I’ve recently been shopping around for vintage medium format cameras. Why vintage you might ask? Well, there are a few reasons.

1. I’ve always liked older “manual” cameras. By manual I mean, you actually have knobs and dials that you have to turn, instead of getting lost in a maze of menus on a 1.5″ x 1″ lcd screen. I just find it much fast to change settings on the fly and check settings quickly.
2. I think they look nice. There’s just something about older cameras, a certain character to them.
3. They just don’t make them like that anymore. Jesus do I sound old here. Seriously though. I own a Canon Rebel Digital SLR and compared to my Minolta X-700 which is older than most of the members of this site, it just isn’t as solid.
4. Price! This has to be a major contributing factor, especially when it comes to medium format cameras. A new MF camera body (no lenses, no flash, no film back) will run around $1500 and upwards of $5000.00 i you want to get really crazy. I’m sure there are some out there more expensive once you get into profesional grade. A full outfit could end up putting you out $10,000 - $20,000.

So I’m trolling around eBay and found three cameras that really interested me. I’d love any feedback from people have used any of these.

• Bronica Model S - I found this one for a steal and talked myself out of the impulse purchase. I’m kicking myself in the ass right now because all the others listed cost about $100-$200 more and come with less. I’ve read and heard some great things about this camera and the pictures it produces. I guess it was a very popular alternative to the pricey Hasselblads in the UK/Europe.
• Mamiya C220/C330 - Something about TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) cameras that give them some character. Another advantage is the reduction in camera shake from the shutter because there isn’t a huge mirror moving around inside of it. The Mamiya interests me because it is the only TLR that offered interchangable lenses. This is a huge bonus as I don’t want to get stuck with the same lense.
• Linhof Technika - Jesus Christ this is a sexy camera. It was love at first sight. To find one in decent working order means reason #4 is shot to $#!+ as the list price of nearly $900.00 was considered “between a bargain and a steal.” This is an OLD camera, think great-grandpa. It is a bellows camera which has some advantages, particularly when shooting tall building/structures. The downside of this camera is it is a whole different school of photography.

I think I’d be happy with any of these three. If anybody has any input on these or any other MF cameras you’d recommend I’d be interested to hear from you.

_mt

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.