Musing dropping 35mm for MF

[sykotec]

Sorry, sadly enough, no scanner! Friend has one of the last batch of Nikons, but hasn't even pulled it out of the box other than to make sure it worked. Will definitely try and push him a bit, or see if the wife's point and shoot digital can take pictures of prints.

DC Rollergirls season starts up soon - the DC Armory is an interesting place, but talk about BAD lighting for MF!

Any of these online to look at? 🙂

 

[sykotec]

I'm trying to cut down to only a couple developers to keep around - with Penn cameras situation in recent years it's pretty much B&H for what they'll ship or Freestyle. Hoping for just Rodinal and Xtol.

I had been using DD-X for Delta 3200 in 35mm and 120, but hoping Xtol will work out in 120. Always box speed - 1-2 stop push of tri-x is my choice below that.

Yeah, definitely have to bug the friend with scanner.

I'd be interested in your High-ISO images also. Microphen or DDX? In particular I'm interested in box speed (3200).

Cal

 

[sykotec]

Definitely. I had a 500C briefly - never got along with the square, but it wasn't THAt bad to haul. Then again, it was that of an F3 with motor drive at the time.

Calzone points out how big/heavy his Pentax 67II is, and rightfully so! I'd hoped to carry mine more when dropping 35mm, but ended up buying a friend's sadly neglected Mamiya 7II. Just couldn't haul the Monster Pentax with me everywhere, and it catches more attention than I want on occasion.

For me it's still 1 of 2 downsides - as someone else mentioned, you effectively end up with alot less DOF than 35mm for a similar situation. Often nice, but sometimes too tight when you're forced to shoot wide open.

Okay, lugged a Hasselblad 203FE around all morning.

It is a lot of weight.

That is the one downside, and where 35mm is superior.

Vick

 

[perudo]

This thread totally applies to me as I am thinking about the same thing:

Selling my leica for a rf645 or a mamiya 6....

I had mf cameras in the past, and the negatives just blew me away.
I think , the only reason I keep on using a leica, is because it is so beautifull, but honsetly, I must say that my 300 euros fuji ga645 providedd better results!

So, I come to the conclusion, that I will keep my point and shoots for 35 mm ( kinda trying to do anders petersen or moriyama stuff with it...) and buy a mf rangefinder... but it is a hard decision to make, as I fear to regret selling my leica stuff:bang:

 

[sykotec]

Sorry, just got a look at your site and wanted to comment. The 'Dogs of New York' and 'Jessica' sets caught my eye. Just curious - are the indoor Jessica portraits black and white film, or conversions from color?

Please post some examples

 

[thegman]

Indeed, the thing with Leica (or any 35mm camera) is that you can spend thousands on Summicron or Summilux and a body, but a £200 Yashicamat will do far better for technical resolution/quality.

For me Leica is not about image quality, just the pleasure of using the cameras. The M9 or MM of course could be about image quality, especially for the size of the camera.

This thread totally applies to me as I am thinking about the same thing:

Selling my leica for a rf645 or a mamiya 6....

I had mf cameras in the past, and the negatives just blew me away.
I think , the only reason I keep on using a leica, is because it is so beautifull, but honsetly, I must say that my 300 euros fuji ga645 providedd better results!

So, I come to the conclusion, that I will keep my point and shoots for 35 mm ( kinda trying to do anders petersen or moriyama stuff with it...) and buy a mf rangefinder... but it is a hard decision to make, as I fear to regret selling my leica stuff:bang:

 

[redisburning]

I tried to move to 120 and failed.

the closest for me was the Mamiya 7 but there were a few things that stopped me:

feel of the camera given then price
viewfinder clutter
MFD of the 80 coupled with it's FoV did not give me enough subject magnification

however, the IQ is just stunning. really, the 80 would be good for a 35mm lens. and coupled with the lovely 6x7 format I was just blown away by the negatives.

maybe if the price drops I will try it again. that 80 is a hell of a lens.

 

[thegman]

Maybe GF670 is worth a go? I had a Mamiya 7, but agree about build. I find the GF670 to be a sort of medium format Zeiss Ikon, which is good enough build for me.

No VF clutter on GF670, only one set of frame lines...

Not sure what the magnification of the GF670 is, but I found it fine.

