Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I do 25 percent of my work with my Hasselblad system. I just got the 120 macro for it. Half the reason i end up using the Hasselblad is because of the need to shoot a Polaroid. The other reason is because i love the square format. But I'm finding maintaining my Hasselblad system to be not cheap. The backs go out. And it just cost me over 200 bucks to have my 80 2.8 CF lens CLA'd the sync fixed. I see i have one more 120 back which is giving me too much spacing. I have to track down which one it is, one of them is still on warranty from having just been adjusted and fixed for quite a bit of money. Modular cameras are not simple. They are modular. Simple and modular are opposites. But often when i want to shoot squares and i don't need Polaroids or other lenses I'll shoot my Rolleiflex 2.8 F. Twin lens reflex camera. Quite and more unobtrusive than a Leica M this camera has given me great results since i got it in 1976. I'll say i use my Rolleiflex 10 percent of the time. I love it becuae it is not modular. It is simple. A brick which takes pictures. And i love waist level look at the ground glass shooting. I got an Olympus Pen FT last year from a neighbor but the lenes don't seem as sharp as they should be. I've got to make some prints to see if they blow up as unsharp as the negs seem to look. I expected more from Olympus glass in the 60's from an image circle that small. Half frame. 24x18. We need modern glass designed for that format which is pretty much Advantix sized. Optimized for the quality of modern films if you ask me. 72 on a roll does not bother me at all! Vertical format! I shoot 4x5 with my Calumet Cambo NX and Fujinon 210 lens once a year on a good year. 4x5 Polaroids to scan on my flatbed!!! Weird! Those negs sure have scanned well! Soon I'll get come kind of 4x5 field camera and do a lot more sheet film. Or get a better lens for my Speed Graphic 4x5 and have that be my field camera. But I'd like a nice wooden field camera i think. I need more cameras! I don't have enough cameras! I'll often put a Rollei 35 on a pouch on my belt. Have lost all interest in my Olympus XA Clamshell. Those were the cameras which made me first decide to get a Leica if you can belive that! I got a Speed Graphic baby this year which takes 6x7 roll film as well as that size sheet film!. Have not had the time to try it out yet. So many camera. So little time! It looks cute siting next to my other full sized Speed Graphic which is twice its size. I have a Nikon system which for now I'd use if i needed a 200 or 70-200 zoom lens to do something with. I find my 90's and 135 on my Leica M's more than adequate which is putting it mildly for most short telephoto things but longer and macro I'll use my Nikon until i get something better like Leica R or Contax N1 or an RTS III. And the SB flashes sure work well with the system. As is i pull out my Nikon system which supported me in the 80's and early 90's once a year. They bore the tears out of me. But sometimes i think that 200 macro i could do something with if i ever laid my hands on one. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/