Gear

The all mechanical Mamiya RB67 Pro is usually considered as a studio camera but despite of its heavy weight the camera proved to be a great tool for landscape shots. Its revolving back allows quick change horizontal or vertical composition, without turning the entire camera. The 6x7cm format is nearly 5 times larger than ordinary 35mm format. 6x7 is called the ideal format because it enlarges to standard 8x10" paper size with a minimum of cropping, thereby using virtually the entire image area.

This classic Minolta camera was discontinued some time ago. The analog controls of 600si are more typical for traditional manual focus cameras so there is no need to remember a lot of "push this and then turn this" commands. There are very few automatic tricks and no Subject programs - just one clever automatic mode I never use - but the camera has all features required by photographers up to the pro level and allows to control all aspects of exposure.

My favourite lens which covers most possibe situations. Optically this lens is very impressive for a zoom with surprisingly little distortion. The disadvantage of this zoom is its large size and weight of some 700g.

A compact and lightweight lens that provides a magnification ratio of 2:1. With very natural colours great not only for macro shots.

A super wide-angle lens which uses a molded aspheric element that provides even illumination across the film plane by preventing light fall-off. Ths lens has high resolution and contrast from infinity to minimum focusing distance. Very useful for interior pictures.

The C-1000 is a digital SLR with lens equivalent of 50-150mm zoom and image resolution of 1024 x 768. The camera is larger than most digital models but still smaller and lighter than ordinary SLR. Although the image resolution is too low for prints larger than 6x4" and even images of this size look very "digital" this camera is very useful for techical and conceptual shots as well as for Internet. When I need just one photograph to put on a web site this camera is of great help.

This film scanner with 2700 dpi true optical resolution and 36 bit colour as a very capable machine, especially taking in account its reasonable price. Main disadvantage of this scanner is absence of the ICE mode for automatic retouching scratches and dust on a film. I have to spend quite a long time doing this manually. But anyway the digital scanning and printing saves a lot of time comparing to the "wet" process and gives more flexibility.