Gear advice - which camera, which film?

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andyc64

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Andy
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Hi,
A long post, but hoping for some advice.

I'm going to do voluntary work in an orphanage in Belarus in ten days, and I'm having a bit of a gear dilemma.

It's my fourth or fifth visit, and I've always shot a mixture of film and digital, but this year I'll be shooting portraits for a book and hopefully, an exhibition. Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, so the intention is to raise awareness, and possibly even a bit of money for the charity I work with.

I want to go 100% film, and will be printing for the exhibition in a community darkroom I use. The book will be done digitally, probably through Blurb, so the film will be professionally scanned.

My dilemma is, do I go for 35mm with a Nikon FM3a and 50mm f1.4, or do I take my Voigtlander Bessa III. I prefer printing 6 x 6, but would have to take different films to cover outdoors, indoors in the evenings, and everything in between. The Bessa has a relatively slow lens, and a maximum shutter speed of 500th of a second, compared with the fast lens and much faster shutter of the Nikon.

I use Ilford film, so I think I could get away with my standard film, HP5+, with the Nikon, but would need FP4+, HP5+, and Delta 3200 in 120.
I'm not worried about visible grain, and would be quite happy with Delta 3200 or pushed HP5, but would love some advice from more experienced photographers - go with the heart and take the Bessa, or go with the head and take the Nikon?

Many thanks,

Andy
 
The Nikon will do a great. professional job but I think you already know that if you don't take the Bessa you will probably come away a bit disappointed. Those big old 6x6 negs will print wonderfully and look great in a book but can you afford to lose 24 shots per roll by not shooting 35mm? Sorry, not much help really but if it were me I would probably take the Bessa. :D
 
I would go with the 35mm for ease of use and flexibility... but I've hardly taken any MF! I'd also leave the HP5+ behind for 35mm use, if I really cared about the results. Almost any other, for me it would be TriX, but Delta 400 is lovely if you're an Ilford man!
 
If you're comfortable getting the portraits on the bessa take it, you can never have too much silver. I've never managed to get portraits to work well with rangefinders but that's probably me. As Chris says I'd not use HP5, I've never managed to a single image I'm entirely happy with using it, delta might be a better bet. I wouldn't worry too much about the 1/500 max shutter, you can over expose most films by a couple of stops so even if you needed 1/1000 it would be fine.

If you're going for a book though you'd be better with consistent style so If you use the Bessa do all of them with it and try to work out a way of using the same film stock for all of portraits. One image being nice and smooth and another a grain-fest will be quite jarring.
 
andyc64 said:
I use Ilford film, so I think I could get away with my standard film, HP5+, with the Nikon, but would need FP4+, HP5+, and Delta 3200 in 120.
I'm not worried about visible grain, and would be quite happy with Delta 3200 or pushed HP5, but would love some advice from more experienced photographers - go with the heart and take the Bessa, or go with the head and take the Nikon?
Click to expand...

I would take any advice from the internet regarding film choice with a huge pile of salt, especially with black and white. There are simply too many variables involved to get any sort of objective perspective (e.g., exposure, development, scanning, printing, etc.).

As you are leaving in ten days, I would highly recommend sticking with the films that you already know well. Personally, I'd just use HP5.
 
Meant to say, got any photos on the web? I'm sure we'd all love to see them.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I've not been ignoring you, just on nights at the moment.

I have a Flickr account with some photos from Belarus which might give an idea of the type of things I'm after.

www.flickr.com/photos/andyc1977/sets

I don't think there's an easy answer to my question, and I'll have to compromise on film size, number of shots between reloads, lens speed, etc.

Andy
 
Bessa III. Go with your heart.

It's such a lovely camera. And you're shooting portraits.

I still regret not buying one when I had the opportunity. Bought a R3M instead.
 
If I'm gonna take 35mm for its convenience and adaptability, vs 120, I'd want to make the most of that with AF, so neither the bessa nor the Fm3 would make my bag.
APX 100 is sweet in xtol and cheap, HP5 won't make my bag but Delta 400 will which is expensive but off set by the price of APX, I would push it too if I need something faster and forget about 3200.
right....token colour film ?......Portra 400

:D
 
Thanks for all the input.

