Anyone shooting Medium Format Film

[rollsman44]

I was thinking of buying a MF camera just to use every now and then and will use it for portraits. I am want a not so heavy camera system with Excellent IQ and NOT expensive. I won't be using it too much. My thoughts are with Mamiya 7ii
and 75mm lens. Sounds crazy to want to shoot film after all these years. I am using Nikon D810. I read some reviews on the Mamiya about the Rangefinder going out of adjustment. Any suggestions as to my Crazynist? Thanks

 

[GrahamWelland]

I was thinking of buying a MF camera just to use every now and then and will use it for portraits. I am want a not so heavy camera system with Excellent IQ and NOT expensive. I won't be using it too much. My thoughts are with Mamiya 7ii
and 75mm lens. Sounds crazy to want to shoot film after all these years. I am using Nikon D810. I read some reviews on the Mamiya about the Rangefinder going out of adjustment. Any suggestions as to my Crazynist? Thanks

Love my Mamiya 7 although I use the 65mm with mine. All of the lenses from the Mamiya 6 (50/75/150 etc) and Mamiya 7 (43, 65, 80) work well with perhaps the 150mm being the only one that doesn't have the same stellar reputation. I've had, erm, several Mamya 7's over the years and I've never had a problem with RF alignment. The biggest issue used to be the overly optimistic hyper focal settings on the lenses and the need to effectively use 1-1.5 stops extra leeway if relying on hyperfocal focusing for infinity for example.

 

[DougDolde]

A masochistic endeavor if you ask me.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

A masochistic endeavor if you ask me.

You're not a real masochist until you use a GX680. I do when i have time. Unfortunately, I don't have a good medium format scanner available for the time being, but it's on my shopping list.

My daughter told me to add this, or else... :talk028:
8 year olds can be very persuasive sometimes

 

[GrahamWelland]

You're not a real masochist until you use a GX680. I do when i have time. Unfortunately, I don't have a good medium format scanner available for the time being, but it's on my shopping list.

My daughter told me to add this, or else... :talk028:
8 year olds can be very persuasive sometimes

Or, if you want a slightly easier time, RZ67 Pro IID :facesmack::facesmack:

But for the OP, not much better than the Mamiya 7II or my other favorite the Bronica RF645 which is especially oriented to portraits (literally).

 

[Frederic]

I'd suggest the OP grab a Fuji GW/GSW 670 or 690 and give it a try. These are straightforward and built like tanks, have great lenses, not much to worry about really. They probably are not the most portrait oriented cameras, but if he enjoys the experience he can later move to a Mam 7II and sell the Fuji without a loss.

Oh, and there's nothing crazy about shooting films these days, only people who don't and will tell you so... I still shoot MF and LF and prefer the results I get over my MFDB, which I use for work only.

 

[richardman]

Not crazy at all. I still shoot with my Leica M9, but my main cameras are a 4x5 shooting almost all Portra color films and a Hasselblad. Since I develop my own film, I have to shoot for multiple years before I can burn enough film for high end MF Databack, and I shot ~400-500 sheets of 4x5 in the last couple years doing 3 portrait projects.

If your interest is mainly portrait, I would recommend picking up a Hasselblad 500CM with a 80/2.8 and it should not cost more than a Mamiya 7. The Mamiya will be sharper for sure, but the Hassy renders differently and is more flexible.

Check out my 4x5 projects here:
http://richardmanphoto.com/PICS/TransformationsCosplay-Portfolio/
http://richardmanphoto.com/PICS/WorldbuildersSFnF-Portfolio/

I am not doing projects with the Hasselblad per se, but here are a couple portraits

 

[kdphotography]

I guess it depends on how much money---or investment into the entire system you want to do.

Fuji GA645 series?? Sorta like a medium format point and shoot. Keeps it simple.

ken

 

[GrahamWelland]

The main thing is to have a good MF scanner or scanning device too.

 

[Godfrey]

I was thinking of buying a MF camera just to use every now and then and will use it for portraits. I am want a not so heavy camera system with Excellent IQ and NOT expensive. I won't be using it too much. My thoughts are with Mamiya 7ii
and 75mm lens. Sounds crazy to want to shoot film after all these years. I am using Nikon D810. I read some reviews on the Mamiya about the Rangefinder going out of adjustment. Any suggestions as to my Crazynist? Thanks

If you can deal with all manual operation and scale focus, and really want compact and handy to have with you, it's hard to beat a Voigtländer Perkeo II folder. Folded, it's about the size*and weight of a Leica CL. It has a very sharp Color Skopar 80mm f/3.5 lens, and is extremely well made. The lens gives it about the same horizontal angle of view as a 35mm lens on you D810, but you have that much more vertical angle of view as well.

