Rollei TLR

Rolleiflexible said:

I can still manage it at 65. But I know my days are numbered. Strangely, a monopod makes it worse for me. And I'm too lazy to haul a tripod around most days.

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Just kids! I haven’t found age to be a problem in holding a camera steady. However, some camera types are easier than others. I find my Super Ikonta B much easier than my nose heavy Plauble Makina67 and the Fuji GF670. The ltm Leicas and Canons are also relatively easy despite focal plane shutters. Minox 8x11 demand a steady hand. Any SLR of whatever format is difficult.
From my observations, many think too hard about holding their camera steady, which just increases stress and makes holding camera ever more difficult. As I already noted, it’s like shooting a gun. As Thomas Jefferson stated, shooting calms the mind.

Rolleiflexible said:

Your inexperience is showing.

I routinely shoot handheld at slow shutters. Before calling BS, maybe you should try to teach yourself how to use a camera handheld at slow shutters. You must be mindful of your breathing. Use a shutter release cable. Hold the camera taut against the neck strap, if possible. Exhale. Then push the cable button.

I'm attaching a photo I made of my wife Melanie in Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, using a 1930s Voigtlander Superb TLR -- a one-second exposure wide open at f/3.5. The focus at the focal plane is a touch soft because it's an uncoated Heliar lens in difficult light, shot wide open. And in part because it's a one-second exposure of a living human being. But I can shoot long exposures like this any time. Shelve your presumptions, and you can too.

You could never do this with a Hasselblad. (Or at least I can't.)

PS -- Thanks to David Goldfarb for selling me the Superb ages ago. What a camera!

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It's a beautiful photo, but I wouldn't call it sharp. I too greatly like "sharpness isn't everything" photos, but sometimes sharpness is needed.

I've been shooting film since about 1989 and have about 75 pounds of negatives and took about ten years off during that time. I wouldn't claim inexperience. Some other other second or longer photos are nice, but in a Holga or soft focus way, both of which I also do and like.

I've used the same techniques of mindful breathing and tight strap with my TLRs and Ruger as well. It's good to share it. I consider a shutter speed to be sharp if I can get sharp photos at that speed most of the time under most conditions and the old reciprocal of the focal length suggestion is solid. Once in a while we can relax and get sharp photos at slowish speeds but I consider that luck and not expected. I think this is 1/25 with my Yashica-C which may be running slow; certainly some breathing and luck kept it sharp; I can see individual eyebrow hairs on the dentist. But I'm not going to tell people to expect sharp photos at 1/25 or 1/20.

dentist-workingpeople by Jason Philbrook, on Flickr

The Rolleiflex 3.5F Planar has been my go to camera for many years. It has this special quality I don’t think can be defined by charts and numbers. Just yesterday I was out shooting with a digital camera with iso set to 3200 when for decades I have had no trouble with 400 speed film, a yellow filter on a f/3.5 lens shooting until the sun goes down.