TheByte

Rob

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Hello Mike, I am almost certain it is a Mamiya RZ67 like the one above -- it might be an earlier model but I'm certain it is a Mamiya ....or it is possibly a Bronica (The Bronica brand no longer exists but they are still quite widely used) -- it is definately a medium-format camera -- but not a Hasselblad and I'm sure it's not a Rollei.

Medium-format (roll film) cameras are the most commonly used camera type for commercial (non journalism) photography ... although they are sometimes used by journalists too. The lenses, camera backs, viewfinders, are all interchangeable and a large array of accessories is available.

It looks like the are using a bellows lens hood on the lens (like the one pictured below) -- this is just an adjustable lens shade.




In one scene you can see the test-shot Polaroids (screen cap above)-- this is common practice for fashion photography -- the film magazine (or digital back) is removed and a Polaroid back is used. Polaroids are often used to see what the image will look like on film before they start shooting actual film. Even with such sophisticated digital technology available, for top-quality image quality medium-format or large format film is still superior. The Mamiya offers images on a negative or transparency (slide film) of 6X7cm -- which produces excellent-quality images.



A couple of very well respected professional medium-format cameras are the Pentax 645 and the Pentax 67. They both offer a wide range of high-quality accessories but do not offer interchangeble film/digital backs -- they are essentially like large 35mm cameras.

Pentax 645N II (using 120/220 medium-format roll film producing negatives (or slides) measuring 6x4.5cm) Mamiya make a very nice auto-focus camera in this format with interchangeable camera backs.(see below)


The rather old-fashioned looking Pentax 67 II (uses 120/220 medium-format roll film it produces negatives (or slides) measuring 6x7cm)


Mamiya 645AFD II, auto focus medium-format camera producing negatives/transparencies that measure 6x4.5cm. It is also compatible with digital camera backs.


For really high-end commercial photography -- like for luxury car advertisements etc. they are more likely to use large-format cameras (Sinar, Linhof, Horseman, Silvestri, Toyo, etc.) these cameras use large sheets of film rather than rolls, obviously you shoot one sheet of film at a time that you slide into the back of the camera via special sheet-film holders. The Swiss manufacturer Sinar would probably be like the Nikon or Canon of professional large-format camera makers.

The Sinar P2 can shoot various different sizes of sheet-film (negatives or transparencies measuring up to 8x10"/20x25cm) as well as digital.


Images like this (below) are photographed on large-format film using a camera like the Sinar above -- You could blow this image up (from the original transparency) to billboard size and it would still be in sharp focus with rich colour rendition.


Silvestri professional large-format camera -- it is also of course able to shoot digital.

dOmInIX

woooow! Those are some incredible cameras! I love last 2 photos! It's amazing!

Michael

I think we had this discussion once, but how many megapixels do you think we need to get to to the leve that we see in that picture?

Osnabrueck

By the way. Anybody hear about the world's largest exposure being made at El Toro Field in Irvine, CA?

They're using a decommissioned aircarft hanger as one gigantic pinhole camera.

Michael

lol. Are you serious?

Osnabrueck

I kid you not. It's an amazing project.

More Information Right Here

notic

Thanks for the info and pics Roberto. I had no idea that ads were still shot on film.

Rob

Yeah notic, 35mm photography is dead ....digital has totally replaced it; but at the highest level of commercial photography the best results are still made on film ...but large sheets of film.

Osna, that's really cool ...I love that kind of thing ...have you ever made a pinhole camera? ..it is fun.

The world's largest one-of-a-kind instant camera (polaroid) uses huge polaroid film measuring up to 44x100"/111x254cm -- that's huge.

Polaroid have some special studios that professionals can hire where they can create images on film 20x24"/50x61cm. The results are huge, grainless images.

There were only 5 of these Polaroid cameras in existence ...and they cost the price of a house ...the film director Tim Burton owns one.

A company called Wisner is now producing these cameras for a very small market of top professional photographers. They look very old-fashioned.




These are massive Polaroid pictures -- they can then be digitalized via very high-end digital scanners. This is the absolute zenith of image-quality, unfortunately these images on our screens cannot replicate the lifelike quality of the originals.



If you are interested, there is some more info here:
http://www.polaroid.com/media/com/pd...id%20camera%22

Rob

According to Kodak, a 3072x2048 scan captures the same amount of data as a 35mm image on film -- that is 6 megapixels. But a very high-resolution 35mm film like Fuji Velvia can be matched by around 10 megapixels.

So taking this into consideration you would need around 580 megapixels to match the image quality of a sheet of Fuji Velvia film (50 ISO) measuring 8x10" or 20x25cm This makes Hasselblad's 39 megapixel CF-39 camera back seem quite unremarkable.

The Sinar Macroscan system could do 156 megapixels when used in conjunction with the Hasselblad CF-39 digital camera back. The Macroscan adapter shifts the camera back via an electric motor, without vibrations, and scans sections of the image as separate scans and then joins them together to create a single image -- so it is only suitable for stationary studio work.

notic

check out this camera