What equipment do you use?

[eyesup]

I have an old Canon Powershot A640 my wife used to use.  She abandoned it when her iPhone became more automatic than a point a shoot.  It's old but still does a good job.

I also have a single lens Panasonic DSC-FZ200 f2.8 with a 25-600 Leica zoom lens.  It's a better camera than the old Canon, it's more bulky but makes better images.  When the Canon dies I will switch to the Panasonic.  I prefer to carry as little equipment as possible.  I do not carry the camera bag, so I have the camera, batteries, extra memory and a small pocket size tripod.

All that goes into my daypack along with my essentials.  I try to keep the pack light enough that I can carry it on only one shoulder, switching every so often to ease the stress on my back.  I don't like the pack hanging on my back and making me sweat.  I also don't end up with stripes on my shoulders where the sun didn't hit the skin.  I only carry the pack with both straps on if I am climbing or rock scrambling.

I helps make the sensation of wearing less more noticeable.

Duane

[Karla]

I need to get my Hasselblad parts serviced. They're all very old pieces of equipment. Film is getting harder to come by as well, but I just enjoy using the camera so much.

[eyesup]

Yeah, I have two film cameras.  A Nikon and a Canon.  I love using them but I don't use them for any of my naked shots as I don't develop film and I wouldn't want to take a roll of film of naked hiking to a photo shop.

Since film is becoming scarce maybe I should finally learn how to develop my own pictures.  I took a class once on the basics but never pursued it.

I read a few years ago that Kodak no longer makes Tech-Pan.

Man!  Times they are a changin'.

Duane

[Georgew1959]

I finally gave in to temptation and have bought a Canon EOS6D. I'd been looking at it (yet again!) in the airport shop and came out to find my flight delayed by 2 hours. It seemed like a sign from on high and I went straight back in and bought it. What I got home I visited my local dealer and bought a 17-40 f4 lens for it as well. Haven't regretted either for a minute, and although I still have one of the EOS 350D bodies and an EOS 50 film camera, neither has seen the light of day since!

I did have some difficulty finding a bag for it though. The body is a good deal bigger than either of the old cameras and the lens is large too. After a long search, I found a Lowepro bag which will attach to my rucksack belt, or sling over my shoulder and just about has space for the camera with the 17-40 lens and a spare filter.

I'm now looking forward to warmer weather to get out an use it on some wild naked walks.

[jaydee]

I have a few at the moment: a Pentax K1000, a Rolleicord V, a little Olympus rangefinder and a Polaroid Land camera that uses peel-apart film.  My film is developed in a small developing tank and then scanned using a flatbed.  I don't actually own a digital camera - actually I do, but it's disguised as an iPhone.  Out of them all, the Rollei is definitely my favourite, although it has a sticky shutter and needs serviced.  Medium format film has that special something.  I'd love a Hasselblad or even a Pentax 6x7, but they're, y'know, expensive.  Film costs enough as it is.

[Davie]

I do enjoy using my Nikon D300s. There's something about a SLR, you easily see what you are about to take and its a very versatile camera especially with a 28-300 lens. If I don't want the weight or rather than carrying a second lens I have a couple of Panasonic Lumix cameras. I have a TZ9( the 9 version was only available from Currys) which I take on walks. At the end of the day if it got damaged it wouldn't be the end of the world as I have a TZ60 which has a number of features I really like, especially the ability to take RAW files and it has an artificial horizon. With a Leica lens that zooms to at staggering 30x it a great tool. It has an electronic viewfinder too but that's not a patch on the Nikon's. My son-in law is a Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society and I'm always wary of showing him my pics and camera but he was impressed by the TZ60 which I think has now been superseded by the higher number camera TZ70 (which as far as I am concerned will remain in the store)

I've still got my Canon AE1P and an old Zenith. Neither have had any film in since at least 2002 and I have no plans to use film again. I learnt the fundaments of photography with the old Zenith so I'm sort of fond of it.

