Never tried MF before, where do I start?

[elekm]

That is good advice from "Memzilla," if it can fit within your budget. Prices for film cameras are down for many reasons, including the economy, so you should be able to find some decent deals.

 

[ntenny]

(wrt memzilla's "SLR+RF" suggestion)

That is good advice from "Memzilla," if it can fit within your budget.

I agree that two cameras might make sense, but I submit that memzilla's reasons for not liking TLRs are fairly personal. They seem to have a gestalt that works for some people and not for others, and the exact issues that bother one person ("I keep trying to bring the camera to my eye!") are comforts to another ("I don't have to bring the camera to my eye!").

There are quite a few acceptable-quality, fairly-cheap TLRs around---Rolleicords, Yashicae, the occasional Autocord that somehow has its focus lever intact---and their values seem pretty stable, so I think "buy a TLR, give it a try, resell if not appealing" is a low-risk proposition.

-NT

 

[Dr Croubie]

the exact issues that bother one person ("I keep trying to bring the camera to my eye!") are comforts to another ("I don't have to bring the camera to my eye!").

Well yeah, but with SLR systems (Pentacon6, Hasselblad (-ski), SL66, RB/Z 67, Mamiya645 (not AF), Bronica, Rollei 6k, etc, etc) you can try both in one. Most would come with a Waist Level Finder and/or a Metering Prism, if you don't get both then you can just buy one or the other that you're missing (except the Rollei 6008, afaik it meters internally so WLF is standard). My favourite is actually halfway, the Hasselbladski 45 degree prism. Eye-level and Metering, but the camera sits around shoulder-height and not true eye-level. And most of the time if i'm shooting in one spot for a while, no matter what camera i'm using, I meter with the TTL prism for accuracy, then swap to the WLF for extra freedom.

 

[Noble]

Most would come with a Waist Level Finder and/or a Metering Prism, if you don't get both then you can just buy one or the other that you're missing (except the Rollei 6008, afaik it meters internally so WLF is standard). My favourite is actually halfway, the Hasselbladski 45 degree prism. Eye-level and Metering, but the camera sits around shoulder-height and not true eye-level.

The Rollei 6008 and it's variants do indeed have built in metering but the WLF is not any more standard than with any other medium format camera. It's nice that you still have all the metering functions with the WLF but I haven't seen that really slow the enthusiasm for the 45 degree prism finder. I personally have both (prism and WLF) and I see the 45 degree prism more often than I see the 90 degree prism on Rollei 6008s.

One issue with the WLF in the 6008 is if you truly use it as a WLF and you don't shade the finder with your face ambient light falling on the focusing screen can at times affect readings. Just something for people to keep in mind. It's a really nice system but it is not without its quirks. You can always hold it up to your face for metering and then lock in the metering. Then you can return to waist level to compose.