Fill me in on Medium Format Cameras

Gamefreak501 · 13 Jul 2006 at 12:42

Hi everyone,

I am looking to get a Medium Format camera in the next month or so. I understand the likes of Hasselblad, Bronica, Mamiya and Voigtlander make medium format cameras, but was wondering if I should be looking at any specific models?

What should I know about them? Any films I should look at? What about fixing and repairing - can that be done myself, or should I get a specialist to do that? Are the manual focus lenses hard to come by and reasonably priced for each manufacturer above? There are probably loads of other questions I should ask, but I can't think what they could be!

I have been doing photography for about 1 and a half years now, and wouldn't mind experimenting with medium format cameras.

Cheers in advance!

freebooter · 13 Jul 2006 at 13:43

Firstly, why do you want to use medium format? Film and processing costs will be more than 35mm as you will probably need to use pro labs.

I have never used mf myself but here is what I know. There are different styles of mf cameras from the classic Hasselblad box stle which were the standard for studio work, weddings etc to rangefinder models, fuji, which were popular with travel photographers and are more like SLRs to use.

MF film is just a strip 6cm wide but the way different cameras used it produced different negative sizes; 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9.

I doubt whether even today on the second hand mkt Hasselblad are reasonably priced

However, I think they used to be pretty standard for studio work and weddings and most of that has gone digital so there must be a lot being sold. I am sure you could get something pretty cheap. Any well known make will produce top results as the lenses were all primes and excellent. I know there used to be some russian ones that were quite cheap new and still produced excellent results. I think there were some dodgy twin lens reflex cheapies around though.

whitecrook · 13 Jul 2006 at 19:57

There's no cheaper way than a Holga camera. I only found out about these the other week, but they look fun to experiment with.

They cost about £20.

Joe T · 13 Jul 2006 at 20:29

I think Bronica make some of the cheaper MF cameras.

Gamefreak501 · 14 Jul 2006 at 18:18

Cheers for the help everyone,

Reasoning behind thinking of getting a medium format camera is because I wish to experiment...and if I decide to go professional, I could have the medium format camera to make enlargements a doddle (although expensive) whilst maintaining quality.

I reckon in the short term (and long term a Holga camera may be nice to experiment with) after all, the medium formats are going for silly money nowadays and I could afford one!