Greetings all, I am a yet another amateur who decided it is time to move up from 35mm format (Olympus OM4Ti). I have played with Pentacon Six (East German 6x6) camera for a while and concluded that a) yes, I like working slowly from a tripod and composing in the WL finder; b) 35x24mm film size is ridiculous, what was I thinking?; c) Pentacon Six and Zeiss Jena lenses are cool but unfortunately way too unreliable to use. Now what to do?
My main photographic obsession are wilderness landscapes and I shoot exclusively slide film. For the future I have a few self-assigments in mind: a) landscape photography while backpacking in remote wilderness areas (like the Arctic tundra of Finland) for a week or two, carrying along all the food and survival equipment; b) making a collection of unique and unusual photographs of the local Alps where I live, by both carrying photo gear with me on mountaneering trips, and by running up the mountain for a couple of hours to a pre-selected location to catch the best light; c) making an "artistic" collection of interesting geological features in my region (I am a geoscientist). To illustrate my photographic vision and shooting style I have put a few examples of my work
here .
In a couple of weeks I will travel to U.S. for a 1 month stay and I thought to exploit the current low dollar rate and depressed MF gear prices. I otherwise live in a small European country where MF and LF equipment is rare, so I have no realistic chance of seeing, testing or purchasing equipment at home. I would therefore ask the collective wisdom of this forum what MF/LF outfit might best suit my working style and goals. Obviously my equipment of choice should be as portable as possible and usable without much fuss (when the environmental factors play against you there really isn't time to fiddle with the camera). My budget for camera outfit with 1-3 lenses is $1500 max; I'd be buying used.
Studying the material in online forums for weeks I have arrived to the following candidates (but I am happy to hear any alternative suggestions):
Bronica ETRSi: this seems to be the least bulky, heavy and expensive choice (also considering modest lens filter sizes and lighter tripod requirements). While I did find some interesting square compositions with the Pentacon, I still cropped most of the pictures to rectangular shape, so with 645 format I seemingly won't be at much loss.
Pentax 67: this one is remarkably similar in handling, size and weight to the Pentacon I was already using. Better film size than 645. Possible cons: price, weight and operating hassle approach or equal LF without its benefits.
LF: a cheap field 4x5 camera, probably a new Tachichara, and Quickload film. Technical cameras like Linhof Tecnica IV unfortunately seem to be out of my price range. Possible cons: general operating hassles and slowness of using LF; bulk, ongoing film costs. Despite what is being said about LF being cheaper than MF, I can't see how I could buy more than one (used) lens with my budget (I am a decidedly wide-anglish person and thought to first look for a 135mm and 90mm).
My first concern in MF/LF dilemma is whether I would be able to achieve enough DOF for near-far compositions with MF gear (Pentax particularly - but is ETRSi much better?). With Pentacon, I was using small apertures and DOF scale on the lens when composing, and yet more often than not the infinity eventually turned out to be out of focus. The issue of film size vs. max enlargements possible is clear to me, and since I am just an amateur on a limited budget probably 645 is already quite enough - but why not go for better, if feasible? Besides, I am also attracted to panoramas, for which larger film size is certainly a bonus.
What do you think?
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