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Did we really carry that much?


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45 replies to this topic

#1
Merco_61

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Frank O's thread about lens and other suggestions for safari trip made me think about how much the camera bag weighed that I carried wherever I went for the last 10 years of film-only.

 

I tried to put together a loadout similar to what I used then:

 

Manual focus primes:

24/2.8

35/2

105/1.8

180/2.8

Total weight: 2015 g with caps

 

Autofocus zooms:

20-35/2.8

35-70/2.8

75-300/4.5-5.6

Total weight: 2155 g with caps

 

Bodies:

1X F4 and 2X F4E

Total weight: 3900g with body caps

 

Film:

2 bricks HP5, 1 brick Agfachrome 21 and 1/2 brick Ektapress 800, 70 rolls in all

Total weight: 1500 g without boxes

 

Speedlights:

2X SB-24

Total weight: 810 g with remote cords

 

Batteries:

2 bricks of 24 AA cells

Total weight: 1600 g

 

Billingham 550 bag

Total weight: 2500 g with relevant superflexes

 

Filters and cleaning supplies

Total weight: 700 g

 

This gave a total loaded weight of slightly over 15 kg. This was quite typical for a week long assignment even if the bag was slightly lighter when I could foresee what lenses I would need and leave some at home or didn't need all three bodies as I didn't always need B/W, slide and fast colour print film at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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#2
Brian

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Nikon F2 with MD-2/MB-1 (10AA batteries) and 300mm F3.5 lens and Nikon F Photomic with 500/8 Reflex-Nikkor for air shows.

 

Whose Counting....



#3
Ron

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Peter, I was going to ask.... how you managed to get all that stuff in a single camera bag. Then I looked up Billingham and it looks remarkably like the old camara bag I used to carry... and would still use if I could get the broken floor panel replaced. My bag wasn't a Billingham tho... at least not offically. It was, I believe, a National Geographic freebie.

 

That thing held an amazing amount of stuff. And no noisy velcro to alert every living thing within five miles that you're about to change lenses.

 

--Ron


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#4
Merco_61

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The 550 swallows everything you want to carry in it, except superteles... The vertical storage in the superflex inserts limits the length of lenses to 18 cm if there is to be room for a body mounted on the lens, 21 cm for lens only. The strange thing is that it does not feel very heavy once it is on the shoulder as it pulls back rather than to the side because of how it hangs.

Leather straps with either brass studs and keyholes in the leather or buckles are definitely preferable to velcro fasteners.


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#5
Brian

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My favorite camera case when new: The FB-8 which held 3 lenses in bayonet mounts built into the case, and two bodies each with lenses. Too bad it was leatherette, did not do well over time. The FB-5 has the same idea of bayonet mounts built into the case, but holds only 1 camera.



#6
TBonz

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Wow...let's see...

 

I had 3 Pentax MX bodies with one of their motors (I think they had 2 options for drives)

28 / f2.8

50 / f1.4

85 / f2 I think

100 / f2.8

200 / f2.5 (loved that lens!)

300 / f4

 

Not positive on the zooms, but...

 

28-135

80-200

 

Can't remember the other lenses but I know I had 10...

 

2 Vivitar 285s and a Pentax flash with external battery pack for one 285 and lots of batteries for the others

 

Camera bracket with lots of options for slightly off camera flash...lots of filters and, of course, many rolls of film...I usually ran B&W in one body, color print in another and the third was color slide or a second body with one of the other options...

 

Had a couple of different bags...still have one of them sitting in the closet...the one I don't have any longer was huge and could hold all my equipment, the other couldn't hold everything, but was better for carrying...I used to do leather work and created my own straps for each of the cameras (all different) - also made a "belt" for the bags - I could move it between them.  It was basically a normal 1.5 inch wide belt with the back section cut out and D-Rings / Clips installed on the cut ends to attach to the bags.  Took some of the weight off my shoulder and put it on my hips...Worked great except for the day we were in Paris doing some sightseeing.  I had the bigger bag and ALL my bodies / lenses / flashes / filters, etc.  I think I even had a tripod strapped to the bag...We ended up walking WAY more than anticipated and the bottom board of the bag rubbed a white stripe (no more blue) in a brand new pair of jeans along my leg where the base was rubbing against my leg...didn't do much good for my leg either!  Last time I ever took that particular bag on a walk although I used it occasionally for another 15 or so years!  It had the velcro but the other (that I still have) uses clips and zippers...Probably still my favorite bag although I haven't used it in years...


