I nearly always like the images I get from the Mamiya C330 and each time I shoot it I pledge that I will use it more often. It doesn't happen. I average picking up the camera once yearly. That's been going on now for ten years.
I loaded some HP5+ into the C330 on Saturday and went down to the river in the afternoon. There were ducks, geese and cranes in the ankle-deep water from bank to bank. It was a scene that seemed to call out for some telephoto work. Of course, I had left the 180mm lens for the C330 at home along with all the other accessories for the camera. Luckily, the 2.8/80mm lens is ultra-sharp and the HP5+ combined with PMK Pyro processing yields very fine grain. So, I came home with one good bird shot.
I think the lens on my YashicaMat is likely just as sharp as the lenses I have for the C330. However, the close focusing and parallax correction available in the Mamiya give it the edge whenever I'm out prospecting for images.
On my recent outing with the camera I used the waist-level finder; it is very bright and easy to focus with the flip-up magnifying lens. The Porroflex finder is a little dimmer and does not completely show the full image that will be on the film, but it makes shooting at a downward angle much easier. The accessory grip in combination with the neck strap also contributes greatly to managing the heavy camera.
7 comments:
I have great respect for anyone taking the C330 out for a hike. And I thought my Nikon F4s was a beast! LOL
I've loaded another roll of HP5+ in the camera, so we'll see if I can struggle through another session.
This post resonates with me on so many levels. I have neglected my Mamiya TLR (a C220) far too much since getting it a few years ago. When I do shoot it, though, I love the images it gets me. I've made it one of my goals this year to shoot it more, and so far so good. Three rolls this month. I have some Portra and Ektar in 120 format that I want to get shot up and optically printed. After that, I'll need to decide if--and how much--I want to continue to invest in color film for that camera or not. As a matter of fact, I have my last roll of Fuji 400H that is ready for pickup. I shot it and sent it in a few weeks before the big announcement that it was being discontinued.
I'd like to see some color from the Mamiya; I'm guessing it would be pretty spectacular. Your three rolls in a month certainly surpasses my performance.
Heh, I think I shot 5 all last year, so it looks like I'm moving up in the world. Also, I need to make more use of that 180mm. Optical prints look beautiful in medium format. I wish I could share prints with the world, but scans don't do them justice.
My one brief experience with a Mamiya C220 was very satisfactory. A friend loaned me his C220 with 55mm and 80mm lenses. The old 55 lens was hazy, but I could tell that it was excellent resolution. I decided to buy a Hasselblad system, but I could be quite satisfied with a Mamiya kit instead. I already had two decades experience with a Rolleiflex, so the tall twin-lens morphology was familiar.
Here are some examples from the 55:
https://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-mississippi-delta-24-panther-burn.html
What a great story about Panther Burn, and what good luck to run into such a nice bunch of kids to tell it. I'd really like to try the wide-angle lens for the C330, so will have to look around to see what I can find.
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