Avotius
Some guy
I dont know if any of you feel that way. I do. For me the ideal image ratio is 1:1, just like a 6x6 camera. I guess I think 6x6 because im such a square.......ok terrible joke, sorry.
😛
But really, I do think that even if 3:2 image ratio is nice and yes you can crop etc etc but really, seeing in the square ratio for me just works so well, one of the reason I like rangefinders so much, I can see square and then crop in a rectangle. I have a Yashicamat with the old Lumaxar 75mm which is a great camera but has a jammed shutter/self timer that when you advance and fire the shutter nothing happens but the occasional short buzz from the self timer thing. I had a while back a Mamiya 6 which was almost the perfect camera for me except you couldn't trust the meter, and the lenses flared like mad even with the hoods on, and the film door likes to fall off for no reason while I was shooting.....and that the rangefinder base was way too short for really accurate street shooting on such a large negative where DOF is your enemy rather then your friend, sometimes. The 150mm lens I had for that camera was near perfect, it was so unbelievably sharp and the colors were gorgeous and all that good stuff. The 80...75....? I dont remember the length....but it was a dandy lens as well, for the most part living on the camera when I was not shooting some tighter landscape shot.
Really all this started when I was playing around with one of those old original Seagull cameras here in China. It was kind of neat but had a lousy viewfinder. After that I started searching which brought me to the Mamiya 6 and rangefinders in general. While searching I borrowed a friends Hasselblad 503 and a 80mm zeiss lens, my first time shooting with zeiss and thinking what a pain in the neck it was since at the time I was still relatively fresh with my 20D digital. Since my Mamiya went back on the back door falling off then later on after just so many problems with a second body and in the end me not trusting it at all I sold it and started looking for a Leica. As you would figure things never work out the way you want and the funds went to other more pressing matters. Later I bought a old but very clean Seagull from my girlfriend the photographer who used it exactly once.
Since my Yashicamat broke I have not been shooting 6x6 until my Norwegian friend graced my side of the world again this time with a little item for me to play with. His old Hasselblad 500 with two massively heavy chromes, a 50 Distagon and 150 Sonnar. Now I find myself cursing my canon gear thinking after using zeiss in Leica M mount and now in Hasselblad mount how in the world could I possibly go back to using that canon "stuff" now sitting in the back of my dry box somewhere. With the cost of film prices and my adamant attitude again modern nikon cameras I find myself in a picky what to do later. Surely the idea choice is a Leica M8 and some nice zeiss glass for the front, but its not that 1:1 ratio is it. Oh well, I guess I can just bite the bullet and cost of film for a little while longer and play with my friend's Hasselblad that he left with me for the next....well whenever he comes back to China again, ahhh the feeling of a mechanical camera as it whirs to life.....
And without further ado, as with what usually happens at the end of one of my ramblings, some photos, why the hell not.
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/50mm Distagon Chrome
The boys playing their boys games after school, stretching their parents calls to the last before they are dragged inside to do homework.
I love these old entrance ways, they are so detailed with many different things chaotically ordered around them. That white piece of paper on the right however is a notice that the building will be torn down and the inhabitance moved soon, not something I would care to see by my door.
I love apples, I grew up in apple country after all. The apples here are so cheap, and so many different choices, great.
Its an odd one this photo, I dont know exactly why I like it but I do. Not my most technically shot but something in here is kind of neat to me.
Those stone slabs there to the right are an official protected heritage site. When I say protected I mean they haven't been torn down yet for an apartment block or strip mall. So while they so are the people who live in the little alley way, street side noodle shops and all.
These old houses are coming down soon to make way for modern apartment blocks. You know what they say...if walls could talk....
Same as one above, I dont know what I like better, the color or the sepia toned black and white...
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/150mm Sonnar Chrome
(not my favorite focal length on a 6x6...)
This guy crawled his way through the street market looking for hand outs...its not that he cant walk, he can, kind of, but crawling is more effective isn't it? One of the neighborhood guys told me he makes more in a month then most of the people around there and that he lives nearby, who knows.
