Krosya said:
""The pig in the poke is that most "surviving", high-end folders which are for sale today need a full CLA and some unfortunately are better left to a display shelf."""
It's true, yet some folder cameras are well worth having it CLA'd. Those top quality ones are great to begin with if it was not abused - it's not that much work if any to CLA. Lower quality folders however often do need a more serious CLA due to inferior parts/materials being used and are better left for display. If you do research on the net - it's not difficult which ones are much better than others. But for some you will need to pay premium price, which , if you will use it - may be well worth the investment.
As far as TLRs go - they are a great value and quality cameras - I use my TLRs more often than folders. But you don't have 6x9 frames and they have very difficult time fitting in a pocket.
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George
Yeah, I can see your point, George. I had to look around to find a Yashica Mat in decent condition that only needed a minor CLA...it becomes a sort of "price point" issue if they have their common film lever advance mechanism problems, costing more than $100 clams to fix. In that case, it's probably not worth the CLA, and possibly better off going with one that may have small problems, but not the film-advance problem. I emailed extensively, asking questions beforehand, when bidding on that auction site for one. Finally found one where the seller guaranteed that the film advance was working smoothly, so I bit the bullet. I am happy that I did, as the Yashica occupies a good portion of my overall photography time.
On the other hand, my recent purchase of the Agfa Isolette was probably a "premium" price, pushing the $200 mark. However, I knew what I wanted -- the Solinar lens and a recent CLA, and a camera that was "ready to roll".
I ended buying direct from Jurgen Kreckel, whom I regard as a reliable repairman with a great love for the work he does. The lens was polished, the rangefinder was adjusted and matched to the lens collimation, the bellows was replaced, the Synchro/Compur shutter was cleaned and tested, the viewfinder was cleaned, and all grease was cleaned and replaced. To me, that means a lot, and I was willing to pay the piper. I am already finding myself using the heck out of this beauty that I've had for a month. I've run about 12 rolls (!) through already, and have a good number of keepers. Can't wait to take this compact and relatively lightweight medium format camera into the backcountry on off-trail trips this summer! Convenience, coupled with the big transparency, should be
de rigeur for sure!
I generally shoot without a meter, and have good luck with the Sunny16 formulas. However the rain forests where I live are such a challenge for light values, that I ordered a VC Meter II from Stephen Gandy. This will help me to get a couple of exposures when the light is strongly contrasted, and I should be able to narrow down the two exposures enough to combine them and do some selective masking to get a decent final output. The VC meter will probably come in handy on the Yashica Mat as well, so we'll see.
