Moving to Medium Format

[Kimura_papaya]

hi all,

I am writing to ask for you guy opinion. I am a season photographer who love to shoot in black and white film. but recently was pretty impressed by the pic quality created by some medium format camera, thought it should be a good time to do upgrade to medium format to appreciate its clarity and picture quality.

i have limited budget to explored about....say around 1.5 as starting....what would you recommend me to start with but still maintain the cost below 1k. Cos i still need to spare some $$ for darkroom equipment.

saw this item in usa portal..do you guy think is a good buy?
http://www.adorama.com/US 255564.html

kim

 

[chiif]

Hi Kim,

If you plan to do 645 format, don't have to go so far, right here in this small little island, 2 pretty good value buys (as far to me) in our own B&S section...

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357420&highlight=mamiya
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=353694&highlight=mamiya

If you're looking at 6x6, then you should look at the Rolleiflex'es or Rolleicords(cheaper) which should come to your budget of about 1K on eBay.

If u don't mind a China made 6x6, then you can try Seagull, I think you can still get new ones from Seng Cheong.

 

[enivre]

Hi bro,

Aside from Chiff's recomendations, I'm also selling my old RB67 set http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=358748. Within your budget I believe and with 3 lenses!

Let me know if you are interested. ;p

Thanks!
Ervine

 

[sim4nee]

hi all,

I am writing to ask for you guy opinion. I am a season photographer who love to shoot in black and white film. but recently was pretty impressed by the pic quality created by some medium format camera, thought it should be a good time to do upgrade to medium format to appreciate its clarity and picture quality.

i have limited budget to explored about....say around 1.5 as starting....what would you recommend me to start with but still maintain the cost below 1k. Cos i still need to spare some $$ for darkroom equipment.

saw this item in usa portal..do you guy think is a good buy?
http://www.adorama.com/US 255564.html

kim

Hi, I have a friend going to sell his Mamiya 645 Pro TL, with 35mm, 80mm and 150mm leaf shutter lens, also with some other accessories, please drop me a note or something if you interested.

 

[boochap]

1.5k also can buy a hasselblad 500cm with a 80mm lens and magazine..
hasselblad 500 series has no built in meter, that's the main drawback.

 

[jamesong]

I have 6x6 TLR Rolleiflex Automat & RolleiMagic in my collection, very good condition, all at half your budget.Let me know if you are interested or want to feel the TLRs.

 

[Kimura_papaya]

where is seng cheong? actually twin TLR..my father has one...some china made one..i forget abt the name...but i just thought mamiya would be better? i don know....

 

[Kimura_papaya]

I have 6x6 TLR Rolleiflex Automat & RolleiMagic in my collection, very good condition, all at half your budget.Let me know if you are interested or want to feel the TLRs.

thanks bro...

i came across bronica...is it good too? thanks for all the overwhelming feed back

 

[chiif]

Seng Cheong:

http://www.eguide.com.sg/company-7172-sengcheongcopteltd-Singapore,Asia.html

 

[Kimura_papaya]

I have 6x6 TLR Rolleiflex Automat & RolleiMagic in my collection, very good condition, all at half your budget.Let me know if you are interested or want to feel the TLRs.

yes..i can think about that..thanks a lot bro james

 

[Kimura_papaya]

Seng Cheong:

http://www.eguide.com.sg/company-7172-sengcheongcopteltd-Singapore,Asia.html

thanks a lot bro chiff

 

[waycool]

My friend is considering selling his rollei 6008. if you're interested, drop me a PM and I'll send you info...

 

[nmk]

Please borrow and try shooting a MF camera to see if you like it before buying.

The TLRs (Rolleicord, Rolleiflex etc), Mamiya 645 and 67 cameras and everything else out there is a lot of fun but you might soon realize that you have bought an expensive paper weight that you do not use.

Medium Format works for a lot of applications and also does not for a lot of people. So see if the particular camera that you are buying makes sense for you.

 

[nmk]

Here are some useful links

http://photo.net/equipment/medium-format/choosing

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/medium.shtml

http://www.shutterbug.com/equipmentreviews/medium_large_format/0106great/

http://photo.net/bboard/forum?topic_id=35

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/intro2mf.htm

http://www.foundphotography.com/PhotoThoughts/archives/2005/04/cheap_medium_format_photograph.html

 

[Spectrum]

What are you interested in when shooting with a MF system? A 6x45/ 6x6 or 6x7 size? www.photo.net or http://photo.net/equipment/medium-format/ to search for what you are interested in.
Do some homework 1st before choosing the system. Have fun...

 

[kex]

i have a mamiya 645E with the 80mm F2.8 sitting in my cabinet.
willing to let go for $600

let me know if u are interested.

 

[waileong]

Ian, don't see much apart from people trying to sell you their MF systems.

I think it's better you reach a certain level of competency with 35 mm before you go for medium format.

Cost is not an issue, they are unlikely to go up any time soon. However, you will be very disappointed with MF if you don't have the fundamentals of photography under control.

 

[Volks]

I have a complete set of darkroom enlarger, 2 German lenses. timer, trays up to 20x24 inches . My purpose is to give it up all together & thus selling at give away price $300.

Hope this ease your budget getting yr ideal MF.

 

[Kimura_papaya]

Ian, don't see much apart from people trying to sell you their MF systems.

I think it's better you reach a certain level of competency with 35 mm before you go for medium format.

Cost is not an issue, they are unlikely to go up any time soon. However, you will be very disappointed with MF if you don't have the fundamentals of photography under control.

bro, thanks for ur kind advice..i am just trying to understand about MF more..yup..u are probably right...skill level in photography is always an essential point to reach..and certainly there are more thing to learn from you ..always to have a nice bro like u

reason of asking is i am doing some planning for future upgrade..so wanna see if i go MF..what will be the best for start.

 

[enivre]

Like some of the other people have mentioned, if you are shooting MF film you should already be quite grounded in the fundementals of photography because you only have 10 or so shots before you run out of film.

Meaning you need to get it more or less right in 1-2 shots, and that includes in some cases having to manually meter, manually focus, look at an image in the viewfinder that's laterally inverted and so on.

As you can probably see many people (including myself) are trying to offload our MF systems onto you. I suppose everyone has their own reasons but most of the time it's because it's become a paper weight for most of us.

So think carefully before going into MF. Maybe you might want to borrow or rent a system to play around with it first, get comfortable with the workings of an MF camera, and of course the cost of film and developing (can be substantial).

Then if you want to print B&W photos yourself you might want to borrow a darkroom and see if you can spend many hours in isolation just to get 1 photograph.

If you want I can let you play around in my darkroom and with my MF gear. Let me know.