New to Medium Format: Camera Suggestions?

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there in
35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I admired
and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love Point
Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII? How
about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any other
good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to consider
or to avoid?

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

B.M.D.

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:46:25 -0700, "B.M.D."
wrote:

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there in
35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I admired
and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love Point
Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII? How
about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any other
good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to consider
or to avoid?

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

B.M.D.

For myself, if I was going to buy a medium format camera for natural
light only work I would probably go with the biggest image possible, a
6x7. I have a Mamiya RB and it's too heavy for just cruising around.
I have used Bronica and I find their build quality just a little less
than the other manufacturers. In my personal opinion I would be
looking at the Pentax 6x7, or if using graduated filters was not a
concern a Mamiya 7.

My first medium format camera was Bronic ETRS a 645 format. Second one was
a Linholf vintage camera with 6x7 and 6x9. Now I am using another vintage
camera Rollei SL66, not because of its format. It is because its quality.
Personally I like Linholf for its quality but it is hard to use in the
field. I use old camera because the new one with similar quality is too
expensive. Besides that, I love old mechanical camera. I like the feel
when you click the shutter and the sound.

"McLeod" ???
???...
On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:46:25 -0700, "B.M.D."
wrote:

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there in
35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I admired
and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love Point
Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII? How
about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any other
good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to consider
or to avoid?

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

B.M.D.

For myself, if I was going to buy a medium format camera for natural
light only work I would probably go with the biggest image possible, a
6x7. I have a Mamiya RB and it's too heavy for just cruising around.
I have used Bronica and I find their build quality just a little less
than the other manufacturers. In my personal opinion I would be
looking at the Pentax 6x7, or if using graduated filters was not a
concern a Mamiya 7.

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 13:46:25 -0700, "B.M.D."
wrote:

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

Start he http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/index.html read lots.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

Do you expect to use a tripod? Some/Most/All of the time? How important
is weight? How important is macro work? Would you like to be able to
change film mid-roll, or is that not important? Are you looking for
mostly wide angle, normal, or long lenses? Do you expect to want a lot
of lenses, or just a few?

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there in
35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

A great place for larger-than-35mm film sizes.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I admired
and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love Point
Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I'm familiar with Weston, but a little Google fun let me peek at some
work of the others. Sounds like you'll be using a tripod most or all of
the time; wide to normal lenses, maybe a short tele; and may want macro.

As someone else mentioned, unless you want to change film mid-roll, the
Pentax 67 or 67II fit the bill quite well, but it is a very large
camera. The Mamiya 7II would also work well, but not so well for macro,
and not a lot of lenses to choose from.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII? How
about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any other
good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to consider
or to avoid?

I'm happy with my 645E w/ 55, 80 and 120macro lenses, but I also want at
least some portability, so that's why I went with a lighter (by medium
format standards) camera. It's actually about the same weight as some of
the really large 35mm SLR's.

Drew

--
Drew W. Saunders

dru (at) stanford (dot) eee dee you

MF equipment is plentiful on the used market, so you've got lots of choices.
Some you may be able to eliminate based on needs. For example, do you need
interchangeable film magazines? If so, the Pentax line is out. Do you need a
path to digital? Do you need digital now? I went through this excercise
about while ago, and would up with the Pentax 6456 NII. It's a wonderful
field camera, and capagle of producing absolutely top shelf images. The
lenses are excellent, and there's a broad selection. In addition to it's own
lenses, you can, via the use of an adapter, use the Pentax 67 lenses. But I
didn't care about digital, and didn't need to change film mid-roll. I'd
like the second feature, but can easily live without it, and think it's a
fair trade for smaller size and lighter weight.

Another nice small camera is a Mamiya 7II, which is a 6x7 camera. but the
selection of useable telephotos stops at 150mm, which, for that camera, is
equivilant to a 70mm lens on a 35mm camera.Not good enough. There is a 210mm
lens available, but you can't focus it using the split image rangefinder.
Yes, nearly useless. But the lenses that are available for that camera are
excellent.

And then there's the Hassy 501CM. One of the best ever, with glass to match.
It isn't cheap, and isn't fast, but you can't beat the image quality.

The other cameras you mentioned, the Mamiya 67RZ and Bronica, are just too
damned big and heavy for me. If they're not too big for you, the image
quality from the RZ67 is incredible.

