2 bodies - B&W and Color

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
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Does anyone keep a body loaded with BW film and a body loaded with Color film? How does it work for you?
 
I tried it decades ago and it simply did not work. Too many variables. Too many photo ops passed away while I was trying to decide color or b&w. But then I can't shoot well with multiple MF slr film backs loaded with different films either.
 
It only works with LF for me, when I have time to consider things even before setting up the camera.

-A
 
The only thing I might take my two Ms with me is to keep different lenses on each, but even that hasn't worked too well for me. I got back into RF and film to (re)discipline myself to focus on one focal length and one type of film during a shoot. That seems to be the only thing that works for me.
 
kshapero said:
Does anyone keep a body loaded with BW film and a body loaded with Color film? How does it work for you?
Click to expand...
Yup, I keep Neopan 400 or 1600 in one Yashica GX and Superia 400 in another. I grabbed whichever I felt like shooting and I never carried more than one camera at a time. Fixed-lens RFs are cheap enough to do this (well, I for one can't afford multiple M-mount bodies :().
 
My (now-) classic formula: both Hexars loaded with b/w film, my Ricoh GR1 (or Konica S3, or Konica Lexio 70) loaded with color. Or, occasionally, the reverse.


- Barrett
 
My RF is for silver halide and my P&S is for color. I carry both everywhere I go.

I view color as more of a documentary thing: what color dress was Grandma wearing on Mothers' Day? How bad was Junior's sunburn? etc. I care enough about color to shoot decent slide film, but color isn't my first choice for "money" shots. The P&S is the camera I hand to my wife.

I'd give up color before I gave up black and white, but they both have their strengths and I'm glad I don't have to choose.
 
With 2 bodies, I prefer to carry either:
- 2 different speeds of B&W film, or
- same(ish) B&W film with a 35mm on one and a 21mm on the other

Colour in one and B&W in the other, as others have mentioned, just doesnt work for fast shooting styles - just too many decisions!
 
It really doesn't work too well for me either. I usually wind up with fast color and black and white or both slow films. Think I'll try the same film and a 35mm and a 50mm to see how thart works since those two lenses get about 90% of the use.
Jon
 
It's what I almost always did until I got the M8. The thing is, editors often demand colour, and I prefer mono.

Also, I can't always tell how I'm going to 'see' on a particular day, so having two bodies gives me the choice. I'm usually shooting away from home so I don't want to leave one of the bodies in a hotel room...

There's also the point that I can load both bodies with the same film, to give me longer between reloads. This reached its peak when I was testing IR820C (has to be loaded in total darkness) and dedicated 2 M2s to this, with other films in the M4-P and MP.

Cheers,

R.
 
Works for me as it has for 35 years!

These days, I carry the S3 2000 with Tri-X...the F3/T with whatever, color, slide, b&w....

Sometimes I even carry the latest D3/D300/D4/D5 digi wonder crap....but not for fun, only for my professional work that needs a quick turnaround.

Even with two bodies, I shoot far less than with digital and shoot only what is worthy of shooting and enjoy it more.

What was it Ruth Bernhard said? Something to the effect, that unless you can make the image bigger than it is, don't press the button...
 
kshapero said:
Does anyone keep a body loaded with BW film and a body loaded with Color film? How does it work for you?
Click to expand...


I did it a decade ago when I was a free lancer having to satisfy different publications.

If you forget about the different perceptions requested, it is quite usefull to walk with two cameras as you can carry 'outside' two different lenses and exchange them between the cameras. This has been for me the easiest way to exchange lenses.

As you note, I am speaking about using two similar cameras. And indeed if the cameras are different it becomes a mess when trying to use them simultaneously, more or less.

But in case you don't need/like to use them simultaneously, then there is no problem at all. Today I daily carry two cameras, one for daylight ISO 200, the other for nightlight Neopan 1600.

At the daylight camera sometimes I put color film, other times it can be a totally different camera than the night one. This doesn't confuses because each time you are concentrating on a single camera and its particular characteristics.

Now if you want to make the same film picture, once in BW and the other in color, the best advice I have found at Pop Photography was simply make one picture and repeat it with the other camera.:)

===========

Beyond all these, and I suppose I am not the only folk here, I don't know what is buying a single camera of any specific brand, nor going out of home with a single camera instead of two.

Originally the second camera is a back up, but if it is already there, why not using it?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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I like the idea. I have bulk BW to load. But since my printing is done in Photoshop and I can take the color and convert to BW, I just can't justify carrying a body for BW. Lots of bulk BW sitting in my freezer . . . Dave
 
ruben said:
I did it a decade ago when I was a free lancer having to satisfy different publications.

If you forget about the different perceptions requested, it is quite usefull to walk with two cameras as you can carry 'outside' two different lenses and exchange them between the cameras. This has been for me the easiest way to exchange lenses.

As you note, I am speaking about using two similar cameras. And indeed if the cameras are different it becomes a mess when trying to use them simultaneously, more or less.

But in case you don't need/like to use them simultaneously, then there is no problem at all. Today I daily carry two cameras, one for daylight ISO 200, the other for nightlight Neopan 1600.

At the daylight camera sometimes I put color film, other times it can be a totally different camera than the night one. This doesn't confuses because each time you are concentrating on a single camera and its particular characteristics.

Now if you want to make the same film picture, once in BW and the other in color, the best advice I have found at Pop Photography was simply make one picture and repeat it with the other camera.:)

===========

Beyond all these, and I suppose I am not the only folk here, I don't know what is buying a single camera of any specific brand, nor going out of home with a single camera instead of two.

Originally the second camera is a back up, but if it is already there, why not using it?

Cheers,
Ruben
Click to expand...
Dear Ruben,

A hearty AMEN! to every word!

Cheers,

R.
 
I've done it... but never with both cameras on hand.

See... when I take one, I decide whether I'm going with color or BW. And then I take only ONE camera, leaving the other at home. This way I "see" things differently and practice in ways I wouldn't usually do.

The problem only comes when my wife wants me to take a photo of something and I carry only the B&W body. She's still not quite sold on monochrome yet...
 
kshapero said:
Does anyone keep a body loaded with BW film and a body loaded with Color film? How does it work for you?
Click to expand...

It´s confusing in different ways.

I´m with Ruben saying that it becomes a mess when trying to use two different cameras simultaneously. Even a bigger mess is to change between b&w in one camera and colour in the other - at least to me. Never tried it but I guess it´s even more confusing if both cameras are similar.

The idea of two (similar) bodies and two lenses attracts me for some time now. Only I don´t have two similar rfcameras... GAS? No.

Thomas
 
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