Best LF accessories?

[j.e.simmons]

Is the jogging stroller recently developed? Otherwise the BTZS software for Palm.
juan

[Kirk Gittings]

To each his own. I should start another thread about LF accessories you hate.

For me amongst other things the Bogen Apron mentioned above. I own one and discarded it years ago. It is a good idea but this one is stiff bulky and poorly made, ok in the studio but awkward in the field. Compared to the Gnass Ready Load file.........

I also intensely dislike any tripod with collar leg locks. I have owned and used many of them and always found them APITA.

And carrying a Palm Pilot in the field? Don't get me started........

[darr]

For me it is my pocket watch with built-in tape measure. I like to do a lot of macro stuff so this comes in handy for bellows factoring and exposure compensation timing.

In the studio I have been using my HP48GX calculator with Bob Wheeler's VadeMecum software and a darkroom timer program for so long I cannot remember when I started with it. I do not take it into the field though as Kirk has suggested with the palm pilot comment. For me it would just be too much and I would worry about the calculator getting damaged as they run pretty expensive on the used market (no longer made and surveyors buy them up on flea bay). The pocket watch and tape measure combo fills the purpose nicely.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Suunto Tandem clinometer-compass--turns any floppy camera without detentes or scales into a precise camera with scales. Also handy for measuring the angle of the focus plane, if you use the Rodenstock calculator.

Gossen Digisix and Digiflash--very handy pocket meters, perfect for field use (particularly when shooting handheld with a press camera), plus they tell the temperature and have a timer for Polaroids, and a clock so I don't need a watch, and an alarm clock for travel.

[photographs42]

To each his own. I should start another thread about LF accessories you hate.

For me amongst other things the Bogen Apron mentioned above. I own one and discarded it years ago. It is a good idea but this one is stiff bulky and poorly made, ok in the studio but awkward in the field. Compared to the Gnass Ready Load file.........

I also intensely dislike any tripod with collar leg locks. I have owned and used many of them and always found them APITA.

And carrying a Palm Pilot in the field? Don't get me started........

Kirk,
Although I don’t have a clue what APITA means, I agree with you about the collar lock legs. My new Fiesol has them and they may prove too much for me. But the Apron….? Mine isn’t stiff, bulky or poorly made and I have never thought of it as awkward. In the field is where it is the most useful. It provides a dry, clean place to put the GG protector, film holders, lenses while changing them, exposure record notebook, light meter etc. I don’t have to bend over to get stuff or worry about where I set something down. It’s like a magic table that appears when I set the tripod down and disappears when I fold it up. Maybe when you get old like me you’ll appreciate stuff like that.

The new one I’m making will be made of denim and attach with Velcro and I’m making it myself so it will no doubt be well made.

Cheers,
Jerome

[Kirk Gittings]

Jerome,

APITA.....a pain in the a.......

Maybe your apron is a different vintage than mine?

[Ron Marshall]

The tiny plastic Calumet bellows compensation calcutator.

[SAShruby]

I like Sekonic light meters 558. Excellent meter, very happy in combination with BTZS Palm Software.

[walter23]

What do you consider the best recently developed LF accessories?

Sekonic L-508! And my manfrotto 055B tripod, light, reasonably tall, holds everything from my digital SLR to my 8x10 field camera without problems.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've never cared for twist locks either, but have you tried the new Gitzo collars? They're much better than the old ones--a quarter turn to open or close, and the new legs are very quick to set up and take down.