The World of Medium Format Film
I never thought I’d make it into the 120mm world. I considered it but never really thought I’d actually end up getting a medium format film camera, well that’s changed.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned it on this blog but since getting back into film I’ve also gotten into thrift shopping in the hope of finding more film cameras.
Once a month (sometimes twice) ill head down to my local Salvation Army store to see what they have. Most of the time there isn’t anything worth while but occasionally I’ll find something. My first worth while find was a Minolta XG-1 with Rokkor 40mm f2 lens which my son now uses and it produces some nice images.
Lets get on with the find this post is really about, that would be when I came across a Yashica Mat TLR. When I first saw it I knew what type of camera it was and had a rough idea around how it worked but was a little reluctant to purchase it.
So I called an attendant around to open the cabinet to take a closer look at it. Close up the leather was peeling on almost every panel, it needed a clean and the shutter button felt a little sticky. Things I kind of expect from a camera this old that hadn’t ever been restored. I opened it up and had a look around and seemed to be in good condition, lenses seemed clean, view finder was good, shutter speeds seemed to be accurate when firing and the film advance winder did its job.
I jumped on eBay and had a quick look to see what they go for and saw they were around the $280-350 AUD for a working example. Considering it was $80 I took a gamble and bought it.
When I brought it home I gave it a quick clean and ripped off the old peeling leather and cleaned off as much of the glue residue as possible. I then jumped online and purchased my first roll of 120mm film from Walkens House of Film which was a roll of Kodak TMax 400. I figured I’d have a better chance at getting something half decent from some black and white film first. Here are some of the images from that first roll.
Once i knew that the camera worked i ordered a replacement leather set for the camera off of eBay to give it a fresh look. The pictures of the actual camera at the start of the post are it with the new leather panels.
For those that don’t know much about the Yashica Mat its a 6x6 square format twin lens camera which has one lens to look through and the 2nd lens is the one that exposes the film. It also has a waist level view finder which is mirrored, so when composing and making micro adjustments your always moving the wrong way (takes some getting used to). It has two 80mm fixed lenses that range from f3.5 to f22 and a max shutter speed of 1/500, ISO is limited to 400. These Yashica TLR cameras were manufactured from 1957 up until around the 1980s, they went through different specs and names but essentially had the same layout. My particular model doesn’t come with a built in light meter so having to use my phone with an app. Having to meter with an external device and the fact that it’s a waist level view finder, your forced to slow down even more so than I would with my manual focus Contax S2b with build in light meter. This is a good segue onto what it’s like to shoot with the Yashica Mat.
I find focusing to be hard with the standard screen it comes with, I tend to focus back and forth past my focal point and gradually shorten the distance until I hit that focal point (well I think I’ve hit it). This can take me 30 seconds or so as I’m second guessing myself as to whether I’m actually on my desired focus point, it doesn’t help that the view finder isn’t the brightest out there. Once I hit focus I then compose, this definitely takes longer than it should because of the mirrored view in the view finder were moving left is actually right. I really don’t think I’ll ever get used to this to be honest.
I make it sound like it’s a nightmare to use this camera, but it’s not. Yes it’s a slower process but with practice like most things I’ll get faster at using it. I definitely think it makes getting nice results back so much more rewarding as you had to work for it.
Of course if your going to be shooting anything that requires you to be moving from scene to scene quickly and getting those shots out, this probably isn’t the camera for it.
I’ve been shooting stuff with it that’s been slow paced with no time restraints, so I’ve been enjoying learning the qwerks of the camera.
As you can imagine I have only touched the surface of medium format and look forward to getting into it a lot more, with the potential of getting another medium format camera in the future (watch this space).
I havent put many rolls through this camera yet, maybe 3-4 but here are some of my faves so far.
Thanks for visiting.