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#7
morticiaskeeper

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And here's me, trying to cut down on the gear I take!

It's Fairford airshow this week, and I'm going down on Wednesday, but may have to park up to a mile away from my favourite spot.

So... Along with the waterproof jacket, Jetboil, coffee pot, 2l water, food & a stool, I'm trying to get away with the D40, D80, both with battery packs, Nikkor 18-70, Sigma 70-300, Soligor 600, double holster harness, spare cards, radio, spare AA batteries & rocket blower.

IF I can get all this into a backpack, I'll take a bicycle :-)
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#8
Ron

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Ah, the days before digital.

 

Back in my Minolta days, I would lug... yes, LUG a single camera bag filled with two or three bodies... XK's XD-11's with motors and/or my venerable SRT. Lenses from my 24mm VFC to my beloved 500mm f/8 CAT. Of course, my 50mm f/1.4, my 100mm f/2.5 and my Vivitar Series 1 70-210 f/3.5 zoom. I seriously loved that lens. Two Minolta flashes... and a Vivitar 283. Film.... oh man, lots of film! Kodachrome and Tri-x pan.

 

I had a lot more stuff.... quite a few more lenses... some of which got taken along more often than not. A Minolta Celtic (their cheapo line) 28mm f/2.8 became one of my favorite wide angles. For the money I paid, that was an incredible lens. A stack of filters... mostly 55mm which was Minolta's standard size.

 

When I switched my film gear to Nikon, I really slimmed down. Only one body, three lenses and a flash. LOL Now that I'm finally getting more comfortable with digital, I'm collecting stuff again. smh... argh!

 

--Ron


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#9
Guy

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This gave a total loaded weight of slightly over 15 kg.

 

 

It gave a total weight of 147N and a total mass of 15kg.  Or, using the old obsolete metric system, a total weight of 15kg-force. :)


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#10
Merco_61

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Or, why not 147.3N as I am in Uppsala where the gravity constant is 9.82. I know I should have used mass but if I had, someone would have thought the post too geeky...


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#11
Guy

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Or, why not 147.3N as I am in Uppsala where the gravity constant is 9.82. I know I should have used mass but if I had, someone would have thought the post too geeky...

 

Not geeky at all. It's a cold, hard fact. And a clear failure our education system teaching the proper metric system.  You would not report torque with units of kg-meter would you? You'd say Newton-meter (force x distance) much like weight is mass x gravity.  You cannot just throw the units of gravity away when you multiply those two values together.  And instead of saying kg-meter per second squared for force and weight, it was given its own name, namely, a Newton.



#12
Brian

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I just packed the Df, 50/1.4 Ai, 35/2 Nikkor-O (factory Ai), 85/1.8 (Factory) Ai, 200/4 Ai, hoods, charger, spare battery- into a Nikon field case about as big as an FB-9, but made of "some modern material that is not leather and has "Nikon" written all over the inside but DOES NOT have a model number!" That's what I don't like about these new field-cases, can't refer to them by model number. Bigger than an FB-16. That should clear it up for everyone...

 

I'm going to pack the Leica M9 up next with the Nikkor 5cm f1.4, 2.8cm F3.5, 3.5cm F2.5, 10.5cm F2.5. Being RF lenses, they are small and lots of Brass.

 

Others use third party lenses on their Nikon bodies, I use third party Bodies with my Nikon lenses...


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#13
Ron

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I'm going to pack the Leica M9 up next with the Nikkor 5cm f1.4, 2.8cm F3.5, 3.5cm F2.5, 10.5cm F2.5. Being RF lenses, they are small and lots of Brass.

 

Others use third party lenses on their Nikon bodies, I use third party Bodies with my Nikon lenses...

 

I don't think I've ever seen a Leica camera discribed in quite those terms. As a third party I mean. :rolleyes:

 

--Ron


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#14
Brian

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I don't think I've ever seen a Leica camera discribed in quite those terms. As a third party I mean. :rolleyes:

 

--Ron

I've almost given up on Nikon coming out with an SP-Digital. I'm buying it when they do. Until then, I make do... Had the Nikkor 8.5cm F2 out today with the M Monochrom at the Skating Rink. Awesome combo, especially when the main lights are off. I'm taking it over the 10.5/2.5 on vacation.


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#15
Ron

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Brian, you probably know far more about Nikon's range finder plans than I do, but I somehow doubt if they'll ever do an SP-Digital. If they do, it may be similar to the FA, which I know would be just fine with you. That said....

