How did you make the jump to MF?

Just like everyone else who progresses through the stages of photographic experience, I have landed on a specialization as a result of my native tendencies and interests, and it has brought me to the realm of nature photography. I am still either circling in on a sub-specialty, or (a more desirable option to me) I am going to find a wide gamut of natural subjects in my viewfinder, into perpetuity. That would be fine by me, but we go where it takes us I guess.

I currently do all my work with a Canon Mk II N, and it has been a great camera for many aspects of natural photography. Birding, wildlife, any longer-range telephoto work that might crop up, anything with action involved. As I'm sure everyone knows. We are moving to Great Falls, MT, in a few months, and I fully intend to shoot every square inch of the state 5 times over, including every known species of bird/mammal/insect, or fish if I could get under water.

The MkIIN is capable enough for landscapes, but hardly the best tool for that job. I've been looking very hard at the 1Ds Mark II, or whatever might appear this year in its place, but the super wide angle FF limitations are a concern to me, in the landscape department. If the MkIIN became the MkIII with 16 mp's...well, I could probably get past the 1.3 crop as a trade-off for slightly better birding capabilities. But I am more inclined to think that the next incarnation of the 1DMkII is going to be a 12 mp version. Even so, no matter how great the 35mm format is, there will always be limitations with using a smaller sensor compared with a larger one.

SOOOO, I have been contemplating keeping the MkIIN for birding/wildlife/telephoto work, and adding a MF camera for landscape or any other subject that isn't likely to get up and walk off while I set up to shoot it. Like everyone else, I absolutely want the best pictures I am capable of creating, and I'm thinking that going double format would fill both requirements nicely without my having to make compromises that might affect the quality of my images. I've been looking at the Contax 645, followed quickly by going numb with overload at trying to negotiate the maze of digital backs.

I assume that none of you were born shooting 645 or other MF/LF images. I'd like to hear of the experiences that pushed you to make the jump, maybe some helpful advice for the dreaded newbie (ugh), and how you settled on a particular format. I like the Contax because I've read great things about the lenses, because I can pick up a used one in good condition for a song (or even a new one at a couple of sites I found, supposedly), I would be able to choose from a selection of databacks from several different manufactureres, and because I've seen examples of images that I have found amazing. (and because I just like it)

Aside from software, databack, camera, lenses, the odd accessory, what else am I really looking at as far as accumulations of equipment? I'm sure it can't be as simple as slapping a back on the body, firing away, downoading images, printing images, selling images. I need a fuller picture of what's involved, and I'm not finding it on the 500 pages of internet searches I've been through. And I do recognize (and accept) the learning curve involved.

Any advice or expertise you fellows might like to offer me, I'm all ears! I have so much to learn. And no, I haven't made a firm decision yet. But I will have to talk myself out of it at this point. I'd say my upper range of funds will likely top out around $20k (though that's not set in concrete), so that has to be taken into consideration, of course.

i stepped up slowly by slowly.... starting with a fuji s2, coming to the kodak 14n and slr ( this is a great camera if you learn to use it .... ), over a 1ds2 to an mf emotion22 and emotion75, which i use for my work. actually i work with a 54h multishot back mounted behind a contax 645 ( great camera ).
why i did this changes? cause i like the best quality i can make. and cause i have much work to do.
so this would be my first question to you... is this your work or is it a passion

Thanks for your response. As to the work/passion question, currently it is only a passion, but my goal is to make it both. I'd like to become a paid freelance for nature magazines, and be able to sell prints of my work if there is an interested market. My wife has a website design business, and she is in the process of putting together a site for me to showcase my work and gauge the market. I have a lot of work to do as far as sifting through my RAW files and becoming more proficient with processing sofware, putting together a portfolio, and getting exposure for the work I have already done. Which is still a work in progress. It wasn't so long ago I was a snapshot taker---or the painful moment when I discovered that's what I was. I need to improve on all levels. But I dearly want to, and determinedly plan to. I am determined, but realize I have to increase my level of skill and the quality of my images. Maybe it will not be with medium format, I can't say right now, but I WILL become a quality nature photographer and make this my work. I might be satisfied with stock work for a time, but that's sort of the low-end of my expectations. (near the bottom, actually)

And I absolutely refuse to fall prey to those who ARE more advanced than I, or who are actual working professionals, that would dismiss me as a dilettante because I have had no formal training or have no professional credentials. I WILL get formal training, I am not so foolish to think I can teach myself everything I need to know. I care very much about receiving constructive criticism, but not the intolerance of elitism. I have not seem that on this forum, which is one of the reasons I choose to be here.

