I need some help my Canon friends!

[treyconnally]

Here's the deal okay...

I shoot weddings, senior portraits and street style photography.  I have a 5D MKii and enjoy it thoroughly.  I found a ridiculously amazing deal on a Canon 1vHS & love it.  Using this EOS-1 Series body has spoiled me, and having more than 9 AF points is lovely. I HATE GRABBING MY 5D MKii...

I've got all the "Wedding Glass" with the exception of maybe the 135mm/f2 or 85mm/f1.2....  But that's not the problem...

I have recently become obsessed with film.  However...

Pros:
Pictures look sexy.
Nostalgic.

Cons:
Film is expensive.

I've run across a wedding photography who shoots medium format (film) and his pictures are breathtaking... They are insane. But ITS FILM, and medium format at that!  $$$$   

So, I'm at this weird crossroads where everything is hitting me all at one time.  I've got great gear, more than enough to make anyone happy. I've worked hard for my gear. And I think I'm just ready for a fresh start.  I am familiar with Leica's and comfortable with manually focusing. I use to use Nikon equipment so I'm familiar with it. I've never shot medium format. I love the look of the Canon 1.2 primes...

It's truly a mid-camera crisis. Again, I'm not afraid of fresh starts.  I'm just looking for some advice from the peeps here before I get in over my head.

[sandymandy]

I suggest u give urself more time until u have calmed down and arent so excited about getting near gear.
Ohh and do u really think film is so expensive? Sounds to me like u just wrote that only for that fact to have some contra. Cmon man for the price of a Leica u can buy gazillions of films


p.s. can u gift me ur 5d mk2 ? im poor and cant afford it myself

[vuilang]

are you exceeding the 5d2? what dont you like about 5d2? do you think the IQ from 1vhs (film) is better than 5d2?.. if you hate the body format of 5d2 and like 1d series. Why dont you buy a 1ds3 or 1dx or etc?
thinking shooting wedding with film, manual focus, developing & PP??. you're very brave.

[Rat]

_{[edit] he got himself a 1VHS already *facepalm* [/edit]}

[Hillsilly]

Don't forget that it is widely accepted that film shooters are just plain sexier.  Seriously, every cool character who is taking photos in a movie or an ad is carrying a hasselblad, Leica or other film camera.  Only computer geeks shoot digital.  Getting into film might lead to having your own darkroom - If you meet someone at a club, you can invite them back to your darkroom to see what develops.  And if you want to be taken seriously as an artist, well...   There are a lot of pros to shooting film.

But as a negative, you do know most medium format cameras have 0 AF points?

Anyway, not sure why you think medium format is so expensive.  You can pick up a nice Mamiya kit for a few hundred dollars.  It might cost $1 to $1.50 per photo, but the reality is you probably won't shoot as many as photos as you would with digital - With the manual focusing, manual film advancing, and the cost per shot, you think twice about each photo.  This keeps the cost down a bit.  And think of how superior you'll feel to those people using tiny, miniscule FF sensors.

Personally, I go through love/hate periods with 35mm film.  Whereas I like the look of medium format and shoot it a lot, for the last couple of years I've preferred digital to 35mm and my trusty Canon film bodies have been gathering dust.  But a 1v is a nice camera.  Its probably the best film camera Canon will ever make.  It uses your current lenses.  Apart from still being a bit pricey, what's there to lose?  If you get bored with it, just sell it.

BTW, a 1Ds3 is suggested above.  A 1Ds2 won't break the bank, give good image quality and give you the 45 point AF and 1 series feel and build quality, but then a 5D3 will also do all of this and is also probably better.

[Nishi Drew]

Wish I had all those kinds of gigs, and you're bothered by something really personal...
Well, you have the lenses so get something like an EOS3, eye controlled AF! I was thinking of getting one,
seems like a neat system to try out. If you're good with the 5D2 and you just want to shoot more film then EOS3 or what others suggest, if you're thinking of vintage bodies then that's all for looks really, you're not getting an advantage unless you're going for some real nice legacy lenses. Leica has nice stuff, but Leica is for people that don't need the job anyways, if you can afford a full system from them then why not let someone else shoot those weddings 

[sanj]

Do it. Shoot film all your heart desires. How can it hurt?

I wish I had the balls and the know how to do it.

Go for it.

[7enderbender]

Here are some thoughts:

First off I can understand the urge to add film to the mix. Is still have and use my Canon FD gear and have been tempted more than once to add either a 1V or a fully equipped F1n to the bag. Same goes gor any old Mamaya or Hasselblad medium format camera. Their just plain beautiful and produce stunning images.

That being said: I struggle with the "nostalgia" aspect of it. If done right film doesn't look instagrammy or whatever. Especially medium format film still blows our 5ds out of the water. Close perhaps, but still.

To me this approach only makes sense if you set up your own dark room and print on real photo paper. The notion of scanning negatives and then do the usual stuff in photoshop or so doesn't make much sense to me. So that's one thing that has stopped me so far to pick up a medium format film camera. I don't have the time or extra space right now to set up everything you need to do it right. But I'm pretty sure it'll happen one day again.

