anyone else shoot medium or large format?

[Daniel Buck]

so I have been getting back into film shooting (picked up a contax RTS-II 35mm for my contax lenses, and a Mamiya RB67 6x7 for medium format with a 90mm KL lens, and later on I'll pick up a 180 or 250). I'll mostly be shooting black and white landscapes with the Mamiya, and might think about picking up a 4x5 large format later on for the movement capabilities of the lens.

Just curious to know if anyone else here shoots MF or LF, what they shoot with and what subjects they shoot? Do you enlarge from your negatives? or do you scan in and print digital? I don't have room or time to enlarge the negatives on my own, so I'll just be scanning them in.

[Todd Corzett]

Does my Holga count?

-Todd...

[John Thawley]

so I have been getting back into film shooting (picked up a contax RTS-II 35mm for my contax lenses, and a Mamiya RB67 6x7 for medium format with a 90mm KL lens, and later on I'll pick up a 180 or 250). I'll mostly be shooting black and white landscapes with the Mamiya, and might think about picking up a 4x5 large format later on for the movement capabilities of the lens.

Just curious to know if anyone else here shoots MF or LF, what they shoot with and what subjects they shoot? Do you enlarge from your negatives? or do you scan in and print digital? I don't have room or time to enlarge the negatives on my own, so I'll just be scanning them in.

My dad had a Mamiya RB67 and I let it slip by me. What a nice camera.

Out of curiousity, Daniel, what attracts you to shooting this way, when ultimately, you have to digitize it anyway? I'm not asking to be argumentive... I'm truly interested in the pros-and cons.

I think I could see where I would like slowing down the actual picture taking process... there's certainly something to be said for that. But, I'm interested to know if there's a loss in the digitizing process and scanning.

JT

[John Jovic]

JT, I'm sure Daniel will also reply to your question but I think I can answer it as well.

It's about doing things slowly, intentionally. I've always felt that the longer it takes to get the shot the better it will be (you guessed it, I don't own a rangefinder). The ground glass on any MF or LF camera also gives you a 2 dimensional image to look at which is a much better way to judge compostion compared to viewing an image through a pentaprism such as in any modern 35mm camera. For some reason when you view through a pentaprism you seem to be looking at the subject, but when you are looking at the groung glass of a MF you are looking at a 2 dimentional compostion. This makes it much easier to 'see' the final image.

If I take any personal pics I tend to do it on a mamiya C220 (TLR) or mamiya RZ. I normally leave behind my Leica R and Canon gear.

JJ
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[Daniel Buck]

My dad had a Mamiya RB67 and I let it slip by me. What a nice camera.

Out of curiousity, Daniel, what attracts you to shooting this way, when ultimately, you have to digitize it anyway? I'm not asking to be argumentive... I'm truly interested in the pros-and cons.

I think I could see where I would like slowing down the actual picture taking process... there's certainly something to be said for that. But, I'm interested to know if there's a loss in the digitizing process and scanning.

JT


I'm sure there is a loss in quality when scanning, especially since i won't be drum scanning. But, I hardly ever print larger than 8x10 or 8x12 so I don't think there will be any problems. I'm not quite sure what has attracted me to go back to film, nostalgia I guess. I get perfectly fine results with my digital, so I guess I'm just wanting to try different things :)

I'm already a slow shooter (always have been) but I think that shooting larger film could slow me down even more :)

one thing I would reall like about large format is the ability to move the lens around sperate from the film plane. I can't really get that with my medium setup right now, but maybe in the future I'll pick up a 4x5 or something. I'd love to beable to shift and tilt for landscapes.

[Thomas Maranda]

I have an old Rolleiflex TLR that I shoot with on occasion. I love the slower pace.

http://www.turn2photos.com/images/photography/rolleiflex/pier.jpg

[Daniel Buck]

I have an old Rolleiflex TLR that I shoot with on occasion. I love the slower pace.
I was actually looking for a Mamiy C330 TLR at first, but made up my mind on an RB67 instead. A TLR would be alot of fun I think :)

[Thomas Maranda]

I was actually looking for a Mamiy C330 TLR at first, but made up my mind on an RB67 instead. A TLR would be alot of fun I think :)
It's a blast. Whenever I take it out, I get a bunch of questions. I've had a few people take pictures of me taking pictures. :p

[John Jovic]

There are a couple of cool things about using a TLR. There's less camera shake because the shutter mechanism is so small, but you still need to take care, they are light. But the best thing is that if you are photographing people they don't even realise what's going on. Firstly your looking down, rather than at them through a camera. And then, when you do take the picture there's no loud clunk (usually), just a quiet click which they probably wouldn't hear anyway.

