New camera. Well, “new” to me. A Mamiya C330 Twin Lens Reflex. Shoots 6×6 negatives, like a Rollie or a ‘Blad. I’ve been interested in the format, and in something Medium Format that is more portable than the GX680. Mamiyas are pretty cheap, have good reputations for the quality of the glass, and seem to fit the bill. My excuse was that I may never bond with 6×6, and Hasselblad is 3-5x the price for everything. It’s not like you can’t sell a camera for what you paid, easily, but let’s be real. If I bought a ‘Blad I’d be sitting on $3500 worth of gear forever, because we all know I’d never sell it.
I was a little worried about shooting handheld, some people seem to think they’re too large. They weigh over 3 lbs with a lens! But my Brobdingnagian GX680s laugh at your puny little 3 lb TLR and I had no problem getting nice handheld shots. I only blurred one of the 12 on my first roll, all shot with the waist level finder. I think my only issue is that I need practice on the reverse image in the finder as I can get it framed side to side, or perfectly straight up and down, but not both at the same time.
One more thought. The lens is ridiculously sharp, all the way out to the corners. The first roll was Delta 400, which I am beginning to really love. I could have used Delta 100, but I had planned on messing with a red filter and thought the 2 stops would be welcome, but i got too excited and killed the roll before I got around to it.
Most of these are F11 or F16 (no meter with me, so I sunny 16d it) and 1/125 or 1/250. A couple were at F8. Check out the detail on this pinecone, which is cropped from the image posted in the gallery, and realize this is the economy, low resolution scan:
I might have a go at one or two of these negatives with my scanning rig to really see what the resolution is like, but I’m impressed. I think that’s all I have to say. I won’t share the ugly image, but I will show you the rest of the roll. Behold!
And here’s the higher res. Again, these are the cheapie scan, only 2000 pixels total, and they are this sharp.
