Photojournalism / Street Photography with a MF Camera

Hello All,

A few weeks back, I asked for help selecting a Medium Format camera.
After all your advice, I visited a local camera store and checked out
all that was suggested to me. I eventually went with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro
II, which I have fallen in love with.

Now, I have decided it is time for a second Medium Format camera.
Since the RZ67 Pro II is so large and heavy, (which I knew before I
purchased it), I will more than likely confine it to the studio and
certain location shots.

What I am now looking for is a good MF camera for Photojournalism /
Street Photography, which I feel is very similar. Of all the cameras
that I have seen so far, I am finding that I am drawn to the Mamiya 7
II.

That said, I would again like to get your suggestions and advice.
Obviously for this type of photography, I would want a smaller and
faster MF camera that I can hand-hold. The 7 II seems to fit the bill.
I do know that the 7 II and the RZ67 Pro II use different lenses, and
I am ok with that.

If I did get the 7 II, I would probably start off with the 80mm lens,
which seems to be the standard lens for this camera.

That said, any suggestions? I would still probably carry my F100 or
D100 out with me when I go shooting, probably with a longer 80-200mm
zoom.

Thanks all in advance,

Chris
~Stay in Focus~

what kind of print sizes are you looking to do?

photojournalism and street work dont necessairly need that kind of
neg sizes.



"OnSafari" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello All,

A few weeks back, I asked for help selecting a Medium Format camera.
After all your advice, I visited a local camera store and checked out
all that was suggested to me. I eventually went with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro
II, which I have fallen in love with.

Now, I have decided it is time for a second Medium Format camera.
Since the RZ67 Pro II is so large and heavy, (which I knew before I
purchased it), I will more than likely confine it to the studio and
certain location shots.

What I am now looking for is a good MF camera for Photojournalism /
Street Photography, which I feel is very similar. Of all the cameras
that I have seen so far, I am finding that I am drawn to the Mamiya 7
II.

That said, I would again like to get your suggestions and advice.
Obviously for this type of photography, I would want a smaller and
faster MF camera that I can hand-hold. The 7 II seems to fit the bill.
I do know that the 7 II and the RZ67 Pro II use different lenses, and
I am ok with that.

If I did get the 7 II, I would probably start off with the 80mm lens,
which seems to be the standard lens for this camera.

That said, any suggestions? I would still probably carry my F100 or
D100 out with me when I go shooting, probably with a longer 80-200mm
zoom.

Thanks all in advance,

Chris
~Stay in Focus~

OnSafari wrote:
Hello All,

A few weeks back, I asked for help selecting a Medium Format camera.
After all your advice, I visited a local camera store and checked out
all that was suggested to me. I eventually went with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro
II, which I have fallen in love with.

Now, I have decided it is time for a second Medium Format camera.
Since the RZ67 Pro II is so large and heavy, (which I knew before I
purchased it), I will more than likely confine it to the studio and
certain location shots.

What I am now looking for is a good MF camera for Photojournalism /
Street Photography, which I feel is very similar. Of all the cameras
that I have seen so far, I am finding that I am drawn to the Mamiya 7
II.

That said, I would again like to get your suggestions and advice.
Obviously for this type of photography, I would want a smaller and
faster MF camera that I can hand-hold. The 7 II seems to fit the bill.
I do know that the 7 II and the RZ67 Pro II use different lenses, and
I am ok with that.

If I did get the 7 II, I would probably start off with the 80mm lens,
which seems to be the standard lens for this camera.

That said, any suggestions? I would still probably carry my F100 or
D100 out with me when I go shooting, probably with a longer 80-200mm
zoom.

Thanks all in advance,

Chris
~Stay in Focus~

Hi,

I use a Bronica rf645.
For street photography I prefer light wide angle lenses. The 65 on my
Bronica is perfect in that apsect. The camera is fast and silent. the
optics are super sharp.
Drawbakc might be that you that th Bronica shoots in portrait. For me
however that is an advantage.

Best regards,

Michiel Fokkema

"Michiel Fokkema" wrote in message
...
[SNIP]

I use a Bronica rf645.
For street photography I prefer light wide angle lenses. The 65 on my
Bronica is perfect in that apsect. The camera is fast and silent. the
optics are super sharp.
Drawbakc might be that you that th Bronica shoots in portrait. For
me however that is an advantage.


If the OP is happy to use 645 for this caategory of work, I too would
suggest looking at the Bronica.

Another option is a Fuji 645: these have fixed lenses, and are very light.
The 60mm lens on the GS645S would make it a very good tool for this sort of
work - I have one and it's a great camera. The GS645 has a 75mm lens and is
also an excellent camera, though the bellows are often perished and need
attention.


Peter

On Wed, 4 May 2005 00:58:41 +0100, "Bandicoot"
wrote:

"Michiel Fokkema" wrote in message
. ..
[SNIP]

I use a Bronica rf645.
For street photography I prefer light wide angle lenses. The 65 on my
Bronica is perfect in that apsect. The camera is fast and silent. the
optics are super sharp.
Drawbakc might be that you that th Bronica shoots in portrait. For
me however that is an advantage.


If the OP is happy to use 645 for this caategory of work, I too would
suggest looking at the Bronica.

