Curious about pairing your film camera with a modern flash? This photography challenge shows some great results from a Mamiya RB67!
A flash or strobe light can be a handy tool for film photographers, whether for a portrait shoot in the studio or some simple experiments. In one of his latest videos, John Bradford decided to challenge himself with an outdoor shoot using a medium format film camera and a Godox strobe light. This can be helpful for those who want to try pairing their film cameras with modern lighting equipment for their next shoot.
Yes, you can combine a modern flash or strobe light with a film camera! So, if you’re thinking of going film + digital hybrid for a shoot, you might want to take some pointers from John’s video below.
For his setup, John used his Mamiya RB67 loaded with Kodak Ektar 100. He connected it to his Godox AD200 strobe light using a PC sync cable. Since he didn’t have a light meter, he used his Pentax K70 to meter the scene, serve as his “Polaroid test,” and shoot the video. He brought all of these on an outdoor shoot, focusing mostly on natural textures, patterns, and micro landscapes.
With his strobe and lightbox attached to a tripod, he was able to maintain a nice diffused light source at different heights for the various subjects he photographed. Since the Mamiya RB67 has a waist-level viewfinder, it came with its own challenges for composing the shots. Kodak Ektar also produced some outstanding results for this shoot. Aside from the beautiful colors and contrast, the results show us that flash photography can work nicely with film, especially when metered correctly. It would be interesting to see him shoot outdoor portraits with this setup as well since Ektar remains one of the top choices for portrait work in film.
If you want to see more photography stuff like this from John Bradford, don’t forget to check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel.