I remember the shooting day when I went through three medium format cameras before the job was completed. That's three cameras in one shooting day. I was photographing for a company that, at the time, was a big competitor for Home Depot. They were called, Builder's Square. We were shooting a print advertising campaign for their ad agency based around the concept of kids sports. The project took place on locations around San Antonio and we undertook the project in the dead of Summer, during the heat wave of 1990. All the interior sports (basketball, volleyball, etc.) were problem free. I had a small crew of three helpers and the client/agency fielded about five people who in turn played hosts to a flock of attending clients.
It was one of those dry Summer days during which getting under 100° would have been delicious. Illogically, the ad agency saved the most grueling part of the project for last. In the late afternoon we we're setting up to shoot lots of photographs of kids playing baseball. In combination with triple digit heat, and an ongoing drought, the winds started to pick up when we got to the baseball field. We were on the the receiving end of the remnants of a dust storm from the flat, arid west Texas dust lands. But the light was good and the kids were thrilled to be at a photo shoot and we soldiered on.
I brought along three Hasselblad film cameras and a brace of lenses to do the project. We set up and started shooting tests and first images when the blowing sand and dust infiltrated the shooting camera and it locked up. I took a deep breath and tossed it into a case and pulled out a second ELX motor drive Hasselblad. I attached a lens while inside my car as a safety move. But within a half hour that body decided to stop working as well. The agency people sensed my ..... anxiety? worry? growing sense of impending doom? The dust and sand got into every piece of gear!
But I assured them that we had already gotten a lot of good images and that we had one more camera in the equipment case that we could count on. I pulled a well used but well maintained H-Blad 500 CM out and set it on the tripod. My assistants and I all crossed our fingers for good luck and breathed a huge sigh of relief when, at the end of the shoot, the camera was still fully functional. If we'd had to go back and re-shoot I would have been on the hook for the talent fees, the location fees and the additional travel and work time for the assistants. And I'd also be that guy whose cameras ALL broke and couldn't finish the shoot.
That was a big lesson for someone really just hitting his stride in the commercial market for photography. With film cameras you really did need back up gear that you could sub in if and when your primary cameras decided to take a mechanical sabbatical from work. Stuff broke. Stuff needed adjustments.
While digital cameras seem to be much more reliable my work shooting corporate events taught me the value of having multiple camera bodies for a different reason. When you are working quickly there's not always time to change lenses. If you've been photographing a speaker on a giant stage and you've got a 300mm lens on your camera, on a tripod, but now you need to pivot quickly and photograph a demonstration on the side of the stage, with a wide angle lens, you'll probably want to leave your telephoto lens and camera right where they are and grab a camera with a wide zoom lens off your shoulder and hustle over to the demo area to get the shots.
It's the same with theatrical photography. I shoot a lot of actor close-ups from mid-way up the audience seats from the stage but often I'll want to go from some tight one, two and three person groupings to a wide, overall shot to capture something like a special effect or a really neat (and very, very temporary) lighting cue. To work at the best efficiency I bring (at least) two identical camera bodies and put a 70-200mm on one and a 24-70mm on the other, set them for identical color balances, and profile settings and put the one I'm not using on the seat next to me. When I need it I grab it and tweak the exposure and then shoot quickly. When I need to go back to the telephoto zoom camera it's sitting right next to me, ready to go. I plunk down the wide zoom camera, grab the tight zoom camera and it's little more than a gesture to go from 24 to 200mm in a flash. If I time it right I almost never miss a changing light effect or an actor's dramatic close up. But the secret is in having the two bodies ready at all times.
I can't imagine how much delay there would be if I brought only one body and tried to change lenses over and over and over again (in the dark) during the run of a live show......
But I know what you're probably thinking. Something like: "Yes Kirk, we get the need to have the right gear at hand for commercial work but the Canon G16s you picked up this week are for art, travel and play. Why on earth would you need two of them?"