Cheers

Garry

I tried to move to 120 and failed.

the closest for me was the Mamiya 7 but there were a few things that stopped me:

feel of the camera given then price
viewfinder clutter
MFD of the 80 coupled with it's FoV did not give me enough subject magnification

however, the IQ is just stunning. really, the 80 would be good for a 35mm lens. and coupled with the lovely 6x7 format I was just blown away by the negatives.

maybe if the price drops I will try it again. that 80 is a hell of a lens.

 

[Shutterspark]

I'm yet another person who was in a similar situation, but I ended up just shooting 35mm less rather than not at all.

I feel 135 is a good compromise:
With MF I take my time, shoot slowly and only go through maybe 2 rolls ie. around 24 frames in a day.
With digital, I take multiple shots just to make sure, I don't slow down or think nearly as much and I can burn through hundreds of shots a day.

A small 135 camera is the perfect companion when IQ isn't a consideration and I'm not really looking do anything serious, but I want the enjoyment I get from shooting/developing film without carrying as much or feeling like I'm "wasting" as much film.

This is all psychological though. I admit if results were the deciding factor the charm of grain and the character of 35mm photos in general probably wouldn't do enough to make me hang on to it.
Not that I would sell my M5 whether I was using it or not 😀

 

[hausen]

Love my Fuji GF670. I primarily shoot MF film. Have a Rolleiflex 3.5F as well but the Fuji fits so nicely in the bag, meter is great is a cinch to load and lens is sharp as a tack. Is expensive but not compared to Leica M. Still use my M6 and not likely to ever sell it but the neg size for 120 is hard to justify shooting 135. Also find 24 or 36 shots hard to do. 10/12 shots perfect for me. And when you hit darkroom really appreciate neg size and 10/12 per roll.

 

[snaggs]

There are certainly threads on it. However, it is very expensive compared to many older cameras on the used market. Once a camera goes over the $1000 mark, it seems to go into a category that many aren't comfortable with.

You get what you pay for. If you want nice mechanical cameras to be made you need to buy them. No one seems to have such a problem spending a $1000 on a DSLR.

These are new cameras, and compared with the plastic fantastics you get nowdays, wonderfull. Its when the last mass producers with economies of scale stop producing that you will realise what a deal they were.

Daniel.

 

[SakamakuAme]

I have Mamiya 7 ii and Yahsica T5. I use 135 for snapshots and candid and MF for cityscape etc.

I'm very happy with this combination. I used to have Leica M6 for a few months, but I felt the result is somewhat lo-fi in this digital DSLR world, so I couldn't justify its price, then I moved to Mamiya with Yahsica. Mamiya is large, but not heavy, and it produces much better images than Leica. Yashica is an unpredictable camera, but the result is sometimes very surprising. I love this ugly Yashica, so I have 2 of them.

If I buy another 135 now, I would choose F100 or something like that. I think 135 RF is way overrated and 135 SLR is way underrated.

 

[Paul Jenkin]

I've also contemplated dropping 35mm (for digital) and concentrating all my film onto 120. However, as much as this seems to make sense, I doubt I could bring myself to dispose of my Leica M6TTL and other SLRs that I've grown to love. Moreover, if I did dispose of my 35mm cameras, I fear that I'd be back buying them again within a few months.

Perhaps the answer is to "wean" myself off 35mm by shooting 120 so exclusively that 35mm becomes redundant. It's said that if you change a habit consistently for at least 28 days, the new habit is almost certainly going to stick. Maybe this could be my new year resolution for 2013.....

 

[mike rosenlof]

I went a lot of years shooting only medium format (Mamiya TLRs), but have come back to 35mm (Canon RF) and enjoying its ability to shoot fast and get in close. Sure I can do that with the Mamiya also, but DOF is smaller, and the handling is in general slower. I'm now finding that if I'm going to the trouble of the bigger camera on a tripod and everything, I'm going to use large format rather than the TLR.

Various applications have various priorities that's why all of these formats have lasted for so long. None is "better", but for a particular task, one might be more appropriate.

 

[Sunti]

While I have the GF670 and LOVE it, I see it as a supplement to the 135 format and not a replacement. It simply can't replace 135 for the apps 135 is better at. Horses for courses. Enjoy both if you can swing it.