[Leica] shutter speed synch on med format experience

["Gary Klein" <gklein@excel.net>]

dmorton@journalist.co.uk said: about the new Contax rollfilm AF slr,

" Good fast AF, Zeiss lenses and medium format. Once those leaf lenses are

there it has to be on the wedding snapper's list of systems to look at."



As one who spent two years in the trenches shooting weddings at a portraits
during a phase in my photography career,  we did not use the maximum shutter
synch speed as much as one would think.

For one we used Kodak's Vericolor III type S for much of our weddings on the
Hassleblad system.  To cover a modest wedding, we could would use 1 70mm
back of VPS and 1 120 back of VPH (400 color neg).

Much of our inside the church wedding groups after the ceremony (and before
the ceremony btw) were done with the blad on a tripod.  The prerelease was
our best friend btw.  We would shoot many photos where the subject would be
stationary with strobe, but use either a 1/8th of a second or 1/15th to get
that wonderful warm glow that the ambient incandescent lighting would
provide.  We would use two strobes, both vivitar 283 believe it or not.  One
on a light stand with a slave, the other on the camera, mounted on a custom
modified blad bracket.

It worked wonderfully.  Boy I wished we had the AF stuff then.  The older
500c blad system I was issued was a bear to focus with (old style screen).
The point is of course the highest synch speed we ever traveled to for the
most part was 1/125.

gck