>>4329502Here's your landscape GOAT setup:
Any 35mm film SLR with a shutter button that is threaded for a cable release and a mirror lock up feature (ie: OM-1n)
A prime lens between 21mm and 35mm for things you are close to
A prime lens between 85mm and 200mm for things you are far away from
A square filter holder that goes on each lens
A cheap set of square "graduated neutral density" filters in 2, 3, and 4 stops. You may also want warming and cooling filters, to taste.
Total cost will probably be less than $300.
>but each photo costs-goddamn man don't you have a phone or a PNS for low value snapshots? this is for printworthy memories, not every day snaps.
And now here's what you do with it:
Go to a place where you can see a pretty feature of the planet at a time when the sunlight looks nice
Put your tripod, camera, and lens together so that what you see in the viewfinder looks like a good photo
Use a light meter to determine if the correct exposure for the sky and the ground are within the dynamic range of the film
Use a GND to dim the sky if it is not. You want to be able to build exposure on the ground without blowing out the sky or making it look like shit. This will, regardless of whether or not you fuck it up a little, look 100x better than fucking with curves or blending bracketed exposures on digital. You probably won't have to edit it at all beyond color correcting the scan.
Set your aperture so the zone of sharp focus is what you want it to be (ie, if your foreground starts many meters away from the camera, you could actually get away with a wider aperture) and your shutter speed to expose properly without undesired motion blur
Lock the mirror up and use the cable release to fire the shutter
When you get good at this you can buy a view camera
