cheapes way to get into 6x6

Hiromu is the man!

Funny how so many of us buy the best gear and then settle on the less expensive gear to use. Four Hasselblad sets here and my favorite is the Makina 67. Go figure!
 
hassy can be had for less than 500$ (a whole set, not abused junk).
makina 67 is much more expensive.......
seagull is great and I loved my 4B
i say go get a cheap 3.5 or 2.8 rolleiflex or rolleicord and enjoy shooting.
 
old 6x6 folders can have quite decent lenses... the cheap ones like an Agfa B2 Speedex etc. can be had for $15 in superb condition... and take very good photos stopped down.

Ikoflex are superb Rollei-class cameras often for bargain prices... people love Flexarets and they are darling (usually ~$65 for the good ones I think... haven't checked lately).
 
Stick with Japanse or German cameras. Yashica Mat A-D or similar serious TLRs with 3 element lenses are less than $50. Hold out for a Tessar Type TLR if you can - e.g Rolleicord or Yashica later models - expect to pay more than $50. There are many others. I had a Skyflex TLR from Japan that made beautiful images with a 3 element lens (stop down a bit).

I owned a Seagull once - a brand new camera, but it had rough metal work on the inside that caused film scratches -- reminded me of shabby Russian cameras.
 
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A Rolleiflex f3.5 or a Rolleicord in good condition won't result in the smallest initial investment but it will help you bring home pictures. I treasure the Rollei MX that I used to put fifty-some pictures in my college yearbook nearly fifty years ago.
JustPlainBill
 
I recommend getting a Rolleiflex 3.5 of any model or a Mamiya 645 of any model. The Rollei has a Zeiss lens, while the Pentacon 6 mount Zeiss Jena lenses can fit the Mamiya 645 via a cheap adapter. I have both systems.
 
Real: Yashicamat 124
Fake: Holga

alternative: Make a square film gate for your 135 camera.

William
 
Er, three element is a Cooke Triplet. Not a bad lens, to put it mildly, but not in the same class as a 4 element Tessar design. As a Tessar nutjob I had to interject. Sorry.

William
 
I think I will have to respectfully disagree about the Lubitels. If you know how to dial in your exposure, they are just fine. Granted, they are not Rolleis, but the quality of medium-format more than compensates for the "Lomo" side effects. Just make sure you get a good one, like from KievUSA or Fedka or an ebay seller with lots of positive feedback. BUY FROM THE USA! I made the mistake of buying one from the Ukraine or some such and when it arrived with fungus on the lens I was never able to get any kind of a partial refund (though I was promised one).
 
I recently bought a Rolleiflex T for £140, recently serviced. I have been extremely pleased with it and amazed at the quality of optically enlarged 8x8 prints. Well worth it if you can find one.
 
The "medium format in your pocket article"......W

The "medium format in your pocket article"......W

When I first became interested in folding cameras, someone gave me a link to this article:

http://www.cleanimages.com/articles/MediumFormatInYourPocket/folders.htm

I found it very helpful and it got me started on the road to a string of folders purchased over the next few years. I still pick up a folding 6X6 or 6X9 and take it out once in a while.

Find a nice folding camera, preferrably with a coupled rangefinder. I have a very nice folding Mamiya Auto6. It's heavy for the genre, but it's got a great lens, a unique but superb focus system (the film plane moves back and forth controlled by the coupled range finder mechanism) and is very accurate focus.
 
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