Searching for the best (?) carry everywhere MF camera

[GregY]

So far barely mentioned: A Voigtlander Perkeo with a Skopar lens. Small, elegant, pocketable.

My preference is the Rolleicord but it's not fitting in my pocket. The OP wants a camera to carry around. A lot of the cameras advocated above (Hasselblad really?) are too big and too heavy to fit that bill. A Rolleicord is a lot lighter and more compact, but still not a trifle to carry. A Perkeo (or other MF folder) can live unobtrusively in a pocket or a glove box.

The Color Skopar is a killer lens!

 

[Roger Cole]

I was about to say that the YashicaMat is always the answer
Super lightweight with usually superb optics.

Et Salut à toi!

Another vote for the YashicaMat. Still the single camera I own that I enjoy using the most.

He said "carry around" but I didn't take that to mean in a pocket. If that's a factor then yes of course, one of the folders.

 

[Roger Cole]

The P67 is heavy and it will stop working in cold weather (it was -15C mind you). But the lenses are really good and there are many! Handling is pretty good with a right-hand grip. I have tried M645 and SQ-A and the Pentax is the one that's left.

PS. I also tried an RB67, you can't really use it hand-held

With a grip you CAN use the RB67 handheld, but not so much carry it very far. My RZ is lighter and I sure wouldn't want to carry it much, but I have used it handheld - briefly.

I was going to say to just hire a porter to carry it and get an RB67, or maybe a GX680.

Or just get a Speed or Crown graphic with a rollfilm back. They were actually designed to be used handheld, in the days when people were more up to challenges and give you the option of 4x5 sheet film, and for that matter different negative sizes in the rollfilm backs. Of course there are always the "baby" MF versions. Not really a "carry anywhere" but I guess you can carry a refrigerator if you're strong enough and determined enough.

Of course I'm being silly but the thread left the silly station some time back.

I am fond of TLRs, but I don't have a problem with the reversed view in a WLF and I don't usually get along well with rangefinders. Much of this is a matter of taste, including how big and heavy a camera one is willing to "carry around all the time."

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

The best camera is the one you have with you.
As much as I have been recently 'tested' a Hasselblad 500 C is not portable nor are other 6 x 6 camers such as the Bronica SQ series.
I find the 645 format is pushing it for portability in SLR cameras but the best of the bunch with the Mamiya and Bronica models.
With portable cameras with quality optics the choice is much less clear but the Fuji 645 series offer splendid optics at the expense of reliability and more important repairabilty!
Perhaps this is why there is such an interest in the more modern folders in MF ?
After all some of the best images of yesteryear were produced by lenses , not cameras, that would not make the grade on todays MTF' curves !!
YES , there are many lenses that produce a little more information than others; but the final test is the image itself !

 

[Besk]

The Agfa Record III (6x9) 105/4.5 Solinar works great as a lightweight, portable camera. Not equal to the newer Fuji's or the MF SLR in sharpness but definetly a good choice when portablity is considered important.

 

[reddesert]

Well everything from a 127-format TLR to a Mamiya RB67 has been suggested as "carry around"; often such suggestion threads turn into "name a camera" and this is not an exception.

One of the OP's outfits appears to be a Bronica SQ with (only) a 150mm lens. One of the paths of least resistance would be to get an 80mm lens for the SQ, and perhaps the (overpriced) waist level finder if they only have the prism. (Prisms are good for some things but they do add bulk and weight.) If the SQ is too bulky I can't see any of the other 6x6 or 6x7 SLRs improving much on that, and most of them are significantly more so.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You're right on many points Steve, but since the OP already has both a Mamiya 645 system and a Bronica SQ.....how is a Hasselblad not just further duplicating what he's got?

Easy! Just like I traded in a Mamyia C330f with the 65mm lens, 80mm lens, 250mm lens and every optional device made for the Mamiya in the KNOWN WORLD, he to could trade in his equipment and never look back.

