Though today is Thanksgiving, it’s a pretty low key day. We are going over to the in-laws, and all we are bringing is apple crisp and home made pepper powder. So, time to paint! This is from a photo I took at the local botanical garden of a sloping hillside. I am sooooo rusty!
I recently bought a Mamiya 645 Pro TL with a lens, grip, viewfinder, and film back. It’s a medium format camera. To test out that all parts were working as advertised, I put a roll of film in it and went to work. I tested the auto-exposure and manual exposure. The film advance in the grip, too. Everything worked. Focus was on the little lamp, leaving the flowers outside the field of focus. In post, I used Negative Lab Pro to process the images, but turned them to black and white in LR. Altogether, I am happy with my purchase. And I managed to get a few pictures that were decent out of all that play!
The image above has the waist level viewfinder, which I would like to have. I have the eye-level viewer complete with automatic exposure and a hand grip with film advance.
There is a really good review of this critter over at Emulsive, which is a great website for reviews on older cameras.
Everything worked out really well, auto-exposures and ones from reading of the Sekonic light meter, as well as my own guestimates! Totally happy! And what I like even better is the distinctive look of the 80mm f2.8 C lens that came with the beast. Add to that, the Negative Lab Pro has been a real worthwhile investment for post-processing.
In order to check out the camera, I loaded a roll of Fuji Pro 400H, a film which has great color and latitude. Its color is not as intense as Ektar, but it comes close with the brilliance of the colors. I just shot around the house and neighborhood. There is absolutely nothing outstanding about these images except to prove the camera works, and works well. The whole point was to learn about the various aspects of the camera, both automatic and manual.
I handheld the camera for all these images. Friday I am expecting some of the proprietary Mamiya lugs to attach to a camera strap so that I won’t be as likely to drop it. The hand grip is a great handle, but I have read of people almost losing the camera from depending on the hand grip – somehow, the grip got disconnected from the body. At some point, I will get the waist level finder as I enjoy using so much on my Yashica D that I know it will be a good accessory. Because it is such a large camera, if I do get any other lenses, I am likely to limit myself to a macro lens. Other than that, at this point I don’t plan to accessorize it too much. I like the way it currently is, but if I want to go hiking, a lighter set-up would be good.
Altogether, I am happy with my decision to go with a modular medium format camera. However! G.A.S. is setting in . . . 6×7? 4×5? Oh, dear me!
In California, we have been dealing with increasing drought over the years. Usually this creek runs with water falling from Nojoqui Falls in Santa Barbara County, but here it is dry. With the winter’s rainy season beginning, I want to return, perhaps after a storm, as this really is a lovely little creek when it’s moving along. Even dry, it’s nice.
The blue hour down the street. It’s so hard to catch that glow in painting!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 