Viewpoint John Gilbey
Why tempt fate? It’s pretty clear that a backup camera is a vital piece of kit
As soon as I started getting bookings to photograph weddings, conferences and other ‘non-repeatable’ events, I began to carry a backup camera in case catastrophe struck. Back in the 1980s, it was easy to have the excuse for a second camera body – colour slide film in one, black & white film in the other. So when my main camera was a Nikon F3, a rather less-sophisticated FG went into the bag with it – often loaded with Tri-X or HP4 film. When I graduated much later to a Nikon F5, I found that the lighter F100 made an excellent companion for it.
I began the change to digital in 2008, adding a Nikon D300 to the collection. It soon became the camera of choice for all but the most challenging work – where I still trusted film a lot more. Full-frame digital was the next step, and a Nikon D800 has now been my main camera for a number of years, with a variety of backups according to need. For most shoots, the D300 is the stand-by, but a range of others creep into my luggage from time to time.
The F100 still makes a useful contribution, equipped these days with Ilford XP2. And always in the top pocket of my rucksack is my Olympus mju II – tiny, almost silent, with a fast, wideangle lens and a weatherproof body. This is my emergency camera, in case the Martians land right in front of me and I’m the only person there. Sure, it’s film, but if it really
the Martians I’m sure I can afford to spend half an hour in the darkroom and still get paid.
Recently, I realised that while I’ve been toting the D300 around for years now, I haven’t used it apart from taking the occasional test shot. This worried me: is my technique still good enough? Luckily, an opportunity presented itself: I was due to cover a 10km run held annually on a local beach. The weather wasn’t great, and the thought of exposing my D800 to wind-blown sand and salt spray really didn’t appeal to me. Thankfully, the press shots I was there for wouldn’t need more than 12MP, so the D300 had a day out in the country. The old familiarity came back quickly, and the speed of operation and relative compactness of the crop-sensor body made the task fun.
You can probably guess what happened next. While I was in the middle of my next assignment – which need full frame and 36MP – the D800 developed a mirror fault, and is currently on its way to Nikon UK’s camera hospital in London. I’m hoping that it’s only sulking, but I need to think of a more developed backup strategy. Perhaps it’s time to look at the D850 – or maybe the mirrorless Z 7 – then have that awkward conversation with my bank manager.