mark_schafer1

Also consider that different flash manufactures use the nominal power differently. Check the published f-stop readings on the respective spec sheet, it’s not all linear, or logical. I find the Profoto pro heads extremely efficient… Then do some testing yourself…

What Ellis said, like this the weight actually tightens the grip head, also, if you attach the head directly onto the boom arm, aka rotate by 90deg, you save yourself the grip head and pin, which will reduce the weight significantly. Then you can actually use the grip head on the other side as a counter weight or even secure additional weight to it. And yes, you can extend beyond the circle of the legs, but keep in mind the overall weight as well as booming over the largest leg with a bag on the other side, preferably free hanging, aka not on the ground.

I’m amazed this still works. What craftsmanship…be careful and enjoy this classic. I’m kinda jealous.

Doing this professionally, I gave up on RZ, MF film cameras and film a long time ago, but I certainly appreciate the enthusiasm. For the RZ I really like (and used) the 140mm for portraits (much better than 150mm), the 90mm for groups (more interesting than the 110mm, feels like 8x10 Avedon), the 65, for people in spaces. Not too compressed, not to distorted. That's me, having assisted a bunch of icons of fashion and portrait photographers. The 110 was an interesting choice, but beyond this, I never used much else.

Basically yes. It's been a (seriously long) while, but it should cock and operate the shutter. Think you need to turn the rotate back switch to rotate so the back setting on the left (maybe remove the back) so it doesn't affect the lens action...great for testing and verifying the exposure times and f stops stoping down...

My experience from years ago is that the higher the sensitivity the more the X-rays will effect the film, 100ISO, maybe 2 or 3 doses, thats it. Develop locally if you know the lab. Always use lead bags and ask for hand search, worked for me from Finnland to the White House, even for 4x5 sheet film. Also consider that air travel will radiate your undeveloped film. So the less travel of undeveloped film, the better (and yes, I did ship developer and fixer to Africa as a kid....)

I'm super excited about this. While I love the Z7 (and recognize he shortcoming re. the Sony A9 and II), I prefer the Z7 in many aspects. So seeing the Vers. II improving on many fronts I can't wait to get my hands on these. Low light AF performance, eye and face recognition, are the aspects i'm mostly interested in, besides a second card slot that seems unavoidable to me. So I have the Z6 II on preorder with the hopes I can kick my Sony gear out, as I much prefer the Nikon glass...

Didn’t Sony have quite the pace going a little while ago? I’m surprised the A9 is holding up for so long, I’m shooting mine now for 27 month. And as much as I hate the ergonomics, repair support and built quality, it still gets the picture while the Nikon Z7 fails (even that I like the image and ergonomics so much better). Anyways, had a chats this week, discounts on the A9 is clearing out the channels and we’ll see a Mark II in the fall. It pains me to say, but I’ll get 2 as the Nikon is not ready for prime time shooting silent at High iso in challenging, low light. otherwise, it’s my fav camera these days and I preordered the 85mm last week.

I would go with a Rolleiflex or Rolleicord ( if that’s more the budget), I’d even consider a Mamiya C330 (as a bow to the destination, and you could get interchangeable lenses). And last, Seagul made a version, but that’s more toy camera territory. I’d also look into close up lenses for these, but the classic 75/80mm should get you far and the finder opens a slightly different perspective. Also, you actually see what’s in focus as opposed to a Mamiya 6/7, Plaubel Makina 67 (the most compact you could get) or other range finders. And overall the Rolleiflex is a pretty compact package with few moving parts. But you need a light meter...

As usual, keep it simple. I’d look at at the Manfrotto Master, stacker, there’re 12’ high, aka sturdy at lower height. High enough to block out sun if you want. As for a reflector size, think about your subject, usually people are around 6’ so half that is 36”, look at 42” reflectors. I personally like a black and white and a diffusion or one of these all in one. Next up you need to clamp this onto the stand, A clamps can do the trick for vertical placement, but otherwise you need and want a reflector holder. They’re a bit whimsy but do the trick, mostly. Get the one with clamps. And finally you might want to consider a small sand/weight bag and be aware of any wind as mentioned. Finally check out used sections everywhere. This kind of equipment gets resold often, and for low prices.

