What Medium Format Cameras Are Members Here Using?

[Cholentpot]

If someone wishes to pay me far too much money for one of my cameras, who am I to deny them?

I got most of my machine for naught. If I sell and want to buy again some day I won't be able to justify the cost.

 

[wiltw]

Thanks Wilt! Which flash do you use the SCA386 with?

And do you find the bellows hood heavy/too heavy?

Do you like the rotating finder?

I use Metz 45CL4 with the SCA386. During wedding coverage, I found the combination to dependly get the right combination of ambient+flash exposure.
I originally purchased the bellows hood with great intention, but I never really had need for it use, as I have dedicated lens hoods.
I originally purchased the right angle finder with great intention, but have never really found need for it, as I prefer to use the metering prism with right angle attachment for really low level work.

 

[ic-racer]

You guys do realize that this is a burglars shopping list if they can track your address (probably not too hard)?

I took my RZ with 2 backs, the 50, 110 and 180 lenses with me to Mexico City and did "street" photography with it.

Darn, I was planning on breaking in to steal your gear..who would have thought you took it with you

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Darn, I was planning on breaking in to steal your gear..who would have thought you took it with you

For all you know, I have a perpetually slightly underfed tiger in my house... or even just a testy Cane Corso...

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

This is a bit off topic but I go to a local gym and most there are doing the bodybuilding type training, whereas I go in and do a few reps of compound movements for strength, along with 'farmer's walks' - i.e carrying a pair of heavy dumbbells. Deadlifting helps with carrying heavy camera gear etc.

Sounds like we we're on the same regimen

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Nor am I, but I like to try different kinds of machines out. And why sell?

MY new machine is a Chamonix 4x5 view camera. As it is, film often stays in my cameras for months until I get around to shoot until the end. If I have numerous cameras in each format, I'd never finish any film.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

MY new machine is a Chamonix 4x5 view camera. As it is, film often stays in my cameras for months until I get around to shoot until the end. If I have numerous cameras in each format, I'd never finish any film.

I've given myself the discipline/requirement that if a roll goes in the camera, the camera doesn't get put away until the roll is finished. Kind of like the old thing about if you draw a sword, you don't put it away until it has drawn blood. But in the case of the camera, it's a lot less harmful. Over this past Labor Day weekend, the Rolleis and Lomos burned through 22 rolls of film in three days. 10 rolls of FP4+, 12 rolls of Tri-X. It's highly beneficial to your end results to shoot more - you miss 100% of the shots you do not take. And it also encourages you to look at a scene different ways and photograph it from multiple angles, so you're not sticking with the easy, cliche shot of something.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

I've given myself the discipline/requirement that if a roll goes in the camera, the camera doesn't get put away until the roll is finished. Kind of like the old thing about if you draw a sword, you don't put it away until it has drawn blood. But in the case of the camera, it's a lot less harmful. Over this past Labor Day weekend, the Rolleis and Lomos burned through 22 rolls of film in three days. 10 rolls of FP4+, 12 rolls of Tri-X. It's highly beneficial to your end results to shoot more - you miss 100% of the shots you do not take. And it also encourages you to look at a scene different ways and photograph it from multiple angles, so you're not sticking with the easy, cliche shot of something.

Why would I shoot shots that have no value to me just to finish the roll? If quantity provided better shots, then digital photographers shooting thousands of shots in a day would have a wonderful portfolio. Well, that isn;t true. Most of their shots are just duplicates of stinky other shots. "missing" bad shots is not missing anything. The whole point of shooting medium format or large format for me is to slow down and get some decent pictures, the fewer turns out to be the better.

 

[ic-racer]

I try to use up a roll of 120 in a short period of time. Depending on the film path, some of my MF cameras won't hold the next frame flat after the film sits in the magazine for a while.

 

[Cholentpot]

MY new machine is a Chamonix 4x5 view camera. As it is, film often stays in my cameras for months until I get around to shoot until the end. If I have numerous cameras in each format, I'd never finish any film.

I'm amazed at how little 4x5 and 2x3 I actually shoot. I shoot over 100 rolls of 120/135 every year, sheets? I got my LF cameras last summer and I've yet to shoot 25 sheets.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I did an inventory of all the cameras I have or will have available to me soon. I counted 23 cameras in total, which includes 5 digital cameras. My favorite format is the middle of the road format- medium format that uses 120 film.

The medium format cameras I have are:

Holga 120
Yashica A
Fuji GW690
Fuji GSW690
Pentax 645N
Pentax 67II
Franka 6x9 Folder
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 517/2 6x9 Folder
and my recent purchase of a Mamiya RZ67 Pro.

My two favorites out of this list are both of the Pentax units, with the Fuji GW690 a third. Reason the Fuji is third is because the lens is fixed focal length, and it doesn't have a light meter of some sort. Other then that its a great camera.

What are you guys using and which is your favorite?

Hasselblad501c and Mamiya6. The Hasselblad being my favorite in the studio and the other for travel.

 

[Vaughn]

I've given myself the discipline/requirement that if a roll goes in the camera, the camera doesn't get put away until the roll is finished...

Makes sense. Plus why start off a day with two frames left on a roll of 120? ("What iso film is in here? Dang, can't remember...) Take a self-portrait where one is working for the last frame, try something new, push oneself with that last couple of frames. At least it will be cheap entertainment.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Why would I shoot shots that have no value to me just to finish the roll? If quantity provided better shots, then digital photographers shooting thousands of shots in a day would have a wonderful portfolio. Well, that isn;t true. Most of their shots are just duplicates of stinky other shots. "missing" bad shots is not missing anything. The whole point of shooting medium format or large format for me is to slow down and get some decent pictures, the fewer turns out to be the better.

