Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Some years ago I was looking for a medium format camera for landscape work. I part traded an M2 for a Hassleblad. Many times I'd leave the film in the camera for some hours or even days between shots. Under these conditions the lack of film flatness was a serious issue and certainly showed on the final prints, especially with slow fine grained films. If you looked at the reflection of light on the film after winding on you could clearly see the bump where the film had been bent round the roller in the magazine insert. After returning the magazine twice to the importers I gave up trying to get the problem fixed. One year later I traded the Hassleblad. Later I returned to medium format with a used Rollei SL66. This also had similar problems caused by an abrupt bend in the film path. However, it was the tilting lens panel which sold me on this camera and is the reason I still use it for landscape work. Ironically this feature can cause film flatness to be even more if an issue. The tilting panel can give infinite depth of field, making near-far sharpness possible at full aperture but the depth of focus at the film plane is very small under these conditions. I know Rollei recognised the problem and later SL66 magazines were fitted with a larger diameter roller. To minimise unsharpness I don't use the next shot if the camera hasn't been used for more than 15mins and after loading don't wind to the first frame until I'm ready to use the camera. One camera I've found to have no apparent problems no matter how long the film is left in the camera (within reason <g>) is the 6x7 Mamiya M7-II (medium format Leica !) the lenses are super sharp and need the film flatness to give of their best. Bob Parsons.