I Hate Medium Format...

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wblynch

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It's all for fun as I see it. I like doing things the corpse says we aren't allowed to anymore.

I love street shooting with a Mamiya M645, a Brownie Hawkeye Flash or even an Instamatic 104.

At my age it's doubtful anyone would look at me like a hipster.

I have a 4x5 enlarger and some film, now I need a camera. Not likely to go larger than 4x5 though.
 

Roger Cole

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It's all for fun as I see it. I like doing things the corpse says we aren't allowed to anymore.

I love street shooting with a Mamiya M645, a Brownie Hawkeye Flash or even an Instamatic 104.

At my age it's doubtful anyone would look at me like a hipster.

I have a 4x5 enlarger and some film, now I need a camera. Not likely to go larger than 4x5 though.

The problem with going larger than 4x5, as you kind of imply, is the difficulty of enlarging the negatives. 5x7 enlargers are fairly rare. 8x10 ones are the size of a small car and will often be given away if a) you're local, b) can manage to get the thing, and c) have a place to put it. Oh, and luck into it. The 8x10 conversions for the Beseler and Zone VI are not so big, but also not so common and usually much more expensive.

True enough that 8x10 allows exhibition of contact prints, but without cropping (at least if you still want it to be at least 8x10) and this would ironically mean I could make superb prints from my 4x5 negatives that are four times the size of what I could make from 8x10 ones if I did go to 8x10, at least printing optically. Of course I could scan but again, you gain little going to 8x10 from 4x5 if you are going to scan anyway, unless you print%2
 

Jaf-Photo

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It's all for fun as I see it. I like doing things the corpse says we aren't allowed to anymore.

I love street shooting with a Mamiya M645

Then you are a better street photographer than me.

Whenever I use the M645 on the street, everyone (almost) stops what their doing and just stares at me and my big black camera.

Not very interesting photos from that.

But when I use the little 35mm Minolta 7sII, nobody reacts to it. It also has a very sharp lens and good shutter, so it's a small marvel of a camera. (I belive it was used on some US space flights, even).
 
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I started with medium format. Before MF, I had 35mm point and shoots. Then I was inspired by bright moonlight, and I got into photography. I still use my first MF camera, a Pentax 6x7 MLU.

While 35mm is still the best selling format (for film), my personal preference is for MF and larger. Bigger is always better, when it's film. The cameras aren't that much larger than 35mm, especially comparing them to something like the gargantuan "professional" versions.

I don't have a fortune in 35mm. OK, so I just bought a Leica M6, just to see what the fuss is about. I'm currently comparing it to my Nikon FM10 with its kit zoom lens. I expect to sell the Leica next year. Why? I just don't have a big hankering for 35mm. Not since I have MF. TLRs are light and not that large. I think the shutter on my Rollei is quieter than the Leica.

Grain is another winner with MF. Even with Delta 3200, the grain just isn't that large. I've seen a 32x40 enlargement from a 6x7, and it was beautiful! MF is just such a nice, special size.
 

narsuitus

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Jerevan

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I've grown more and more format-agnostic by the years. I've also learnt that the proof is in the pudding you actually make.
 
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I've grown more and more format-agnostic by the years. I've also learnt that the proof is in the pudding you actually make.

I'm like this too. All the formats I use provide good enough print quality up to about 20x24 or so for me to be 100% satisfied, so camera selection is more about how I intend to use it.

The way I photograph and work with the content it is all about substance. Grain or lack of resolution doesn't affect the outcome in any negative or positive way for me. I do think, however, that if I am creating photographs for projects, I prefer all pictures in the series to have been treated the same way. If I start with the Hasselblad I finish with it, same with 35mm and I'm particular if I shoot Delta 3200 or TMax of course, or 5x7. Mixing formats makes for a dreadful experience in printing. I care about consistency, whether that means consistently grainy or smooth, if that makes sense.
 

ntenny

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I've grown more and more format-agnostic by the years. I've also learnt that the proof is in the pudding you actually make.

I find the choice of format affects how I make pudding, though. It's probably not directly attributable to film real estate as such, but to a whole different gestalt of working; I just shoot medium format from a different mindset as compared to Kleinbildformat (and of course LF from a *really* different mindset, because the process requirements are so different).

-NT
 

wblynch

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I don't hate.

I like medium format and I like 6x6 square. A simple TLR is all you need. Lightweight, simple, fun and flexible.
It gives you so many options.

You can easily crop to portrait or landscape rectangular. Also, you could crop to the same size as a 35mm negative and have a very effective 'zoom'.

Gotta love it! :smile:
 

marciofs

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This is one of the reason I stopped get into camera shops. The less I see the less I want to spend. So I just spend on film negatives, developers, fixers, etc.

Since I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't sleep with paid ladies, I think I have the right to have at least one vice where I can through my money away...
 

Jaf-Photo

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Since I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't sleep with paid ladies, I think I have the right to have at least one vice where I can through my money away...

Alright, what do you do for inspiration, then? :wink:
 

Nate10

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I started with medium format. Before MF, I had 35mm point and shoots. Then I was inspired by bright moonlight, and I got into photography. I still use my first MF camera, a Pentax 6x7 MLU..
What a small coincidence. I just got a Pentax 6x7 MLU in the mail the day you posted that. I've been shooting 35mm for two years now.

I just loaded an expired roll of TMAX 100 in it. Excited to see these big negatives.

