I used to use this also, but when our city went scrambled/ digital you can no longer hear any conversations on either side
Yeah, these days I carry pager issued by the county. It list what the problem is, address and other basic information. I also get text messages and emails from county dispatch when things go down.
I have a Widelux 120 film panoramic camera with a pivoting/panning lense, which produces a negative approximately 2" x 5", capturing almost 180 degrees.
I still have my first camera, a Nikon S2 35mm rangefinder, with a fantastic f/1.4 lens. The camera is about as old as I am (and I'm not young).
I'm cleaning out my basement, so I've gotten rid of some of this stuff in the last 6-8 weeks, and more is on the way out – but I'll list it anyway.
Five Stroboflash IV's – the ones that had the heavy battery pack with two 225-volt batteries. I had two of them for regular use in the 1970's. Bought three more to make a wooden softbox (before there were softboxes) back in the 1970's but never got around to it.
Three humongous Calumet stainless steel water jackets. Each holds three 3.5-gallon stainless steel tanks with lids – or two tanks and a rinse rack.
A Kodak nitrogen burst timer.
A Polaroid back for Mamiya press cameras (sold my Super 23 and Universal Press cameras several years ago).
Five manual-focus Nikon AIs lenses that I kept for some reason when I sold my Nikon manual-focus stuff.
15 – 8x10 sheet film holders (sold my 8x10 camera several years ago)
102 – 4x5 sheet film holders (sold my three 4x5 cameras about the same time)
Six 750-exposure Nikon 35mm film canisters for the Nikon MF-1 bulk film back for the Nikon F2.
A dozen or so assorted 70mm film canisters
Five boxes of instructional VHS tape sets by people like Dean Collins, David Ziser, Don Blair, Monte Zucker, Marty Rickard, Ken Marcus, Larry Peters, Fred Picker, et. al. I have the Dean Collins and Ken Marcus videos on DVD, but most of the others were never made available in digital versions.
A Davis & Sanford Model B tripod. This thing was designed to hold an 8x10 camera. It has a true pneumatic column, not the "air cushioned" type that some tripods and light stands have today. The first time I loosened the thumb screw that held the column in place, the head flew up, hit me under the chin and damn near knocked me out.
A 6x9cm Cambo view camera with three lenses, assorted accessories, and eight Graflex RH-8 and RH-10 backs. (Might come in handy if I ever get back into architectural photography.)
An Omega D2 enlarger, a 4x5 Super Chromega head and power supply, a Durst Micromat M35 enlarger (coolest 35mm b&w enlarger ever made). Two Thomas sodium safelights. Three DSA-Senrac roll-film dryers. Assorted tanks, reels, sheet film hangers and trays.
A 7-foot yellow locker that I bought, along with a restroom hand-dryer, to convert it to a film drying cabinet when Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City moved from the downtown area to the boondocks.
Maybe the strangest thing I’ve had is an antique (ca. 1910) gyn table that I also bought at the Mercy Hospital sale. This all-steel black table was rock solid, and for years I used it as my enlarger table. When I moved to St. Louis in 1992, the movers couldn't get it on the truck, so they left it on the back porch. Might have been interesting to see when the buyers (the new minister of music at the First Baptist Church and his family) moved in.
I regularly get stopped by strangers wanting to know "What camera is that?" when I'm on location with the camera I use most - An Alpa STC with an Phase One IQ180 digital back with either a 23 or 40mm Rodenstock lens. I have the same experience whenever I use my IQ180/Fuji GX680 system.
PTPhotoUT wrote: Without a doubt my collection of commercial and hand made Technical Masks. I'll bet that less that 10% of you know what one is and that fewer than 1% have ever used one.
intense_puppy wrote: You got me. What is it?
I believe we're calling them bokeh discs these days.
heres my old school Mamiya ZE from 1980 featuring the additional auto winder attachment. I also have the 80-205 lens with it and the external flash. I should dig this out one of these days. It used to use this stuff called film..
Kiev 88, with Zodiac 8 30mm f/3.5 wide angle, Arsat 80mm f/2.8 and Kalienar 150 mm f/2.8. I dropped the 80mm on my foot the other day and thought I broke it...my foot that is!
Hmmm. Maybe I should add to my list a package of baby wipes - for barefoot models to clean the bottoms of their feet after walking around on the studio floor.
Years back I did not shoot Cannon, but owned a Minolta f1.o and a very rare Minolta .08, neither was worth much.. Used the F 1.0 shooting av light at weddings...Got rid of them... They ended up back in China. I think the .o8 was made by Lica...
A last minute Reflector I had to make when assisting for another photographer. Used a Foam cooler lid, screws, and foil, wrinkled it, and it casted a nice orange hue when bounced with natural light or strobe. The final outcome of the photos looked like something out of SI. It was amusing to say the least. He was impressed and I was amused.
The most unusual cameras I've owned are a Linhof Aero Technika with 4" motorized rollfilm back and all three Zeiss lenses, a Canon Dial 35 and a Tessina. I don't own any of them now.
A 1970s vintage Tamron 500mm mirror lens. It had an Adaptall II Canon FD mount. I pulled it out a couple of years ago when I was using a 5D, and found a Hong Kong source for the Adaptall-to-EOS converter. For kicks, I got the version with the chip in it that emulates the EOS protocol to fool the camera into thinking it had an EOS lens in the manual focus mode. Worked like a champ, and delivered pretty good results. I coupled it to the Canon 2X teleconverter, and was surprised at how well that worked.
Then I got a 5D3, which burps when the lens is mounted on it. I guess I'm going to have to take the adapter apart and disconnect the emulation chip.
Digital Couture
Posts: 602
Washington, District of Columbia, US
Nothing too unusual given some of the earlier posts but I use a Canon EF 70-210 f/3.5-4.5 USM that I got off of ebay for $110 that some say looks almost as good as a 70-200 II.
I have a Rodenstock X-Ray machine lens. Huge, heavy. f1.0 about 80mm equivalent. no lens mount (although it screwed onto the x-ray machine), so I hand hold it in front of the camera. Gorgeous image. Stupidly impractical since there is no focus (simply move forward or back), and depth of field to make you shoot for joy or gnash your teeth.
All the stuff that I have that's weird isn't really camera stuff but can't do without stuff.
A garbage bag attached to a circular windshield sun shield. Hole in the bag is toughened. Hole in the sun shield is stitched. Model can put bag over head, head out of hole in top of bag, and can change anywhere.
Bungee cords of all sizes. Wire ties of a few lengths. Several small, soft lined, zip bags. Always find a need from the model using them to put jewelry if we're away from the base (cars, wherever our stuff is) to cords that I don't normally carry in the case.
A Polish milkmaid's stool. It's a stool that you strap to yourself, and it moves with you. Great for times when I will be doing shots where I'm at chair height or lower.
Shades Of Gray
Posts: 1,043
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
My first digital camera, made by Epson that I bought in the '80s. I can't make myself throw it away since I paid around a thousand bucks for it back then.
A technical mask is placed in front of the lens and the "out of focus" objects will take on that shape. Pinpoint objects will show the shape the best.
For an example, if you shoot a couple at a lake with a heart shape mask, the in focus couple will look normal but all of the points of light reflecting off the water in the background will be heart shaped. Good old fashioned trick photography.
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