If you think about travel for a few moments you'll realize that flying from Austin to Iceland or Rome or St. Petersburg is more expensive by far than a second camera body. And staying in nice hotels isn't cheap either. So if the whole point of your trip to one of these far away places is to take photographs (the 'busman's' holiday!) wouldn't it be a shame if you arrived, the weather was perfect, the people were amazingly beautiful and graceful....and your camera died on the first day?
Never happens? Hmmm. I remember a trip I took back when I was shooting with Leica M film cameras. I loved the 50 Summicron lens and my idea of heaven was that 50mm sitting on the front of a beautiful M3 Single stroke camera. I found a mint M3 SS about a week before Belinda and I left to go to France and Italy back in 1986. I asked the head repair guy at our local camera repair facility to give the M3 a close inspection and, in a moment of bravery/stupidity, decided to lighten my usual camera load by taking ONLY the M3 and the 50mm lens along with me. That, and a brick of Kodachrome 64 film.
After checking into our hotel in Paris we headed out into the streets so Belinda could immerse herself in the Paris street life while I stumbled along behind and tried to take great photographs. About an hour into our vacation the film advance lever on the M3 locked up and the camera became a very beautifully designed metal brick. I was crestfallen. Depressed.
I went to the FNAC at Les Halles and bought another camera. I couldn't justify buying another M series camera so I defaulted to the then brand new Contax Aria camera (small and lightweight) along with a very sweet little 28-85mm zoom lens. But it was never the same. I had my mind all wrapped around shooting with that Leica and I was too immature to just let it all go. I was selfishly sulky. I went back to the FNAC and bought a small Minox ML (super compact 35mm) and was happier but still pissed at having to spend thousands to replace a camera that had the reputation for being indestructible.
I've never gone on assignment or a personal photograph trip since without at least one back up camera which uses the same batteries and lenses as my primary shooting camera. If the back up and the primary are the same model of camera then so much the better. Less friction going back and forth between different menus...
So, I bought the twin G16s because I remembered that Belinda made beautiful photographs in Montreal with the predecessor to the G16 (the G15) and I thought at the time how great it was for her to travel with such a compact and highly portable solution. When we can travel again I thought it would be freeing to take along nothing but a small point and shoot --- after all, I'm supposed to be good at photography and I should be able to make decent photographs with just about any modern camera; right?
But I would hate to be wherever it is that we've just spent 24 hours getting to and having a single, lone camera die. I'll always to pack a second one. And that's why I buy cameras in pairs.
Especially when the used cameras I'm buying are less expensive than some dinners we've had. And small enough to stick in a jacket pocket. And that's my rationale.
The heat in Austin is oppressive right now. I dread hitting the pool in the morning because I'm sure that even with aerators running all night long the water temperature is going to be uncomfortably warm. That led me to think about cooling beverages and desserts with ice cream. So I posted some here.
Do you buy cameras in pairs? Why not? What would change if you did?
What's your favorite cold beverage? Did you know that Canon R5s overheat when shooting video? I heard all about it at the camera store today. Not a pretty topic for a newly launched camera.....
A pet peeve I just realized I have today is one about blogging. I hate it when blogger finds a subject that his or her audience finds to be juicy and then leaves the blog static for days at a time. I guess I think blogs these days should be more daily stream of consciousness. Something to look forward to in 24 hour installments. But maybe I'm not being smart and efficient as a blogger. Maybe I should just put stuff up intermittently. Opinions?
Bored with staying home. But committed to doing the right thing. Hope Texas gets its stuff together soon....
32 comments:
The more often you post, the better, at least from my selfish point of view. I must admit to feeling slightly disappointed when I open your page and there is no new post. I really enjoy your writing and would miss it if you posted less often. VSL and TOP are the only two photography blogs I read regularly.
