Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

For free, or do you want something for them?

robbiedoug Loc: Cuero, Texas

I would like to get something for them,but being that they both have mirror separation, I doubt if they would bring anything like what I feel they are worth. Other than the mirror separation they are in good condition. Make me an offer.

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

I have used only film cameras. Never tried a digital. I started photography in the U.S. Army in the German Occupation, when Germans were desperately selling their cameras on the black market for cigarettes. All my medium formats used 120 film.

My first medium format was a German folding camera (1946), 6 x 9 cm., and I still display some of those shots on the Hog. Don't remember its make.

The next was a twin-lens 6 x 6 Voigtlander Brillant (1946) , 6 x 6 cm with which I won my first contest. Again, I still display some of those shots on this forum.

My third medium format was a 1938 Automatic Rolleiflex 6 x 6 cm twin-lens reflex, f/3,5, 75 mm Zeiss Tessar uncoated lens (1946), the first model. It cost me 10 cartons of Lucky Strikes (or was it 12? I forget.) The deal -- on the street -- also included its 35mm back, its sheet film back, two sets of Proxar closeup lenses, three filters, a like-new leather ever-ready case, a rotating panorama tripod head, and a Linhof tripod. Later I had a Heiland solenoid installed so I could do flash photography to earn money shooting stuff while completing 3 years on the GI Bill at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. While there I won a prize in the 1951 LIFE magazine contest for yong photographers, using one of the Proxar closeup lenses. I loved that old camera, but I lost it and its accessories in a Queens burglary in 1967. I could not begin to count how many rolls went through it. I still exhibit its shots on the Hog.

My fourth MF was a 1958 6 x 6 cm Automatic Rolleiflex, f/3.5, 75 mm Zeiss Planar coated lens and a built-in light meter, which I bought in Germany in 1961. I preferred the 75mm rather than the 80 mm lenses because of the semi-wide-angle field-of-view. I still have it, and it gave great service -- but it never replaced the stolen 1938 camera in my affections. Some of its work also is shown in these forums.

My fifth and sixth MF were two 2-1/4 x 3-1/2 in. fixed lens Plaubel-Brooks Veriwide 100, with an f/8, 47 mm Schneider Super Angulon coated lens and a special eyelevel optical Leitz viewfinder ( 7 exposures per 120 rollfilm) and three bubble-levels. One of them was lost in another burglary, in New Jersey in 1981. Those Veriwides were my prime cover-shot cameras for industrial magazines, because of the dramatic perspectives and the ultra-sharpness.of the large transparencies. I still have one, which I purchased at the Plaubel factory in 1962. Unfortunately, I couldn't pay with cigarettes.

My seventh MF camera was hardly broken in before it was stolen with the Veriwide. It was an Asahi Pentax 6 x 7 cm SLR, with a 150 mm Super-Multi-Coated Takumar and filters. The same burglary also cost me my Canon AE-1 with three lenses, including a Canon Tilt/Shift.

But I guess that's a song any really active photographer can sing.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Give me an idea what it might cost to repair them, first, Robbie ....

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

I guess ... I've been where you've been, too ... shame, that ....

I still have my Pentax 6x7, but I lost my RB67 and my Mamiya Universal (to 6x9) in similar fashion ....

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

absolutely. that 3.5 yashinon taking lens was really something else. and is still the best way to go rather than the expense of a rollei, unless you plan on using it professionally. i'm currently playing with my old rollei c 2.8 planar. a lot smaller than the contax, and quieter too!

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Yes ... and I miss mine, too ...

Seven pounds, was it, Goofy?

That really IS heavy .... I always used the 127 on mine ... switched to 65 when I needed wider ...

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

me also on all counts. it accompanied me when i was immersed in a blackberry bog, along the the late, great Terry Hayden, on a nice hot, humid summer day in Marlboro Connecticut. there are reasons i remember this, but without a bottle of good single malt, i will not indulge the, ahem, details.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

That's QUITE a collection, Pen .... doesn't look like you've missed much ... maybe, a Rollei SL66, and a Bronica.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Terry Hayden, WJ?

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

I was younger then...
Had a 65 and 180 as well as the 90.
The 180 I bought used and it came with a custom set of soft focus discs that fit into the back of the lens via "O" rings.
Had black stocking material as the softening device. I think there were three: all with different densities of the material.
Worked very well!
Never seen it available anywhere.
A poor man's version of this one:

180 mm for RZ with SF discs

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Never knew that, Goofy ... sort of a bonus for buying the 180, was it?

Back then, I was far more likely to want to shoot wide, when I wasn't using the portrait lens. Never had any need to go longer. But now ... all I ever seem to want to shoot is those things for which I'd need a real tele.

wj cody Loc: springfield illinois

originally out of east hartford connecticut. cut his teeth with an 8x10 at big sur, before settling on 5x4 and 5x7 for his landscape work. probably, in my non objective opinion, the finast black and white film printer of landscapes in my generation. photography consumed his entire life. great person, genius and a pain in the ass to go photographing with! start in the morning dark and finish at midnight, then on to the darkroom, no lunch, supper, snack, no! we must develop the film!!! long and short of it, 3 days later we leave the darkroom like 2 moles coming into sunlight. we got our prints and he's ready to go again, and i just wanna die.

we had a lot of fun in our young years hanging out, photographing everything, everyone and everywhere and sitting around wooden tables with a bottle of the creature between us. laughs, great negatives, and we navigated some memorable areas of conflict, with smaller formats, of course. he had a great heart and i miss him.
that's Terry Hayden.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Sounds like quite the slave-driver, huh? ... Still, if art is your only objective, that's nourishment for the soul!

lucianj

In the studio I used Graflex 23, Graflex XL, Speed Grafic. My cameras were Ricoh TLR, Yashica Mat-124G, Yashica 635, Mamiya Super 23, Fuji 6x7, Mamiya RB-67, Chinese Seagull. Loved medium format. I also used a Graflex-6 (I think that what it was). It was a SLR, tall hood and a windup shutter.