I have been doing 35 mm photgraphy (for fun only) for several years, but want to go to a larger format. A little background - currently own Canon Elan IIe with 6 lenses, Gitzo 1227, Arca Swiss B1. Most of my photography is landscape with Velvia or Provia 100F. I also have a Nikon 4000 scanner and print up to 13X19 on Epson 1270. Took Bill Atkinson's 3 day course on digital imaging last year. Once I saw the kind of work he is doing, I became very interested in a larger format. 35 mm looks good to me printed at 8X10 or a little larger, but is stretched too much at 13X19. I would like to print larger (20X24 or a bit more at times, to Lightjet) with more detail and less grain. I bought a used Tachihara with 2 lenses and spent some time figuring out how to use it, but just seemed too fiddly to me and too slow. Will probably go back to it down the line (perhaps it will grow on me). Fortunately, I don't need to sell any of my 35 mm or large format stuff to get into medium format.

I have been looking at medium format cameras for some time. Pretty much settled on getting a Pentax 67 II and a couple of lenses (55 mm and 135 mm) to start. Scoured all the threads on Lusenet, photo.net, etc. Will use the 35 mm for backpacking, and the P67 for anything up to moderate day hikes. I rented a P67 for one day, but didn't have much time to use it (poor planning on my part). Film loading seemed a lot easier than I had read about on the internet, and I found the transition from 35 mm quite easy.

Now for my questions:

1) Will the 1227 and B1 be sufficient to start with for prime lenses up to 135 mm or do I need to think about a larger tripod (Gitzo 1325 or 1548) right away? The threads I have read seem to be somewhat variable about how big a tripod & ballhead are necessary to tame the vibrations.

2) If I do get a larger tripod at some point, will I need something heavier than the B1 for the 200 mm lens?

3) Would you recommend the screw on hood or the clip on hood? I am not clear on the difference.

Any other thoughts or suggestions are also welcome.

-- John Hollenberg (weasel@linkline.com), May 28, 2002

Answers

John, only a comment. I'd choose the 45 against the 55, mostly because the major drawback of 6x7 is lack of DOF and near point focus provided by the 55 is a mere 10 feet, very disappointing for landscape photography. I think the transition from 35 mm to P67 can be very smooth, as long as you address the vibration and poor DOF issues. Cheers Roberto

-- Roberto Manderioli (ik4jqw@amsat.org), May 29, 2002.

John- With the lenses you mention, including the 200mm, which is actually rather light, I think you'll be more than OK starting with the 1227 & B1 head. I used this setup for a while until I went up to the 1325 & B1 mainly because I wanted to be able to use the tripod for some 4X5 as well. On either tripod setup I never had/have vibration issues, though I always lock the mirror up before tripping the shutter.

As far as lenses (and I'm sure you've probably read a lot of opinions already), I LOVE the 55-90 zoom, and am saving up for the 90-180 (and hoping it's as nice as the 55-90). I'm not too thrilled with the 200 though- things just don't look right with it.

good luck.

-- Tom Gorman (honeychrom@aol.com), May 29, 2002.

Tripod wise I would not recommend the Gitzo 1227 as being too weedy for the job. I have a 1349 which is excellent and use it with my 165mm without any problems. One point is that you will need a decent mounting plate to clamp to the B1 in order to get a really rigid connection. The RRS plate is very expensive but does the job superbly on a P67.

-- Kim Fullbrook (kimfullbrook@hotmail.com), May 29, 2002.