Also, with the RZ you have one lever to advance the film and cock the shutter. A real bonus in my book...

Well, having used the RZ system extensively while assisting and when starting out, I have to say it's a very reliable camera with very few quirks. Actually I never had a body quit on me during a shoot. And sometime we actually traveled the world (Mirror lock up, spare battery on hand, etc.). The RB is to me a studio still life camera, as you have to advance the film separately from cocking the shutter (and no pro used them in the circles I worked in, aka major fashion publications). If that's not a deal breaker and you want to be able to operate all manually then this is the way to go. Any other way, the RZ is superior with more modern optics and a larger system. My fav combo was manual Prism finder (That's RB) on my 2 RZ II, 140mm, sometimes 90 (had a 110, sold the 150 quickly and kept the 65 just in case, but the 140 is pure magic (to me)) and 3x 6x7 220 backs and a Pola back with cut to measure 6x7 horizontal and vertical slides, 81A of course, shooting portraits. Now I know that dates me, but hey what a combo...

While lighting has its tips and tricks, nothing beats experimenting. If your on a budget look at Photek softlighters. Beautiful light, easy umbrella setup, 3 distinct sizes. The key is that your light head "comes out" a bit, like a light bulb ( I use profoto pro heads) so it can fill the umbrella (or soft box). Elinchrom makes probably the best current octa reflectors, and some are affordable, to me reverse mount is key and some of these need to be modified. All of this is cost and experience. I only use square soft boxes for a general fill or to pump through windows. I'm a strong believer that for portraits a round shaped mainlight in most pleasant and natural, faces are oval and a square light always feels harsh ( but that's a style as well)...

As you're in NYC I suggest renting various equipment and see what gives you the look your after. Very rapid strobe has its points as has continuous lighting. Both introduces their own flow of image capture, timing and anticipation. For a more "natural" set I could see continuous lighting at adequate strength so your little animals and kids to freak out. It might feel a bit Harsh, but you have to mold the light. Plus, you see what you get...

My experience is to use either a hard light former, aka a beauty dish ( Mola makes various sizes) or go with natural light and rotate your subjects. You could use reflectors but they need to be manageable in the wind, so 36-42" is a good size. Or if you want more of a punch, a fresnel type, aka Peter Lindbergh, etc. I generally get great results just working with daylight and good exposure all the while making sure your subjects look great and having a ball...

Take the film out. Place some tracing paper on the pola film plane and see when you're in focus. Compare to finder image. Some pola backs had a glas element (to compensate for the recessed pola film plane) that could introduce slight softness, or if missing, that might be the issue, all manufacturer depended as far as I recall. Otherwise, film plane needs to be calibrated to match focal plane of finder (asuming focus on film is right on, again test with tracing paper). Don't forget, the pola backs for Pentax 67 or Fuji Rangefinder's were after market and not system integrated like a Mamiya RZ or Hasselblad kits.

Funny thing is, during my early years as an assistant we never used light meters, shooting still life with large format cameras. There are so many factors to consider,that knowing your polaroids was key (and we shot slides). Then came the years working with model, smaller cameras and metering became second nature along with a healthy interpretation of polaroids. Once I worked mixing strobe with ambient and shooting to film latitude, we couldn't do it without a meter. Now shooting digital, one could get far with trial and error, but the usage of meter, mixing light and adding strobes to mimic the ambient apperance of a room, makes any setup much quicker and quantifiable. With consistent and reliable results. And a color meter is more important than ever...