Well, I've ordered forty rolls of 120 XP2 from AG Photographic, fingers crossed they'll be here for Friday.

I might rate some at 1600 and get it pushed, or I might just get it all processed at box speed and rely on the film's latitude to get me something usable.

I'm planning on printing everything myself at the excellent Photo Parlour darkroom in Derby, so it will be all black and white, and I much prefer printing square from 6 x 6.

I've also just bought a Domko lead lined film bag, as last year my new Billingham took six passes through Manchester airport's scanner due to the presence of an unrecognised object. Yep, a Voigtlander Bessa 667!

No chargers, no lens caps, no memory cards, no filters - it's just a camera, a tiny spare battery, and forty rolls of Ilford XP2.

Andy
 
Excellent, sounds like a good plan.
 
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andyc64 said:
or I might just get it all processed at box speed and rely on the film's latitude to get me something usable.
Click to expand...

They say XP2 has such latitude and low level of grain to start with that over rating it but processing at box speed is quite doable. :)
 
Well, in the end I shot just twelve rolls of 120 XP2, and about 800 digital frames with my Fuji X10.

I think next time, I will compromise and take the Nikon for the lens speed and maximum shutter speed.

A big factor in using less film than I hoped was how keen everyone was to see their picture on the back of the camera, and the presence of a small dye sub printer. The ability of a medium format folder being reloaded to draw a crowd has to be seen to be believed!

The film is now in the hands of UK Film Lab for dev and scan, so I'll post some images or links in about ten days.

Andy
 
andyc64 said:
Well, in the end I shot just twelve rolls of 120 XP2, and about 800 digital frames with my Fuji X10.

I think next time, I will compromise and take the Nikon for the lens speed and maximum shutter speed.

A big factor in using less film than I hoped was how keen everyone was to see their picture on the back of the camera, and the presence of a small dye sub printer. The ability of a medium format folder being reloaded to draw a crowd has to be seen to be believed!

The film is now in the hands of UK Film Lab for dev and scan, so I'll post some images or links in about ten days.

Andy
Click to expand...

I have a similar problem trying to explain to the kids why they can't see the pictures yet. The elder is probably old enough to give a brief overview of the process if not actually play with the chemicals yet. He also was fascinated by loading a folder.

To be fair 12 rolls of film isn't a bad weekend.
 
Well I'm not into B\W but some guys elsewhere are using Agfaphoto APX 400, and just wondering why it's not mentioned here much? Is it rubbish\inferior ?
 
excalibur2 said:
Well I'm not into B\W but some guys elsewhere are using Agfaphoto APX 400, and just wondering why it's not mentioned here much? Is it rubbish\inferior ?
Click to expand...

Dunno but I use APX 100 and its beaut
Such is the utter clustertrump the b/w film market is, where everyone and their mates are coating films, reboxing, rebranding, discontinuing and resurrecting film from the past, present and the future, going bust, buying brand rights and generally doing their best to muddy the waters in the market outside the big 3, APX400 may well be Kentmere 400, (10 bob a roll cheaper) the 100 speed variants may be the same too, I'd give both of them a go if they made 120.
 
Well, I've got 141 decent images from twelve films, cracking job of scanning by UKFilmLab, who are in my home town.

I've just uploaded one image to Flickr as a test, hopefully visible below.

This is a woman I've seen on my last three visits to the institution in Belarus where she lives. It's a pretty unwelcoming place in the middle of summer, down a dirt track into a forest with lots of radiation warning signs. Can't imagine what it would be like to live there in winter!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the image.

AC260815142413-09 by Andy C, on Flickr
 
andyc64 said:
Well, I've got 141 decent images from twelve films, cracking job of scanning by UKFilmLab, who are in my home town.

I've just uploaded one image to Flickr as a test, hopefully visible below.

This is a woman I've seen on my last three visits to the institution in Belarus where she lives. It's a pretty unwelcoming place in the middle of summer, down a dirt track into a forest with lots of radiation warning signs. Can't imagine what it would be like to live there in winter!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the image.

AC260815142413-09 by Andy C, on Flickr
Click to expand...


That's a good keeper rate!

Portrait looks good to me. Certainly gives a feel for the working life the lady lives but with out coming across as poverty tourism.
 
That's a very impressive portrait Andy, Looking forward to seeing more.
 
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