Name is Mike and just wanted to say hi. Have a Rolleicord VA and VB. The VA is a fine user in good shape and the VB looks like it's about two years old and is off to summer camp with Harry Fleenor who will install a new screen and whip it back into shape. I shoot B&W film and am currently using Tmax 400.

Hi Mike, I'm also new to this group.
I have a Yashica Mat which I use for B&W photography, not as often as I'd like to use it. Although I am now retired I still don't seem to have the time to "smell the roses".
I have digital camera's and quite a selection of 35mm but the Yashica Mat is a bit like roiling your own cigarettes, it takes time if you really want to enjoy it.

I am fortunate in having a few friends with the same interest but the times we can get together is limited, but very enjoyable when it happens.
I hope to post some photos a recent day out real soon now.

Regards Dai.

Just found this Group so had to join in as I have several TLR's ! My first one was the Zeiss Ikolflex, new in 1957 when I was in the British Army in Germany, British Military Hospital, Iserlohn --- it was £15 (in British money ) from Klein-Happe camera dealers -- there were NEW Rolleiflex 2.8F cameras in the window for 820 D Marks at the time and I thought that was too expensive ( when it was 11.50 DM to £1 Sterling !) The Ikoflex had a Zeiss Opton Tessar set in pitch. which softened in the heat and I could no longer get sharp photos with it --- I sold it to an unsuspecting fellow Camera Club member for £15 ! Now I have several Rolleiflexes, a Rolleicord Vb and a Mamiya C220 given to me by a Camera Club member.
I have been in Photography since 1951 when I joined the School Photo-Soc and have been in 'Clubs' ever since. I had a traditional Darkroom, do B&W and RA4 C41 processing. I like messing about with my 'Old cameras' and outdated films !
I tried to upload two photos but it would only let me upload ONE as I seem to have run out of Kilobite things !! How can I upload more than one photo ?

Hello all! Just signed up -- not really sure what "Groups" do, but I'm slowly tying in to a few of the most obvious candidates.
Back circa 1975 or so, I picked up a Flexaret TLR at a flea market. It was tagged "bad shutter" and I paid the princely sum of five dollars for it with the notion I could use an 80mm lens on my home made enlarger. Being a curious sort (and compulsive tinkerer), I disassembled it enough to flush out the shutter mechanics and clean and adjust a few things to get it working. Never did too much with it, and now, an alarming number of years of disuse later, I fished it out of the "vault" and found the slow speeds are hanging a bit, the viewfinder is seriously dim and the wind crank (AFIK, the III is the only one with a "crank") feels a bit stiff.

So being lazy, I bid on and won a Yashica MAT 124G off ePrey back in September. I don't consider TLRs my ultimate camera type, but they are nice for working around people -- staring at a weird old box near my belt buckle seems less intimidating than pointing an EF 24-70 f2.8L at someone's face! They also break some ice occasionally. While shooting an old gas engine at a festival recently, I heard a voice saying "how many megapixels?" As I turned to look, the guy smiled and exclaimed "a 124G, haven't seen one in years" and proceeded to tell me of his working in a photo store back when. We had a good chat, and I put in a good word for APUG. A TLR might be just the ticket for working with IR film too. Using my Bronica, I noticed I couldn't focus too well through a IR760 filter!

If I wasn't retired, I might have looked further upscale toward a Rollei-something, but for now, I think this will do. Who knows, some day I've exhausted the twenty yard long do-list (Ha! Dream on), I might even open up the Flexaret again!

Hi! I just signed up - I bought a Microflex TLR in cosmetically great condition + 2 filters + manual + original box about 3 weeks ago. I had to send it off to get fixed as somehow the aperature wheel was stuck between f11 and f22. Weird but hey - it's old. Older than me anyways (Im 30 and get a lot of weird looks when walking around with my camera)!
I had shot with a 35mm SLR about 10 years ago, had switched to digital and was now looking for a TLR to get more involved in some medium format vintage photography and I intend to use it for BW portraits, scenery and art photography.

