Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/04/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Heavens! The world is your oyster. MF does have a few limitations, though not major ones, as well as major benefits. The system used falls to the Ted Grant Rule: take pictures and learn from your own usage. The methodology is slower and more methodical, but this depends, more than a bit, on the camera used: a Rolleiflex TLR is close to the speed of a Leica M, a Hasselblad or Rollei 600x is quite a bit slower, and a Mamiya SLR is a studio-only item save for the physically extreme in our number. I do more MF work than miniature-format now, and do most of this with Rolleiflex TLR's, though I have a slew of cameras from Voigtlander to Zeiss Ikon to play with as well, and a Hasselblad kit which is most wonderful but heavy and slow. I have said it, again and again, and will go on saying it, that no one really understand the craft of photography who avoids the darkroom. Learn to make your own slides. Learn to do black and white and colour prints. Learn to Ilfochrome. Then, if you wish, have your lab do the work. But never lose touch with the darkroom, as this keeps us intimately in touch with the distinction between those teen miniature-format shots and the roominess of the 6cm square format. Which system would I recommend? Hmm. Either a TLR or a folder -- and the Prewar Super Ikonta B's are loss-leaders at the moment. But the choices are immense, as 120 film has been in production for all but the tiniest bit of a century. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!