I'm not a prolific shooter - just an amateur who loves photography. I do not buy cameras in pairs because I'm an amateur. However I own multiple cameras. Sometimes I travel with one camera and sometimes with two. I've travelled to Australia and Vietnam with a single Fuji X camera. I've also travelled to Australia with a Fuji X and Fuji GFX. I've travelled to Costa Rica with only a Sony A9. I've flown to Utah with a Sony A9 for my kids sports and a GFX for landscape. These days if I were to travel I would like to take just the GFX and use my cellphone as a backup. But I could easily see debating myself away from this to a Sony A9/A7RIV pair.
As an aside when we went to Costa Rica in 2019, I planned to take just the Fuji X camera. As I was packing, I dropped my Fuji 100-400 lens and broke it. I was shattered. Fortunately I had an alternate Sony system I could take. The Sony did fine but I had my heart set on travelling with my X-T3. Looking back now, it didn't really matter which system I took because we created great memories and the photography wasn't so important compared to this.
I enjoy that you and Mike Johnston post most days. But I’m also happy with blogs that post less frequently as long as I know their schedule and they stick to it. When I restarted my blog, alifeinphotography.blogspot.com, I decided that I would post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I make sure everyone knows that’s my schedule, and I stick to it. So far, it’s worked out okay.
Well, if I don't see a new post from you after, say, 36 hours, I wonder if you're well. I try to save your and MCJ's blogs for "dessert" after reading the news/politics sites. Speaking of desserts, I want one of everything you posted!
No duplicate cameras, but I do usually take two on trips. GX7 and D700 for a Spring getaway in Ocean City NJ in 2019. GX7 and LX100 for an Eastern Europe tour in 2018. LX100 and LX7 for Iceland in 2016. GF1 and E-PL1 and too many lenses for Italy in 2012.
(I'm on the verge of selling off more gear ... again.)
(Continuing the above) There are some blogs I like that post infrequently/irregularly. If they usually have good content I’ll keep checking back, but it’s a nuisance.
I never took two cameras on a trip until I went on a safari in Botswana in 2013 and the tour lead suggested that everyone have two cameras with overlapping lenses so that if one camera or lens zonked out because of the elements, we would not be on a very expensive vacation in the middle of nowhere (quite literally, in that case) seeing an incredible variety of wildlife in beautiful light... and no way to photograph any of it. Since then, I've always had two cameras and two-three lenses on every trip. But part of that is because my wife and I are avid nature and wildlife lovers and most of our trips are to places where there are no camera stores or repair shops.
Ken
My feeling when considering camera purchases is that I want to be able to buy two of whatever I get. Not that I will actually buy two, but if I leave the camera behind in a cafe, have it stolen, drop it into a river, whatever, I want to be able to buy its replacement immediately without anguishing into ulcer land. A few years ago I had a camera fall off a monopod onto stone paving (my fault - not fastened correctly) and I knew immediately that it was a goner. Replaced within days with no regrets (although plenty of double-checking arca-swiss mounts ever since). I did break that rule when I got a used 645Z, but time has worked in my favor and now I could replace that (and would!) without too much grief.
Just curious. How warm does the water get there? Ours was 90 degrees yesterday morning. OK for floating but maybe a little warm for laps.
I bring two cameras with me on trips not so much for having one as backup but in not having to change lenses. I mount a wide angle prime on one and a telephoto zoom on the other. I wet clean the sensors before I leave on my trip. When I return I'm very happy with not having to deal with removing dust spots that most likely occured with having to change lenses in the field during a windy day.
Dave Jenkins complains of the nuisance of having to check blogs for infrequent posts but this is easily solved in most cases with RSS or, better, with ITTT which will send a notification whenever a new post is made.
Richard Parkin
Sorry, typo — IFTTT, ie if this then that, https://ifttt.com/
Richard Parkin
A little off topic but your phone to a certain extent now is that second camera. Or would be if someone (Apple) would write a decent app for storing photos and have a better system to interface with your computer for transfer. How many people have thousands of photos just dumped into one huge flat database? How can you ever use it for serious photography with this system and then you have to email the images to yourself to gt them into a documented database. Maybe some day.
