Help me spend my money on MF!

get an RB67 for big stuff and a Pentax 645N for other stuff......

having said that i am probably going to sell my Pentaxt this year coz i love my RB67 so much :)
 
Still waiting on sq-a guy getting back to me. I may be tempted by the RB67 if I find myself enjoying this!

How do you find the max shutter speed of 1/500? Especially on a bright sunny day like today? Guessing f2.8 won't see much use!
 
toadstool said:
Still waiting on sq-a guy getting back to me. I may be tempted by the RB67 if I find myself enjoying this!

How do you find the max shutter speed of 1/500? Especially on a bright sunny day like today? Guessing f2.8 won't see much use!
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lots of F stops, gooes to F32
 
SQ-A owner here. My use of a Brownie-Ka might be a bit different to some others here. I mainly use it for natural light, candid, street, pop, and even as an opportunist carry around. I use it for home developed and hybrid scanned b/w film.

Mine cost £180 on Ebay buy it now (Oct 2013), as the usual standard kit including a PS 80mm f/2.8, a WLF, one 120 back, and no grip. A slight cosmetic fault, but otherwise in great working order and VGC. Since then I've also bought a box of several (SQ-AI) 120 film backs/slides, a PS 150mm f/4 lens, an S-18 extension tube, and a speed grip. I mainly carry it around on a sturdy strap, without a grip, with WLF and the 150mm lens fitted.

It does seem a very heavy unit to carry around on a strap - but it is actually more comfortable and easier for me, than my Mamiya C3 Pro TLR. For light metering I mainly use the Sunny F16 rule, sometimes checked against a phone app lightmeter.

Although I'm a sloppy photographer, and not very technically competent, here is what I've achieved with my SQ-A so far.
 
toadstool said:
Still waiting on sq-a guy getting back to me. I may be tempted by the RB67 if I find myself enjoying this!

How do you find the max shutter speed of 1/500? Especially on a bright sunny day like today? Guessing f2.8 won't see much use!
Click to expand...

I shoot f/2.8 all day in bright weather; it's not a problem. Negative film can tolerate the overexposure for most purposes.

You'd really only need to be worried when using slide film, which requires much more precise exposure.
 
Good to know, thanks!!

SQA gumtree guy went quiet when I asked to pay by paypal, covering the fees, after he sent bank details. Here, I'm almost okay with bank transfer - not with a random via gumtree :\
 
skysh4rk said:
I personally wouldn't recommend using expired 120 film with a 'new' camera, as there are too many variables in play otherwise. If anything goes wrong, you won't know if it's anything you did, something with the camera, something with the film, etc.

Once you know everything works, then I'd start using the expired stuff.
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Wise words indeed, I have no problem using expired film but give yourself a break and eliminate the variables first then experiment.
 
toadstool said:
Good to know, thanks!!

SQA gumtree guy went quiet when I asked to pay by paypal, covering the fees, after he sent bank details. Here, I'm almost okay with bank transfer - not with a random via gumtree :\
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Run away :runaway:
 
toadstool said:
Good to know, thanks!!

SQA gumtree guy went quiet when I asked to pay by paypal, covering the fees, after he sent bank details. Here, I'm almost okay with bank transfer - not with a random via gumtree :\
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Reminds me of buying my V750 off gumtree........the home address was council flats (no offense to anyone living in one but it looked a dodgy area as well) with the lift smelling of urine and was prepared for a mugging, it didn't help when the person that opened the door had a E European accent. But everything turned out alright, but I was still worried until I got the box of goodies into my car and drove off, out of the area, with the doors locked.
 
It's annoying!!

So.. a couple of options..

ETRS, 75mm, WLF and 120 back for £190
ETRS, 75mm lens, prism, 120 back and grip for £225
ETRSi, 75mm lens, WLF and 120 back for £242
Mamiya 645, 80mm 2.8 lens, WLF, prism, strap & case for £162
 
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toadstool said:
It's annoying!!

So.. a couple of options..

ETRS, 75mm, WLF and 120 back for £190
ETRS, 75mm lens, prism, 120 back and grip for £225
ETRSi, 75mm lens, WLF and 120 back for £242
Mamiya 645, 80mm 2.8 lens, WLF, prism, strap & case for £162
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I thought that you wanted square format?

At any rate, where are you looking at these? There's a big difference between spending £240 on eBay and £240 at a proper camera shop in my mind.
 
I would prefer square if push came to shove but it's more than I would really like to spend - there's an SQ-AM on ebay in budget but I've been recommended against that one and would have preferred an Sq-a.

They're all on ebay. 2 or 3 from a camera shop on there, I'd need to jump on the laptop to double check.
 
toadstool said:
I would prefer square if push came to shove but it's more than I would really like to spend - there's an SQ-AM on ebay in budget but I've been recommended against that one and would have preferred an Sq-a.

They're all on ebay. 2 or 3 from a camera shop on there, I'd need to jump on the laptop to double check.
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I'd just be patient. SQ-As do pop up in your price range.

Personally, I'd wait for one to do so at either a reputable dealer or the classifieds here.
 
Yeah, I was just coming back here to say I'm going to try and hold out for an SQ-A. It's a lot of money to drop on something that isn't what I want "but close enough".
 
toadstool said:
Yeah, I was just coming back here to say I'm going to try and hold out for an SQ-A. It's a lot of money to drop on something that isn't what I want "but close enough".
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Very wise, indeed.

Keep in mind that the SQ-B and SQ-Ai are both very similar to the SQ-A, so they would be worth looking into as well. They all produce the same images with only minor differences between them in features.

I've owned all three and still own an SQ-A and SQ-B.
 
Thanks RJ. I'm going to gather a list of online camera shops etc to keep my eye on and hopefully I'll get lucky soon!

(I'd appreciate any shop recommendations btw!)
 
FFordes, Vintage Classic Camera, Mifsuds, I've used all of these with no problems.

Ffordes generally have a good stock of medium format and their prices are reasonable especially as e-bay now seems to be a place where people try and rip off anyone interested in film photography.. .grumble, winge, moan....
 
4371A076-80B2-44B5-959A-122286859564_zpsfa9zjnd8.jpg


She certainly is heavy! Not as heavy as I thought though.
 
Congrats! ProTip: if the frame counter isn't advancing, you have it in mutiple-exposure mode. You're bound to find this the hard way, I know I did. I took my first roll twice . . .
 
Haha oops!

It came with a brand new strap and a brand new battery which I'm really pleased with - no accessories at all were mentioned in the listing.

A couple of rolls of portra were meant to arrive today but didn't. Hopefully tomorrow.

I mostly take photos of my daughter. She's 8 months and can't sit still for love nor biscuits! Not crawling yet but just loves throwing her head side to side all day every day :p so I'm not sure how successful I'll be with the bronica and her - trying to get her in focus gave me a right headache! Although I'm sure I'll get used to it. Maybe it'll help me branch out in photographing other things! I'm a bit technically useless but I enjoy taking photos! I taught myself using a film camera and have spent a lot of time processing and printing my own stuff (a few years ago now though!) so I feel a lot more comfortable with it than I do with digital.
 
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