lazy & amazed

[back alley]

so, being the lazy assed guy i am, i have had 6 rolls of filming hanging (drying) in my basement for, oh about 2 weeks now.

tomorrow, my furnace is being cleaned so i needed to clear the way, so to speak.

i finally cut the film and sleeved it.
one of the rolls was from the now gone yashicamat 124g.

i grabbed my nikon loupe and took a look at the 6x6 squares and just about started to weep.
they are so sharp i could read the serial number on my 28/35 from the neg.
(i had used a canon p as model, yeah, big surprise)

this is not good. i want my mamiya 6 back, both of them...

the next time someone screams about how sharp their canon, leica, konica etc lens is, i'm gonna mail them one of these negs and yell 'cheap yashica' right back at 'em!!

joe

 

[VinceC]

Cheap medium format runs circles around the best 35mm.

In our quest for perfect sharpness, we forget that the original 35mm cameras were considered "sharp enough" but that their main allure was portability and versatility. Capa also carried a Rolleiflex onto Omaha Beach, but the camera he shot with was the
35mm Contax because it was smaller and easier to handle while distracted by bullets and dismembered bodies.

 

[JoeFriday]

yeah, what the hell was Capa thinking? 😉

 

[jdos2]

I doubt he was thinking about bokeh. I doubt that very much.

I run into the same thing all the time, but I keep my Mamiya Universal and RB's, because of that wonderful negative. It's amazing. The Leica with the Noc is three stops faster than any lens I have, but it's still not as nice looking, nearly grain-free, and simply "not as nice looking."

But horses for courses. 135 is nice for several things. For them I use it.

Get a cheap folder (hint: I'm slowly selling an Oleg Moskva-5 :smile: ) and enjoy it when you have the time to use it. Otherwise, the cameras go to waste.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

the next time someone screams about how sharp their canon, leica, konica etc lens is, i'm gonna mail them one of these negs and yell 'cheap yashica' right back at 'em!!

There are many factors which contribute to the "sharpness" of your negatives; the size of the lens, negative real estate are big factors, but the camera itself is a crucial factor.

I have 35mm negatives that are as "sharp" than some of my Rolleiflex or Hasselblad negatives, and they're all from my new Leica glass, only when shot at very high shutter speeds. What does that tell me?

Camera shake. Camera shake. Camera shake.

It is easier to introduce the effects of camera shake when using 35mm than when using 6x6.

So yes, MF has "more" resolution, more negative real estate, etc. etc., but square millimeter by square millimeter, the best Leica (or Schneider, or Canon, what have you) glass will outrun some respectable MF glass 🙂:gasp:: blasphemy!!) when used on a nice, sturdy tripod.

But how many of us haul around that tripod with us with our rangefinders? I have a tripod "just in case"; I think I've used it three times this year (I'm not kidding).


Disclaimer: these are of course my opinions and observations, and those of the reader may be different, whose perception of time and reality may not be in synch with the apparent delusional rantings of this writer. 🙄

 

[back alley]

what's a tripod?

😉

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Let me check...

It's some overpriced holding fixture which will cause you headaches if you take it out in the field. It usually comes in black or chrome; if the CCCP made them we'd see orange alligator-skin covered ones on ePrey.

 

[back alley]

i think i saw one, once.


but back to my original rant for a moment.

the whole of my medium format experience (sans this one roll) was with 2 mamiya 6's with 75 & 150 lenses.
neither saw a tripod ever.
i used them as street cameras and they produced negs that corner for corner blew 35 out of the water.
i'm not knocking 35 at all, i still love my canons, lenses and bodies.
i just think for a group (in general) that prizes sharp lenses...medium format is already there.

i would hate/love to experience the joy of a large format neg, but only once.

joe

 

[ray_g]

Talking about larger formats, I just picked up my humongous Omega D5XL enlarger tonight. It looks hardly used. I gave the owner a 6pack of Beck's beer in exchange.

Once I hunt down some other parts - light source, neg carrier, lens and lensboard - I'll be ready to try my hand at MF.

In the meantime, I am just having too much fun learning to print my 35mm negatives. I had the day off after working the weekend, and made 10 prints this afternoon and night🙂

 

[ray_g]

The prints were of some old negs, with some doubles for the next print swap 😉