<p>I don't see a problem shipping that equipment per air luggage at all. I've done thousands of miles (Europe, US, Africa, Asia) and a variety of air carriers with equipment and in general everything works out fine (My record in my assistant years was 56 cases: 8x10 with Pola, strobe, grip, film, from NYC to Wyoming, no issues).<br> You can bring luggage under 55lbs as regular pieces and up to 100lbs as oversized. Over 100lbs it's unlikely it will make it on the plane. And it's nice to keep unregular shaped pieces (i.e. drum case for beauty dish) under 55lbs for handling. The key is packing and padding, and i can only recommend Tenba, Thinktank, Pelican, Lightware, Fiberbilt per experience.<br> If you want split risk, i would split equipment up a little, and see what the import/carnet situation is for your trip, this along with personal luggage and cameras will not fly under the radar.</p>

<p>As you're looking to buy in the Spring of 2017 you have Photokina coming up in September '16 with lots of new equipment that should be available at that time. And if you don't feel the need for any of the newly available cameras you will be able to source great (current summer '16) gear in the used market. And as for which one, make a list what each can do for you, what you can live without and decide. I personally always keep a current model 5D around (currently 5Ds).</p>

<p>For modularity and a large neg go for the RZ. Single stroke film advance and shutter cocking. Skip the winder and get a Prism finder. It was one of the best and mostly used film cameras for the editorial shooters and is still in use by some. You can rotate the back and find a 6x6 or 6x4.5 back if needed. There are also adapters for digital backs if you want to take it that far.<br> The lenses are mostly great and you can flash sync all the way to 1/400 and it has emergency manual exposure at 1/400. I'm pretty sure you can acquire a decent set at very resonable prices these days. My fav lenses where the 90 and 140, followed by the 65 and 110. I do shoot people on location and studio, never had a camera or lens let me down (but at some point owned a set of 2 to cover me). If you need more convincing, have search for some well know photographers and find out about their gear. They usually do a frequent in house evaluation on whats out there and go with the best and most fitting for their work.</p>

Years ago, I had the pleasure to worked with a great old school photographer, shooting a Vogue story in Paris. He said, listen kid, God only gave us one sun, so make that look georgeous. I let this be. Personally I prefer a little involvement but in general, the old KISS principal always works. As for a fan, we recently started working with small leaf blowers. You might see this on very current fashion BTS videos. It's super simple, realityly cheap and easy to pack up.

I never handled the Tamron, but after selling my original 24-70 I thought I never go back to that focal length. The 24-105 covered my need for IS and otherwise I was committed to fixed focals. Then I had a repair issue that led me to purchasing the 24-70 Ver. II and what an amazing lens this is. It's proven very reliable, weather resistant, optically great and besides the Otus, my best lens next to the 70-200 2.8 IS II. So I highly suggest an upgrade, if it's Tamron or Canon that's up to you, but I have no reservations recommending the Canon to anybody taking photographs, up to the most well respected pros working today.

<p>Best ones are ARRI and Dedo, Dedo is special, do a little research. None are inexpensive but superior in that field. Hopefully you source some on eBay. Good luck</p>

I'm all for Profoto. The equipment is reliable and proven. If you can't swing a current generation, look at the B3 as well. I do prefer the light quality above anything else and remember a long time ago, when the Hensel Porty came out we had a Profoto head adapted to that pack. Worked fine, but as soon as Profoto introduced their battery units there was no turning back. So today I'm on the B4 and recently added the little B2 250 pack for increased mobility and extreme light weight backup if space/budgets are tight.

<p>Your Instant film is most likely daylight balanced so either your light gets up to 5000/5500K or you filter either the light source (when mixing with daylight) or your camera if the light (or multiples) is the only illumination...HMI will be expensive and filtering a tungsten source will burn through filters if not placed at a sufficient distance (at movie shoots they have 4x4' frames placed a couple of feet in front the light source). Also, you're loosing quite a bit of light, whereas your camera needs quite a lot.<br> So there isn't really a slam dunk solution.<br> The best and cheapest i can think are fluorescent daylight, Kino Flo, Lowel Scandles which you can't really dim down. Otherwise i would look at LED Fresnel, the standard here being ARRI.<br> As for your reference, Helmut usually traveled with a Metz CT45 for his Hasselblads and rented strobes. If you're thinking of Peter Lindbergh, who's are the master of continuous hard light (so many really...Herb Ritts...), that was a 1.2K HMI or the big ones 4 or even 12k on location and mostly 4K HMI in the studio. The large ones have the genius advantage of creating a hard light out of a very large fresnel, hard and soft to the same time...</p>