THE GIFT
X-mas Came Late...
I got a text last Wednesday out of the blue from my friend Odiaka. He told me that his wife and himself had just cleaned out her parents home. He sent me some images of a Mamiya RB67 ProS and a Yashica-Mat TLR asking if I was interested in them. I responded immediately saying I would happily take it all off his hands. So this Friday he came by and dropped everything off to me. And let me tell you I am stoked!
The RB67 is hands down one of my all time favorite medium format cameras. I love the image it produces, in the right hands it arguably still stands up to todays newer cameras, I love the weight of it, and most of all I love the sound of the triple action process to make a photo. You have to first cue the film in the back, then cock the shutter, and then trigger the release. It is such a rich feeling. The only camera sound I enjoy as much the RB67 is the Pentax 67II, honestly, both of them remind me of loading and firing a gun. But there is something else beyond that, I don’t fully know how to describe it; just the weight of it, the action, and sound all together create this rich experience that is missing from todays digital cameras.
I ‘m a huge fan of the design of both the Mamiya and the Yashica. I love the badging, the metal accents against the black bodies, and small mechanical nuances of how you use them.
I checked over both cameras and they seem to be in solid working order. It’s always a good sign when the owner of an old camera keeps it in a case, even if it’s a somewhat broken down one. I disassembled the Mamiya , all the reflexes work, but it looks like the spring to push the lever forward on shutter reset needs to be replaced. It still can go through the motions, so that’s good. It looks like they both have clean seals and bellows. I haven’t sat down to clean the cameras or lenses yet. All of the images are of the cameras and lenses straight out of the cases. Next step is to set aside a day to dust and clean them.
The Mamiya came with 3 lenses; a 50mm, 90mm, and 127mm; the equivalent in 35mm is roughly 24mm, 50mm, and 60/65mm. I’ve shot with and RB67 before several times. We’ve had one at our studio since I first came around. Two of my favorite features are the huge top down viewfinder and the rotatable film back, so the shooter can switch from vertical to horizontal easily. The one thing that used to trip me up on shooting the RB67 was forgetting sometimes to take metal exposure plate out of the film back once it was loaded, which resulted to in a lot of black frames lol.
The Yashica came with a lot of interesting accessories and a telephoto extension for the lenses. All of it stuffed in a cool old Minolta Super A4 box. I used to have a Rollieflex which I sold and then ended up regretting letting go of. So I’m super stoked to have another TLR to mess around with. I love the waist level images made by both cameras and I am looking forward to putting a couple of rolls of Tri-X or Hp5 through them once they are polished up.
Thanks for letting me share my excitement about this unexpected gift! And once things are in order I’ll be sure to share some frames made with these two beauties.
Hella appreciate yall.
-Scott
Putting these posts out twice a week uses up a good amount of caffeine.
If you’d like to buy me a coffee, you can do so here. Thanks!
Some things I am reading/listening to:
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Just finished this one. Great Sci-fi book, first of a multi book s eries. They made a film out of it with Natalie Portman in it. As usual the book was better than the movie.
Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
A sci-fi classic from one of the godfathers of the genre. Pretty sure Elon Musk came up the name of his AI “Grok” because of the use of the word so frequently in this book.
Another one down! If you’re interested in my work you can find more in the links below.
If you are curious about other pieces I’ve written on improving your photography, I recommend you check out these posts.
The Three Perspectives Of An Image
3 Reasons Why Your Photos Are Trash
The 2 Reasons Why Your Lighting Is Trash
4 lessons I learned while photographing Snoop Dogg
Most cameras feel like thoughtful, precise instruments. The Mamiya feels like a *machine*!
Score and a half