Camera, clip-on rangefinder accessory, a small meter, and a couple of rolls of film all fit in a very small bag. I bought mine in good shape for a little more than $100, and paid another $150 to have it completely overhauled: it works and feels like new.

(I also love to shoot with a Hasselblad SWC, which is ultra-wide, very compact for what it is, and incredible quality, but you said "NOT expensive"—which it is not.)

G

 

[Godfrey]

The main thing is to have a good MF scanner or scanning device too.

While I have a Nikon SuperCoolscan 9000, I tend to do my medium format scanning using a Leica BEOON and a flat panel light box nowadays. Both the M-P and the SL fit nicely on the BEOON and it allows very quick, very usable 16Mpixel captures of 6x6 negatives and transparencies. I created a customize calibration profile for Lightroom that does the inversion and gamma correction processing, which makes working with negatives almost as fast and seamless as working with transparencies.

G

 

[rollsman44]

Thank you. I appreciate the suggestions. Let me narrow it down to My Priorities:
1- AF and NOT a Heavy camera( will use it for Travel and Portraits)
2_ Budget of no more than 2,000
3 Excellent IQ
Not sure about RF I am 69 and AF is best for me.
Where to buy
Thank you everyone

 

[Godfrey]

Thank you. I appreciate the suggestions. Let me narrow it down to My Priorities:
1- AF and NOT a Heavy camera( will use it for Travel and Portraits)
2_ Budget of no more than 2,000
3 Excellent IQ
Not sure about RF I am 69 and AF is best for me.
Where to buy
Thank you everyone

For AF and compact, light weight, you're likely limited to the Fuji GA645 series cameras. Prices in the $300-$450 are common on Ebay.

G

 

[Craig Stocks]

I'm curious about your approaches. I've thought about picking up an older Mamiya that can use my Phase One lenses to shoot some film. But if I'm going to scan the film to process it digitally then it seems somewhat pointless - a bit like using an axe and hand saws to make your own lumber but then using a shop full of power tools to build furniture from the lumber.

I'm not being critical, I'm genuinely curious about why you approach the process that way. Why don't you stay analog and make darkroom prints?

 

[rollsman44]

Thank you. How good is this? Good for portraits?
Fuji GA645 Professional Autofocus 6x4.5 Medium Format Camera with 60mm f/4 Lens

 

[rollsman44]

This might sound stupid but how much of a difference is there from Fuji GA 645 from the Hassy H2 with 80/2.8 in terms of IQ. Big difference in price but How do they compare? Thank you

 

[jerome_m]

This might sound stupid but how much of a difference is there from Fuji GA 645 from the Hassy H2 with 80/2.8 in terms of IQ. Big difference in price but How do they compare? Thank you

Just to make things clear. The Fuji GX 645 AF is identical to the Hasselblad H1, except the color. The Fuji GA 645 is a rangefinder style AF camera.

 

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Some folks suggested Mamiya 7, I would guess it is a good proposition as they are known to have very good lenses.

The problem with film is scanning, CCD scanners don't have the density range of slide film and they may have problem to keep up with Ektar 100.

The Mamiya 7 is capable of excellent results, but you need scan the images on a high end drum scanner.

I have a Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro, which was regarded a pretty decent scanner in the days it was made. With that scanner I could not really touch my Sony A900 in anything that matters, except possibly resolution. I was mostly shooting Velvia with a Pentax 67.

So, I would say that I am quite a bit skeptical about scanned 120 format film. That said, the potential is there, just that you need a very good drum scanner and good post processing. Some info:

https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2014/12/36-megapixels-vs-6x7-velvia/

https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2011/12/big-camera-comparison/
https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2011/12/big-camera-comparison-comments/
https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2011/12/camera-test-editors-commentary/

Best regards
Erik

I was thinking of buying a MF camera just to use every now and then and will use it for portraits. I am want a not so heavy camera system with Excellent IQ and NOT expensive. I won't be using it too much. My thoughts are with Mamiya 7ii
and 75mm lens. Sounds crazy to want to shoot film after all these years. I am using Nikon D810. I read some reviews on the Mamiya about the Rangefinder going out of adjustment. Any suggestions as to my Crazynist? Thanks

 

[Hausen]

+1 on Rolleiflex, or even the Rolleicord Vb is a great camera. I have a number of 12x12" pics on the wall at home from my old 3.5f. No AF but everyone should own a Rollei at some point in their life.

 

[rollsman44]

+1 on Rolleiflex, or even the Rolleicord Vb is a great camera. I have a number of 12x12" pics on the wall at home from my old 3.5f. No AF but everyone should own a Rollei at some point in their life.

I also had the Rollei as my backup.