Cameras we use.
Currently our primary cameras are a Mamiya 645 and two Nikon 6006's. A little about the 645 excerpted from the Mamiya site:

The Mamiya 645 Pro Series includes the Mamiya 645 Pro TL body with TTL/OTF flash automation, and the Mamiya 645 Pro body. The camera bodies are at the heart of a modular system accepting interchangeable viewfinders, focusing screens, film magazines, motor drive grips, and lenses. The Mamiya 645 Pro system features fast and convenient 35mm-like handling with a medium format negative size nearly three times greater. The cameras are hand-holdable, fast operating, and offer optional exposure automation, motor drive and a lens system that rivals the versatility of many top line 35mm lens systems, but with the enhanced quality of professional medium format optics and image size. The 645 Pro system is the ideal step-up from 35mm.

Digital camera: We have an Olympus C-2500L. This camera does take very good pictures. Interestingly, when we bought his camera back in 1999, our clients infrequently requested digital photos. Now our clients frequently request digital image AND negatives (and prints), but we most often use one of our film cameras above and have the processing center create a CD with the digital images. Then we will have prints, negatives and digital images. In short, we really don't use the Digital Camera that often.



Olympus C-2500L
Summary of features, from Olympus: 2.5 million pixel 2/3"Progressive RGB CCD provides 1712 X 1368 true image pixel resolution and accurate 24-bit color (16.7 million colors) C-2500L Features and Benefits. TruePicTM Technology process provides truer photographic colors, truer photographic gradations and truer photographic contrast ranges. Lens: Olympus aspherical glass 3x SLR f 2.8-3.9 optical zoom lens (9.2mm-28mm) for the film equivalence of 36-110mm; built-in macro focus to 0.8 inches

Film. Of course the larger the format the better. Thus, with the Mimiya camera the 120 medium format film is our first choice. For adaptability we bring the two 35mm Nikons along with different types of film too. In low light, we may use 800 ASA, in the bright sunny days of summer, 100 ASA. The brand and type, Kodak Royal Gold for color negatives. Ektachrome for color transparencies. Lately we have been using Fijifilm Superia with excellent results. AEROPIX specializes in low-level oblique photography. The special Aerial Photography films you see out there are primarily designed for higher-level photography. A good tip: take color transparencies as opposed to color negatives. Color transparancies (i.e. slides) are noticeably sharper. Color negatives get a two-step process and some of the detail gets lost. If you are shooting pictures for reproduction in a magazine, color transparencies are the way to go.

Lens. If time permits, fixed-length lens should be used (versus zoom lens.) We have found that our fixed-length lens yields sharper pictures (notably around the edges) compared to our variable-length lens.

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