I recently went into fotocare to look at all these new toys I keep reading about around here. I don't like any of them.
Hasselblad H3: grey handle looks plasticky and feels plasticky, not nice at all, most importantly though, mirror slap.
HY6: plastic, ugly, cumbersom, horrible viewfinder, looks so cheap it's terrible. Heavy.
Mamiya 645 AFD 3: the grip s wy too big to hold easily, I have really big hands and it was still uncomfortable to hold the thing.
I know this is a little off topic but I'm seriously considering going back to film for a lot of projects.
Our studio is just on digital overload, shooting, processing, storing, archiving, making film looks, updating software, computers, calibrating screens.
Today with everything else going on around me I have to get dozens of files for three seperate projects to the retouchers and back to the clients. Requires going on remote acess to the servers, searching, uploading, downloading, etc. etc.
Right now I'm running about 20 terabytes on line and many more stored off location.
In between preparing for a lot of weeks shooting on location, between cleaning sensors, charging batteries and the like, it really is an overwhelming never ending process.
I think between the Phase, the Canons, the leica and the computers I have about 5 different types of chargers.
Most of the buzz kill is the post processing. Finding that elusive film look, adjusting images, etc. etc. has gotten to the point every day of shooting equals a full day of post production.
I find the same thing with clients. Nearly to a person they miss just marking a contact and ordering a print or a scan. To a person they dread going online to view web galleries and I don't blame them.
(As I write this at 2:26am I have a 200mb web gallery going up on line from last weeks shoot.
And to top it off, except for the dslrs, the medium format cameras I own and have tried are a less responsive than when they are used to shoot film.
So if anyone knows of a great c-41 lab (anywhere in the country or the world for that matter) that still runs a lot of c-41 (duggal or Icon maybe?) and can make beautiful englarged contacts please let me know.
Maybe I'm just tired and dreaming but I think I'll give it a try.
I know that for a lot of commercial work I'll still have to work digital but then again we'll see.