Medium format SLR - el cheapo rundown

bobiscuit

bobiscuit

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I've been looking at some of the medium format SLRs on eBay, at the low end of the price scales - Keiv 88/60, Pentacon six, that kind of thing.

I am not bothered about a WLF. A metered prism would suit me best. And if possible I would like cheap lens availability - I think something reasonably long would be best rather than wide angle.

Is it possible to get that kind of setup for under £100 all-in?
 
Add a zero and I can help you out there...:LOL:
 
hahahaha... scissors are your friend...lol
 
Yashicamat might do the job. Usually the cheapest, quality medium format but lacks interchangable lenses. They go for either side of a hundred quid. The older Mamiyaflex/C220/330/etc start at similar prices and can take various lenses.
Older 1950s viewfinder and rangefinder 120 cameras often have quality lenses and sell quite cheaply, £10 - £50.

Edit: I see you meant SLR. You'll be (very) lucky to pick one up for a ton IMO.
 
A Mamiya 645 would be my suggestion as something to look for, they have the attributes you need i.e. a metered prism and long lenses at 'reasonable' cost. Bear in mind with the medium format the anti cropping factor i.e. an 80 is a 50 on a 645 so a 300 wont really be a long lens. Anything longer than 300 and wave goodbye to an arm and a leg.

Matt
 
I wouldn't use a Soviet camera for photography any more than I'd drive a Zil on a race-circuit...good for comedy-value IMO, but not for serious work...it's not the image-quality that's a problem, but the build-quality...so many QC problems that you could never guarantee that one was going to work - even fresh out of the box, new.

Not just something that applied to cameras either - I once bought a Ural Mars bike - based on the old 1942 BMW. Arrived in a crate direct from the factory.
First thing we did was re-build the engine from scratch. Guy who did it took almost a pound of metal off as the castings were so rough and horrible...

Zorki, Fed, Zenit, Kiev - all horrible things...all copied from 'real' cameras in the West - or built on plundered German machine-tools which were never updated - mostly ripped out of German factories after WW2...
 
Kiev 88, or Salut, the salut is better built, should be able to pick up a useable body, lens and back for around the £100 mark, £30 to £40 for a metered prisim, long lenses sometimes go for very little, you could be lucky and pick up one with lenses, you could try this, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SALUT-RUSSIAN...=ViewItem&pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item483a703b60. this seller also has a Kiev 60 with a metered prism., You should also look on the Preloved site.

Dave.
 
I've missed the waist level finder of my Bronica EC, so I bought a C220.
I've put a couple of films through it, enjoyed it and its working perfectly...but.....I've come to realise its not the WLF I'm missing, its the camera..:(. this C220 could be a Blad and it wouldn't make any difference.
It would be possible to get this type of camera for around the money you speak of if you were interested in a TLR rather than an SLR.
 
david1701 said:
are decent TLRs going at this price point?

I kinda like the look of them.
Click to expand...

A real PITA to use...I hated my old Rollei... hated looking down to focus on a very dim focussing screen...My original 'old' 'Blad was no better...hated having to cock the shutter seperately to winding the film on then finding I'd forgotten to take out the dark slide...

I love 35mm SLRs for that reason - the Pentax 6x7 was bought because I thought it'd be fairly OK to use as well, but in reality it's a PITA too...:wacky:
 
I used to love my Pentax 645 but mf is such an expensive format. I could never afford any extra lenses and mf film costs were high even at 16 shots per roll.
 
The Mamiya 6 and 7 are the only reasonably user friendly medium format cameras for general use but v. expensive. 6 x 4.5 doesn't give a huge advantage over 35mm in image quality and was mainly for print and editorial applications where old school picture editors insisted on medium format by convention. For similar use now they seem content to take images from digital compacts.

For gallery quality images a Mamiya Press offers great quality for the price (a 6 x 9 backed one went on ebay last week for £225) but like the Pentax 67 it's still a huge chunk of camera. TLRs are fine if you use faster films and pre-focus, just using the ground glass to compose the shot. Apart from that as I said old Kodak and similar 120 viewfinder cameras offer the most bang for your buck.
 
Arkady said:
A real PITA to use...I hated my old Rollei... hated looking down to focus on a very dim focussing screen...My original 'old' 'Blad was no better...hated having to cock the shutter seperately to winding the film on then finding I'd forgotten to take out the dark slide...
Click to expand...


You're joking....that's exactly what I miss about shooting with a 6, 35mm and digital.
I miss fannying about like a numpty....:(
 
not too fussed about being a pita - I have nice good IQ easy to use digi kit this is meant to be tricky cos tricky is fun
 
:LOL:

Maybe we can work out a deal...I'm back in Exmouth next week, so we can discuss things over a beer...
 
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