Good morning;

Well, this is another thing that came as a surprise to me: I am now qualified to be a member of the TLR Users Group.

Today there was handed to me a Minolta Autocord TLR camera. This one may be a late version of the Original Autocord; it has the flash synchronization switch to choose from X, F, and M synchronization mounted on the right side of the taking lens as you are holding the camera, which I think was the standard location on the Autocord-L, but this does not have the built-in light meter. It has a CHIYOKO ROKKOR 1:3.5 f=75mm taking lens with a VIEW-ROKKOR 1:3.2 f=75mm viewing lens and is fitted with the SEIKOSHA-MX shutter assembly running from B and 1 second to 1/500th second. There is also some oil visible on the on the shutter leafs, and the focus is difficult to move from the fully retracted or pulled in "Infinity" position. Like everything else that has come to me in recent times, this one also will require at least a CLA.

Fortunately, there is already a supply of 120 roll film here, noting the Kiev-88 and Kiev-88CM and the Koni-Omega Rapid-M camera bodies and lenses here already.

And, as YJBessels said, you do get some interesting comments and looks when you are carrying a camera that obviously does not have very many megapixels in it.

Good morning;

Sometimes things do not turn out the way you had hoped.

The Minolta Autocord was taken to the shop of my favorite local camera technical guy, and he did indeed look at the Minolta Autocord for me. Then he announced that he really did not want to do it. He said that there was too much wrong with it, and it will be more than the cost of another working used camera to put this one back into workable condition. This was not what I expected to hear. And, yes, the numbers he quoted for the work were right around the selling price through KEH for another one in BARGAIN but working condition. Oh, well.

At the very least, I guess I can put it back with the camera bodies that have been relegated to "parts" status among the cameras here. Yes, it is surprisng what actually does come out of the box upon receipt, and you compare the contents of the box with what the seller on e-Bay assured was in "near Mint condition," although he also did say that he was not a photographer nor knowledgeable about cameras. There may be a clue there for us.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

Good morning;

In the continuing saga, there may be hope yet. Another person suggested that I contact a fellow who is well known in some circles for his work on the Minolta Autocord. His e-mail message back to me does sound quite promising. The unusual thing is that his pricing is significantly less than what my local camera guy was saying. Perhaps there really is hope here for that camera.

And under the general heading of "when it rains, it pours;" I was talking with one of the other guys at a local radio gathering about cameras, and he asked me if I would like to have some old film cameras he is not using. One of them was his father's; a Yashica D. So, even if the Minolta Autocord takes much longer than I anticipate, there could very well be another working TLR camera here to serve as my qualifying camera for this group. You just never know when a film camera may be sent your way.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

Robert here. I've been a passive member for a while and kept on forgetting my password, and finally figured out I had mistyped my name. Easiest route was to re-register. I used to shoot weddings from the 70's through the 90's, and used TLRs for the bulk of it. I started with a Yashicamat, added a second, then picked up a Yashica 635 35mm/120 dual format for the double exposure capability. Along the way I managed to find several sets of close-up lenses for the Yashicas. As time went by, I got into the Mamiya C330f Pro S line and picked a couple of those and eventually obtained most of the lens line-up with the 55, 65, 80, 135, 180, and finally the 250. I didn't see much point in the 105 so never tried to find one.

The entire set has gathered dust while I've worked on the darkside for the last 6 years. Most of the work I do is sold at art fairs, and to be honest, doing the same prints over and over again becomes tedious and boring as hell. That's where the D word finds its usefulness as far as I'm concerned. I've found that I miss the darkroom and that sense of wonderment I found in there years ago. Just don't ask me to do editions of 20! It's time to dust those beloved double eyed creatures off, clean out the clutter in the darkroom, and start doing some enjoyable work where my hands get wet again