I’ve used several different cameras over the years.  Dad was a 35mm SLR guy so I picked up his tastes initially.  A quick rundown of the workhorses would start with the Contax 139q.  It’s a small camera with a good meter and AMAZING lenses.  The bodies are available very inexpensively and I often recommend this camera to people. When I went to college I bought a Nikon F3.  Man, you could hammer nails with that thing.  At this point I was getting a little more into photography and wanted to try medium format.  I bought this cool little Ikoflex twin lens, that I carried around for a while and had a little love affair with, before it died and I moved on up to a Hasselblad.  I guess that’s when I started trying to get regular paid work.  That process frustrated the hell out of me and in a fit of aggravation I sold that kit (as well as an early 60s Gibson SG) for rent.  Man did I regret that.  Now I have two of them.  I love Hassleblad C series, though they are a little specific use.  They can be a little slow.  By this time I was in my early to mid twenties and I was working at a pro camera store in Boston, called SBI.  I don’t even know if it even exists anymore.  Anyway, we as employees got deep discounts on the used gear that came in, and one day this Mamiya 6 walked through the door.  I couldn’t afford it, but I couldn’t let it go.  I got a second job just to pay for it… and even then I couldn’t afford a lens for a few years.  So it was the F3, Hassy and the 6 for a long time. After my pop passed away I inherited his Contax G1.  It’s an auto focus rangefinder, and because it’s a Contax it uses Zeiss optics which are, as I said before, phenomenal.  That was the camera that fully put the 35mm rangefinder bug into my system.  It was so light and discrete that I found I could take shots I couldn’t really get with a bigger system.  So, small it was for me.  Inevitably, missing shots to all the auto focus hunting drove me crazy though.  My good buddy that I’ve had from the early Boston days always shot one, and he’s the guy that got me into street photography, so at this point I knew that I just had to bite the bullet and buy a Leica.

I currently shoot a Leica M2-R and a Leica M4.  I’ve owned a few Leicas and even killed a couple… well, actually they are awaiting repairs that cost more than the cameras are worth.  I had a bad habit of slinging my cameras over my shoulder rather than over my neck.  Consequently, I had a bad habit of dropping cameras, which is a habit I have thankfully broken myself from… mostly.  Maybe some day those cameras will come back to life.

My lenses are a 35mm Summicron and a 50mm Summicron, both absolutely fantastic, especially wide open at f2. I also shoot a 50mm Summitar, and a 90mm Elmar if I want to compress something.  The Summitar is an old 1940s chrome collapsible thread mount lens from the older Leica series, mounted to my Ms with an adapter. It has a single coating and is just packed full of glow.  I love that lens, and it’s not only the cheapest Leitz lens I own, but probably also the one I use the most these days.  When I’m out shooting I’ll mount a 35 to one body and the 50 to another…that way I’m ready to shoot either situation without having to fumble with lens changes.  I’ve been shooting Leica Ms for about 10 years now, and the instant I started shooting with them I knew that I had found the camera for me. These are the cameras I’m gonna shoot until I die.

There are a lot of films that I have loved, many of which are no longer available.  In the 90s I was all into chrome (slide film) and shot up a ton of Kadachrome.  I also really miss EPH (ektachrome 1600), which was expensive, but very beautiful.  That one is gone too. Today as far as color is concerned I shoot Fuji Velvia 50 or 100 if I can’t get hands on the 50.  Velvia colors are so wonderfully exaggerated and if I’m shooting color, that’s what I go for.  But mostly I’m a B&W guy.

Tri-X has historically always been my favorite.  T-Max 3200 is also a film I feel quite passionate about. For developing I use D76 for the Trix, and either D76 or Rodinal for the TMZ (3200) depending on the look I’m going for.  I think it’s very important to match optics to film and both of those to the developer. It really is a matter of crafting a look.  That is why I develop all of my film myself.  I want to own the whole process.

Lately I have been full of love for this B&W film from Czechoslovakia called Fomapan.  I’m not sure if it has higher silver content, but I have this theory that the antihalation coating is either thin or almost non-existent.  It has a tendency to flair in really beautiful ways and looks to my eye more like a film from the first half of the 20^th century, which is a look I really go for.  When you match that with the single coated Summitar from the 40s, you get something really lovely.  I’m a big fan of that combo.

I think it is preposterous.  I don’t know.  I guess it is dead for most commercial applications.  Product, sport, celebrity, even editorial and  journalism have all gone digital, but I don’t think digital photography will kill film photography any more than film photography killed painting.  It will however re-contextualize it as more of a fine art, just as photo did for painting or illustrating.  I am on that side of the equation, so it works for me.  I suspect most people who choose film are in it for the art.  Professionally I see the film aesthetic returning for things like fashion, and maybe even in some cases for high end portraiture and wedding… anything that wants to be seen as being related to art.

Honestly, I don’t care much to fight the medium debate. There is room for everyone.  I’m not a silver warrior (well… maybe a little).  My only concern is loosing materials that I love, because the economies of scale won’t support the production of those materials.  Film will not disappear, but I doubt we will return to the kind of film varieties and choice you had in the late 20^th century.  That is a problem.