[paul13walnut5]

You have a 1VHS, and 'all the lenses', so why go MF?  MF is slow, expensive, difficult to scan, overkill and clumsy.

One school of thought would be to buy a second EOS film body, load one with XP2, load another with reala 100.

But if you want to use something different, then I would steer you away from Leica and towards a contax G2 kit.
Cheaper, arguably better - or at least comparable- optically, but with AF if you ever want it, with AE if you ever want it.

And they are probably at their nadir price wise, some nice complete kits out there for a fraction of new or even a used leica set up.

It does seem silly that you are loving the 1VHS and yet want to move away from all of that...  why not get a used 3, also silly silly cheap.  You may love ECF, and it handles and performs like 95% of the 1VHS, for about 30% of the price.

[treyconnally]

Ohh and do u really think film is so expensive? Cmon man for the price of a Leica u can buy gazillions of films

Well, when digitally i can get prints for .13 and film cost $6 per roll of film to get color corrected, developed, and printed; then I consider film more expensive.  I totally admit this was a diva question, I just truly am ready for something new.

p.s. can u gift me ur 5d mk2 ? im poor and cant afford it myself

If I had weddings booked for the rest of the year and once I got my new camera, I wouldn't mind doing that at all.  But I'm gonna need to sell it to get something else.

What dont you like about 5d2? Do you think the IQ from 1vhs (film) is better than 5d2? If you hate the body format of 5d2 and like 1d series. Why dont you buy a 1ds3 or 1dx or etc?

I don't like how slow (compared to the 1v) the 5D MKii is.  And if I'm going to have AF Points at all, then I want to have enough where they work without me having to grab for manual focus.

Thinking about shooting a wedding with film, manual focus, developing & PP??. You're very brave. Well, I shot a ceremony with Manual Focus only before with an old film camera as an assistant, and it wasn't all that tough.  Sending out for development is where the pain in the neck would be.  It is risky, but It has that natural film look.

But as a negative, you do know most medium format cameras have 0 AF points?

Oh yeah, I'm totally aware of that.  And my only complaints about the AF Point is that if I have them at all, I want to only use them.  I feel like I grab for manual focus on my 5D often.

Anyway, not sure why you think medium format is so expensive.  You can pick up a nice Mamiya kit for a few hundred dollars.  It might cost $1 to $1.50 per photo, but the reality is you probably won't shoot as many as photos as you would with digital - With the manual focusing, manual film advancing, and the cost per shot, you think twice about each photo.  This keeps the cost down a bit.  And think of how superior you'll feel to those people using tiny, miniscule FF sensors.

I truly had no idea that Medium Format could be that cheap.  I only know of like Hasselblad 503c & Contax 645AF... Obviously, I need more research in this area.

I love my 1vHS.  It's incredible.  But a 1-series digital body is the way I am thinking everything will turn out...

A 1Ds2 won't break the bank, give good image quality and give you the 45 point AF and 1 series feel and build quality.

Is that better than my 5D MKii though?

Do it. Shoot film all your heart desires. How can it hurt?

I wish I had the balls and the know how to do it.

Go for it.

I'm not sure it would hurt. 

[SJTstudios]

You've got some good gear. The 5d ii is a bit outdated, so you should get a 5d iii or 1ds iii. It also seems that you are dreaming of film, film is good, but is not something that will make you better. Go for a new body, and keep using digital. They make these things the best for a reason. The guy you probably met, has refused to move over. Your film slr is good, but not for buissiness, unless it's what you've trained on and you have the money. You could start doing film once you've purchased every prime, and short zoom. Good glass really makes you better. So get a new dslr, or get some more glass.

[treyconnally]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

It looks like you guys think I should either:

Keep what I've got.

OR

Sell & get a 1D____ (Fill in the blank)

If that's the case, what would you suggest I sell, and what would you suggest I NOT sell in order to upgrade to a 1D Series body?  Thank again everyone!

[ishdakuteb]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

It looks like you guys think I should either:

Keep what I've got.

OR

Sell & get a 1D____ (Fill in the blank)

If that's the case, what would you suggest I sell, and what would you suggest I NOT sell in order to upgrade to a 1D Series body?  Thank again everyone!

oh... i am really good at this part... i pick the second one "sell & get a 1D__X__" since i am not aware of any newer version of 1D on market, but 1DX

[sandymandy]

p.s. can u gift me ur 5d mk2 ? im poor and cant afford it myself

If I had weddings booked for the rest of the year and once I got my new camera, I wouldn't mind doing that at all.  But I'm gonna need to sell it to get something else.

Oh thats very kind of you! If u have anything else u can get rid of feel free to gift it to me. Hopefully we will have snow then i will take pics of me wearing only shorts and laying in the snow (or swimming?!) with the camera/lens u have for me

oh and get 1D X its really wesome from what ive seen an read.

[CharlieB]

I still shoot the occasional wedding... lugging a 500c/m and 60mm lens, and softbox and pair of 283's that still work great.  And film.

I may switch to the 5Dmk2.  I've got to do a lot of testing.  I have a local lab that still does creditable work, at ... increasingly higher, but still ok prices.   Nobody wants to pay for it any more.  Sad.