Medium Format reccomendations?

cp_ste-croix said:
Anyone have a reccomendation for a MF camera (pref 6x6)? My two most important criteria are lens sharpness/bokeh/oic quality and price. I had this posted in the 'something completely different" cat, but it doens't show up on the new posts page...

thanks in advance,
chris
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I will sell you a nice Rolleicord tlr with a Schneider xenar 75 mm 3,5 with everreadybag and a shade for 150 USD + postage

It is very sharp stopped down and it has beautiful bokeh

It will give you nice 6x6 slides/negs and it is very easy to handle

I almost always have either a rolleicord or rolleiflex along with me. I also have a Rolleiflex 3,5 Xenar - that needs a new exposure button and is prettyr warn in the leather but the times sounds nice and the taking glass looks fine - no bag - but same price as the rolleicord
 
I would go with the Rolleicord/Flex offer from a RFF member in a heartbeat. If you want interchangeable lenses, then that Bronica C can't be beat.
 
JoeFriday said:
yep, that Rolleicord sounds pretty nice to me, too
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I have two Rolleicords if you are interested Joe ! both with Xenars and both with bags :) all the best Ruben
 
i'm going with the 'cord...oh how to justify this purchase. anyone want to buy some art print photos or something? a pint of blood? heh.

chris
 
RubenBlaedel said:
I have two Rolleicords if you are interested Joe ! both with Xenars and both with bags :) all the best Ruben
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you coulda told me that this morning, Ruben.. but as luck would have it, I succumbed to the calling of my other obsession.. fly fishing.. and bought another fly rod on the Bay this afternoon.. so now I have 6 rods, costing an average of $400 each.. and of course it works the same as cameras.. everyone says "but you can only use one at a time!"

so remind me in a couple weeks and I'll definitely consider it, Ruben!
 
If you want cheap, go for the Holga. In fact, go for the Holga anyway, regardless of what else you do.

If you want good, go for a TLR - I like Rolleis. A Rolleicord is a great suggestion. A Rolleiflex 2.8 is just a fantastic camera in every respect; I'm attaching a picture I recently took with the 2.8 Rolleiflex as an illustration.
 
richiedcruz said:
As long as people are recommending TLRs, don't forget about the Ricoh Diacord L and Ricohmatic 225. My Ricohmatic is on its way to Mark Hama as I write and I cannot wait to try it out. From what I understand the four element lenses in those two cameras is quite good, plus they feed film from the top to bottom of the camera like a Minoltacord (good for film flatness) and they are real bargains.

In which case, maybe I should delete this post ;)

Richie
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Don't delete it by me. I just got a Dicord for half the last Ebay offer of $45 when the seller discovered a problem. He was good enough to tell me about what he thought was a aperture problem, and I said I would take it for half price if he wanted. He did, I just got the camera, and the problem is stuck leaf shutter which is responding to lighter fluid.

It's my first and probably last medium format,. I am looking forward to seeing what it can do.
 
my gf actually took it way better than i thought. maybe we are developing some sort of co-dependance? :)

yes, i feel better doing business with this crowd than any other...one day i'm going to be looking for one of your M6's and some summiluxes...but not yet. :)
 
Heh. While I like folders better than TLRs, this conversation got me looking again. There's this Yashica 12, see, ...


:D

William
 
While everyone is on the medium format topic ... have any of you FSU users had any experience with a Salyut C or a Kiev 88? Maybe even the Pentacon 6? I want to get a system with interchangeable lenses if anyone has anything that they would like to part company with :D I have a Moskva 5 and the folding Mamiya 6 but want something a little more versatile. I love TLR's to fiddle with and look at but find them a little awkward in actual use.

dan
 
I've been tempted more than once, but the QC issues make the ones for 35mm RF cams look non-existant. If you do decide to get one you _must_ buy one from a rebuilder or someone with a money back guarantee as most of them have significant issues as manufactured. I have heard good things of Arax and Kievusa (http://araxfoto.com/ & http://www.kievusa.com/ ) but have no actual experiance with them.

The other thing is that the Kiev 60 is a much simpler camera - as a result there is that much less to go wrong; that may well be a better place for you to start.

For what it's worth, good luck!

William
 
Great thread, I'm really enjoying it. I wonder, what is a 'normal' focal length for medium format? I guess it depends if it's 6x4.5, 6x6, or 6x9? By the way, I ran across this site. This person seems to be great at CLA's. No connection to him but I reaallyy like the way he finishes folders!

http://www.certo6.com

I did buy a viewfinder from him and the transaction was easy.
 
fraley said:
I wonder, what is a 'normal' focal length for medium format? I guess it depends if it's 6x4.5, 6x6, or 6x9?
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Yep, it depends! As a rule of thumb, the frame diagonal is about "normal" for all film formats. Take the square root of the sum of the squares of the side dimensions. Different camera brands of the same nominal format may have slightly different image sizes.

As an example, my Bronica RF645's image is 56x41.5 mm. 56 squared is 3136. 41.5 squared is 1722.25. Add these two and get 4858.25. The square root of that is 69.7mm -- the diagonal across the film from corner to corner of the image. So, "normal" for this format is about 70mm, as 43mm is for the 35mm (24x36mm) format. By this same method I find that 90mm is the corresponding focal length for the Pentax 67.
 
cp_ste-croix said:
my gf actually took it way better than i thought. maybe we are developing some sort of co-dependance? :)

QUOTE]

Take som portrats of your GF in BW - fucus on her eyes - rembrandt lightning - wide open - make small square printis 3 x 3 inches - darkening edges etc . and she will be wanting you to buy new Rolleis all the time :)
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blakley said:
If you want cheap, go for the Holga. In fact, go for the Holga anyway, regardless of what else you do.

If you want good, go for a TLR - I like Rolleis. A Rolleicord is a great suggestion. A Rolleiflex 2.8 is just a fantastic camera in every respect; I'm attaching a picture I recently took with the 2.8 Rolleiflex as an illustration.
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About Cords it should be mentioned that only the Vb has changable screens, whic allows to mount one of the modern bright screens .

All other Cords are quite dark toward the corners, which does not matter as long as long as you have bright light and as long as it does not come from the rhs or lhs directly shining into the finder. Beeing the interface between man and tool the finder is a thing of central importance IMO.

A Mat124G has a Fresnel screen , bright also in the corners. A very good sample goes for Euro 180 here. The 3.5/75 Yashinon is a 4-element Tessar type and I'd say it performs on par with the Xenars. And mostly the Mats are as half as old as the Cords.
The Vb are the because of the above mentioned feature the most expensive ones, mostly around 220 Euro at evilbay.

Regards,
Bertram


Best,
Bertram
 
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