As the saying goes, gear does not matter in good photography. I would agree that any consumer grade DSLR of today pushed to its limits can produce stunning results. However, pro gear has some intangible benefits. They are a pleasure to use and can comfortably cover many corner cases. Besides, I have a lust for tools, and I like to use good equipment for photography as well.

I started photography with a Nikon FM10 film SLR in 2003. I went through several more Nikons before switching to Canon but for a short while. I am back to Nikon again. My equipment list shows both current and past gear.

Camera Bodies
Nikon D700, Nikon F100

Previous Canon Bodies: EOS 5D, Rebel XTi, EOS A2
Previous Nikon Bodies: F3HP, D70, F80, FM3a, FM10

Lenses
Nikon AF-D Zoom Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 IF-ED
Nikon AF-D Zoom Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 IF-ED
Nikon AF-D Nikkor 50mm f/1.4

Previous Canon Lenses: EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM
Previous Nikon Lenses: AF-D 50mm f/1.8, AF-D 85mm f/1.8, AF 70-210mm f/4-5.6, AF-D 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5, MF 100mm f/2.8 Series E, Nikon MF 50mm f/1.8 Series E

Flashes
2x Vivitar 285HV

Accessories
Phottix Cleon N8 wireless remote

Lighting Equipment
3x Pocketwizard Plus-II transceiver
Strobist SO2 kit from mpex.com (lightstand, reflective umbrella, peanut slave)
White shoot through umbrella
Westcott 30″ reflector kit
Various gels

Camera Bags
Lowepro Nova 4 AW
Lowepro Computrekker plus AW

Medium Format System
Mamiya RB67 Pro-S with 120 back
Mamiya Sekor 50mm f/4.5 C
Mamiya Sekor 90mm f/3.8
Mamiya Sekor 250mm f/4.5

Picked up a mint Nikon F3HP with a Nikon 50mm/1.8 Series E for a song, thanks to craigslist. This is a legendary 35mm film SLR with everything manual except a battery dependent shutter. Not that I had to have a 35mm film SLR again, but with the throwaway prices of these beautiful instruments in this digital age I figured maybe it won’t hurt to keep one.

I am pleasantly surprised with this camera, especially after going through the manual. To discover the removable prism was fun, now I can use it like the mamiya on the streets and can get some pleasing candids. The mirror vibration and shutter noise is much smoother than the FM3a I had, so my days of regret are over. Moreover, the 50mm lens is thin like a pancake which is cool as well.

Looking forward to using up the Ilford hp5+ bw films I have lying around since last year.

I keep bumping on this issue often in certain shooting conditions. Yesterday under a rush of shooting from a Cessna Skyhawk 3,500 feet in the air, I made a couple mistakes when quickly taking cockpit pictures using the pop-up flash. I kept my D700 in aperture priority (A) mode. I forgot to make the flash mode to “slow”, otherwise it sticks to 1/60 shutter speed no matter what. This blew away the blue of the sky. Ideally what I should be doing is:

1. Always keep the flash mode to “slow” and dial in flash exposure compensation to -0.7.
2. When popup flash is needed, switch to shutter priority (S) mode and select any speed upto 1/250. If there is too much light, lower the ISO. If the situation is very urgent, just use program (P) mode and shift if necessary.

Many photographers scoff at the P mode since it makes a $$$ DSLR work like a point and shoot. I am guilty of being such a snob until yesterday. A camera is a tool and every feature can be used to the benefit of making an image as best as possible. Time to grow up.

I scouted a specific location on interstate 280 to photograph a special tree at dusk. I pull over beside freeways all the time when riding my motorcycle, for one or other reason, including a quick snapshot. But with a car I did not feel that comfortable. Somehow I managed to pull out my Mamiya RB67 and click through a couple frames.

And then I saw yellow lights.

I just stood there, about to wrap up and go, when the officer approached me. Strangely I did not feel anything, just smiled and said I saw a beautiful tree and had to photograph it. He just warned to never pull over beside the freeway unless for emergency. I said a polite thanks and went back on the road in a hurry.

Turned out that both the digital frames I captured besides the Mamiya are keepers.

I have started a photoblog and set my main website url to redirect to it. It had a fancy static page so the decision was not hard. I already have this blog and a huge photo repository on flickr, plus a dedicated portfolio website, then why this ? I can show my ongoing best work in bigger size in this photoblog and it is worth all the trouble.

So, here is how I arrived at this decision:
1. My main website http://joydutta.com had a static page with a bunch of links, not doing anything useful.
2. The regular blog (this one) is mostly for writing articles, and not for displaying pictures in large sizes.
3. While flickr is a great tool, it shows images in a tiny size by default. It can be my regular image repository.
4. My dedicated portfolio site http://joyduttaphoto.com is a static collection of best images of specific categories and it will stay that way.

With all the web based tools, I was lacking a way to showcase my ongoing favorite images in big size in a clean, easy-to-manage site. A pixelpost based photoblog filled that need just perfectly. The install involved downloading the pixelpost framework from and the install was a breeze. Then I downloaded the template the-world-in-35mm and tweaked it to make it fit images at most 900px wide.

Please visit http://joydutta.com which will take you to the photoblog. If you like it then it would be nice if I get a positive vote about it on my coolphotoblogs profile.

Photo Black on Velvet Fine Art paper

Got a bunch of velvet fine art (VFA) watercolor papers when I bought my Epson 2200 printer off craigslist. Never got around to printing on it since it is supposed to need Matt Black (MK) ink in place of Photo Black (PK). A cartridge swap wastes ink, so I decided to wait till PK is low enough to do a comparison. First print turned out very muddy, but then I figured I printed it on the wrong side. Waste of one nice 13×19 VFA to learn how to figure the printing side (Lick a finger and rub on paper, the tacky side is the print side). The following print on the correct side came out much better, good enough to mat and gift to someone. I did a few more till the PK ink ran out. Time for the Matt magic as all the online articles say. Had to do the usual delete-printer-and-add-again trick on the mac to get the MK ink recognized. Out came the next print. I could not believe how much better it was. The image seemed to jump out of the paper. The illustrated comparison only gives a rough idea about the difference.

Just to check how the MK ink performs with normal glossy paper I did a test 4×6 print. It indeed makes some weird reflections but looking directly at the image makes it look normal enough.

Right after I switched back to Nikon, I somehow thought I could keep my Canon A2 with EF 50/1.4 but that didn’t happen. The lens got sold like a hot cake and I just could not help looking for a film body. Drooled at some craigslist ads for F100 at $200 and N90s for $125. Then saw a sweet F3HP+50/1.8E deal and thought that could heal my regrets over the FM3a I sold a few months earlier.

Went to check out the F3HP and lo and behold, neither the meter worked nor I could trip the shutter. Didn’t even like the narrow focus ring of the MF 50mm f/1.8 Series E. It didn’t disappoint me as much as it should have since deep in my mind I knew I was more inclined to try out medium format film in parallel to my digital workflow.

As luck would have it (or destiny), an RB67 with 3 lenses in a terrific deal was just a few miles away. The seller, a harley rider, had a room full of older manual Canon bodies. The RB67 was old but everything seemed to check out ok. The deal included the Mamiya Sekor 90/3.8, 250/4.5 and 360/6.3 lenses, 120 back, prism viewer, pistol grip and a cable release.

The magic with larger formats is that one automatically tends to be hyperselective. I have seen that happen with the hasselblad I rented. Took me several hours to finish a roll of 120 film. Looking forward to times like that, and to be able to print without waste of paper like when printing from a square format.