Re: Working Kit

["Charles E. Love, Jr." <cel14@cornell.edu>]

At 03:06 PM 1/22/97 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm newly signed on to the list and put my 2-cents in for whatever it might
>be worth, assuming that the USERS in the title means what it says. I'm a
>working pro and would love to see a thread started about "working kit."
>
>I would enjoy sharing notes on working kit with like-minded folks,if this
>is the sort of thread that has a place on this list.
>
I do hope the USERS means what it says, too--but there is a lot of collector
stuff on this list as well.  Anyway, I do fine art photography, and in
recent years have done more landscapes and abstracts than work with people,
so my M system gets less use these days than my R stuff and, lately (oh
heresy) medium format, since I like big prints.

In the days I used the M a lot, I found a small leather bag that would carry
my whole system--M6 plus 21 2.8, 35 2, 75 1.4 or 90 2.8, and 135 4.  I used
it a great deal for travel.  In practice, however, I hardly ever used the
135, and used the 35 the most, with the 21 second and the 75 or 90 third.
So today I usually leave the 135 behind when I use the M.  One handy item
for a small kit is the ring that connects two M lenses together back to
back--the 35 and the 90, e.g., do this well and take up only one case
compartment.

My R travel kit used to include 24 or 28, 50, and 135 or 180 f4.  Then I got
the 60 macro, and tried 28, 60, 135.  But a better travel arrangement turned
out to be 24, 35-70, 70-210 (all three, ironically, Minolta designs), with
perhaps one specialty lens like the 60, the 100 2.8, 35 1.4, or 80 1.4,
added.  This worked because the zooms, old designs though they are, were
pretty good at middle apertures.   I would expect that the new Kyocera-built
80-200 would be better, though I haven't heard anything about it yet.

When I got into medium format, I often took a Pentax 67 system, which is a
great field camera, and four lenses.  That system is terribly heavy, and
also requires a heavy tripod with ball head.  I usually threw in the M as a
quick-shooting backup.

Now, I've had heart trouble, and so my carrying ability is somewhat limited.
I've been trying the Mamiya 7, which has fantastic lenses, and works very
like a Leica rangefinder.  The whole system fits into a relatively small bag
(e.g. Domke F4), and, since there's no big mirror or focal plane shutter,
can be used with a smaller tripod (I use a Leitz Tiltall Junior with Leitz
ball-and-socket head).  The problem is, of course, no closeups or long
lenses, so an R with 100 2.8 sometimes goes along.  BTW, to get the most out
of that 100 2.8 you must have a mirror lifter--R cameras have lots of mirror
slap--so you need either an R6, R6.2, R7, or R8--the quality difference is
very obvious.

Well, this got out of hand.  But I'd like to hear more about your
experiences.  What do you use your kit for, that is, what kind of
photography do you do professionally for which the M serves you so well?
What else do you use?--etc.

Best, Charlie
Charles E. Love, Jr.
CEL14@CORNELL.EDU