A fellow member of our club used a TZ60 to record some pictures inside the baths but he hadn't mastered the camera, being new which was a shame. I should have bought my Nikon which would have done the job properly

Davie 

[jaydee]

Yeah, I have two film cameras.  A Nikon and a Canon.  I love using them but I don't use them for any of my naked shots as I don't develop film and I wouldn't want to take a roll of film of naked hiking to a photo shop.

Since film is becoming scarce maybe I should finally learn how to develop my own pictures.  I took a class once on the basics but never pursued it.

I read a few years ago that Kodak no longer makes Tech-Pan.

Man!  Times they are a changin'.

Duane

Hi Duane.
Film is indeed becoming more scarce, but contrary to the stories about it becoming extinct, sales of it seem to have levelled out.  Of course, it'll never be used as the primary medium of casual snap shooters like it used to be.  I used to work in a Kodak factory and the busiest time was July/August when people sent in their holiday snaps on rolls of 35mm.  The place eventual shut in the early 2000s when everyone moved over to digital P&S cameras and the work dried up.
Developing film at home it really easy, though.  No darkroom necessary - just a developing tank and some chemicals.  B&W is easiest, but colour and slide film isn't much harder. 

[nuduke]

Talking about kodak processing plants, in the early 90's before I really knew I was a naturist,  I had occasion to visit a Kodak lab on the south coast of england.  As we watched the finished prints being inspected rolling off the production line I spotted some nude pics...and shortly afterwards some more. 
"Uh oh!" I remarked "Is that allowed?  Who would allow their naked images to go through a public system? Is there a lot of it, Is it amateur porn?" I asked.
"Oh no", said the shift manager "this is a batch of processing that we often get from France.  The French seem to be much more liberal about nudity and we do get a lot of these.  They don't seem to mind being photographed nude nor sending much more 'intimate' snaps than those.  They go straight through."
"What about nudie pics in English rolls of film?"
"Ah, completely different procedure!  We extract them, put them in a special envelope and send by courier to the shop manager with instructions to reprimand the customer and request that they cease and desist."
"Why?"
"Two reasons, one: we are just very prurient in the UK and two: that whilst the taking or possession of such photos isn't illegal, sending them through the post or publising them is very much against the law.  So we are at risk if we post the pictures back!"

I can't remember his exact words but that was the experience.  Beggars belief doesn't it.  Two national neighbours with such different opinions. I remember being envious at the time of French casualness and less prurient mores.

John

[JOhnGw]

That is very interesting John as during the 80's and 90's I used to have naturist photographs processed through the local chemists shop (drug store across the puddle, I think).
Some scanned examples -

      

I'm not sure that these would have gone through the post though. They may have been delivered in a local processing company's  van.

[jaydee]

Talking about kodak processing plants, in the early 90's before I really knew I was a naturist,  I had occasion to visit a Kodak lab on the south coast of england.  As we watched the finished prints being inspected rolling off the production line I spotted some nude pics...and shortly afterwards some more. 
"Uh oh!" I remarked "Is that allowed?  Who would allow their naked images to go through a public system? Is there a lot of it, Is it amateur porn?" I asked.
"Oh no", said the shift manager "this is a batch of processing that we often get from France.  The French seem to be much more liberal about nudity and we do get a lot of these.  They don't seem to mind being photographed nude nor sending much more 'intimate' snaps than those.  They go straight through."
"What about nudie pics in English rolls of film?"
"Ah, completely different procedure!  We extract them, put them in a special envelope and send by courier to the shop manager with instructions to reprimand the customer and request that they cease and desist."
"Why?"
"Two reasons, one: we are just very prurient in the UK and two: that whilst the taking or possession of such photos isn't illegal, sending them through the post or publising them is very much against the law.  So we are at risk if we post the pictures back!"

I can't remember his exact words but that was the experience.  Beggars belief doesn't it.  Two national neighbours with such different opinions. I remember being envious at the time of French casualness and less prurient mores.