I'm not saying to spray-n-pray. I'm saying take the first shot, the obvious one that comes to mind when you see something. Then engage your curiosity and creativity and take another look at it, and a third, and a fourth... don't just stop at the obvious. Because you may, upon further examination of the second, third, etc shots, decide that an alternate angle was the better one. Or conversely, you look at your contact sheet of the single frames of each subject you took and realize that A: you left something in you didn't see at the time but really don't want now, or B: there was the beginning of an idea in the one frame but it is incomplete/poorly executed, and had you moved a few inches/feet/yards to the side or stood up or got down lower, you would have had something far more interesting, but now you're a four hour drive away/six hour flight, and re-shooting is going to be a royal pain to say the least. That's why.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

people shoot differently. I don't understand why one method is better than the other. I'm often out just to get a sunset shot. So there;s only one shot I want to get and go home. Maybe I'll stay for two or three. But then there are shots left on the roll.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Okay, an RB67 is heavy. On the other hand, so's a Speed Graphic. Weejee was a little guy, around five feet five, and he smoked cigars regularly.

My RB67 with 50mm or 90mm and prism finder, plus left hand grip, isn't unpleasant to use as long as I also have a strap to take the weight when I'm not actually framing and focusing.

Now that I have Grafmatics, however, the only real advantage the RB has over my Annie is SLR focusing -- and even with a couple Grafmatics and a couple extra lenses on boards, the Annie is slightly lighter than the RB with prism and a couple lenses.

 

[Auer]

Okay, an RB67 is heavy. On the other hand, so's a Speed Graphic. Weejee was a little guy, around five feet five, and he smoked cigars regularly.

Fellig had a car and a Police Radio

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

people shoot differently. I don't understand why one method is better than the other. I'm often out just to get a sunset shot. So there;s only one shot I want to get and go home. Maybe I'll stay for two or three. But then there are shots left on the roll.

Fine, you win... if you don't like my method, don't do it. I'm suggesting shooting more frames as part of an artistic discipline to improve your image-making. I don't know about you, but I want to make better photographs. All the time. I find that pushing myself to take more photos, and not just sticking with my initial instinct of the shot, helps me in that goal. Even if I shot an entire roll of the same subject, and then only used one frame from that roll as the final shot I print, I don't consider the other 11 frames wasted. I can look at them, see what I didn't like about them, and apply that the next time I want to photograph something. If that's not your goal, then don't even try what I'm recommending. But by the same token, don't bitch about how long it takes to finish a roll.

 

[Donald Qualls]

Fellig had a car and a Police Radio

Well, yes, there's that. I seem to recall seeing a photo that suggested he had a portable developing setup in the trunk, too, saved a few minutes on getting a negative to the typesetters at the papers...

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Fine, you win... if you don't like my method, don't do it. I'm suggesting shooting more frames as part of an artistic discipline to improve your image-making. I don't know about you, but I want to make better photographs. All the time. I find that pushing myself to take more photos, and not just sticking with my initial instinct of the shot, helps me in that goal. Even if I shot an entire roll of the same subject, and then only used one frame from that roll as the final shot I print, I don't consider the other 11 frames wasted. I can look at them, see what I didn't like about them, and apply that the next time I want to photograph something. If that's not your goal, then don't even try what I'm recommending. But by the same token, don't bitch about how long it takes to finish a roll.

What's interesting is that I bracket my shots when shooting 6x7 format so I;m really shooting three shots for each scene. Even then, I often don't finish the ten-shot roll. It's actually interesting. When the developed film arrives, I'm often surprised because I don't remember what I shot it was so long ago. Delays occur lately as well because I started shooting 4x5. So I finish a roll even less often. If I shot with 6 cameras, I'd wind up being like Vivien Maier who had thousands of rolls never developed.

 

[Wallendo]

I have a Yashica Mat, a Mamiya M500 and a Mamiya m1000s.

I also shoot 120 film in a Kodak Pocket 1a Junior using an adapter.

 

[_SDGOL_]

None. Unless you change the question to future tense. I will be using a Pearl River TLR I picked up in an online auction. Assuming it works or is fixable if it doesn’t.

 

[furutadrop]

New member here!

I really love the medium format but only have a couple cameras. I tend to attach myself to one or two!

Mamiya M645 1000S (with waist finder!)
Holga 120FN (tons of fun)
Diana (with flash I use between a few different cams)

Gotta be honest though.. I probably used the Diana once.

 

[macfred]

New member here! ...

Welcome on board!

 

[Marcelo Paniagua]

New member here!

I really love the medium format but only have a couple cameras. I tend to attach myself to one or two!

Mamiya M645 1000S (with waist finder!)
Holga 120FN (tons of fun)
Diana (with flash I use between a few different cams)

Gotta be honest though.. I probably used the Diana once.

Welcome.

Mamiya M645 with WLF is another beast altogether. More comfortable than using with the eye level finder.

Medium format? Various mostly Bronica ETRs, Kiev 88, Rolleiflex 2.8C and Mamiya C330f. Sometimes use a Horseman Topcon 970. Pretty fun to use, a large format experience but "pocket" size

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

New member here!

I really love the medium format but only have a couple cameras. I tend to attach myself to one or two!

Mamiya M645 1000S (with waist finder!)
Holga 120FN (tons of fun)
Diana (with flash I use between a few different cams)

Gotta be honest though.. I probably used the Diana once.

Welcome to Photrio!