I really appreciate a serving of VSL every morning with my first cup of coffee. But when it’s not available, I remind myself that given what we’re paying it’s a miracle that it shows up at all. Thank you.
As to buying two cameras at once - I have enough trouble buying one. Dithering for months over the nonessential expense, weighing the variables of format and finesse of execution, my teeth are now ground down to nubs. Some people probably shouldn’t play this game. Maybe the iPhone 12 Pro will precipitate a shift to full time phonography.
Retired news shooter here. Oakland, with Ricky Henderson going for the MLB base stealing record. Two Nikon F3HP bodies with motor drives quit on me, within a few frames of each other. Extra old Nikon F(prison, not metered) I kept with me all the time went on the 600 f/4 and I got the image our editor wanted. What were the odds two Pro bodies would die at the same time? Well serviced, well taken care of - and fixed after the game.
Stuff happens and if you are not prepared you suffer for it.
Don't know how many "pro wedding photographers" I have seen with one body, one strobe who have had problems and screwed up the day.
As the US Navy Seal's say: "Two is one, one is none."
Don't stop! PLEASE
I look fwd to your daily +/- posts so much
A day or two without posts with no notice is no big annoyance. With two regular blogs and a couple of standbys, there’s always something to read. You and Mike give advance notice of long absences, so that’s ok.
I generally haul two different cameras for using different lenses. Of course, the only time my 5D failed in the 12 years I used it was on a paid gig with no backup body, but late enough to accomplish the job – and Canon fixed it for free out of warranty, so slings and arrows narrowly avoided.
Now, if that first drink isn’t called a lawnmower – or maybe weed-whacker – it should be.
Al Weber told a great story of going on assignment to Army tank training exercises at what was then called White Sands Proving Grounds. Big PR event and he was there with a whole bunch of other photographers, most everybody working with Nikon Fs or Leicas (around 1960, I think). He described his kit as "a bag full of old Rolleis." The tanks start flying around the dunes, the whirling sand heads straight for the photographers and within minutes he is the only photographer still shooting as he just goes from one camera to another.
While not as dedicated to variety as you, I don't buy cameras in pairs as I'll tend to take two different styles of cameras to events or shoots.
As my shoots are almost always one on one, if something goes seriously awry I'll wind it up and reschedule.
My main pair of cameras is an EP5 and a bronica SQ. The wildly different styles and approaches allows for variety in the styles of portraiture I do (the digital for the 'caught' expression portraits, the film for the slow and posed).
I can understand the pairs thing for your work. Ultimately, photography isn't my primary job, and so the concerns are not as critical for me.
If I bought cameras in pairs my wallet would be lighter.
Favourite cold drink: Coke Zero or Crodino
I find it nice when Podcasters release an Ep on the same day, once a week.
Bloggers are just nifty when they write when they want. There's a lot to say for getting into a regular rhythm. Like photography it pays to practice daily. But ultimately, it's author's choice.
Mark
Kirk, you should blog as often as you like and as often as you have something to say. I think posting regularly is a good idea. I've given up following a number of blogs because the posts seem to be few and far between. Same with Youtube channels. There needs to be a regular flow. I need to get my blog back in business but I don't have much of a following so I'm basically talking to myself, which is not always motivating.
I generally do not buy cameras in pairs but it's just a financial thing. I see the wisdom in it. I will carry a backup camera if I am traveling. I also have my iPhone and it's a fine camera so I always have a backup with me. Some days my iPhone is my primary camera. Yesterday my wife and I went to our local farmer's market (Covid-19 rules strictly enforced, no entry without a mask and we kept our distance from others, hand sanitizers everywhere) and I shot only with my iPhone. I'm really happy with the photos and I wouldn't have been any happier had I used a 24mp mirrorless camera.