Another option is a Fuji 645: these have fixed lenses, and are very light.
The 60mm lens on the GS645S would make it a very good tool for this sort of
work - I have one and it's a great camera. The GS645 has a 75mm lens and is
also an excellent camera, though the bellows are often perished and need
attention.




I use a GS645S and it's great. They are really small -- not really
much bigger than my Fed-4 35m rangefinder -- and the wider angle lens
is good.

The ony problem I find is the rangefinder spot is pretty dim. It's
sometimes hard to see and to focus with. Not a problem if you have it
on infinity or if you're focusing to the hyperfocal length. But
irritating if trying to focus precisely.

The Fed, despite being a whole order of magnitude down from the Fuji
in terms of quality, has a much brighter rangefinder spot.

Matt

In article .com,
OnSafari wrote:

That said, I would again like to get your suggestions and advice.
Obviously for this type of photography, I would want a smaller and
faster MF camera that I can hand-hold. The 7 II seems to fit the bill.
I do know that the 7 II and the RZ67 Pro II use different lenses, and
I am ok with that.

If you are happy to use a standard lens for this work, you could do a lot
worse than grab yourself a decent TLR, such as a Rolleiflex 3.5F. Available
for much less than you'll pay for the Mamiya 7II body, before you start
thinking about lenes, they produce superb results, can be discretely shot
from the waist, and are about the best cameras for handholding I've ever had
the pleasure to use. Ergonomically, they're probably the closet thing to
being the Leicas of the MF-world.

Thanks for your input. I had never thought about using a Rollei TLR.
I will keep it in mind. I know you said that you feel that they are
about the best for handholding, nut my thoughts would be that since you
need to look down in to the viewfinder, it would make you more apt to
shake the camera. Am I wrong in this? What size images do they
produce?

As for an earlier reply that I received stating that MF might product
too large of an image for typical photojournalism, I need to better
convey what I am doing. What I meant by Photojournalism / Street
Photography, would be more towards the images of Paul Strand or Henri
Cartier-Bresson. It is more of a look that I am trying to capture, and
not actual photojournalism itself. If I were to go on a
photojournalistic assignment, I would probably shoot with my D100 or
F100 depending on what I needed to capture. I am looking at producing
these types of images, but seeing them blown up to gallery size.

Please keep the suggestions coming.

Chris Jett
~Stay in Focus~

OnSafari wrote:

Thanks for your input. I had never thought about using a Rollei TLR.
I will keep it in mind. I know you said that you feel that they are
about the best for handholding, nut my thoughts would be that since you
need to look down in to the viewfinder, it would make you more apt to
shake the camera. Am I wrong in this? What size images do they
produce?


In contrary...a TLR has the shutter build in the lens, because it has no
mirror clapping up and down, there is less camera shake.
I am comfortable to take pictures down to 1/8 of a second with my flex,
and still have perfectly sharp objects.
TLR have the 6x6 format.

Borgh

On Tue, 03 May 2005 23:29:41 +0200, Borghesia wrote:



OnSafari wrote:

Thanks for your input. I had never thought about using a Rollei TLR.
I will keep it in mind. I know you said that you feel that they are
about the best for handholding, nut my thoughts would be that since you
need to look down in to the viewfinder, it would make you more apt to
shake the camera. Am I wrong in this? What size images do they
produce?


In contrary...a TLR has the shutter build in the lens, because it has no
mirror clapping up and down, there is less camera shake.
I am comfortable to take pictures down to 1/8 of a second with my flex,
and still have perfectly sharp objects.

TLR have the 6x6 format.



Not all TLRs are restricted 6x6. I have a (meopta) Flexaret VII which
does 6x6 but also has masks for 6x4.5 and 35mm. There's even a mask
which drops into the viewfinder to mask it for 6x4.5 - although
there's no real need as it has frame lines for 6x4.5 already.

The frame counter/advance mechanism works for 6x4.5 as well as for 6x6
which is handy.

I agree on the shake though, braced against the belly and with the
strap tight it's easy to hold it steady.

Matt

Thanks again everyone. Your adive is quite helpful.

As far as the 645 format is concerned, a couple of years back I
purchased a Mamiya 645. After getting back the images, I thought they
were slightly better than my 35mm, but only slightly, and not enough
for me to justify the cost of the system, so I had returned it. Also,
the 645 was much larger than my 35mm.

It is interesting to find more than a few of you agreeing that the TLR
is something I should consider. I originally thought everyone would
come back saying that my choice of (potentially) going with the Mamiya
7 II was dead on, but no one has mentioned it other than saying that
the TLR would be a better choice considering the image quality and the
cost savings.

EBay has had quite a few near mint Mamiya 7 II systems (body & 80mm
lens) sell between $1375-$1525 recently. There is even a Rolleiflex
3.5F available, which the owner is claiming has never been used. The
auction is up to $1,000+ now with 4 days left!

Should I be concerned that the Rollei 3.5F was produced in the 60's,
whereas something like the Mamiya 7 II is a current model? That would
be a consideration as well when considering cost factors. By this I
mean that parts for the 7 II if needed would be more readily available.

As far as the Rollei is concerned, what should I look for (year, s/n,
features), and how much on average should I expect to pay for one in
very good to mint condition?

Chris
~Stay in Focus~