I have a very old Voiglander hand me down TLR.. it is rather crude and basic, and the film roller'scored the film!
I also have a Ziess Ikonta wich is loverly! I cant believe these seldom command more than £20 on the bay, but I guess there is risk on the bellows.
Fantastic photo's though, and not much less basic than the Voiglander.
I had a Hassablad 500c for a week on approval, yeas back.. Bloke only wanted £100 or so for it, ISTR with a couple of spare backs, and a couple of lenses! After the novelty and incredulity ad enthusiasm had worn of 'reality' set in, and I gave it back! Yup, brilliant camera, BUT... to all practcal extents and purposes, I was never going to exploit it's excellence, and i the dark room with back-to-back 35mm vs 4.5x4.5 negs of the same shot, I was down to tiny tiny sectional enlargements to 10x8 bfore cold discern any real notable difference between the results from 35mm, and it was a heck of a lot of faff to use compared to a 35mm SLR.
So, the Voiglander is a bit of decoration on the mantlepiece, and the Ikonta very very occassionally gets an outing, just for the fun.. IQ is still way beyond anything I really 'need' ad they do have that 'feel'.
Bronica's and Miyama's, were always touted as the 'seriouse' MF's, but I would sort of lump with the Hassablad, if you are going to get that keen on the format, and the cost for IQ you probably will never exploit or apreciate can start to get eye-waterig.
Lubtel's were always promoted in the mags as the entry to MF and that even the 'crappy' Russia offering would blow most folks notions of how good even 'good' 35mm could be.. over which I am sanguine, even before Lomo took over... but, of what I remember coming out of them, did tend to be pretty impressive for a camera that cost less than most high street instamatics.
Now? Today? Given the Lubitels were never all that wonderful, even the pre-lomo ones, and just how cheap other MF's are, I'd probably not bother. Would seem that Lomo and the Lubitel legend has kept prices well above thier ranking copared to others... ad they were ever such wonderful bits of precission equipment, and all are likely old and well used or neglected... The lubtels only real feature is how como and how cheap they are.
If I didn't have the Ikonta and wanted a MF camera, I think I would keep my eye on ads and lists, and then look up whatever came up in budget, and consider age, reputation and condition of that, rather than work t'other way about shortlisting from specs what might best suit, and 'anything' in the sub £50 bracket that was of half reasonable quality i days of would probably 'do'.
Getting serious; the Bronies and Manya's would probably be the more common and better VFM for a ore elevated spend, as they always were, but heading that far up market, gap between them and Hassablads, whilst still inflated by the premium of the 'blad badge, does still seem shrink by the general deflation of film cam market, and think in for a penny, in for a quid reasoning would have me pondering, whether to find the extra....
If you haven't used a fully manual camera, though, and that's manual everything; manual focus manual exposure, and probably hand held exposure meter, as well as manual wind on, probably without shutter interlock, so you can expose the same frame as many times as you press the shutter button, if you dot wind on between.... they can be rather laborious to use, and TLR's with reverse image view-finders, can be rather strange to use, and take quite a bit of getting used to.... and sub £50 oferings are probably lesser risk starting point. A TLR or reflex with waste level finder ad reverse image composition will be 'strange' and can be off-putting so a view finder camera may be more natural place to start, but, so much variation the way they all work and handle, any negative experience of one or one type needn't mean you wont get on with another, so you may need or even like to buy and try a few, which again, suggests a slightly less 'targeted' approach to cheaper offerings.
Expect to pend a far bit of time playing hunt the button, knob or dial! I still have games finding the almost 'secret' release catch to ope the Ikota's foldng mechasm, the button cunningly just a bulge i the now slightly bubbly leatherette covering, for example! Control placement can be a bit curouse, often placed where most convenient for the mechanism,rather than the user! You can find things like on the Ikonta the shutter release almost hidden under the lens at the front, and aperture and shutter speeds on dials set where yo cant easily touch them when looking through the view finder.. all part of the 'fun' though... BUT does place added value in cameras that are offered with instructions, and worth checking the web to make sure you can find user manuals whether originals are included wit camera or not, before you buy!
