Gallery: China 2004-end
China - Technical Decisions
Well, you've reached the end of the photo gallery for now. I have about 45 other rolls to scan and organize so it'll take some time before the entire series is uploaded.
Since I'm a geek at heart, I'd like to talk about the decision I made to go with all classical film photography equipment on this trip. I had bought a Canon EOS 10D earlier in the year with the idea of using it in China, but in my last trip to Europe, it proved to be too large and cumbersome for the type of intimate photoethnography that I prefer. The EF lenses are twice or three times the size and weight of my Leica lenses. I also wanted a backup body that was interchangeable with the main body, and carrying both my EOS 10D and EOS 3 (and their accompanying lenses) would kill my back.
In retrospect, digital would have saved me from scanning 50 rolls of film. But it would have also meant slightly lower quality on the daylight photographs (evening and night photographs, digital seems to have the upper edge with much less noise). And I was worried about the bulk and weight of everything: camera, lenses, digital memory cards, memory card reader, battery charger, etc. Compared to a Leica which you can just throw in your bag, digital is a lot of work. I did not want to take an unfield-tested camera with me for four weeks. So instead I went with my Leica system.
Equipment Bag
My film equipment consisted of:
| Main Body | Backup Body |
|---|---|
| Leica M7 | Leica CL |
| 28mm f/2.8 Elmarit | |
| 35mm f/2 Summicron | 40mm f/2 Summicron-C |
| 50mm f/2 Summicron | |
| 90mm f/2 Summicron | 90mm f/4 M-Rokkor |
Leica SF-20 flash About sixty rolls of Fuji Acros 100, Fuji Provia 100F, Fuji Provia 400F, Fuji NPH 400 and NZP800 |
|
The M7 with three lenses (35/50/90) and flash all fit in a very small LowePro Street & Field Utility Case which fits nicely in the bottom of my rolling carry-on, and also slips easily into the small backpacks that I carry in the field. It turns out that I never used the 28mm Elmarit. The 35mm was used 90% of the time, the 90mm about 8% of the time, and the 50mm about 2% of the time. I should have just left the 28mm and 50mm at home. The Leica CL was handy when I was just going out on the town and did not want a large camera to tote around.
Film
In many ways, China is a very black and white country (if you know what I mean), unfortunately there aren't many places that could develop the small amount of B&W Fuji Acros 100 that I carried. I brought a lot of slide film as that's what I had in stock before I left. In general, I'm much happier with the scans from the Provia 100F slide film that I used, rather than the Fuji Superia negative film. Almost all of the photos on this gallery are with slide film.
I usually plan on about 1-2 rolls a day, so the 60 rolls that I brought covered the trip fairly well. I was left with about 10 rolls of mostly negative film. Film is not cheap in China (at least as not as cheap as in the USA) and most of the vendors were ... questionable ... as to how fresh the film was, or whether it was really "Kodak" or "Fuji" film. I'd recommend bringing your own. E-6 and C-41 developing is readily available everywhere.
The X-ray situation was very good all the way through. The USA is very good about handhecks. Japan usually forces me to X-ray my carryons, but with 50 rolls of film they assume you're a pro and wil handcheck. The Chinese machines might have been low-dose, but they have scanners everywhere - including the train stations. Everywhere that I asked for a hand-check, they just let my camera + film through without scanning it (or hand-checking it either).
Other Equipment
My trusty PowerBook G4 (12") accompanied me. I'm fond of this machine, it's small, compact and tough. I wish it had a PC Card slot, two Firewire ports, VGA out, and stronger Airport (802.11G) reception, but not everything is perfect. My eyes are not what they used to be, if it were possible to fit a 15" screen in the space and size occupied by a 12" laptop, I'd buy it. As it is, I'm happy with the tradeoff.
My iPod provided Chinese Mandarin lessons and also served as my voice data recorder. Although I wish it had a microphone built-in, the Belkin iTalk is the next best thing. It has a built-in mike, speaker, and an input jack for external mikes.
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