John

It depends.  On an average shift, we would get a few thousand rolls of film in for processing.  The finished prints came off a machine in large rolls slow enough to see what was on them.  Some of the batches would be taken by QC for checking and quite a number of the shots were of varying degrees of explicitness.  The temp staff (mostly composed of students on summer jobs) found it quite amusing at first, but after a week or so the novelty wore off.  The photographs themselves never actually went through the post.  They were delivered to and from various pharmacies and branches of Boots the chemist by self-employed drivers.  Management were more concerned with meeting the turnaround time rather than what was on the films. Photographs depicting anything illegal would have gone to the police, but I don't recall this ever happening.
Much like naturism itself, people tend to overestimate how much other people actually care.

[eyesup]

Film is indeed becoming more scarce, but contrary to the stories about it becoming extinct, sales of it seem to have levelled out. . . . Developing film at home it really easy, though.  No darkroom necessary - just a developing tank and some chemicals.  B&W is easiest . . .

Glad to hear that about film. The class I was in was B&W only. It made things easier. Thanks for the update.

Duane

[Dario Western]

I use a Sony A700 DSLR with a 28-70mm lens as my main lens, although I also use a 105mm and 20mm lens.

I have an Olympus E-300 dSLR with a 14 - 45mm lens, and I eventually want to get a 35 - 110mm zoom lens. 

[jmf]

After forty years of carrying heavy Pentax, Canon or Nikon cameras with their lenses and flashes, I am now happy to use a much lighter Fuji XE1 hybrid camera or an Olympus TG4 compact waterproof camera.

[jbeegoode]

The zoom on my canon A620 is jamming over half of the time. The pictures could be sharper. It may be time to find another camera. I'm not certain that it can be repaired. It is difficult to find a camera with a view finder that doesn't cost a fortune and is not bulky to pack. I haven't looked very far, as of yet, but I've thought about a used camera, maybe there is an upgrade for the A620, somewhat newer.

This little camera does most of the things that my old Nikormat does, but doesn't require that huge bag of equipment (must weight 15 pounds). It doesn't require switching lenses, or missing great shots because I'm adjusting Fstops, or something. The little thing has served me very well and slips into a pocket.

In the meantime, DF does most of the close ups with her Nikon and her wider angle lens usually makes her her photos dominate the panorama shots, when I'm picking and choosing for the website.

It has been a bonus that my camera doesn't always deliver the sharpest of pictures, when I'm shooting DF. I use it as a mild diffusion filter. Sometimes, I shoot in a shady place, or darken with the sun behind her, then brighten it up on the computer for the same defused effect. I've been practicing, after discovering the effect when I had screwed up some shots. The softer more blurred image also makes it less desirable to someone who might want to lift pics from my site to use in something like amateur porn. Nasty boys like genital details. DF has ended up looking pretty darn good in some of those shots.

We are not so much a photo site at TheFreeRangeNaturist.org, as wanting to illustrate our naturism and naturism's potential in others lives. I try to make us look less posed, more natural, human. Arizona and its wonderment needs a camera like hers. I figure that I'll have to make a trade off of some kind. The two camera, two photographer system has been working when we're out and about. My little A620 does the trick, hers often does better. She likes taking pictures of nature. Her camera was previously used to photograph butterflies, the seller said. It is too big for my taste.
Jbee

[ric]

I now use 2 cameras,  most of the time it's a Fuji bridge camera, poor man's slr,. It's got a 300mm zoom lens and an electronic view finder and the screen is on pivots so it can be angled to use as a waist level or overhead viewfinder.   It's got too many buttons that I never use.
I've thrown away the little cameras with no viewfinders, in any sort of bright daylight the screens are useless as viewfinders.
My favorite camera is still the pentax dslr with the proper optical viewfinder.   I often use a 300 mm zoom lens with a 2 x converter.  The converter doubles the focal length of the lens but keeps the close focus distance the same, which is handy when your trying to capture fast moving small objects like butterflies and insects.. its possible to get a pic of a butterfly at about 6 foot. being old school it's also got proper mechanical manual focus and zoom which I just find more comfortable to use.