😛
But really, I do think that even if 3:2 image ratio is nice and yes you can crop etc etc but really, seeing in the square ratio for me just works so well, one of the reason I like rangefinders so much, I can see square and then crop in a rectangle. I have a Yashicamat with the old Lumaxar 75mm which is a great camera but has a jammed shutter/self timer that when you advance and fire the shutter nothing happens but the occasional short buzz from the self timer thing. I had a while back a Mamiya 6 which was almost the perfect camera for me except you couldn't trust the meter, and the lenses flared like mad even with the hoods on, and the film door likes to fall off for no reason while I was shooting.....and that the rangefinder base was way too short for really accurate street shooting on such a large negative where DOF is your enemy rather then your friend, sometimes. The 150mm lens I had for that camera was near perfect, it was so unbelievably sharp and the colors were gorgeous and all that good stuff. The 80...75....? I dont remember the length....but it was a dandy lens as well, for the most part living on the camera when I was not shooting some tighter landscape shot.
Really all this started when I was playing around with one of those old original Seagull cameras here in China. It was kind of neat but had a lousy viewfinder. After that I started searching which brought me to the Mamiya 6 and rangefinders in general. While searching I borrowed a friends Hasselblad 503 and a 80mm zeiss lens, my first time shooting with zeiss and thinking what a pain in the neck it was since at the time I was still relatively fresh with my 20D digital. Since my Mamiya went back on the back door falling off then later on after just so many problems with a second body and in the end me not trusting it at all I sold it and started looking for a Leica. As you would figure things never work out the way you want and the funds went to other more pressing matters. Later I bought a old but very clean Seagull from my girlfriend the photographer who used it exactly once.
Since my Yashicamat broke I have not been shooting 6x6 until my Norwegian friend graced my side of the world again this time with a little item for me to play with. His old Hasselblad 500 with two massively heavy chromes, a 50 Distagon and 150 Sonnar. Now I find myself cursing my canon gear thinking after using zeiss in Leica M mount and now in Hasselblad mount how in the world could I possibly go back to using that canon "stuff" now sitting in the back of my dry box somewhere. With the cost of film prices and my adamant attitude again modern nikon cameras I find myself in a picky what to do later. Surely the idea choice is a Leica M8 and some nice zeiss glass for the front, but its not that 1:1 ratio is it. Oh well, I guess I can just bite the bullet and cost of film for a little while longer and play with my friend's Hasselblad that he left with me for the next....well whenever he comes back to China again, ahhh the feeling of a mechanical camera as it whirs to life.....
And without further ado, as with what usually happens at the end of one of my ramblings, some photos, why the hell not.
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/50mm Distagon Chrome
The boys playing their boys games after school, stretching their parents calls to the last before they are dragged inside to do homework.
I love these old entrance ways, they are so detailed with many different things chaotically ordered around them. That white piece of paper on the right however is a notice that the building will be torn down and the inhabitance moved soon, not something I would care to see by my door.
I love apples, I grew up in apple country after all. The apples here are so cheap, and so many different choices, great.
Its an odd one this photo, I dont know exactly why I like it but I do. Not my most technically shot but something in here is kind of neat to me.
Those stone slabs there to the right are an official protected heritage site. When I say protected I mean they haven't been torn down yet for an apartment block or strip mall. So while they so are the people who live in the little alley way, street side noodle shops and all.
These old houses are coming down soon to make way for modern apartment blocks. You know what they say...if walls could talk....
Same as one above, I dont know what I like better, the color or the sepia toned black and white...
Hasselblad 500, Carl Zeiss f4/150mm Sonnar Chrome
(not my favorite focal length on a 6x6...)
This guy crawled his way through the street market looking for hand outs...its not that he cant walk, he can, kind of, but crawling is more effective isn't it? One of the neighborhood guys told me he makes more in a month then most of the people around there and that he lives nearby, who knows.
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