PS, are the pano's in your website (very impressive!) crops or stitches? Do you correct vertical distortion of your wide-angle shots with post-processing? I enjoy your work very much.

thank you very much.
they are corrected in any possible way and are made of many shots ( up to 100 and more )..... vertical, horizontal, barrel, angle correction. roofs seperately shot and o on...... they are really a lot of work.
about digital:
there is allway a step up. at the moment i make a book about quilts, and use a 54h sinar multishot back. here i can see the future of quality in one shot backs.... and there is a long way to improve the sensors more,- its just the question who will need that. so it comes really down to the question howmuch you can/want to spend and what are your or your clients needs.

Hi Rainer,

Do you have any idea how the 54H compares to the higher end Leaf and Phase one backs for shooting people?

Asher

i think you have to compare the 54h to other 22mp backs in single shot mode, but it has no display. it is designed for studio use only. with multishots you cant have any movement , so people are not possible in this way.

Hi Rainer, it does do single shot doesn't it? Also doesn't it have an ability to hook up a computor or PDA?

Asher

Joel Slack said:

I assume that none of you were born shooting 645 or other MF/LF images.

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My jump to MF:

1975---------1983 --------------199X------------------2000

Kodak 110 -> Contax 139 -> Contax ST
--------------------------------> Hasselblad 503CX -> Contax 645 ---->
---------------------------------> Noblex 150 ------------------------>
----------------------------------> Roundshot 220VR ------------------->
-----------------------------------> Hasselblad Arcbody -------------->

Asher Kelman said:

Hi Rainer, it does do single shot doesn't it? Also doesn't it have an ability to hook up a computor or PDA?

Asher

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i think it behaves similar as other 22mp kodak chips in single shot. which means i would prefere for single shots dalsa sensors as the e22 or a22.
but the 4 shot is very good already, the 16 shot is incredible ( but you need a really stable tripoid and studio environment therefore - its very very sensitive for movements of any kind ).

you need energy for the back, delivered by the firewire cable. sure not the best back for portable use.

From what you are saying it seems that one should better rent the 54H if one has only sporadic need for the high quality 16 shot pictures as opposed to model work and pictures with swaying plants and such.

Well, unlike you I have had only scant experience with digital backs. My first and recent experience was with Lead Aptus on a Mamiya or a H2 Hasselblad and that was sweet. I will report shortly.

I think that these backs are all miraculous. But I think my 5d is amazing and the M8 (when not fooled by IR) is approaching magic too. These are flirtations.

I would love to have a MF back instead of stitching small parts of wide shots for my backgrounds . So I'll have to try the Aptus again. Maybe on a Mamiya AFD.

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

oo. These are flirtations.

I would love to have a MF back instead of stitching small parts of wide shots for my backgrounds . So I'll have to try the Aptus again. Maybe on a Mamiya AFD.

Asher

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maybee you should give the emotion also a try.
i know several people who compared these two backs and who bought afterwards the e22/75.
i like my 5d also very much, but its a good jump to a 33mp back, and there is no 35mm camera visible who can follow,- esp. for the lack of good wides.

Do you have a contact for the emotion people here?

Maybe I should try it too!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Do you have a contact for the emotion people here?

Maybe I should try it too!

Asher

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i asked thierry who is the right person.....

I made the jump (down!) to MF about five years ago when I realised that my productivity was decreasing with the usual 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. Large format gear is heavy enough to limit how far one can walk and still have enough energy left over to do creative thinking at one's destination. Increasing age doesn't help either.

I selected the Mamiya RB 67 system (and invested in it before used gear got really cheap, damn). The RB body, WL finder, one lens, one back is what I carry on a hike.

The view cameras still do everything else.

Maris Rusis said:

I made the jump (down!) to MF about five years ago when I realised that my productivity was decreasing with the usual 8x10 and 4x5 cameras. Large format gear is heavy enough to limit how far one can walk and still have enough energy left over to do creative thinking at one's destination. Increasing age doesn't help either.

I selected the Mamiya RB 67 system (and invested in it before used gear got really cheap, damn). The RB body, WL finder, one lens, one back is what I carry on a hike.

The view cameras still do everything else.

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Well Maris, I tested a Leaf Aptus 75 on a Mamaya RZ and was impressed at how like a mini LF it is.

Are you using a digital Back or not or still with film?

Asher