Going Old School

Here are some of the photos from my new (to me) 40 year old Yashica medium format TLR camera. They are scans from negatives that are over 3 times the size of a regular 35 mm photo. I like the results, but have some things to work out. Here are a few of the first scans. I'm sure there will be more later!

A few things I noticed using the TLR:

• You can't look at the view screen and see the shot you just took! It seems they didn't have lcds back in the 60s! Who would have thought that?
• It takes a while to get the prints back. Like 10 days or so to send them out and get them back.
• Shooting and developing medium format film is not cheap. I figure it's on the order of a dollar a shot to take and develop the photos. Therefore, it's good to take my time doing the shoot, and making sure I get it right, before I click the shutter!
• View Screens are challenging to use. If you look into the screen, its down low so its a strange angle to be looking, and you have to look into them just right. Especially if you have glasses.
• There's a lot to remember every shot. Is the shutter speed right? The aperture? Can you see the stupid little #s? Did you advance the film? Are you sure?
• It's a whole thing to load and unload the film. Nothing painful, but it's not just popping a digital memory card and checking the batteries.
• There are no batteries in the camera.
• Waiting for the film to come back is a character building thing. Character building things are never fun!
• Scanning is slow and labor intensive. And makes big files ~200 megs per photo!

A detail from the shot below.




Bench and park shots, Delaware City



Lighthouse details, Rt 9, Delaware