I DON*T get hasselblad!!

gandolfi said:

so - in the end of the day, if it is not the camera that's to blame (I still do..), but me, and the students, what camera(s) in medium format would you recommend?

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Mamiya Press or Super 23's! Built like brick shit houses, swapable lenses. Ok, so it isn't an slr, but so what, parrallax correction is a usefull thing to learn about! So is filter compensation! Students won't be able to break them, not easily at least, students will learn more by using them. Get 2 or 3 6x7 backs for them, they can shoot 6x7 or 6x6 or 6x4.5 all on one back if you have the masks for the backs. For that matter you can also get some 4.5x4.5 masks for them, then they can make super slides!

Yes, my Mamiya RB67 Pro S is strong and idiot proof. The only thing that I could see an inexperienced student doing would be to have mirror lock up on and shoot without a cable release...what happens is that the shutter will not fire until a cable release is inserted in the mirror lock up port and pressed.

Although I never tried it, I think that if you shoot with mirror lock up and no cable release, you can twist the mirror lock up knob in the off position and you can reset everything.

Plus you can buy RB67 kits for very cheap. Remember that the original RB67 (non Pro S and Pro SD) has much less safety interlocks, and thus is less idiot proof.