Medium format : allright , I'm in !

[yinyangbt]

Got a CBA crisis , but it's solved now.
At last , I'm in the medium format camp and waiting to experiment . I choose square 6x6 format over 645 . An Agfa Isolette II should arrive , and tomorow I'll get a Pentacon six TL + Biometar 80/2.8 MC + WLF (no prism) . I think I'll try one with BW and one with color .
Some suggestions abotaffordable 120 film and suppliers ?

[Excalibur]

Congrats......if only a supermarket (or some where local near where I live) would dev 120 film, I wouldn't use 35mm so much.
Postage or fuel costs are too expensive for just one or two rolls to be developed.

[Bob van Sikorski]

Cheap films are Fomapans, but for higher speed, you will need also other brands.

[Mos6502]

I don't know where you're located, but here the local camera shop sells pro-packs of Tmax 100 for just under $20. That's a pretty good deal considering the price of a single roll.

[std]

Usually i buy film from macodirect.de but you have very nice shop in Romania too: f46.ro .

[yinyangbt]

Thank you , Stefan , for the link. They have some good prices .Better than F64 and ebay

[rbelyell]

good luck teo. you will certainly notice a quality difference from 35mm, and 6x6 is a great portrait format, imo. you will love the biometar, the 120 is even better. i gave that rig up because it was just too bulky for me, but the IQ was great.

i just got a mamiya 6 folder, which with my zeiss ikon 6x9 folder and my xpan, need to satisfy my MF lust!

cant wait to see your results.
tony

[yinyangbt]

Hi, Tony ,thank you !
I kinda hate bulky cams (I don't use anymore my EOS XTi ) but I absolutely adore this P6 animal !!! Strange , isn't it?
For the first rolls I'll have to sen them at 500 km for developing , but I'll probably try to develop myself , eventually .After all I've developed BW 35 years ago

[martinsmith99]

If you hate bulky cameras, how about a folder?

[yinyangbt]

Martin , I allready got a beautiful Agfa isolette II .Yesterday I exposed the first frame . It's a weird feeling to press the shutter and no vibration , just an imperceptible click . Very funny camera . I am a little shy about focusing because it's a zone focusing model (no rangefinder ) but I'll solve this .I feel thet it's going to be one of my main walkaround cameras.For now I've loaded a 400 CN Kodak .

[yinyangbt]

Today I took a plunge with the huge Pentacon six for some test pictures . Took 6 frames ,wrote down the settings. Used a hama selenium lightmeter (like new) . Strange way of focusing with the loupe of the waist level viewfinder ( first focus throu the loupe with my glasses on , then flip up the loupe and compose without glasses - funny to get old eyes ) .The body I have came with the original focusing matte screen , no fresnel one ,so focusing is a bit more difficult . The prism doesn't help ,in fact it's less accurate than the loupe , in my opinion , for my eyesight ) .The left/right inversion is also unusual for me and I have to habituate. All in all I liked the experience ,and I am curious about the results. The 80/2.8 Biometar moved well .When I'll have some useable scans I'll post

[Attila]

[iangreenhalgh1]

Good luck Theo, I just shot my first roll in my Kiev 6C with Flektogon 4/50, I have the Biometar 2.8/80 too, not tried it yet, was too excited about the Flek not to shoot it first.

The difference in IQ to 35mm is astounding, on an old flatbed scanner like mine MF gives so much better results.

Kiev 6C, Flek 4/50, Ilford Pan 400, f8 1/250, Paterson FX-39 developer, 10mins at 20C.

[yinyangbt]

Damn' s*%t !!! I screwed up nearly a roll of 120 with my Isolette II
1.Didn't know exactly how to know when the film begins , lost there 3 frames
2.Had the impression that the winding wheel will stop when the next frame is in position , not looking to the back red window ,lost here another 2 frames
3.set the time st the aperture cocked the shutter ,forgot the distance lost another 2 , I think
4.The result is that I loaded a new roll and tomorrow I'll do it again
Did you experienced something like this , or am I out of service ???
Some tips about the signs on the back of the 120 films (that i am totally unhabityated with )? For example , there appear in the red window on the back a big arrow pointing toward the left .Is there the film beginning ?

[Attila]

[Lloydy]

I wasted two rolls when I first tried my Mamiya C3, ask Ian if he learned a few new swear words ?

[iangreenhalgh1]

I think I invented a few when I developed the film from my Mamiya and the frames were all overlapping.

The bits that weren't double exposed looked alright though.

[Lloydy]

Hell yeah!

I'm loving this medium format stuff, the detail - even out of old and not particularly 'legendary' cameras is stunning. I'll have to post up the Voightlander Perkeo shots, I was amazed by them.
I've bought some more stuff for the Mamiya today. I had the money for another DSLR, they were selling decent DSLR'S for sensible money, but I bought Mamiya TLR stuff instead!

[iangreenhalgh1]

I've almost given up shooting digital, become so obsessed with film

Perkeo shots I managed to scan came out very nice imho, well done:

For some reason when I try and upload one, it fails.

[poshfoto]

kentmere is good, but I like to buy bulk lots of expired film on eBay