Kevin Brown
Established
Thought I'd share a recent 'revelation' I've had regarding 35mm SLRs - the only camera type I'd never shot with before. As a lifelong TLR shooter (and occasional user of 35 RFs), I'd just never paid them much attention. But nowadays, I shoot exclusively landscapes, and being stuck with the 75/80mm lenses on my TLRs I've found frustratingly restrictive. I've found that the 35mm focal length on a 35mm camera just always 'sees the world' the way I do. The aspects of TLR shooting I've always loved are the beautiful ground glass image, the laterally reversed image (that forces you to asses the image on it's own esthetic terms, rather than being a 'frame around what's in front of you') and the fact that one is looking down and away from the scene.
The revelation came in the form of the right angle finder on an SLR - the earlier type that don't use a roof prism to retain left-to-right orientation (most newer ones). With this type of finder on a 35mm SLR one has the exact same viewing/composing/ground glass image experience of the TLR, but with the following advantages:
- Can use wide/any focal length lens, even zoom.
- Faster lenses.
- No parallax.
- Depth of field preview (on most SLRs).
- Weight - my Pentax ME Super with 35mm prime and original Pentax Refconverter weighs less than any 'real' TLR, even my lovely little Ricohflex VI). Now in my mid-60s, I find TLRs increasingly less appealing to haul around (Mamiya 220/330 - forget about it!). I carry the Pentax rig in a belt holster that is way more comfortable on my back than any strap setup I've tried, let alone carrying a camera around on a tripod.
- Lower film costs and wider range of available emulsions.
- More readily-available, more affordable film scanners.
The two finders I'm using are the aforementioned Pentax Refconverter (only the older models are laterally reversed, in TLR fashion) and the Olympus Varimagni Finder. The Oly fits both my OM-2n and ME Super, the Pentax had to have it's bracket distorted a bit to fit - it was designed for the Spotmatic/K1000 cameras. The Oly has a larger, brighter image but is noticeably heavier.
Miss the seductive image quality of medium format, but otherwise, this setup is the best of both worlds for this long-time TLR lover, and the above-listed advantages far outweigh, for me, the slight compromise in IQ.
The revelation came in the form of the right angle finder on an SLR - the earlier type that don't use a roof prism to retain left-to-right orientation (most newer ones). With this type of finder on a 35mm SLR one has the exact same viewing/composing/ground glass image experience of the TLR, but with the following advantages:
- Can use wide/any focal length lens, even zoom.
- Faster lenses.
- No parallax.
- Depth of field preview (on most SLRs).
- Weight - my Pentax ME Super with 35mm prime and original Pentax Refconverter weighs less than any 'real' TLR, even my lovely little Ricohflex VI). Now in my mid-60s, I find TLRs increasingly less appealing to haul around (Mamiya 220/330 - forget about it!). I carry the Pentax rig in a belt holster that is way more comfortable on my back than any strap setup I've tried, let alone carrying a camera around on a tripod.
- Lower film costs and wider range of available emulsions.
- More readily-available, more affordable film scanners.
The two finders I'm using are the aforementioned Pentax Refconverter (only the older models are laterally reversed, in TLR fashion) and the Olympus Varimagni Finder. The Oly fits both my OM-2n and ME Super, the Pentax had to have it's bracket distorted a bit to fit - it was designed for the Spotmatic/K1000 cameras. The Oly has a larger, brighter image but is noticeably heavier.
Miss the seductive image quality of medium format, but otherwise, this setup is the best of both worlds for this long-time TLR lover, and the above-listed advantages far outweigh, for me, the slight compromise in IQ.
