Top 10 Medium Format Film Cameras For 2022

[Dallas]

Some beautiful cameras displayed and discussed here. Which ones are your favourites? I still want an RB67 and Hassy 500CM. 

 

 

 

 

[Hugh_3170]

Some memory lane stuff in here - but well outside my pay grade these days .  I still have a Yashica 124G - a gift from many years ago.

 

www.KEH.com also publish shorter essays and reviews of old gear.  Worth a look.

[Dallas]

I will check them out, thanks Hugh. Oddly I have zero interest in 35mm film cameras anymore, but the medium format has always intrigued me. At one point early on in my GAS sickness I obtained a full Bronica ETRS 645 system with 3 lenses, multiple backs and prism finders, but couldn’t figure it out. Ended up swapping it all for a new Nikon F5. 

[danielm]

The Mamiya RZ67 camera and lenses were our studio (or staged photography) system at the Montreal Olympic Stadium during my working years there (1988-1994) and as I can summarize best, the Mamiya camera and its optics were outstanding competent photographic tools. I must add that we use it mainly with a Linhof studio stand at the office and a (big) Manfrotto tripod on location because the camera was very difficult to handhold with efficiency. 120/220/Polaroid film backs were prepared in advance and be permuted at will. A shutter release cable was a must. The handling operations involving the RZ 67 were slow to say the least but easily manageable in a controlled set-up. Image quality as I can remember was stellar both in black and white (w/Ilford products) and in color(Fujifilm). Good memories from there!

Happy New Year to you Dallas and to all the Fotozone participants!

Edited 2 January, 2022 by danielm

[ed]

It’s late 2023 and my vote… Plaubel Makina 670. If you land upon one in good shape with a functioning meter, it’s hard to beat. Its bespoke Nikkor lens is a full stop faster than any Mamiya 7 lens. 

[Andrew L (gryphon1911)]

I’m still waiting for a digital version of a mamiya 7 or a Fuji gw690!  😜

[Alan7140]

Having gone through the photography course at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) 1971-73 with a Hasselblad 500C/M outfit which was also used for work until 1977 (our studio switched to Pentax 67 and Mamiya M645 then, so I followed suit), later rejoining the Hasselblad clan in 1997 with three 500 C/M bodies and numerous lenses until digital cameras took over in 2006 when all my gear was traded over the next few years to acquire ever newer digital models as our generation acted as unpaid testers for camera manufacturers' development programs until my official retirement in 2018, by which time I had already embarked on acquiring a bevy of old 35mm, 120 and large format film cameras to return to my film roots.

 

Firmly a lover of square format, but with Hasselblad cameras already being priced beyond common sense for this project, I had an unsuccessful encounter with a couple of Kiev 60C camera bodies and Soviet lenses before settling with what I consider to be a much underrated camera system bearing the Pentacon Six TL label with its superb Carl Zeiss Jena lenses, all of which was incredibly affordable compared to the Western cameras of 6x6 format. In fact these days you'd be struggling to buy a good Hasselblad 500 body with standard lens and back for what I paid for the entire Pentacon Six outfit pictured below (30mm fisheye & 45mm wide angle are USSR lenses, 50mm, 80mm, 120mm, 180mm and 300mm lenses are all Zeiss Jena items in excellent condition, as are the two Pentacon Six TL bodies, to one of which I have adapted a KIEV 60C prism viewfinder - the camera is a bit awkward when used with the waist-level finder for other than low-angle shots):

 

 

Prices are on the rise now, though, and it's wise to buy a body with a confirmed recent service to replace the old Soviet oil which tends to gum up the works as well as familiarizing oneself with the somewhat eclectic handling procedures required for smooth, trouble-free operation, but other than that this camera system is right up there with the best of what the West had to offer in the post war film camera period before digital.

[ed]

I too love the square format but a sleeper camera is the Rolleiflex 6008 in its various iterations. They are unbeatable--super Hasselblads, truth be told. The lenses, in particular the Schneider Kreuznach versions, are superb. Because of the electronics, the masses shy away but the metering is fantastic, making reversal film easy to use and automatic exposure an added perk. Very solid machines. Unlike the average beater Hassy 500, the condition you most often find them in, the Rollei are more commonly in great shape. Yea, electronics are a risk but so what? A Contax P&S that newbies rush into,  sell for more. 

Edited 9 March by ed

[blurmagic]

I prefer color images made with digital cameras.

 

However, when it comes to black & white prints, to my eye, no digital B&W print can compare with a medium format B&W print made in the darkroom by a master printer!

[ed]

On 10/03/2024 at 15:21, blurmagic said:

I prefer color images made with digital cameras.

 

However, when it comes to black & white prints, to my eye, no digital B&W print can compare with a medium format B&W print made in the darkroom by a master printer!

 

Perhaps, but output from the Leica and Pentax monochrome sensors are pretty damn great. As there aren't many master printers around nowadays, it is an option too costly for most of us not in the art photography business.