 

I have long secretly lusted after a Lecia camera. I'm not really picky either. But the M Monochrom would be nirvana for me. Alas, it's not in the cards. I'll never have that kind of disposible income to play with.

 

--Ron


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#16
Brian

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Nikon came very close to bringing out a Monochrome version of the Df- I'd be happy if Nikon carries through on it.

 

Sadly- I think a digital S-Mount camera is not going to be made by Nikon. As the S-Series cameras have removable backs, it would be possible for someone to do a digital back for it.  My SP and 5 lenses easily fits into a medium sized field case, and it is light compared with the SLR and 3 lenses.

 

I have both Nikon S-Mount and Contax RF mount adapters for the Leica, both maintain RF coupling. And I have the Nikkor lenses in Leica thread mount. The optics are spectacular. The size of the normal lens and wide-angle lenses are tiny. I decided to make this next vacation and all-Nikkor theme.

 

19786591706_f972445204_o.jpgG1005888 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

 

I like rangefinders- have an easy time focusing them, which is why I started using Nikon RF's 20 years ago. I need to shoot more film, but even so: would not be able to take a shot like this: ISO 10,000, 1/90th and F2. I'm always amazed at the High ISO performance of the M Monochrom and Nikon Df, and I worked with digital Infrared almost 35 years ago.


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#17
Guy

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I like rangefinders... but even so: would not be able to take a shot like this: ISO 10,000, 1/90th and F2. I'm always amazed at the High ISO performance of the M Monochrom and Nikon Df,

 

I still shoot a Mamiya 7II rangefinder.  Not as much as my 500C/M and Pentax 67 though.  And though I have a Df with decent high ISO performance, it still comes down to the fact at these high ISOs the number of stops of light that can be captured is really bad and hence the tonal scale of the resulting image is bad too.  It seems everyone is only concerned with high ISO noise and totally forgets that the dynamic range and tonal scale sucks by comparison to the base ISO.

 

EDIT:

 

Here is shooting Delta 3200 on my rangefinder.  And some people take it to ISO 6400.  So you can get reasonable high ISO on BW film.

 

7550503598_fb82cdbcf8_o.jpg

Butte to Butte by yo_tuco | Flickr, on Flickr


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#18
Brian

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With film- Push Processing meant bigger grain. "Grain so big you can count it!" as one of my friends said in the 1970s regarding Tri-X pushed to max out the Nikon F2as ASA dial. You are trading resolution for dynamic range and sensitivity. That got me thinking- I could rewrite my Fortran code that processes DNG files to bin 2x2 matrix of 14-bit pixels into a 16-bit value. That will give a 6dB gain. The present routine in the code converts each individual to a 16-bit value using a Gamma curve, so will not be hard to modify.

 

For the original topic: the Fortran code that I rewrote to process DNG files started out in the 1980s to process data from one of the first Digital Infrared Sensors, mid 1980s. The VAX 11/725 weighed in at over 200 pounds and it used a lot of power. The "Camera" took four flight racks of electronics and used liquid nitrogen for cooling. But it was small compared to the 35mm Beckman and Whitley framing camera. That was big and heavy and used a Helium Turbine....Cost ~$150K in 1960. I got to look through the viewfinder before it was refurbished and shipped off.


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#19
Guy

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I could rewrite my Fortran code that processes DNG files to bin 2x2 matrix of 14-bit pixels into a 16-bit value. That will give a 6dB gain. The present routine in the code converts each individual to a 16-bit value using a Gamma curve, so will not be hard to modify.

 

 

 

 

That sounds like people who make "HDR" pictures from a single exposure  You cannot add more light in post ( unless its painted in) than the sensor already captured. 



#20
Brian

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No- it is signal averaging and has been around for a very, very long time. HDR is combining multiple images taken sequentially with the same sensor with the exposure bracketed.

 

The Nikon D1 used binning to combine 4 pixels from the 10MPixel CCD that it used, output 2.7MPixels in the .NEF file. No one confused that with HDR. I started digitizing film in 1979 went with Digital sensors in 1981. I worked on IR sensors, my wife worked on Gamma Ray detectors. Hers went into space, mine was airborne. The film scanner was room-size big, used a PDP-8 minicomputer. Binning and Signal averaging are old techniques. Combine 4 pixels- get a 6dB gain. I've never done an HDR image. Multi-spectral images from 7 collimated detectors, yes.