in the RX100 and keep going).<br />

<br />

I've shot with a DSLR, a film camera with Velvia and a film camera with Kodak HIE around my neck. If I was trying to do the metering in my head in highly changing conditions I might have struggled, but the only real problem I had was the straps twisting and cutting off blood flow to my head (which might explain some of my forum behaviour since). Likewise I've carried a Pentax 645 around - if anything, I've used the DSLRs to give me better metering information than the meter in the camera. (I rarely bother these days.) If the exposure requirements are fairly simple or if any electronics are involved, a light sensitive box is a light sensitive box.<br />

<br />

That said, I keep meaning to get a 5x4 at some point. Especially if I don't rely on shooting at a distance, I realise there may be some maths in my future to handle that.<br />

<br />

If it helps, I had a dream last night that I'd been able to get some really close-up shots of an osprey, only to find that I'd left the lens cap on. Which is weird, because I was using a DSLR (in the dream) and it seems unlikely I'd have left the cap on. I've only really done that with an IR filter in place when I didn't expect to see through it anyway. And on a rangefinder, but only when the battery had died and the meter wasn't blinking at me. Clearly I have some subconscious concerns about my ability to follow a meter.<br />

<br />

I'm far more likely to end up typing on the wrong keyboard if I have two computers on my desk. My workaround is to have my main work PC using an ergonomic Dvorak keyboard, which is different enough from a laptop or conventional qwerty keyboard that I don't get confused.</p>

[photo_galleries]

Two different formats but compatible mounts so I can use the same lenses -- A7R and Zeiss ZI -- color and IR on my fully

converted A7R and B&W film on my ZI, both with M mount lenses.

[DickArnold]

When I did weddings at the end of the film era I carried three Bronica Bodies, 6 or 8 backs, winders, viewfinders, rolls

of 120 and 135 film etc., plus 2 canon bodies, lenses, as well as two canon flashes and two Vivitar 283s. They took

up three bags. I did a substantial number of weddings with this gear. This was done solo as I was too tight to hire an

assistant. Loading backs was an issue but I always found time to do it. I did formals with the Bronicas and Candids

with the Canons. I took the film to a processor the Monday after the weekend weddings and delivered an album of

proofs to the customer within two weeks. I cashed out my business as digital came on because my weddings wore

me out and I am no Spring chicken.