Gear REV E 2006.02.26
Is it the gear or the photographer that makes the image. Frankly it is 95% photographer and 5% gear when it comes to most situations. On the other hand, making the most of each situation requires the right gear. I am shamelessly addicted to fast glass for the classic reasons, and also the manufacturers go all out in quality at the high end of their lines.
Minolta make the finest SLR bodies there are. In particular the Maxxum 9 and Maxxum 7 shine out as SLR system cameras. Minolta do not have the best lens lineup however. Compared to the other two grand SLR companies, Canon and Nikon, Minolta's lens lineup is very lean. In professional (read $$$) glass, Minolta isn't second to anyone, with several of their primes beating the touted Nikons and Canons.
Some of my gear
My gear is centred around the Maxxum 9 body and several professional grade tele's and primes. I have one consumer grade lens, and it is magnificent in sharpness: The humble 50mm f/1.7 which I bought for less money than I typically spend on film when I drop by the shop.
Bodies
Maxxum 7xi: This body was way ahead of its time when it came out in the early 90's. Combined with the xi lenses, it is a smart and very capable camera. It touts many automated features such as automatically evaluating the scene and driving the zoom for an optimal composition. It turns out that this feature is more distracting than anything else (and I dumped the only lens compatible with this feature: the wretched 28-80xi). Also it takes program cards for different creative situations. I won't go on with the details, there are too many. This camera is now my backup. Its strengths are many, its weaknesses include a stuborn disposition to not firing if the focus is not to its satisfaction and lack of DOF preview and MLU. So, I decided to upgrade to...
Maxxum 9: The beast. The brick. This camera is simply the best designed SLR body I've ever met. All the controls that one will use regularly are assigned individual buttons or dials. No menu crap for 99% of what you shoot. It is a heavy, big camera. Exposure is bang on accurate. Metering modes based on the Minolta 14 segment honeycomb are spot, centre weighted and full frame. The spot meter is aligned with the current focus sensor. If there is a weakness it is that the Maxxum 9 has 3 focus spots only. Autofocus with the 9 is much faster than with the 7xi, and as far as I know, in the Maxxum line, only the newer Maxxum 7 is quicker. The Mirror lockup (2 second delay) can't be used with bracketing, which irritated me the one time I needed both at the same time.
Digital Maxxum 7D It is very, very good, and the images are sparkling clean and sharp. It does have a few shortcomings and I think Konica-Minolta have done several things wrong with it. My comments are here.
Hasselblad 500 C/M: The classic 60mm x 60mm (okay 56 x 56 for the anal retentive types). I bought a very good condition 500 C/M from a professional wedding photographer along with the ubiquitous 80mm and a "new condition" 150mm f/4 which he used only once. My preferred use for this gear is for nature reversal photography although some studio use will occur as well. For the first roll of film, I did a product shoot in the studio on Provia 100F with the 150mm and gel'd strobes. Great results. Now looking for a scanner (Nikon 9000 ED) and possibly a MF projector.
"Prime" 35mm Lenses: Maxxum 20mm f/2.8, Maxxum 50mm f/1.7, Maxxum 100 f/2.8 (D) Macro, Maxxum 300mm f/2.8. (I use the term "Prime" to designate fixed focal length lenses even if that term offends some people who prefer "Fixed Focal Length").
35mm Zooms: Maxxum 28-70 f/2.8, Maxxum 80-200 f/2.8 Both are sharp and bright lenses. Very fast AF with the Maxxum 9.
35mm Converters: Maxxum TC1.4 and TC 2 (only useable with the 300mm and other long Maxxum primes)
Hasselblad / Zeiss Sonnar 80mm f/2.8 and 150mm f/4. Delicious!
Angle Viewfinder VN. Not only provides for awkward viewing situations, but allows 2X magnification to really nail those macro shots.
Flashes:Maxxum 3500xi, 5400HS, 5600HS and a Sunpack AUTO 24 of unknown vintage for backfill light or hairlight here and there. The 5400HS is wonderful. The 5600HS designer should be kicked for poor menus and adding unneccesary tilt and swivel locks.
Studio Strobes: Two MultiBlitz Compactlite 200 W-s strobes. Definitely at the low end of the power spectrum but more than adequate for portraits with umbrellas or softboxes. I can supplement these with the Maxxum's for BG lighting or forelighting.
Softboxes: Photoflex Lightdome Q3 9's. (medium size) Great soft lights. Also got one of their light modifier kits, but very expensive for the value. I'm home-making anything else that I need.
Meter: Sold the Minolta Autometer VF. Very basic, very good. Mainly for setting up studio lights. I bought the Sekonic L-558R. The 558 is overkill, but I did need a good spot meter to go with the 500 C/M and I was tired of using the Maxxum 9 as the 500 C/M spotmeter.
Vertical grip: VC-9: I almost never use this. But it does carry extra batteries of various sorts, and so can be useful on a long shoot. I imagine in a dynamic studio/fashion shoot it could be very useful, but it adds weight to an already heavy system. The forward function wheel (usually shutter speed) is awkwardly placed...should have been identical to the body forward function wheel in feeling to the photog).
'pod's:
Monopod: Manfrotto 134SS with monopod head.
Regular Tripod: Manfrotto 190QCB with 486RC2 ballhead.
Manfrotto 410 Junior Geared Head, and now looking for legs for it and using it on the 190 temporarilly. I bought this for the Hasselblad as both the camera and this head are definitely for slower paced photography.
Big Tripod: Manfrotto 058B with Wimberley head and Kirk Enterprise QR (for 300 f/2.8 and larger lenses).
Flash Bracket: big RLc Stroboframe. I can flip the camera without moving anything else. This is supplemented with a Manfrotto 323 quick release for the camera and a plate so I can drop the whole rig onto my ball heads if needed.
Scanner: The 5400 dpi, 16 bit/channel Minolta Dimage Scan Elite has replaced the Minolta Dimage Scan Dual that served me so well for so long. So flirting with the boundaries of scanning limits these days. High point is printing on an ordinary Epson 785 printer yields prints that appear as good, if not better than from the minilab. Now that I have the Hasselblad, I'm looking to a Nikon 9000 ED to replace the Minolta as Minolta have not kept up on the MF side of scanning. So the 5400, which has served me so well will soon go on sale.