I can answer a few of your questions. First, in regard to lenses, the late model
wides are excellent. I bought the latest 55/4, and it focuses down to 1 foot and
is wonderfully sharp and contrasty. The normals are both great as well -- the
105/2.4 and the 90/2.8. I like my 300/4 as well. It's the last of the earlier
version, not the ED, so it doesn't focus very close. But it's very sharp and
easily handheld.
I think the problems with mirror shake and shutter vibration occur mainly
when working with long lenses and less than adequate tripods at middle shutter
speeds, like 1/30 or 1/15. I have had great results handheld at speeds from 1/125
on up. I've also had great results with a tripod at 1/60 and at 1/4 and 1/8, all
with the mirror locked up. My tripod is hefty and has a broad base video head,
which is probably not ideal but it dampens a lot of vibration.
Loading film in my 6x7 is as easy as it was in my Mamiya C220. For someone
who has never worked with roll film, it might be a pain at first, but one gets
used to it in a hurry.
Paul
Bolo wrote:
> For the last year I have been debating about MF quite a bit. I'm not
> getting rid of my 35mm gear, for I use it and have a nice kit that
> I slowly work on improving. The size and lightness are important
> for a lot of things. However, I started out in photography long ago
> with MF 6x6 TLR equipment. It died eventually and I used my parent's
> 35mm gear on and off. Now that I am a well equipped 35mm user I find
> myself missing MF. The difference seems to have a lot to do with
> peering through a tiny viewfinder versus a nice big ground glass.
> I think that the MF ground glass lets me "slow down" instead of
> squinting through a tiny eyepiece I also spend a lot of time with my
> 35mm gear on a tripod. Once that happens I often think I should
> go the extra distance for a larger negative. That certainly won't
> make the shooting any slower than it already is!
>
> All along I have been planning on adding some MF equipment, but the
> costs for my favorite 6x6 are a bit high, at least for newer stuff
> which is still manufactured. Some 6x6 backs cost almost as much as
> a used Pentax 67! So, I put it on the back burner. Prior to this
> I didn't really consider Pentax due to the lack of 6x6 and I'm not
> particularly interested in 6x4.5. Though not interested in Pentax
> MF gear, I've still followed along the pdml posts about the 645 and
> the 6x7 and the 67 and the brotherhood of mystic 67 users.
>
> Well, I probably should have not followed the 67 message since it
> piqued my interest. I went looking and found that the Pentax 67
> gear is quite affordable, even _new_ compared to 6x6 systems used.
> As I said above, you can get a 2nd 6x7 body for the price of a
> 6x6 back! At pricing like that it seems that if I want a 2nd back
> I might as well get a 2nd body (if it comes to that). I'm quite
> familiar with the astounding properties of the Pentax SMC glass, and
> it seems the 67 lenses share all the qualities of my Pentax 35mm gear
> ... just in larger cannon sized diameters.
>
> I'm off to Chicago this weekend to see some Pentax 67 gear in person
> so I can handle it and see what it feels like. I was hoping to pick
> the collective brain of the PDML for some extra info before I left.
> I've already read the existing articles, but I haven't seen any info
> on the following:
>
> 1) The 67II does TTL flash. From the photos I've seen the hotshoe
> appears to be a Pentax 4p hot shoe. That means that the 67II will
> do TTL flash with my existing Pentax TTL Flashes, such as the AF280T?
> Also, the 67 flash system is a straight 4p system and won't TTL with
> the auto-focus 5p flashes?
>
> 2) Only the AE prism for the 67 does metering, all the other finders
> lack metering so you need either a hand-held or "sunny-16" meter?
> I would like to have a waist-level finder that would meter, so I
> don't have to "peer" through the small peephole viewfinder so much.
>
> 3) The 6x7 metering prism is a full-average meter, while the 67II AE
> prism is closer to 35mm gear with center-weighted, spot, and "matrix"
> metering modes?
>
> 4) Can you adjust TTL flash fill via exposure compensation like you
> can on the SuperProgram? In other words use manual metering, and adjust
> the exposure compensation to control the flash fill?
>
> 5) What is the highest shutter speed on the leaf shutter lens(s)? 1/500?
> When using the leaf shutter lens does the body sync the flash correctly?
>
> 6) I have read that mirror and shutter vibration are a big problem
> with the Pentax 67 bodies. An article on The Luminous Landscape
> http://www.luminous-landscape.com/pentax67ii.htm
> shows multiple images on photographs with Pentax 67 gear because the
> shutter and the mirror shake the camera so badly. On the other
> hand, the PDML photographers have been getting excellent results.
> What's up?
>
> 7) Some things that I've read say that the camera and lenses have two
> bayonets, an "inner" bayonet and a "outer" bayonet. Digging around
> it seems that some accessories (extension tubes for example) work only
> on one of the bayonets. Does this mean there are essentially two incompatible
> lens systems for the 67, and you need to have, for example, extension tubes
> and teleconverters for *each* of the bayonets?
>
> 8) Any lenses to stay away from? Any particularly outsanding ones
> (yes, I already know about Aaron's 75mm f/2.8 :)? Any recommendations for
> any particularly good pairs or triplets of prime lenses?
>
> 9) Is the film loading particularily onerous, or is it comparable to
> 6x6 TLR bodies?
>
> 9) Any other good questions to ask which I haven't? :)
>
> Thanks for any info!
> Bolo -- Josef T. Burger
>
> ps: Just wait till I ask for info about 6x7 capable enlargers!
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