Medical images from 1998 on Mamiya RZ-67

August 12, 2021 by James Pratt Leave a Comment

I took this image of an MRI scan way back in 1998 with an RZ-67 film camera.

I was going back through my archives looking at old film and decided to scan these medical images I took way back in 1998. At that time I had only been into photography for a scant 2 years but had already moved from a 35mm Minolta to a Nikon film camera to an RZ-67 medium format camera. I had also started using flash and had an old Norman flash system that I put to work.

I placed a flash behind this MRI machine – which is a GIANT magnet. I had to be careful carrying my stands and flash around the room lest they get pulled into the magnet. I could certainly feel the tug as I got near. It would have been very costly to remove the stands from the magnets.

I did a lot of IT work at this hospital and helped them with their medical imaging systems. They agreed to let me photograph their CT and MRI and even stood in for the photos. The RZ-67 was a beast of a camera. I had to figure out how to fire the flash in the room. I didn’t have a polaroid camera at the time so was unable to see how the flash would turn out before the shot. I simply had to meter the flash with my hand-held light meter, guess at my exposures, and hope for the best. I had to wait to get my film back from the lab to see how my images turned out.

It was extremely difficult in 1998 to figure out how to get the computer screen to show an image at the same time I used flash to light both the CT and the operator. There was no “do it in photoshop” back then. I just had to get it right on film. This is an actual scan of the 6×7 transparency with no photoshop at all. I look back now and it even impressed me that I got these images with only two short years of photography experience.

About James Pratt

I am an Oklahoma based writer, commercial photographer, editorial photographer and adventurer based in Oklahoma City. I love telling stories about people. A motorcycle is my preferred means of travel, and I have over 5,000 hours piloting small airplanes. My editorial photography has been published in hundreds of magazines and my commercial photography has been used by dozens of companies worldwide.

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Medical images from 1998 on Mamiya RZ-67

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