Torn between my Mat 124G and a Kiev88 Prospect.

[mark]

I too am happy with my Kiev. I have owned two. The first was unmodified and worked great except at the highest speed. I had a chance to get one modified so traded my original for a canon rebel. Worst damn camera I have ever owned. The K88 I had modified was through Hartblei, and I think it was one of the last they did. I have been very very happy with it. I also admit that I was lucky as I have only had one bad lens, and my K88s have worked very well. Would I trust it on a paying job? no, not without a back up, but then again I would not trust any camera on a job unless I had a backup. My only regret was not getting an 88CM modification. YMMV as others have. If you want perfection you pay for it, and you pay a LOT for it. I have interchangeable backs several lenses and am happy.

I tried out a Yashica for a few days and was frustrated with no lens choice, no film choice, and the fact that it was a TLR irritated me. I could not get used to, and did not want to get use to the fact that I was not seeing exactly what I was taking an image of (fact of life with a TLR at close distances)

 

[Roger Cole]

I guess it depends on how and what you shoot and what features you value. I had never used a TLR when I bought my Yashicamat but quickly fell in love with it. It doesn't focus very close anyway so at the distances it will focus parallax really isn't much of a problem. I do occasionally wish I could get just a tad closer but usually backing up is not a problem, and I'm one of those folks who have no qualms at all about cropping so if that means my final print comes from a 5x5cm section of negative or whatever, I have no problem with that.

But I hear you in the sense that I wouldn't want a fixed lens TLR as my only camera.