Friday, July 30, 2010

Shooting at Caribana

I'm continuing to attend local festivals for a chance to shoot and test new gear.

This week I had a press pass to the Toronto Caribana Festival and wanted to make the most of my first time at the event.

My plan early in the week was to set gear aside that I think I'm going to use. By the time the event rolls around I have more gear than a Wilderness Guild could schlep and I don't know what to bring along.

Jason from Daymen Photo was meeting me at the CNE and planned to shoot mostly with his Leica M8. He also hoped to borrow a film rangefinder since he hadn't shot much with one and wanted to try it out. I had a Zeiss Ikon he could borrow and he already owns five lenses so didn't need one of mine.

First camera in the bag.... a black Zeiss Ikon body for Jason.

A second photographer had contacted me about trying out a rangefinder since he had never shot with one. I invited him to meet at the festival and would supply a camera with lens for him to try for a few hours. I thought it would be as good as it gets for trying a rangefinder while doing street photography.

Second camera in the bag.... a silver Zeiss Ikon body with Zeiss Biogon 35mm F2 lens and B+W 040 Orange filter to put some clouds in the sky.

Myself I was hoping to compare two of the Zeiss lenses. I cracked the box on a new Zeiss Biogon 21mm F2.8 ZM ($1340) and also the smaller Zeiss C-Biogon 21mm F4.5 ($1117).

I didn't want to use the 21mm Viewfinder for the 21mm lens so I also opened a new Voigtlander Bessa R4A camera body which has the framelines for the 21mm length. What a great combo this would be and what fun I was expecting to have.

Third camera in the bag was the Bessa R4A with two 21mm lenses for me to use.

Three cameras but only one was for me, so I felt I could carry more.

I would want some colour digital files so decided to bring my new Sony NEX 5 mirrorless camera with the 16mm prime lens and optical viewfinder for the top. This would be a great chance to try this combo up close and colourful.

Fourth camera was this NEX 5 silver with the 16mm prime and viewfinder.

Since I was bringing the silver NEX I though I might as well throw the 18-55 kits lens in the bag as well, but thought I might need to get some video of the first NEX in action so brought along a second NEX 5 with the kit lens to use for the video.

Fifth camera in the bag.... a Sony NEX 5 with 18-55 for video.

The final item was a Zeiss 85mm lens for some tighter work. I forgot that the camera I was planning to use didn't have framelines for 85mm.

I loaded up some Delta 100 film, tossed in my press pass and headed for the train to the Caribana Parade.

Rob Skeoch
www.thepicturedesk.ca

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