I have an RZ and a C220. RZ lenses are great, especially the 110, and man this stuff is cheap these days. I use the RZ for landscape/cityscape type stuff, the C220 for a bit of fun.

JJ
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[Ryan Smith]

My dad has a Mamiya 645E and I have a 1957 Yashicamat. I figure if I can master my yashicamat then I could take better pictures with my digital. It's vintage so it's cool ;)

The only problem I have is sometimes I get a bit dizzy looking down into the camera because things are reversed.

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~coreya/yashica/yashicamat.jpg

[John Waugh]

I use a Linhof Master Technica 4x5 for landscape and architecture and some commercial work. Shooting with a large format camera has many advantages, depth of field( f64), adjustable focal plane, ground glass focusing and for me most important is the upside down and backwards composition. The abstraction allows you to see the elements of the image and not just the subject. If that makes sense. I don't use it very often as the kit weighs 40 lbs and a 15-20 image day is doing pretty well. The scanned files are huge but not tremendously better than the latest digital files. The images quality is directly related to the quality of the glass. Many of the great lens manufacturers are going away from the large lens market but digital has driven the cost of pre owned lenses way down. Medium format ( Pentax 67) really doesn't offer me any advantage over digital anymore. the quality gained is insignificant to digital processing and the time lag for film-scan-post process is alot longer.

[Morgan J Segal]

Wish I had known you were looking for a Mamiya, I have a mint RB67 Pro S with 3 lens, 2 backs and a Polaroid back I should get rid of.
I have not touched in 4 years. I should have sold it back then when I could have gotten some money for it:mad:

[Daniel Buck]

I'll be looking for a 250mm C or KL sometime soon, if you don't mind breaking up your kit? :)

[Morgan J Segal]

Longest lens I have is a 180
not be willing to break up the kit

[Daniel Buck]

ah

well, good luck selling it if you decide to :) There seems to be a fair amount of interest in the RB's among the photography community, but their value doesn't seem to hold up, I got my kit for $400!

[Morgan J Segal]

What did you get in the kit?

It bums me out, because I spend more than $5k on it, Might as well keep it at this point

[Daniel Buck]

yes, I agree, you should probably keep it.

RB67 Pro-SD body, 120 SD back, waste level viewer, and 90mm KL I wouldn't call them mint, but the condition is alot better than I expected them to be (I thought for that price, they would be beat up!). it all works fine, no light leaks, all the seals are good and not flaking off.

I think I got a steal, most kits that price didn't have the KL lens, they had the C lens. Thats why I took the plung on the RB, because of the price! I'm glad I did, I'm enjoying the camera very much! I haven't done any car shooting with it yet, mostly because I like using longer lenses on cars, I'll wait till pick up the 250 before I shoot some cars. unless I can find a 50's car, I like shooting those with just about any lens, I like cropping things like the tail fins, or the grill, or the lights, anything on them looks cool :)

I looked up the prices on these items brand new on B&H (just for kicks) I think I paid about 1/4 of the price if the items were purchased brand new.

[Daniel Buck]

just ordered a 250mm C on KEH for $275 :-D doesn't sound like a killer deal, but I have waited a while and haven't seen any other 250s pop up anywhere else. Guess it's not a propular focal length.

I'm guessing that the depth of field range is going to be somewhat different from the 135mm on 35mm format that I'm used to shooting cars with? (250mm on the 6x7 is roughly 125mm in 35 format, am I correct?)

[John Jovic]

Yep, similar.

I used an APO 210 on an RZ to shoot cars for years and found it worked well. I think I preffered the 110, because of a more natural, less compressed perspective. But that's subjective anyway.

JJ