I’ve carried two cameras on every trip since my first photo workshop in Yosemite eight years ago. First it was a P&S, but then evolved to a camera that shared lenses. The first pair was a Nikon D7000 and V1, although I also brought the tiny Nikon 1 lenses along. More recently it’s been m43 kit, but never two identical bodies. The closest was an E-M1 and an E-M1.2 on my Africa safari a couple of years ago - similar bodies and setup, but different batteries. On that trip I also took overlapping lenses so a lens failure would leave me only partially in the hole: 12-35/2.8, 40-150/2.8 + 1.4X TC, 100-400. While I had some minor problems, the typical safari shooting setup was the 40-150 on the E-M1 and the 100-400 on the E-M1.2. My tripod didn’t survive the trip over, the 40-150 lens hood disintegrated after a couple of days, and my eyeglasses broke (I had a backup for them as well).
Up until last winter I also shot music shows in a dinner theater setting. There I would use the two E-M1s usually with the 45/1.8 and 75/1.8 mounted. The 12/2 and 17/1.8 were in my pocket, and got some minor use. Perhaps I will do this again, someday.
Not always two identical cameras but 3 Panasonic's that take the same battery type, 3 Pentax's that all use AA bateries so there is always a back up. There are others that I use that don't share batteries but if it is important then spares will go along you never know what may happen.
Hi Kirk.
Back in the day (I sound like an old timer, which I am, I guess) when I was shooting weddings, I carried a medium format camera with a couple of pre-loaded colour negative film magazines + a trio of prime lenses. Plenty of 220 film in the bag. Re-loaded the magazines in the car, on the way to the next location.
I also carried a Leica M3 and a Leica M4 (later an M6). One was loaded with b\w film, the other with colour neg film of the same type as the medium format camera. I figured if the medium format camera failed, I could always finish the job thanks to the Leicas' exceptional lenses.
Happened only once in many years' work. Lucky, I guess.
I understand where you're coming from.
Years ago the lone camera I had with me gave out during a trip. Ever since, I usually travel with two cameras, both non-DSLR. It would be so much easier for me if both were the same brand and model, but instead I take cameras with different feature sets---one as compact as possible for street photography and the other with a larger zoom lens for wildlife. Having to remember and work two distinct menus to change settings on the fly can inevitably prove challenging at times. I certainly don´t make it easy on myself...
On my first overseas trip 50 years ago, I carried two Leica IIIg bodies and five (fixed focal length) Leica lenses in a Benser case. I owned all the equipment — bought used.
Since then, I have had a camera body or lens fail about once every seven years. That could be fatal if I was using a film camera in Africa or Antarctica and did not learn about it until I returned to the States and had the film developed. So, I changed bodies and lenses often.
For the last twenty years my practice has been to take one body that i owned and was very familiar with and also to rent an identical body as a backup. Before leaving the country, I set all the settings in the rental body to be identical to the one I owned. I would also carry about five lenses of various focal lengths, some fixed and some variable.
Cameras do not only fail, they are sometimes stolen. (That happened to me once.) Every night I back up all my images to a hard drive. The hard drive is in one piece of luggage, My used memory cards are carried in a different piece of luggage. The owned camera is in my camera bag. Even if a camera is stolen or a piece of luggage is stolen, I still have all my photos.
G9 under a thousand new...
Kirk - ever consider getting back into film?
I've been shooting a Bronica SQA 6x6 lately and I am absolutely loving it.
Getting film processed and getting the negs back - together with a USB drive of beautifully scanned files - is surprisingly easy.
I was losing my mojo but film is giving it new life.
I always take 2 cameras when traveling, but normally not in pairs (unless I am shooting Corridas, then I pair long lenses as well). My gear is always so small that I don't worry about having 2 chargers. Sometimes I only take one charger, but a ton of batteries instead. And large, for me, sd cards as well. The first time my wife and I went to Cuba a rouge wave wiped my main Ricoh. I was sure glad I had a Casio in reserve. My wife always has a camera as well, but doesn't shoot that much, so in the end we have three.
