Rob’s camera kit has been with him for a few decades.

The Horseman 45D is a large format camera that takes negative plates 5x4inches. Rob uses monochrome FP4 film produced by Ilford as well as Kodak Ektar colour negative film. The camera is slow to set up and quite cumbersome though Rob has been working with this type of camera for many years so tends to know when to get it out and where to set it up. Film is quite expensive so Rob shoots very few plates on any given day – perhaps four monochrome images and a couple of colour. It seems like a lot of effort to carry in such a heavy tool but the images made on this camera sing out in terms of quality and feel.

The Nikon D800. Rob has used Nikon gear all of his professional life and bought this particular model two years ago. It replaced an aged D2X that had been around for way too long and taken a bit of a bashing on several continents, from high up in the Himalalyas to the jungles of Borneo. The D800 is amazing in terms of what it can record even in very low light. Rob also shoots HD video and he is starting to compile a series of short vignettes that will make a finla short film of each tree.

Fuji Instax – Pops up Polaroid stylee instant prints that are perfect for putting into our journal as we go along.

Olympus Tough – This is Harriet’s camera, mostly used for close up images and shooting underwater. It’s a little camera that puts out exceptionally good quality images, and we sometimes use it for short video clips as well. Apparently it will survive being dropped from a height of three metres but we’ve decided not to test this. It is exciting enough to have a camera that is reliable under water.