Semi-mint RF645 on the bay

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picker77

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FWIW, a very nice looking RF645/65mm kit just popped up on that auction place for $1299. Japan dealer, don't know him.
 
There was a nice kit for sale on Purelight for £400 / $560 last week. I don't even like 6x4.5 and I was tempted.
 
These have come down a lot in price over the last year or so ... I've seen a couple for around $800.00 to $900.00 USD.
 
Yep, the camera on the bay looks nice but the price is out of control. KEH has one in "EX" condition right now for $889, and one in "BGN" condition for $725. I just bought a (I hope) nice RF645 kit w/65mm for a good price, but don't have it in hand yet. Going rate seems to be somewhere in the $650-$850 range w/65mm. I'm saving pennies for a 45mm lens for mine now, which will probably cost me as much as the entire original kit. I've never tried 6x4.5 but finally couldn't stand lugging my 7-pound 6x6 SLR around and sold it to buy an RF645. Plus, I just like RF cameras in general. If I want to shoot larger than 6x4.5 I'll just hang a rollfilm back on my Super Speed Graphic, and still be a couple of pounds under the weight of my previous 6x6 SLR--and have some movements to play with to boot.

I looked hard at Mamiya 7/7II, but the plasticy build and the silly prices scared me off so I stuck with good 'ol Bronica, although I'm sure the Mamiyas have a bit sharper lenses.
 
Aside from a little extra weight I find the Bronica as easy to shoot with as any of my 35mm rangefinders ... I also like the 6x4.5 negative and the natural portrait orientation of the viewfinder. I'd like a 6x9 camera one day but the thought of only getting eight shots froma roll of 120 brings out the 'Scotsman' in me! :p
 
Re the 6x4.5 format, don't know if I'll like it or not, but I do find myself shooting a lot of vertically-oriented stuff with my D200 and my 35mm RF's, so maybe I'll like it. I can always turn it sideways, too. My old Ansco Speedex Special R and Zeiss Ikonta B relieve me of that worry, but I'm always afraid of wasting high dollar 120 transparency film on my Sunny-16 guesses, and I hate messing with handheld meters, so the Bronica RF645 seemed like a good compromise. I wanted reasonable size & weight and a decent center-averaging meter system in a multiple lens medium format RF system. I found out right away there aren't many choices out there that match what I wanted, even ignoring price. I'm really looking forward to trying out the RF645.
 
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