MF itch but whee to start? crossposted

[tikkathreebarrel]

Hope the negs won't mind me cross-posting or whatever you call it. It's been suggested very helpfully that I might get a beter response here than in Talk Equipment. Oh well here goes:

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION

I've got an itch to have a dabble with Medium Format.

I'm mostly a Canon DSLR man, but often with MANUAL FOCUS lenses and these lenses have led me to have a play with, 35mm fillum.

So here am I now playing with 35mm film cameras, getting my negs developed and working the negs through a scanner (though whether this turns out to be a long-term solution or whether I go back to getting my negs printed to CD and then tweaking the jpegs to my taste remains to be seen.)

But still I keep looking at Medium Format cameras and drooling over the quality of images and the ergonomics of the kit itself.

I'm not in a position to invest in new kit, or in digital so I'm resigned to fillum and getting it developed at my local family-owned old-fashioned specialist photography shop.

I look at Bronicas and Mamiyas and have been making a few speculative bids on the Bay in the £150 range but if I was to do this rationally, how should I decide what is the right kit for me?

And is 6x7 going to be better than 6x6 or 6x4.5 or not and, pause for deep breath... why?

 

[whiteflyer]

I'm a bit lost here are we talking MF Medium Format, of MF Manual Focus.

I just don't quite understand what you mean by I'm mostly a Canon DSLR man, but often with MF lenses

I guessing Medium Format, but I did not know how you would fit a Medium Format lens to a Canon DSLR body even with adaptors.

 

[freecom2]

I too am very confused. The first part of your post suggests manual focusing, but the second part of your post is certainly about medium format?

Anyway, the standard first thing to decide with medium format - what format do you want to shoot. 6x4.5, 6x6 or 6x7?

 

[excalibur2]

***how should I decide what is the right kit for me****

Always a problem as you will get plenty of advice/suggestions, but first you have to decide what you want to do with a medium format film camera and inform the members.
For me it was easy to decide as I did my own processing and printing and wanted a large neg (fed up with dust spots enlarging with 35mm), flash at all speeds, interchangeable lenses, and to be used for portraiture and other mainly indoor use...so it was the RB67. I then bought an ETRS so while the RB67 was on a tripod, I could move around with the ETRS taking less formal shots of the subject.

 

[tikkathreebarrel]

***how should I decide what is the right kit for me****

Always a problem as you will get plenty of advice/suggestions, but first you have to decide what you want to do with a medium format film camera and inform the members.
For me it was easy to decide as I did my own processing and printing and wanted a large neg (fed up with dust spots enlarging with 35mm), flash at all speeds, interchangeable lenses, and to be used for portraiture and other mainly indoor use...so it was the RB67. I then bought an ETRS so while the RB67 was on a tripod, I could move around with the ETRS taking less formal shots of the subject.

Mostly landscape photography, some portraits. Not studio. Does this help?

 

[excalibur2]

Mostly landscape photography, some portraits. Not studio. Does this help?

Do you want a medium format camera that handles like a large DSLR and fairly cheap? Then it would be something like a Bronica ETRS with a prism and you get 15 shots on 120 film. Also there are folding cameras that other members would know about and not forgetting the massive Pentax 6X7 (35mm shape).

 

[freecom2]

How far would you be willing to lug the camera, depending on the weight? And what tripods/supporting gear do you have - i.e. what is the heaviest rig you are prepared to consider? 6x7 cameras are often considered the best for a lot of landscape work, although 645 is also popular for that. I love portraits taken in 6x6 square format, but some people prefer them in the landscape/portrait conventional aspect ratios.

 

[tikkathreebarrel]

Do you want a medium format camera that handles like a large DSLR and fairly cheap? Then it would be something like a Bronica ETRS with a prism and you get 15 shots on 120 film.

Sounds like just the ticket, thank you for being so wise, so perceptive, just so helpful.

Also there are folding cameras that other members would know about and not forgetting the massive Pentax 6X7 (35mm shape).

Folders? Hmm, I could worry about moths making holes in the bellows but how are folders rated against bronicas/mamiyas?

 

[freecom2]

If you've got the money to plump for a proper medium format SLR, forget thinking about folders. As I said before (and what was also mentioned in the Talk Equipment thread), decide whether you want 6x4.5 or 6x7 first, as the two routes have very different lines of equipment and options.

 

[TheBigYin]

Well - the Fuji GF670's a rather nice folder and does 6x6 or 6x7 - though the 80mm lens might be a bit long, if you're into wide angle landscape stuff...

Personally, my budget tends to run to beer rather than champagne. Hence my ETRSi and 75mm/40mm lens setup. With a normal WLF rather than the prism job, no winder or any of that gubbins, it weighs in at around the same as my EOS-3 and 17-40L lens, fits in a small-ish Lowepro Toploader pouch, and gives me negatives that are 56x42mm instead of 24x36mm, maybe not as good as a 6x7 camera, but still good for 5,200x3970px (20Mpx) scanned at 2400dpi...

 

[excalibur2]

***but how are folders rated against bronicas/mamiyas?***

Can't remember a lens contest between medium format lenses, as in the 35mm forums
But I once had Planar and Sonnar lenses on a SL66 and sonnar on a Tele Rolleiflex and I suppose these must be near the top for medium format lenses, and when changing to ETRS and RB67 didn't notice a massive drop in quality (if there ever was one).