Stephen Baker
Well-Known Member
I have a few 35mm film camera's including a Fujica ST 605n, a Fujica ST801 which I saw in dixons in the mid 70's and remember saving up untill I had enough money to make it mine, a Pentax SL ( a lovely fully manual camera which just feels like quality in your hands ) and an Olympus PEN which was donated to me by my father, this again is a cracking little camera which I should use a bit more..Most of you probably know, but for those of you that dont the Olympus PEN is a half frame camera, so you get 72 frames out of a 36 roll with the down side being the negative are small, but a film camera to stick in you pocket and have some fun with...
Mind you the above film camera's have taken a bit of a back seat lately as my real love for film camera's is medium format ( and one day large format hopefully) as there really is nothing like pulling out a bit of medium format slide film from the developing tank and having a first look at the results that contain such detail and colours or a nice bit of Black and white format film that looks just as B & W should..
Below is my Ziess Ikonta 530/2, a folding rangefinder camera that was made in the early 1930's and back in their days these really were well thought of with the ever so sharp Carl Ziess jenna lens and a cracking rangefinder system. I use my Ziess with the 9 x 6 format ( 9 x 6 cm's) I think you could get a mask at the time to make the camera into a 645 format but I would imagine most of them have been lost over the years..of course there is a down side to 6x9 and that is only getting 8 frames from a roll of film..but then if I was trying to save money I wouldn't be playing with film.
Next on the list is my Mamiya 645 Pro TL, A camera that I love using as it is reasonably lightweight for a medium format camera and gives a framesize of 6x4.5 cm's. mine has got a metered prism for sorting out your exposures and using in aperture mode, but I have to be honest I much prefer using it with the waist level finder and find that the sunny sixteen rule sorts out the exposure most of the time.
Next on my list is my Mamiya C330f, this is TLR camera and give a frame size of 6x6 cm's and being Square they are becoming quite popular, with this camera we are now starting to get a bit heavier and if you have this around your neck all day you will know about it. It is a bit unusual for a TLR as it has interchangeable lenses which is very handy as you can use it for landscapes then change the lens and use it for portraits, the focusing is done by way of bellows so if you are focusing close and have the bellow out you then have to work out for a bit of exposure compensation or your pictures will come out under exposed. a great camera that I use mainly for black and white..
I have saved my favourite untill last The Beast...a Mamiya Rb 67 SD pro, a big in your face heavy camera that I only really use on a tripod . It give a frame size of 7x6cm's landscape and if you rotate the back ( hense the RB in the name ) you get 7 x 6cm's portrait. I use this camera mainly for landscapes, the lenses are cheap, sharp and a quality lens the camera has a mirror lock up and after you have seen the size of the mirror you will realise how usefull this option is, in fact I use mine all of the time.
And just so as you can see quite how big the RB67 is below is a shot of it sitting with the C330 and the 645 Pro.
I know none of this will be new to many of you film guys on here, but I thought I would post it in case it was of interest to some. Thanks for looking, Stephen.
As much as I like my film , these pictures were courtesy of my Nikon D300s digital camera, which I couldnt live without
Mind you the above film camera's have taken a bit of a back seat lately as my real love for film camera's is medium format ( and one day large format hopefully) as there really is nothing like pulling out a bit of medium format slide film from the developing tank and having a first look at the results that contain such detail and colours or a nice bit of Black and white format film that looks just as B & W should..
Below is my Ziess Ikonta 530/2, a folding rangefinder camera that was made in the early 1930's and back in their days these really were well thought of with the ever so sharp Carl Ziess jenna lens and a cracking rangefinder system. I use my Ziess with the 9 x 6 format ( 9 x 6 cm's) I think you could get a mask at the time to make the camera into a 645 format but I would imagine most of them have been lost over the years..of course there is a down side to 6x9 and that is only getting 8 frames from a roll of film..but then if I was trying to save money I wouldn't be playing with film.
Next on the list is my Mamiya 645 Pro TL, A camera that I love using as it is reasonably lightweight for a medium format camera and gives a framesize of 6x4.5 cm's. mine has got a metered prism for sorting out your exposures and using in aperture mode, but I have to be honest I much prefer using it with the waist level finder and find that the sunny sixteen rule sorts out the exposure most of the time.
Next on my list is my Mamiya C330f, this is TLR camera and give a frame size of 6x6 cm's and being Square they are becoming quite popular, with this camera we are now starting to get a bit heavier and if you have this around your neck all day you will know about it. It is a bit unusual for a TLR as it has interchangeable lenses which is very handy as you can use it for landscapes then change the lens and use it for portraits, the focusing is done by way of bellows so if you are focusing close and have the bellow out you then have to work out for a bit of exposure compensation or your pictures will come out under exposed. a great camera that I use mainly for black and white..
I have saved my favourite untill last The Beast...a Mamiya Rb 67 SD pro, a big in your face heavy camera that I only really use on a tripod . It give a frame size of 7x6cm's landscape and if you rotate the back ( hense the RB in the name ) you get 7 x 6cm's portrait. I use this camera mainly for landscapes, the lenses are cheap, sharp and a quality lens the camera has a mirror lock up and after you have seen the size of the mirror you will realise how usefull this option is, in fact I use mine all of the time.
And just so as you can see quite how big the RB67 is below is a shot of it sitting with the C330 and the 645 Pro.
I know none of this will be new to many of you film guys on here, but I thought I would post it in case it was of interest to some. Thanks for looking, Stephen.
As much as I like my film , these pictures were courtesy of my Nikon D300s digital camera, which I couldnt live without
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