On a funny note, I'm a 110lb. young male. 5'6". I'm not a big guy... but it's absolutely easy to hold the 6x7. As always, the internet exaggerates quirks that cameras have. Then again I do have good grip strength and I think that helps. One thing I already realized thanks to knowing my way around a rifle, is to wrap your sling(or in this case, camera strap) around your arm to make it taut thus making it stable. The way I do it with my Pentax is to put my neck strap over my right arm and head. I let it hang idle at my side, and when I raise it up with my left hand I feed my right hand under the right side of the strap. I bring my hand back over the top, and as I reach for the camera I let the strap feed between my thumb and index finger as I grip it. The straighter you stand up and the farther you extend your forearms with your elbows in the more taut the strap gets. The camera at this point should feel virtually weightless. It's an EXTREMELY stable eye-level position to shoot from.
 

Black Dog

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I've found a monopod very helpful with my Mamiya 330.
 

alexfoto

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-I still use both 35mm and medium format for different reasons, my 35mm camera its best for street photography for me, i like the character and the grain of 35mm for that style of photography than medium format ''over-surgery'' approach.
 

pgomena

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I'm primarily a MF user today, along with LF. I've largely abandoned 35mm. I don't like dealing with those tiny little negatives, and it's hard to see through that squinty little viewfinder anymore. I used 35mm heavily for many years, though. I don't miss it.
 
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I love both my MF and my 35mm equipment. My 35mm is for everyday work, going out with friends, adventures where I don't bring my tripod etc, and my MF for days I do bring a tripod, I have friends over etc.

Here, weather sealing was very important:

https://flic.kr/p/kfrvFH

Here, I had a tripod so why bother with 35mm?

https://flic.kr/p/nnKjPJ

When printing, I prefer whichever camera that made the picture possible. I don't print large so format doesn't really matter. But medium format negatives are pretty to look at.
 

Roger Cole

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Large format negatives are an absolute joy to print in terms of tonality and detail, and an absolute horror to spot, especially if any lack of scrupulous cleanliness lead to dust on the film, which causes a white spot on the negative that prints black. You can try scratching the surface of the print lightly, which never works, or bleaching it back, which leaves an area the size of Texas with a ring around it you can't blend in or, most satisfactorily though that isn't saying much, spot the negative, leaving a white spot on the print that, if you are very careful, will only be the size of Montana, not Texas, and can be dealt with using the usual methods. Even if you are careful and lucky enough (and there is an element of luck no matter HOW careful you are, short of absolute clean room conditions most of us can't create) to have no spots on the negative that print white, you have so much more negative real estate to keep clean in printing, though this is somewhat offset by the smaller enlargement factor meaning you just won't see the smallest spots where you might from a smaller negative at higher enlargement.

In comparison, going to medium format from 35mm gives you about 75% of the increased printing ease and quality relative to the 35mm-4x5 jump with virtually none of the increased dust hassles, not to mention the loading-holders-in-general hassle.

I enjoy working with a view camera, movements are occasionally useful, and when everything is right and the stars align those big negatives are wondrous, but I really see medium format as the sweet spot for quality versus hassle.
 

Sirius Glass

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But Roger, large format cameras gives us just ever so many ways to screw up. What other format can match that ability?
 

Roger Cole

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But Roger, large format cameras gives us just ever so many ways to screw up. What other format can match that ability?

Truer words were never written. You really can't appreciate HOW true this is if you've never shot LF.

After years of no trouble with it I suddenly started having my cheapie little Voss filter holder, than conveniently spring clips onto any lens (at least of a size I have) and holds cheap 3x3 filters and has barn doors that double as a lens shade, start blocking the shutter cocking lever on one of my lenses. I'd trip the shutter and it would stay open - because it was stuck on the filter holder. Now I have to remember to check for that. Yes, I suppose I could get screw in filters but I have old lenses in odd sizes and would have to buy all my filters in the largest sizes and then adapter rings, some no doubt hard to find, for the smaller lenses. And I have a full collection of the 3x3s in those acetate ones that Calumet used to sell. So I'll just be careful with it.

No doubt I will discover yet another new and creative way to screw up something soon, something that has also been working fine for me since I took up 4x5 in the mid 90s....
 
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Snapshot

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Who will be the one to make the 100th post? Stay tuned folks!
 

Black Dog

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Well, I'm getting a Hassleblad SWC just as soon as I can! Re MF vs 4x5- I basically agree with Roger's points about the quality gain, however 4x5 is worth it if you're shooting faster [ISO 200+] films. Also I used to really love Fortepan 200, which only came in 4x5 and 8x10. I shot the 400 speed Fortepan in 35mm and 4x5....it was like working with two completely different films! Hmm, contact prints from 8x10:munch::cool:
 

Prest_400

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Well...

I saw a GW690III on the bay at a very nice price, and bid for it yesterday... No one else went for it, so now I am an owner of one of these cameras :D
Looking back, it's been almost 2 years ago since I started to eye the Fuji 6x9 series, and a bit more than 5 yrs since I began craving MF.

Certainly I've got one thing that I dislike, before even having the camera; It hurt to see the bank account balance emptier :laugh: Now I've got barely enough for some film.
Ah, the budget of a student, plunge down some savings, will recover 'em in the future for sure.

Despite having been so long hesitating to get into MF I still had doubts when I won the auction; Maybe MF is way too much? No budget for tripod so it will have to wait, and I should get my good handholding going on again.
 
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