Thread: A winter stale

I love your citrus picker shot Gary. I just cured myself looking at a bunch of Hasselblad shots and then some shots taken by the same photographer with clearly lesser diigtal cameras. The camera is great, but the photographer means more.

Yeah, a friend of mine did a whole Vietnam series with his Hasselblad. My preference is to use it much like I would a 4x5. Not exclusively, but for the most part.

I know you've been cured of Hassy Gas, but here are a couple of shots from one of mine that I pulled out from . The cabbage shots are among the, not really rare, but much less frequent hand-held shots I've taken with the camera. They were shot as a set, but the half cabbage wasn't framed right and required cropping in the print, which I don't have available. The Tent Rocks shot was shot from the bed of my truck on a tripod.

The way I think about taking photos has changed in the last couple of years.

I bought into m43 because of the compactness of the cameras, knowing that I would never leave the house with a big dSLR and it would end up a very expensive ornament on a shelf. It was a good decision.

Compactness and lightness has become much less an issue for me now, and I even lugged a tripod 3 miles in the snow the other day to do some LF pinhole shots ... and I'm not really a "street" snapper anyway (mind you, I saw some excellent street portraits the other day - done with an RB67, and that really is a monster)

So the idea of having a biggish heavier style of camera that I use more rarely but maybe more thoughtfully has become more attractive ... not a dSLR though

Still love my E-P2 though, I just wish I could get film into it ...

Originally Posted by pdh

Still love my E-P2 though, I just wish I could get film into it ...

The Bessa R isn't really too much bigger than the E-P2, and the rangefinder is really quite good. I like both. And you get to take advantage of the bargains on Leica screw mount lense -- which, of course, you can then use on your E-P2.

Well the very reason I have a Bessa R2A is that I already had a 35mm Summicron M, which I'd bought for the E-P2 but which wasn't getting used much as the 70mm-equiv FOV didn't really suit me. It's definitely feels bigger and heavier to my hands than the E-P2 (which I mostly shoot with the 17/2.8 now)

I also have a beautiful Ultron 28/1.9 that I bought for the Olympus, but it's a bit of a lump on the Bessa and of course the R2A doesn't have framelines for 28.

The rf on the Bessa is amazingly big and bright compared to the Fuji (I've never so much as held a Leica M so I have no comparison there), There's no doubt it is a very nice camera indeed. Luke even had one for 5 minutes as I recall ...

oh don't get me started on that beautiful Bessa. I could kick myself for selling it, but it was the right thing to do. I'm not a film shooter. I just desperately want to be one...... if that makes any sense.

I know, I know ... you're very confused boy ...

I really want an R2M, or maybe an A ( I usually shoot manual, but an auto option is nice sometimes), but got the R because I already have screw mount lenses for an old Leica IIIb and figured I'd never be able to afford M glass. Silly, really, since i could use the thread mount lenses on the M body with an adapter. Also never held a Leica M, though I've seen a few I wouldn't have minded taking home. But you can't have everything, and the R with the screw mount lenses satisfy my urges to shoot a rangefinder. Getting back to your original post, the rangefinder, medium format, I really, really want is the Mamiya 6 with all three lenses. But I don't believe that is on the near horizon.

Beautiful Bessa, wake unto me,
Stop bath and fixer are waiting for thee..

Just sing it, Luke; it's a great tune and will ease the pain.

Yes the 6 was top of my list until I started looking at prices.
A decent user body and one lens would run 5 or 6 times what the Fuji cost me.