Having two camera bodies makes sense for not having to continuous change lenses.
Once my sweetie decided that her Canon 5D MkII and all the associated L series glass was too heavy to lug around internationally I convinced her to buy into the Panasonic m43 system. I just happened to want to up grade my Panasonic so she got the hand-me-down. As I have moved up in the Pannie world she has as well. So on trips I take two bodies and my sweetie takes one. She could have two if she wanted but her fear of camera failure isn't as acute as mine. So in total three Panasonic m43 cameras and two full compliments of lenses travel with us. Redundancy issue resolved!
Back in my PJ days I carried 3 bodies on straps around my neck if it was required. Those darn Nikon F's were heavy! Generally speaking I just carried two bodies, one with a zoom and one with a prime. I quickly got out of that kind of work. Lousy hours and lousy pay.
Eric
I was never a full-time news photographer, but I was an enthusiast who occasionally shot news stuff for my various papers, and I learned early-on that I needed two cameras. Since then, and until recently, I've bought my cameras in identical pairs, my favorites being my two Panasonic GX8s, one silver, one black. I've also tried to buy my paired cameras with contrasting metal trims (black and silver) so I could tell at a glance which was which. For six years I shot film at archaeological digs in the Middle Eas (and shot digital for nine more) and it was critical that the pictures were good, because once you took a picture of a particular structure, it was usually destroyed as the dig went deeper (and you can't chimp film to make sure you had it covered. And the conditions were miserable, very much like what you're experiencing right now in Austin -- think about excavating an Austin basement with hand trowels, in the dead of summer, and you're close.) There was no going back. So, I usually had color negative in one camera, and color positive in the other, because I was shooting both for academic publication and for academic lectures, which then used slides. And by shooting everything twice with both kinds of film, if one of the cameras went bad and we didn't notice, we had the other film as backup.
The identical camera habit has persisted, even though I probably don't really need it anymore, but the last time I bought a camera, a Z6, I considered it an experiment, and I only bought one. Now, sort of a failed experiment -- there won't be another, because I now feel Nikon is completely wrong-headed in its development path. It had an opportunity to build small professional cameras with small professional lenses, and what we got was cameras slightly smaller than the DSLRs, fitted with great big whopping lenses. I'm not going there anymore. I went to Iraq years ago with two D3s and the requite f2.8 zooms plus a couple of single-focus lenses, and it damn near killed me. No heat though; it snowed while we were there. 8-)
If somebody put a gun to my head and told me I had to go shoot some kind of outdoor event, it'd be the two GX8s with short zoom on the silver trim and a long zoom on the black, plus an ultra wide zoom and a portrait lens in the bag.
When I shot stills (not professionally) with 35mm film, I liked shooting 2 bodies with 28mm and 85mm lenses - or close to that. I did that with Contax 167MT bodies (had a 35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss) and with a pair of Contax G2 - 28mm and 90mm Zeiss — I think they were both f/2 lenses. Wish I had hung on to that setup — just the nicest cameras ever, for me. My first pair of digital bodies for stills were a pair of Lumix GX7 bodies with Olympus 17mm f/1.8 and 45mm f/1.8. When I switched to two GH5 bodies for motion and stills, I traded the Olympus 17mm for the Summilux 15mm. I almost always shoot 2 bodies for video and prefer Olympus zooms for that, but I also carry the 17.5mm and 42.5mm Voigtlander f/.95 lenses just in case.
I've only once had two cameras the same and that was in the last years I used film when I had two Nikon F80s, with different lenses. That was a lovely camera.
But....if I am going on a day out or trip where photography is a significant element, I will always take two cameras: in case one breaks down but also to cover different photo situations such as inside buildings with a good low light camera and the need for a good telephoto (without being heavy!). And in case you're wondering, I once went to an exhibition with one camera, which broke down and I had to leave, hence my two cameras!!
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