PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO

Dominic Deusdedith

Cameras:

1. Cambo Ultima D  view camera:

Cambo ultima D with Schneider 120mm macro HM lens

The Ultima 45 is Cambo’s sophisticated 4×5″ view camera, designed for high precision with digital applications, with fine geared movements on all movements, including lateral shift, rise and fall, swings, tilts and fine focussing.
As its name implies, the Ultima offers the ultimate in precision imagecontrol for both digital and traditional large format photographers. Cambo’snewest view camera represents an entirely new and distinctive designcreated for high performance, maximum flexibility, and pinpoint accuracy.The Ultima’s compact, symmetrical shape and sleek, aluminum constructionprovide utmost stability, while its fluid-smooth, geared movements,progressive brakes and positive position locks instill a sense of precisionand fingertip control.Cambo designers have incorporated numerous special features beneficialto today’s digital photographer, including a revolutionary “depth adjustment”which allows the user to position the digital chip of all backs precisely whereit needs to be for maximum performance.


1. Canon EOS 5D mark II DSLR:
Canon’s update to the wildly popular full frame EOS 5D is here, and it’s better than ever.
The EOS 5D Mark II has a stunning 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor with DIGIC 4 Image Processor, a vast ISO Range of 100-6400 (expandable to ISO L: 50, H1: 12800 and H2: 25600), plus EOS technologies like Auto Lighting Optimizer and Peripheral Illumination Correction. It supports Live View shooting, Live View HD videos, and more. It can shoot up to 3.9 fps, has 9 AF points plus 6 AF assist points, a new 98% coverage viewfinder, a 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) and a rugged build. Full-frame shooters rejoice!


Lenses:

All-purpose and tele-zoom:

1. Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L IS.The best zoom lens I have. I even can say (based on what I’ve read) that this is the sharpest canon’s tele-photo zoom lens. The same (or slightly better) sharpness has non-IS lens. I use it for most of my portrait/fashion work. Mounted on 1Ds MKIII, lens feels not heavy and well balanced. Auto-focus is fast, as we can expect from L grade lens.
   MTF Charts(full spec)
   
2. Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS.
   
   

   canon 100-400mm f4 lens
   Similar by it’s size to a 70-200mm lens, this is out least used lens. It is considerably softer then 70-200mm one, and it’s pull-push design is great when you shoot action or running wildlife, but it attracts good amount of dust inside the lens every time I squeeze it:-). Still nice lens, but our studio is not a right place for it. I keep it only for our future outdoor activities, when kids will grow bigger and run faster:-)
   MTF Charts (full spec)
   
   
3. Canon 24-70mm F2.8 L.
   
   

   canon 24-70mm f.8 lens
   This is a good prime lens, I use it for most of all-purpose work outside the studio. Not much for it in a studio: for products I prefer to use non-zoom macro lenses, for people I use 70-200mm F2.8L. Lens is very well built, not heavy and fast. Great to carry everywhere with you while traveling.
   MTF Charts
   
4. Canon 17-40mm F4.0 L.
   
   

   canon 17-40mm F4.0 L lens
   This is ultra-wide zoom lens, used mostly for architectural work. It was a main lens for interiors before I’ve got 14mm F2.8 L non-zoom. Now it mostly sits on a shell, used only when I need something between 14 and 24mm. Lens has considerable amount of barrel distortion, especially on a wide end. I also noticed slightly warm color tone on images from this lens. Not my favorite one:-)
   MTF Charts
   

Non-zoom lenses (my favorite type:-):

1. Canon 180mm F3.5 L Macro.
   
   

   canon 180mm f3.5 L macro lens
   So far this is our best lens for product photography. It is incredibly sharp from F5.6 to f16, still delivering very good results till F29. Look at it’s MFT chart below, it looks very good. Suppose to be a good choise for outdor macro photography: you can shoot little insects from a good distance, without touching bug with the lens’s hood:-)
   MFT chart:
   
2. Canon 100mm F2.8L IS Macro.
   
   

   canon 100mm f2.8L IS macro lens
   Our recent purchase. Good lens, very nice bokeh when used for portraits with wide-open aperture (example). It is slightly under performing 180mm macro, but because of it’s shorter focal length lens is very useful in closeup macro photography: it provides deeper DOF at the same aperture level (comparing to a 180mm macro). Very sharp and contrast images down till F22. You can see 100% crops from the images made by this lens on this post at various aperture.
   MFT chart (full spec):
   
3. Canon Macro MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus.
   
   

   Canon super macro lens MP-E 65mm 1-5x
   Very special lens, we use it for super macro work. It does not have focusing ring in it’s regular meaning. More about this lens can be found on this article I’ve posted a while ago: Lens and lights for super macro photography: surgery on a shooting table.
   MFT chart (full spec):
   
4. Canon 14mm F2.8L.
   
   

   canon 14mm f2.8 L wide angle lens
   One of our most expensive lenses:-) Great for interiors and other architecture work, it is virtually distortion-free. Very sharp through wide aperture settings, it can be also used for a funny lifestyle images: here is the example of such use: our visit to Maharaj. One of my favorite lens.
   MFT Chart (full spec):
   
