When I returned to the world of film photography, I chose the medium format cameras as my medium. Primarily the Hasselblad 503cw and all its assorted accessories i.e. lenses, extra film backs, waist level finder and the 45 degree prism finder and etc.
For those of you not familiar with the Hasselblad, these are not lightweight cameras, I for one always limit myself to certain lens which I require for the day's shoot. I discovered over time I only prefer 2 lens at any given day when shooting and only a couple of extra film backs. Even than I feel my shoulder and back objecting by the end of the day.
Over dinner one night. I was reminiscing with my cycling buddy about my first camera - a 35mm Yashica ME rangefinder - which I had sold when I upgraded to my 35mm SLR. This prompted me to surf eBay to replace my missing Yashica. One thing led to another and I stumbled upon the world of vintage folding cameras. To make a long story short. The vintage folders have become my camera of choice for traveling, if I wish to shoot in B&W film.
My favourite folder is the Voigtlander Bessa II with a Heliar 105mm f/3.5 lens. For a 55+ year old camera, it still performs amazingly. The film format is 6x9, this means I only get 8 shots from a 120 film roll as compared to 12 shots from a 6x6 medium format. Just to give you an idea, the images below have not been manipulated except cropped to show the clarity of the image captured by this vintage folder. These images were captured by the Voigtlander Bessa II. The film I use exclusively with the vintage folders is Ilford 100 Delt Pro. I have yet to experiment with the Ilford Pan F (I use this with my Hasselblad 95% of the time).
Uncropped and unedited image from vintage folder ... seen as is. Scanned by Epson Perfection V750 PRO
Cropped without any further editing.
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