First Medium Format Folder

albireo said:

A tatty Super Isolette for 1100 euro? A rickety Mamiya 6s for 400 euros? Super Ikontas Tessar with mouldy lenses for 600 euro?

What are these people smoking. I wonder if sellers are jacking up prices to try recoup what they're losing from the American customers due to the tariffs.

Please Pentax do a compact 6x4.5 camera next.

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Or Cosina, if something like the Bessa III/GF670 but similar to the GS645 being a folder.
I've jumped into the Crapshoot getting ok Folders and not in those crazy prices. Perhaps is a trickle down from the aforementioned models as well as Mamiya 6, 7 (modern RFs) etc. Of course the issue are volumes, but a modern compact 645-66 camera niche is being quite valued.

Having come to medium format through a Fuji 6x9, infact I notice that Tessar type do have character but are not as sharp as double gauss more modern lenses plus the rest of possible problematic issues due to age and all.
The sellers probably are smoking the same thing as peope in the expired film market locally. Old Portra going at, or more than fresh prices for example.

The Super Isolette is also a nice camera but another member acknowledged in some other thread that the going prices are too much.

I've been well-satisfied with the two Voigtlander folders I have. The build quality is very good, which is important for old folding cameras with so many moving parts.

The 6x9 Bessa with guess-focus was only like $70 a couple years back... with a Voigtar f/4.5 lens that needs to be stopped down to f/16 for landscape. 1/100 max shutter on mine so just barely hand-holdable.

The 6x9 Bessa RF was over $300, for a lens you can use at f/11 for landscape and a coupled, but dim, rangefinder, along with 1/400 speed.

They were made around 1938. Both of them can fit in my shorts pocket but the non-RF fits a little better. They also made some good 6x6 models. And yes, expect image quality to be a little lower than a good TLR even when stopped down. Even if you get one with a very good lens, the lens is likely not exactly in the right place. But good luck trying to fit a TLR in a shorts pocket. Folders are great cameras for hiking.

loccdor said:

But good luck trying to fit a TLR in a shorts pocket. Folders are great cameras for hiking.

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Oh yeah definitely. I keep hoping one day I will stumble on one of those "time capsule" folder finds, one careful owner since the fifties... Say a perfect Perkeo II Color Skopar with case and hood..Or a NOS Super Ikonta 524... and then proceed to give that baby more shutter clicks and film turns it has seen in its long life. Think the Buena Vista Social club members happily retired and watering their orchards in Havana only to then be carted around the world for sold out concerts in their 80s

I'm still using folders these days. Zeiss Super Ikontas are beyond doubt, if you can live without a rangefinder, a Perkeo II is wonderful. I love my Iskras as well and for the older ones a Certo Super Sport Dolly with rangefinder is a marvel. If 4.5x6 is an option, a Pearl III could be THE pocketable solution. Have a look at my comparison page https://www.120folder.com/compa.htm if you want...