Originally posted by DougLee Hello all. I hoping to get some advice from you good Medium Formaters. I have been enjoying shooting with my Pentax dSLRs the last 2 years but recently have begun to consider branching out in to film medium format, either staying with Pentax or possibly a getting a TLR camera.
In my opinion, you don't want anything with a moving mirror when shooting MF and I am not a huge fan of the Pentax MF lineup. The 645 yields negatives that are too small and the 67, while using the nice 6x7 format, is obscenely heavy and conspicuous. It's like taking photos with a mortar. My 6x7 gets basically no use at all.
Instead, consider a Rolleicord IV with a Schneider Xenar lens. You lose the ability to change lenses but you get in return the wonderful 6x6 square format and the quietest and most discreet camera in the world. It's also going to be cheaper than any Pentax system and on occasions has allowed me to take
a shot that would have been impossible with any camera featuring a mirror slap.
Originally posted by DougLee How easy/difficult is it to develop negatives on your own for a newbie? I seems like doing this doesn't require a lot of expense but are the results as good as sending your film off to a lab?
It's really easy. With B&W film, the results are as good as any professional lab could deliver them but you get the benefit of getting to chose your own developer and development method. Get the
Samigon tank and reels. There are no reels, plastic or metal, that are as easy to spool and sturdy as the Samigon ones.
Originally posted by DougLee Can you recommend a good scanner that is not so complex to use that will do justice to the image quality that a good lens will yield? I figure $250 to $500 for a scanner is doable for me.
In that case, get an
Epson V700. It exceeds your budget by around $25 but you will have some spare money by choosing a TLR over Pentax MF. :-) It gives you pretty much everything the V750 will give you minus wet-mounting which I've never considered necessary. The V500 would be significantly cheaper but it wont handle anything bigger than 6x12 and you shouldn't rule out the possibility of shooting LF some day.
Note that for MF format negatives you will need
custom film holders with the anti-newton glass or else the negatives wont be flat enough in the scanner. LF negatives don't have that problem since they never curl.
Originally posted by DougLee Is additional software such as VueScan recommended?
Probably not. The V700 would come with a basic version of SilverFast which is however pretty good and what I am using. I've several times contemplated upgrading to one of the more advanced versions but then always looked at my scans and concluded that they are actually very good already. There's also the big debate between SilverFast and VueScan users. I've tried a demo of the latter once and was totally disgusted by its bizarre interface.
Originally posted by DougLee Any other things I should keep in mind or be aware of coming from the digital world to the film world?
Not off the top of my head. But my route was different: I went from DSLR to 35mm first, then MF and now LF. The 35mm process is in many ways much easier and this being a Pentax forum, I can finally counteract my unkind words about their MF line of cameras by saying that 35mm is where Pentax really shines. I also see on ebay a Pentax MX with a modest M 50mm f/2 for just under $75 right now. That's very little for one of their greatest bodies.
Cheers,
Tassilo