I've shot my first picture with the YashicaMat

[Jesito]

Wow, I'm excited.
Never handled a YashicaMat before, I've been carefully following the manual. The roll loaded properly, gently winding the crank until heard the click and the shot was ready. F16sunshine rule tells me to set 1/125 and F16. The film is Fuji Reala 100.
I go out to the balconry of my flat, where my reference object is (an small plant). Looking through the viewer with the focusing lens down is gorgeous. The red crossing lines help a lot on composing and not to bow. Pressing the shutter from frontwards to backwards avoids any bowing...
The almost silent click, and voilŕ!, my first picture is shot.
It's very exciting. Nothing similar to this...
Why the TLRs have become obsolete?. I think they are the best in ergonomy... We should ask for a digital TLR equivalent

Jes.
(So excited).

[bob955i]

http://www.rollei.jp/e/pd/MiniD.html

[peterqd]

[Laurence]

From the gentle winding, to the sound of the shutter (a quiet sort of "snick" sound), the Yashica seems to imbibe a sense of quiet imagery. And, to repeat myself from earlier posts -- it's like looking down into a window on the world that is detached from true reality. And that gives a whole different perspective to the act of creating the image.

[Jesito]

[Jesito]

[Jesito]

[peterqd]

[Jesito]

[Laurence]

Jes wrote: It is as you and Larry describe. It's like if the images were going out of the landscape and suddenly appearing on the viewer, out of context. One can concentrate in the composition without being disturbed by the surrounding activity. I never thought that I could feel such an emotion just by looking through a camera viewer...

And, to me, the Yashica has allowed me to improve my compositions. Another repeated phrase: the "backward" composition takes my mind right into the balance of the scene before me; sometimes artists look at their canvas in the mirror to detach themselves from the subject.

I think that looking down into a viewfinder on any camera with such a similar viewfinder, give this wonderful "canvas" feeling.

I have taken quite a few images with the Yashica and at the same time with the old Canon AE-1, when I had both of them at the same time. I was AMAZED at the difference! It's sort of like the Canon "took" the image, but that the Yashica "created" the image.

The final impetus for me favoring the waist level finder, was the square format - it evolves into a different way of thinking about the image. I think that "act" of filling the square with balanced mass tends to improve the compositional feedback.

On some of my old Yashica images I have gone back to an image that didn't quite "feel right", and cropped it to a more rectangular shape, and it jumped out as an improved composition. So, that is yet another benefit - the benefit of being able to sometimes crop to improve an image without losing a lot of area/size of the original negative or transparency. The 58x58mm size is already of tremendous size compared to the 24x36mm film. So, cutting it down a bit does not seriously degrade the ability to enlarge.

I also tend to use the grid pattern, especially in simplified graphical images. Case in point was the image of the tidepools in the surf bedrock. I could not see much because of the darkness, but I was able to place the main pool of light into the Golden Means part of the image by using the grid intersection at "2 lines up and 2 lines in" from the right bottom of the frame, and knew that it would probably be balanced. And sure enough, I think it WAS balanced with the dark rock massiveness of the rest of the image. Also, the grid enables me to precisely ascertain a level horizon in many cases. In turn, this produced added intensity in the tide pools' graphic signatures.

Then, the magnification tool in the finder is absolutely terrific. It brings me even farther "into" the scene, and I use it all the time because it constantly takes my breath away to be able to "jump" into the scene.

Since I'm spouting all these reverences, let me also say that the position of being able to stand straight and look down into a camera that I am holding in a natural position with both hands, adds yet another factor to the comfort of creating an image. Also, for low-angle shots, I don't have to lay down on my stomach. This is a huge factor for imaging flowers in a meadow (for instance).

I have taken two shots that turned out nicely (to me) by holding the camera upside down and raising it up and over a log, and looking up to the view that is down and beyond the log! It works extremely well for that kind of situation.

[rick_oleson]

Ditto to all of the above. There is something about the reversed, waist level viewfinder that is totally different from any eye level system. It's as if you were viewing the image on an editing table, you're not just looking through a hole in the camera at your subject. As a result, you take more time, your composition is more thoughtful and your results are better. If your subjects permit the time it takes, there is nothing that can beat a good TLR ... not for 'taking pictures', but for creating photographs.

I've been on kind of a TLR binge lately: since October or November, I've bought two Rolleiflexes, one Zeiss Ikoflex, one Flexaret and one DeJur Reflex. In all, at the moment I have 14 TLRs... unless there are one or two others that are slipping my mind.....

[vilva]

[rick_oleson]

The problem with those is that the finder is so tiny that you can't compose on it the same way... you have to flip up the magnifier and stuff your eye into it just to see what the image is. You do get the benefit of being slowed down and forced to concentrate on what you're doing, but it is not at all the same.

For me, even a medium format SLR with a waist level finder doesn't do it as well as a TLR. I have no explanation for why that would be, maybe the different shape of the cameras or something.

[Jesito]

[vilva]