 

[Sirius Glass]

View attachment 334778

And spend the rest of his life missing having a Hasselblad while always just making do with what he has.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I think 6x6 has advantages vs 6x4.5 if you like the square format, you want to be able to project transparencies, or you wish to use a waist-level finder and avoid the inconvenience of rotating the camera when shooting vertical compositions. Otherwise, they are pretty much the same thing, IMO.

Larger formats: Have gotten very satisfying results from a Fuji GSW690 III - when I held the camera really steady! These big cameras were once a ubiquitous sight in Japan, where they were used to photograph groups of tourists at scenic locations. But the cameras were generally mounted atop a tripod. But for mixed shooting styles, where there might be some camera shake, I’d prefer the more economical 6x4.5 format.

There is a 6x6 slide format. Shooting square means never rotating a camera again.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Another advantage of the Hasselblad, is the interchangable backs, which can give you no only 6*6cm but also 6*4.5, 4*4, 35mm with adapters, and the 6cm long panoramic with the use of a 6*6 CM back, that has a (IIRC) single gear change and, if wanted, a window templet that lies between body and magazine.

Do no think you can no put the camera on its side to grab a vertical, a monopod or tripod makes this a good option, even when "square" is your main focus.

Use a mask with the 35mm adapters too.

I believe elsewhere in this site, someone found a premade gear to make that happen.

The savings are self-evident in most of these magazines, which wind on the appropriate lenght of film, ie. the 4*4cm back allows for 16 exposures instead of the standard 12 frames of the 6*6.

Hasselblad or third party masks are available for these formats to keep excess image areas 'clean' of light marks, which is nice, too.

Never seen a interchangeable back on a Mamiya C series, Mamiya 67, Pentax 67, or RB67.

 

[Cholentpot]

With a grip you CAN use the RB67 handheld, but not so much carry it very far. My RZ is lighter and I sure wouldn't want to carry it much, but I have used it handheld - briefly.

I was going to say to just hire a porter to carry it and get an RB67, or maybe a GX680.

Or just get a Speed or Crown graphic with a rollfilm back. They were actually designed to be used handheld, in the days when people were more up to challenges and give you the option of 4x5 sheet film, and for that matter different negative sizes in the rollfilm backs. Of course there are always the "baby" MF versions. Not really a "carry anywhere" but I guess you can carry a refrigerator if you're strong enough and determined enough.

Of course I'm being silly but the thread left the silly station some time back.

I am fond of TLRs, but I don't have a problem with the reversed view in a WLF and I don't usually get along well with rangefinders. Much of this is a matter of taste, including how big and heavy a camera one is willing to "carry around all the time."

Century Graphic 2x3 with roll film adapters are fun to carry around. Not easily though but easier than a 4x5.

 

[Roger Cole]

Never seen a interchangeable back on a Mamiya C series, Mamiya 67, Pentax 67, or RB67.

RBs and RZs have interchangeable backs. So, for that matter, does my M645 Pro though the earlier 645 versions didn't. Much as I enjoy shooting with my TLRs if I could keep only one camera across all formats that would be it, because it does it all for me. It's almost as good as 35mm at "35mm style stuff" just bigger and heavier, and that not even much or at all compared to the largest 35mm SLRs but there isn't the huge choice of lenses. Most of the time I end up cropping my 6x6 negatives to 6x4.5ish anyway (not always, but probably 60-70% are cropped, some I do print square.) My RZ and 4x5 I'd vastly prefer when working off a tripod for stationary subjects but again that's not everything. The 645 can do it all at least passably well for me. But more often I end up picking one of the other cameras for more specific reasons.

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

What we have here is an untapped market for jackets and pants with extra large reinforced pockets.

 

[Melvin J Bramley]

Odd ball medium format!
Just saw it advertised..

ELMOFLEX 6X6 WITH OLYMPUS LENSES - photo/video - by owner -...

