Shooting the Pentax 67 Alongside the Phase One

My camera setup is silly. I have a couple of mainstream cameras and a few more "obscure" ones. I use that term loosely, just because a lot of people haven't heard of Phase One and most people know of Pentax but don't realise the 67 is legendary. Not only that, it's a film camera. The newest thing in my kit (that I use constantly now) is the digital back on my Phase One, released in 2011. (I have a Nikon Z7 II and Z6 II I keep in the car as backups).

I'm always looking for something new and different. Something to experiment with. Something to challenge myself.

Getting into the Pentax 67

I'd been watching people shoot with the Pentax 67 on YouTube for a while and picked up a Pentax 105mm f/2.4 lens (also legendary). I initially adapted it to my Nikon Z7 II and then to my Phase One. The lens dates back to 1969, and some early versions use thorium-containing glass, making them mildly radioactive. It renders beautifully. Obviously, it's manual focus only, but I haven't found that to be an issue at all. It's hefty and I love using it!

It still wasn't the full experience though. I needed the film too. The full analogue experience.

I hadn't shot any film since being a kid in the 90s, with a cheap camera I got for my birthday and the few rolls of film my mother could afford. Well, apart from a test roll I shot and accidentally destroyed trying to test and fix a charity shop Olympus OM10 I found. Basically, I was jumping into medium format film without really knowing how to even load film.

My thought process was simple and probably similar to most people's: film is going to make me a better photographer and give me something different.

Realistically, I knew this wouldn't be the full story. I was still planning on editing the film shots (I know purists will be screaming hearing this). I was also planning on shooting alongside my Phase One too. I don't trust myself enough to shoot film exclusively and still prefer the flexibility of digital.

But there is one massive problem with my plan...

The problem with shooting flash

I'm 90% a flash shooter and the Pentax 67 has a native flash sync speed of 1/30th. Meaning I cannot shoot flash faster than 1/30th without running into problems with the shutter covering part of the frame.

And I shoot flash outdoors a lot at around 1/400th.

Even in the studio, this is a slight issue. A dark studio with minimal ambient light? Perfect. A studio with big windows and midday light? That 1/30th sync speed is letting in ambient light and washing out colours!

With my Phase One, I'm often shooting at ISO 50, f/8 and around 1/125th. My last shoot I was using Kodak Gold 200. The film is two stops faster than my digital base exposure. I shot at 1/30th, f/11 and dropped the flash power. But the ambient light definitely showed up. Which isn't ideal.

Outdoors, I had a better experience. But that's because I only shot ambient on film. I had a roll of Portra 400 in the Pentax and shot flash on my Phase One. Very opposing shots, but I'm quite happy with the contrast in different mediums.

The film shots definitely have a different vibe. Not necessarily the right one for our shoot, but they still looked cool. I'll throw a few below.

One thing I have enjoyed about shooting film is having something different to work with. I'm not necessarily convinced it's making me a better photographer, but it does make me approach things differently.

Having only 10 frames on a roll of 120 film makes you think a little more about what you're doing. There's no checking exposure after every shot, always the possibility you didn't load the film properly, and, for me and my ADHD brain, the constant "Did I even wind the film?!" There's also the need to be intentional. Especially when you consider a roll of Portra 400 is around £18. Throw in developing too and we're about £35 for 10 shots in total. Or around £3.50 a shot.

Whether that makes the actual photographs better is another question!

The leaf shutter solution

Here is where things get interesting, particularly if you're a flash shooter (ME).

Natively, the Pentax 67 has a sync speed of 1/30th, like I said above. Meaning if you shoot flash any faster, the shutter curtains won't expose the entire frame at once and you'll end up with a dark band across the image. If you're unaware of this, you'll find out once you've had them developed. Which is nice.

There are ways around this though.

Firstly, don't buy the Pentax 67. Get a Mamiya RB67. If I didn't already have the 105mm f/2.4 lens, I'd probably have grabbed the RB67 instead. Its leaf shutter lenses allow much faster flash synchronisation, up to around 1/400th depending on the lens. The 127mm f/3.8 would be an interesting portrait option too. But it's a very different form factor. I think it looks cool AF though.

The other option is to stick with the Pentax and look at its leaf shutter lenses. There are two Pentax 67 lenses with leaf shutters, and the 90mm f/2.8 LS is the one I'm particularly interested in. It's the closest in focal length to the 105mm f/2.4 and, with its built-in leaf shutter, allows you to use flash at shutter speeds well beyond the camera's native sync speed. Up to 1/500th.

A leaf shutter has a shutter mechanism in the lens rather than relying solely on the focal-plane shutter in the camera body. I have a couple of LS lenses for my Phase One, my Schneider 80mm f/2.8 being one of them.

Using a leaf shutter on my Phase means I don't have to use high-speed sync with my flashes and it saves battery power.

There's a huge caveat to this though (this whole article feels like caveats and trade-offs)...

The usable leaf shutter speed with flash depends on how quickly the flash signal travels and the triggering system you're using. Hard-wired with cables, I can use shutter speeds up to 1/1600th. Using wireless triggers like the Godox ones (X-Pro trigger with my Phase), I can only shoot up to 1/400th.

Some triggers have a fast mode allowing the higher shutter speeds, but the easiest rule of thumb for me to keep is that I have a couple of lenses I can shoot flash with up to 1/400th without high-speed sync. If I switch to a non-LS lens, I think I'm down to 1/125th.

Using both systems together

Shooting both systems side by side has similar issues and quirks to remember. You have to think about different shutter speeds, different film sensitivities and different ways of working.

I'm very tempted to pick up the 90mm f/2.8 LS for the Pentax to allow me to shoot essentially side by side with the Phase for better comparisons and a more consistent workflow.

At the moment I'm having to do ridiculously quick maths to try and get a similar exposure and keep the film slightly overexposed. But this means swapping shutter speeds and flash powers in some of the most awkward ways. Thinking about 50 other things at the same time makes this a pain in the ass.

I'm just trying not to justify the extra spend and import fees at the moment.

I also know that if I get the 90mm, my 105mm will probably get very little use too! Unless I make a point of using it on the Phase.

I suppose that's part of the fun of experimenting with different systems. You find something you enjoy, discover its limitations, and then immediately start looking at ways to spend more money getting around them.

I think I might be creating problems I don't need to have. Maybe I just like the pressure... (I don't).

Below is a gallery of shots of digital then film of very similar setups with the main difference being one was shot with flash on the Phase one, the other on the Pentax 67 using ambient light. These aren't really a "which is best"  comparison. More, showing the differences in results in shooting them in the real world.

Klowns film vs digital

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