In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:

So what were the advantages of a TLR over meduim format cameras, I though it
was price as the focusing viewing lens didn't need to be of as higher quality
and could be made smaller. It did seem that TLRs in gernral were far cheaper,
but then I only ever used one a seagull for a short while. I did have a
practika VLC2 which I liked to use the waiste level finder option.
I did hear that they were easier to hold at waiste level and caused less
shake than a medium format camera but I never understood why.

The TLR design is a compromise. More accurate pre-visualization of the
final picture than a typical eye-level viewfinder, without the
complication of an SLR. Ideally, you want to view through the lens that
takes the picture, but to do so you have either a big flapping mirror
- or a large format camera where you replace the film with a viewing
screen.

The TLR gives you a directly focusable image which, except for parallax
at close distances, is exactly what the film would see. And, a
well-designed TLR is almost indestructible, with very little to go
wrong. I shot extensively with a TLR Rolleiflex, but at flea markets I
see Yashicamats - 25+ years old, and NOT an expensive camera - that
still work perfectly.