RARE ELMOFLEX 6X6 TLR, WITH OLYMPUS D. ZUIKO F.C. F=7.5CM F3.5 LENSES, THE SHUTTER SOUND REAL GOOD, THE GLASS ON THE LENSES ARE REAL GOOD, VERY CLEAN CAMERA, THIS OUT MY COLLECTION OF CAMERA'S, THE...

seattle.craigslist.org

'Elmoflex" TLR !!

Any big Bird slr's out there?


TB

 

[warden]

And spend the rest of his life missing having a Hasselblad while always just making do with what he has.

Wait, you like Hasselblad cameras? I had no idea!

They’re good system cameras and flexible if you buy the right accessories, but they’re loaded with compromises and complexity that some people people don’t want or need. Mine is in the shop now getting fixed, and I don’t miss it one little bit. If I had the OP’s needs (and I often do) a Hasselblad wouldn’t be under consideration at all.

 

[warden]

What we have here is an untapped market for jackets and pants with extra large reinforced pockets

 

[henryvk]

Another vote for the Super Ikonta III.

It's very light, which makes it attractive to me, but if you are used to an SLR or TLR you might find the viewfinder very squinty, even though it is one of the better (maybe best?) among 6x6 folders.

Off topic: I sometimes carry the Ikonta on my walk to work and I just missed a promising shot of an old Porsche 944 sitting at the curb in the beautiful early April sun. I haven't used the camera in a while and I sleep-drunkenly thought that the film advance had seized up when in actuality it was still locked because I had already wound on from just having taken a shot. To make matters worse, the guy in the Porsche saw me, thought I'd taken a picture and gave me a big thumbs up Sorry, dude!

 

[eli griggs]

Wait, you like Hasselblad cameras? I had no idea!

They’re good system cameras and flexible if you buy the right accessories, but they’re loaded with compromises and complexity that some people people don’t want or need. Mine is in the shop now getting fixed, and I don’t miss it one little bit. If I had the OP’s needs (and I often do) a Hasselblad wouldn’t be under consideration at all.

To what compromises in a Hasselblad 500 camera, do you refer?

 

[eli griggs]

What we have here is an untapped market for jackets and pants with extra large reinforced pockets.

Filson blanket wool coats, with or without a cape.

The heavy wool coat has a large, two entry horizontal back pocket that'll easily carry a good sized thermos of coffee, plus sandwiches.

Ohe of double pockets on each of the front side, one with a button, the largest, can carry a Zeiss Super Ikonta, with spare room.

The second pocket on each front side is a comfortable hand slipping in design that'll keep a spotmeter handy.

Cabela's heavy wool hunting pants, also has thick wool 'parachute' pockets in which a good folder can be carried, if for example, you're cross country skiing or horseback riding in the back country.

Camera friendly cloths abound and these two examples will last for years.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Fuji made a couple lightweight cameras with non-changeable lenses in formats 6x7 ad 6x9. They make good travel cameras.

 

[Besk]

Century Graphic 2x3 with roll film adapters are fun to carry around. Not easily though but easier than a 4x5.

Agreed! Rugged Plus you have front rise and indirect tilt! A variety of backs work - 645, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9, 35mm adapters, Sheet film holders, Grafmatics etc.

 

[warden]

To what compromises in a Hasselblad 500 camera, do you refer?

All of them.

 

[Cholentpot]

Agreed! Rugged Plus you have front rise and indirect tilt! A variety of backs work - 645, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9, 35mm adapters, Sheet film holders, Grafmatics etc.

I have 6x7 and 6x9 for my century. Didn't know there was a 35mm. Now I have to look for one.

 

[GregY]

Fuji made a couple lightweight cameras with non-changeable lenses in formats 6x7 ad 6x9. They make good travel cameras.

Been there, done that..... they are light but huge....no longer my first choice....

 

[Besk]

I have 6x7 and 6x9 for my century. Didn't know there was a 35mm. Now I have to look for one.

There are adapters to allow you to use 35mm film in 6x7 backs. Mercury Camera Co. sells a kit that includes the adapters and a replacement 24x 67 "plate" for a Mamiya RB 220 back.