"B.M.D." wrote in message
...
Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there in
35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I admired
and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love Point
Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII? How
about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any other
good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to consider
or to avoid?

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

B.M.D.

see http://medfmt.8k.com/mf/gindex.html for pros/cons on MF cameras and
hands-on review by pro photographer Danny Gonzalez

see mf/budget.html for budget MF kits, see mf/value.html for "best buys"

for landscapes, it might be worthwhile to look at cameras with movements,
such as 6x9cm http://largeformatphotography.info/roundup2x3.html or even
a 4x5" (rollfilm back option for economy)

see mf/cameras.html (camera models) and mf/index.html (related articles)

you may discover, as I have, that you need multiple cameras to do it all,
e.g., I like a panoramic (veriwide 100) 6x10cm kit for land and cityscapes
but also a short tele to pull out nice scenics (colored tree leaves..)
from a bigger landscape/cityscape, and macro for details (door knobs) etc.

hth bobm
--
************************************************** *********************
* Robert Monaghan POB 752182 Southern Methodist Univ. Dallas Tx 75275 *
********************Standard Disclaimers Apply*************************

On 2004-04-12 16:46:25 -0400, "B.M.D." said:

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

The project for the summer--that's by when I need to decide and
purchase--is to shoot at Point Lobos in medium format. I worked there
in 35 mm in the springs of '93 and '95--God, time has sure gone by.

My biggest influences, or at least the photogrphers whose work I
admired and tried to use as a guide, are E. Weston (that's why I love
Point Lobos), LeGray, Baugnet, and probably Shibata.

I've done some initial looking around, so I have a few more specific
questions: How good are the Pentaxes, their 67II, or 645N or 645NII?
How about the Mamiya 645E? What about the Bronica ETRSi or GS-1? Any
other good, reasonably priced cameras I should know about, either to
consider or to avoid?

Thanks in advance for any and all help,

B.M.D.

I've had a Pentax 6x7 since 1979 and love it. It is very heavy and a
tripod is a must except for indoor flash (not your issue) and bright
light with fast film. Nevertheless, it takes beautiful pictures which
enlarge to the usual sizes with almost no cropping. If you buy a used
one, be SURE to get it with mirror lockup. Almost all those available
have it and a Pentax 67 or 67II will always have it, but the original
6x7 did not have mirror lock up on the very early models, so keep your
eyes open. Just one warning: it LOOKS like a giant 35mm but it is far
far heavier.
--
Michael Weinstein | "Those who cannot remember the
Nashua, NH | past are condemned to repeat it."
-George Santayana

I just bought a Mamiya RZ67 II and it is awesome. Got an amazing deal
at KEH used. I used 35mm and with tha Mamiya the image quality is
amazing. No compromises.

JR

If you don't want anything too fancy and reasonable inexpensive, look around
for a Mamiya 645 or 645 1000s. I recently acquired an "as is- non working"
645 w/metered prism for $99. Turned out all it needed was a new battery.
Have run test film through it and all is fine. Even the meter works.
Disadvantages - well a bit heavy, non interchangeable backs, that's if you
consider these things disadvantages. ( My Leica M2 dosen't have
interchangable backs either :-) )

Lots's of older 645's around - might have to replace light seals ( $35 +
materials from authorized facility here in Canada - $345 for complete
system overhaul) but certainly worth a look.

Enjoy

Gordon

"B.M.D." wrote in
message ...

Hello All,

I studied photogrphy for a few years, but we only ever worked in 35mm.
After being away from photography for a few years (grad school and
work), I want to start shooting again, but I want to start working in
medium format. The problem is that I have no idea what camera to
purchase. Basically, I'm looking for suggestions.

I did all of my student 35mm work with a completely manual camera--no
"auto" anything except for light metering--so I'm pretty okay with a
pretty basic camera. I'm not looking to spend a fortune, but neither do
I want to purchase too little camera. It will be all outdoor,
natural-light work.

Having used the Pentax 6X7 for 25+ years let me just say that full
frame composition is well rewarded in final results with a larger
negative, the "ideal" format, which prints out very closely to 8x10 etc.

Secondly, 120 = 10 shots 220 = 20. Two bodies if you are looking
for some interchangeable backs or switch from B&W to colour
or slide.

Sturdy monopod and tripod recommended.

I used to use a handheld spotmeter but now use my digital
camera in place of it. OLY C2100UZ

Terry