5. Canon EF 50mm F1.4.
   
   

   canon 50mm f1.4 lens
   Sorry to say, but this is our worst performer. I’ve got this lens few years ago thinking to use for a lifestyle (non-commercial) travel photography. The idea was to have small camera (5D) with a small lent to carry with us when we go out with kids. We used it few times, and found to be slow focus and low resolution lens.
   However, lens may perform very well, considering it’s cost, I know photographers who used it and like it. There is no other lens for $300 which you can use at F1.4, which is really cool for portraits. (example @ F1.8) Working with L grade lenses may have spoiled me, and I can’t accept such performer. Will be on sale soon.
   MFT chart (full spec):
   
6. Schneider 120mm f/5.6 Makro-Symmar HM LensAmazingly sharp and high contrast lens. 
   
   
7. Sigma 105mm F2.8 macro.
   
   

   Sigma 105mm f2.8 macro lens
   This is our first macro lens, we got it about 6-7 years ago, now it has been replaced by Canon L grade macro lens(es). Very sharp between F3.5 and F10, great for portraits and non-demanding macro work. It has very-very slow auto-focus and despite it maximum aperture of F42, diffraction kills contrast and details starting after F10, making it useless after F16. Going to sell it soon.

Lighting and light modifiers.

Studio monolights:

Currently we are using Paul C Buff units: White lighting and Alien Bees studio monolights. Both model lines has 640WS, 320Ws and 160Ws units, the difference is on its size and controls: AlienBees aimed to student/beginner photographers, WhiteLightning is more towards pro shooters. WhiteLightning also has X3200 model good for output of 1280 Ws of power.

However, now all those units is not worth to buy/have, IMO. Paul have (back-ordered;-) all-digital Einstein 640: for a little more money you’ll get much more serious flash. More about Einstein 640 can be found on manufacture website.
We have ordered several units, the plan was to replace all our monolights with Einstein.. However, nothing has been shipped yet, after 5 month of waiting. Must be a very popular strobe, or very poor suppliers:-)

Here is our current workers:

Einstein monolights:

This is a fully digital strobe, amazing list of features and extremely i short flash duration. Full review with some test shots on the video, or here:

PCB E640 Einstein monolight creative shot

AlienBees

AlienBees AB400 flash unit

This ABR800 ring flash is a cool thing for fashion and portraits, see this example image created with the help of this ring flash. I have a larger parabolic reflector for it as well.

WhiteLigtning:

Remote controller/trigger for Paul C Buff units:

CST Trigger Transmitter and CyberSync™ Plus Receiver. Simple units; one is attached to a camera’s hot shoe, another on the flash. Plus (+) receiver can be controlled by CyberCommander, meaning we can adjust power of flash and modeling light remotely via 16 channels. To get all monolights equipped with such receiver (I have 8 of them) cost money, but the convenience is priceless!

Remote triggers: receiver and transmitter for AlienBees and White Lighting

CyberCommander controller:

Very cool unit, when it works as supposed to:-) More info on a manufacture website: Cyber Commander.

Paul C Buff Cyber Commander remote flash controller

Dedicate hot shoe flash units:

We have 4 Canon SpeedLites: 580EX II, 580EX, 430EX, 420EX and ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter. I rarely use more then one unit when I shoot outside, mostly using it in a studio for high-speed photography like water splash, or to highlight interior.

Canon speedlite flash units with remote controller

The main reason to use these units is an extreme short flash duration (around 1/10.000 of a sec), if used at 1/4 and lower power level. This is a low-cost solution for studio hi-speed shooting, and most of them will be replaced by Profoto 7A power generator soon: I need more power.. much more then speedlite can provide.

Support (stands, booms, etc)

Lighting stands:

We use Paul C Buff stands, 10 and 13 feet, plus, few very old noname brands (like currently dead Amvona).  PCB stuff if lightweight ind relatively good for it’s price.. no complains.

Camera stands:
Bogen 055 XPROB Tripod

A very good tripod, a little bit heavy for every day carry out, but since I work in a studio, it is not a problem for me.

405 geared head

The best head i know for a studio photography. Precise movements, heavy load (it works with my view camera!) makes it one of the best investments.

Fatif heavy duty studio stand.

I’ve got a post about this stand: My new monster toys: AKELstudio equipment upgrade.
Simply love this monster:-)

I remember how frustrating it was when I accidentally hit one of  tripod’s leg while shooting super (3x lifesize) macro: the whole composition was ruined in a fraction of a second.

Now, with such studio stand it won’t be a problem: it has more then 2 times smaller footprint than my tripod, it is easy to move it when wheels are engaged, and it solid when locked.

Accessories:

Flash meter. (Added 10/17/2010)

Sekonic L-358 Flash Master Meter. Probably cool thing, but I’ve never used it. This is why. There was a big discussion on DpReview.com regarding my post (love the last post, where the guy explains one of my photo:-), the I’ve heard a lot of good reasons why to use it. However, till now, I do not use it. I can easily replicate any of my lighting setups, as I have all of them photographed for blog. The ratio between lights is not important to know for me: in any case I adjust it individually for each subject, using my eyes and computer’s monitor. Plus, I can easily save the lighting setup specification on a Cyber Commander.

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