Breaking backs & bank accounts

[Bill Pierce]

I know a lot of folks are looking for a camera smaller than a full frame DSLR with a big zoom or high speed prime on it and still want the image quality, even at high ISO’s, that allow for big prints or cropped frames. For some, the answer is a Leica M9. For a journalist working with several high aperture, fixed focal length lenses that often means more than one body. For a traveling photojournalist, more than one body is necessary insurance against breakdown or theft.

Let’s face it. There are not a lot of folks that can afford multiple M9’s and a brace of high speed lenses. That certainly goes for most news photographers, including some very good and very prestigious ones. So, what’s the answer to the smaller camera, big quality dilemma? My answer is to use the big DLSR’s with little, slower prime lenses. I’ve mentioned before my use of $90 50mm/1.8 Canon. But I also use the 28/1.8, 35/2 and 85/1.8. The 85/1.8 is a killer. The others I stop down from their max aperture, something easy to do with the high ISO’s that still hold image quality in the big DSLR’s. This is not a perfect solution, only a partial one.

I wondered if any of you had any thoughts about gear that provides high ISO, big print quality without breaking your back or your bank account?

 

[Don Parsons]

Hi Bill,

I use and love Canon's 35 f2 and 85 1.8. The 85 is unreal shot nearly wide-open, the images almost appear to be....3d....like a Leica.

don

 

[semordnilap]

I can't afford one M9... I'm hopeful for the development of the mirrorless cameras, maybe even with a FF option with a couple of years. I'll probably get an NEX-7. I'm not a journalist, but I do need functional high ISOs from time to time, which the M8 doesn't give me so well. I have a D7000 which works well at higher ISOs, but even that's big enough that I find myself leaving it behind more often than not.

 

[ChrisN]

Does a working photojournalist really need to allow for big prints and the highest print quality?

 

[willie_901]

Fujifilm X100

My D700 bodies are too heavy to pass the "don't break your back" test.

 

[newsgrunt]

I use a pair of D3 cameras and am loathe to return the D700 loaner back to Nikon... but yes, if I could, a pair of hi iso M9's, 18,24,35,50 and I'd be happy. maybe the 90 as well...

 

[Bill Pierce]

Does a working photojournalist really need to allow for big prints and the highest print quality?

Yes. Hopefully your work is good enough and of important enough subjects that it will be exhibited and collected by galleries, museums and private collectors. This is not at all uncommon. And have you seen the size of contemporary prints that galleries and museum are showing now? From the Met to the Getty, from East to West, they're huge.

 

[newsgrunt]

and why more and more of my colleagues are going medium format , Mamiya 7 or the usual Hasselblad. Work can be scanned for online use but also printed up huge to hang on walls. The paradigm is/has shifted

 

[ChrisN]

OK. And some are returning to medium format, and film at that? How does that fit in with the tight deadlines usually thought to be associated with photojournalism-type activities. Or are these people shooting for a different market - tha art galleries? Fine-art photo-journalism?

I'd agree with the idea of compact dSLR bodies and primes lenses. Bill, did you really mean to write "big DLSR’s with little, slower prime lenses"? The lenses you list aren't really slow - f/1.8 and f/2.

From my bag I guess I'd grab the Pentax K5 and the K20D for backup, with the 77/1.8 on the K20 and the K5 wearing either the 21/3.5 or the 28/2.8 depending on the task, with the spare lens in my pocket. Maybe the 15/4 (another tiny lens) in the other pocket.

 

[Bill Pierce]

I'd agree with the idea of compact dSLR bodies and primes lenses. Bill, did you really mean to write "big DLSR’s with little, slower prime lenses"? The lenses you list aren't really slow - f/1.8 and f/2.

Chris - The lenses are slow in the sense that you have to stop them down a bit to get their best performance. I guess everything is good at f/4 or 5.6, but some of the rather simple designs, like the 50/1.8, turn out to be very good (or I was incredibly lucky).

 

[Robin Harrison]

As with most variables, "pick three out of four" usually works!

High ISO (= low light ability, in combination with lens?), big print quality, lightweight, reasonably priced?


Low light ability + big print quality + lightweight
= Nex-7 with the Zeiss 24mm f1.8

Low light ability + big print quality + reasonably priced
= Nikon D5100, Canon 600D, Sony A65 (all with Sigma 30mm/f1.4)

Low light ability + lightweight + reasonably priced
= Olympus XZ-1, Fuji X10, Canon S95, Panasonic LX-5

Big print quality, lightweight, reasonably priced
= FILM! Olympus XA, Ricoh GR1, Contax T/T2/TVS, Leica Minilux

 

[Bobbo]

Low light ability + big print quality + reasonably priced
= Nikon D5100, Canon 600D, Sony A65 (all with Sigma 30mm/f1.4)

Because a D5100 with a prime lens (lose half a stop with a lighter, cheaper and probably sharper DX 35/1.8) at a whopping 26 ounces is a big camera... an M9 with 50/2 'cron is 30 ounces, and that's a "lightweight."

 

[Roger Hicks]

Does a working photojournalist really need to allow for big prints and the highest print quality?

No. Just a camera they're happy using. It's painful and tiresome to try to earn a living with kit you know isn't really what you want.

EDIT: Cropping's handy, too.

Cheers,

R.

 

[newsgrunt]

OK. And some are returning to medium format, and film at that? How does that fit in with the tight deadlines usually thought to be associated with photojournalism-type activities. Or are these people shooting for a different market - tha art galleries? Fine-art photo-journalism?
<snip>

Several of my friends use them on long term projects for the most part. They can be used for relatively tight deadline work if one is willing to schlepp the necessary gear with them, like the old days. I've brought tanks and chemistry with me when I've had assignments where I wasn't able to bring Polaroid or Fuji for proofing. Process half the take (always double shot each photograph/ subject when shooting large format) in the hotel bathroom and couriered the rest to a professional lab with developing instructions (push, pull etc). These would get picked up by whatever publication where they would scan it and apply post process if needed.

Alan Chin is one photojournalist who works with film on many assignments, some of which are breaking news stories if I recall correctly. But yes, for the most part, film will not be the chosen media if "need it yesterday" deadlines are part of the equation.

 

[Trius]

Yes. Hopefully your work is good enough and of important enough subjects that it will be exhibited and collected by galleries, museums and private collectors. This is not at all uncommon. And have you seen the size of contemporary prints that galleries and museum are showing now? From the Met to the Getty, from East to West, they're huge.

How big is big, and how huge is huge?

The Larry Towell at GEH a few years ago had 16x20, maybe 20x24 that were from Leica/Tri-X and made an impact.

Is larger necessary?

 

[Pablito]

Nex has very good high ISO and with Leica lenses and the Clear Viewer gives a very RF like experience. The big drawback is that with very wide lenses, like the 21, you get bad color shift around the edges of the image.