First street shoot with the Yashica Mat 124G

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River Dog

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I normally shoot on the street with a Leica CL or Pentax MX, but I tried out my Yashica Mat 124G today. On the plus side, the shutter is so very quiet and no-one seems to notice me staring down into an old black boxy thing. On the downside, how on earth do you meter, focus and frame (back to front) quickly enough? Does it come with practise?

I was shooting Neopan 100 at 200 in dull conditions so I am at f/3.5-f4, 1/125 sec. It is a cracking little lens and I love the solid feel of it. The meter is pretty hopeless but I got a few decent shots. I have found that pushing Neopan 100 to 200 in R09 one shot delivers really good blacks, nice contrast and tonal range.

So, hats off to those street photographers that get great shots from their TLR. You have my respect.

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Normally the light will stay constant for long periods of time...so all you need to do is get a reading off something in the 18% gray area...patches of light grass will work...meter off that, set your camera and go...when the light changes re-meter and you're back in business...
Now all you have to worry about is focus and framing...
Pre-focus on an area where you think something will happen or an interesting spot and now you just wait...
Another thing to remember that what you're seeing in the viewfinder is reversed side to side...it might look great in the viewfinder but may not flow right when viewed correctly...
I also have a 124g and this was one of the hardest cameras for me to get used to...after a while it all works out and you'll be able to shoot quick enough when needed...
I mostly use Neopan 400 in mine and do love the results...
Those two shots are very nice...most people don't know what you're doing when you use this camera and therefore don't really pay too much attention to you...
A hummingbird fart is louder than the 124's shutter so no one really knows you took a shot...
 
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Thanks for the tips, I understand that with the TLR I am going to have to change my style a bit. I don't fish much, I hunt :)
 
River Dog ponders: "...how on earth do you meter, focus and frame (back to front) quickly enough? Does it come with practise?"

Good lord, I hope so. Otherwise, I am doomed, because my first attempt today did not go just super-duper either.

I can only recommend taking pictures of stationary objects until you've got the basics down cold: metering, framing, focusing, not shaking the camera when pressing the shutter release, and trying to remember if you've wound the film on to the next frame.

Then, like target practice with a gun, after you can hit stationary targets with ease, advance to moving targets. It's back to stationary targets for me for awhile.
 
DanOnRoute66 said:
I haven't used one in many years, but I remember the 124-G being rather simple to use. I shot a lot of photos in my senior yearbook with one.

BTW, one of my favorite authors, Michael Z. Lewin, lives in Bath. If you haven't discovered his books yet, I highly recommend them.
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I can use the camera, it only has a few basic controls, but it is using it in the street, shooting people quickly where it is somewhat more challenging :bang:

I'll keep at it, as a MF negative is so much more to work with than 35mm, although the Leica beckons for tomorrow.

I'll check out Michael's stories. He lives near Walcot Street on the other side of town - the bohemian, rougher side.
 
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Once you get used to it you will adjust speed and f stops without even looking at them the same as you do with a 35. I think you'll find that in most situations it is as fast focusing as well.
 
I'd suggest trying HP5+. It works fine with the larger negative and gives you a lot more scope to use smaller apertures, and therefore much greater depth of field so you can pretty much scale focus in many situations.
 
Only one part of the battle, of course, but for any manual camera I believe the key is to meter in advance of the shot - i.e. meter for the overall lighting conditions and adjust a wee bit for the specifics of the shot. If you do it long enough and often enough, you find yourself adjusting the meter when you come into a room/new lighting environment. For common lighting conditions (basically, Sunny 16) you find yourself doing it without the meter, or only checking on the meter what you already know.

The problem is, it works best when you constantly have a camera with you.
 
Coincidentally I've recently bought a 124G and took it for its first outing the other week.

I have to say I found it quite a revelation.
I certainly had to slow my pace down a bit and deliberate over framing shots longer, however I think this is probably a good thing.

The biggest unexpected benefit was the fact that everybody ignored me when I was shooting with it. I found I could walk right up to people and they didn't bat an eyelid. I put this down to perhaps the fact that a TLR is pretty non-threatening, as cameras go, and people don't take it seriously. Either that or some didn't realise I'm looking at a viewfinder and think I'm simply fiddling with it. I'm convinced some don't even recognise it's a camera.

I shot two rolls at the Chinese New Year celebrations in Manchester.
Neopan 400 during the day.


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr

And HP5 at night. No reason - just the films I had with me.


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr


Untitled by Bobfrance, on Flickr

I did find I got a much higher proportion of keepers than I usually do with the Leica and quite honestly I think the way it renders comes closer to how I've wanted my images to look than any other camera I've used to date.

I hope you enjoy your Yash, I think I'm going to enjoy mine. :)


Bob.
 
I use a Rollieflex for street and concerts on occassion. The EV system that it uses for metering is brilliantly fast. Set once for light, and then you change both speed and ap for what you want.

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Practice using Ilford Delta 3200, rated at 1600. Even on a cloudy day you'll have tons of depth of field so focusing will be easier.

Eventually, you'll get quick enough to shoot at smaller F's and with slower film. Just takes practice!
 
Thanks for all your comments, I am going to run Neopan 400 or HP5+ next time to give me some leeway on DOF and work on it some more. It is producing images to rival the Zeiss on my Leica for sure.
 
River Dog, first, congrats on getting a 'Mat. Mine is possibly my favourite camera, and especially for street shooting. No-one connects what you're doing with taking a photo, so candids are easy to get. As for metering, I tend to take a couple of representative readings, then only re-meter when I light changes. You'll soon get used to judging the light by eye, and it certainly speeds things up. Neopan and HP5 are fairly forgiving in terms of exposure latitude.

In case you're interested, here's an article I wrote on my 'Mat ... preaching to the choir I'm sure, but anyway: http://jpgmag.com/stories/13063

Have fun with it!

Tim
 
River Dog said:
I can use the camera, it only has a few basic controls, but it is using it in the street, shooting people quickly where it is somewhat more challenging :bang:

I'll keep at it, as a MF negative is so much more to work with than 35mm, although the Leica beckons for tomorrow.

I'll check out Michael's stories. He lives near Walcot Street on the other side of town - the bohemian, rougher side.
Click to expand...

I find that with the TLR (Rollei in my case) one needn't shoot as quickly as with a camera you put up to your face. Take your time; they won't notice you. Good work so far. I'm really impressed with your lens. My old Yashica 12 was nice but didn't have that good a lens.
 
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Much as I like the waist level perspective, I still make frequent use of the sport finder. The framing is obviously a bit lose, but don't mind, much as I don't mind with rangefinders and it's easier to track moving subjects.

Not sure if that's the case with all TLRs but on the Rolleiflex you can focus and frame at eye level.
 
"...how on earth do you meter, focus and frame (back to front) quickly enough? Does it come with practise?"

Use a Nikon F5 :D
 
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