What's the best buy in used MF? Moving up from a Yashica 124

[Steve Smith]

I wouldn't recommend an RB if you want something portable or if you want to hand hold.

But everyone is different. I hand hold mine most of the time.


Steve.

[Mark Fisher]

Mamiya TLR (insanely portable due to tiny lenses, close focussing and small tripod requirement) is not a bad choice other than dealing with parallax. Bronica SQ series is also a good choice. The RB misses on portability (you should really see it in person). Laastly, an older hasselblad is worth saving up for a bit longer. I went from a Rolleicord, to a Mayiya TLR to a Pentax 645 to the Hasselblad. It would have been easier and cheaper to save a bit longer and just start there.

[AmsterdamMartin]

I see you won a Bronica, that is a great machine and you are fine now.
Just to answer your initial question: in regard of quality vs price, any beat up old Hasselblad is a fantastic opportunity as well, for anyone asking the same question.

[Steve Smith]

I went from a Rolleicord, to a Mayiya TLR to a Pentax 645 to the Hasselblad. It would have been easier and cheaper to save a bit longer and just start there.

That's always good advice in hindsight. I went from Rolleicord to ETRS to RB67. I should have by-passed the ETRS and gone straight to the RB67 but when you want something now and not later, the amount of money available dictates what you buy.

I think that if I had a bit more cash at the time I would have bought a Bronica SQ instead of the ETRS and I probably would not have had the desire for an extra 10mm of length on the negative which the RB67 offers.


Steve.

[Sully75]

Thanks for the advice! For the record, these were the good pictures, I was pleased with them. But there are a lot of wasters, anything that's very high contrast. I do have the lens hood, it's helped some. I also bought a close up lens but it's pretty frustrating to use, I never even took a picture with it.

Bronica sounds good, I'll look into it. When I say a budget, I mean, A BUDGET. I'm in school. But have some stuff to sell so I might be able to make it work. I'll look for that beat up hasselblad too.

[Sully75]

ps: you want some flare? I got your flare right here!

Luckily the picture fails on other grounds....

[lxdude]

Looks like a light leak to me.

[John Wiegerink]

I've never had a problem with sharpness on any of the Yashica TLR's I've owned as long as the lens is in good shape(not all scratched up/fungus) and the focus is adjusted right. A lens hood is important on almost any camera when shooting toward bright light.
Please don't rule out a good Mamiya C220 or C330 as a near perfect walk-about professional camera. I think the C330 Professional is an OUTSTANDING camera for the money. You can do extreme close-ups with no special equipment, has very good parallax correction, has accessory porro-finder and prism, and a whole series of some very, very fine lenses. The earlier lenses are single coated, but still very sharp. While the latest(all black) versions are extremely good in the contrast/sharpness department. One thing to remember about the Mamiya TLR's is the fact that there is much, much less to go wrong with them. No moving mirror, no motor drive, no electronics. Just a KISS type camera. Now, if you found one that was used professionally you might have problems later on, but one that was used by and average person would last forever. Oh, and they are almost silent!
Now, you might be able to find a Hasselblad 500C or 500CM pretty cheap, but don't expect to pick up any Hassey accessories on the cheap side. I have used Bronica, Pentax 67, Mamiya (M645, RB67, C220, C33, C330), Rollei's (TLR's), Yashica's, Russian 'blads and Pentacon clones, Practisix's and even and old Norita. Of all of those I'd say the Mamiya TLR is the KING(or Queen if you prefer) for the most "bang for the buck". If you were to buy a late C330 Professional with a late all black 80mm f2.8 I'm sure you wouldn't make a statement like "not really excited" about Mamiya TLR's. Of course, if you have more money than brains you can buy whatever excites you, but that's not what you ask. The above is just my opinion of course! JohnW

[benjiboy]

Looks like a light leak to me.

Just what I was thinking.

[John Wiegerink]

Sometimes certain types of film(cheaper foreign stuff with little or no anti-halation layer) can be a little flarey in the film base itself. I just read that you used a hood so that helps. Of course a hood means nothing if the light source is include in the shot. I have a beautiful Hasselblad SWC that you don't even want to get any bright lights included in the shot(flare city), but I know that and work around it. I still love that camera and if I used it everyday I'd then upgrade to a later one with at least "T" coating, but I don't use it everyday so I'll save my money. JohnW