Medium format by hand

[Graham Welland]

I'm not totally certain what your question is but generally if you want to take landscape pictures on MF you're going to need a tripod all of the time with an SLR. If you go with a rangefinder such as Mamiya 7/Bronica RF645/Fuji 690 etc then you can use these more like travel cameras and shoot handheld successfully if required, although even these really require tripods if you care about quality.

Things like the Pentax 67 have horrendous mirror slap. You not only need a tripod but you need to use mirror lock up too if you want anything sharp.

I'm not saying that you can't use MF without a tripod (there's a huge body of work out there that proves this), but realistically this is the only way you'll get decent quality.

[rosswarner@rosswarner.com]

Here's a hand held shot, while standing on a windowsill inside Saint Mark's bell tower in Venice:

http://rosswarner.com/san_marco1.html

I do use a tripod when I can, though!

-Ross

[Per_1948]

Hallo,

I have been reading many interesting reviews here at LL about
cameras in real life. One of my dreams is one day to buy a
medium format like 6x7 for landscape photos. Certainly central
shutters have some good points concerning handholding in weak light and Pentax 67 need tripod or fast film very often.
How about the other focal plane shutters Hasselblad 1000 & 2000? And how about mirrors?

Best regards/ Per

[Per_1948]

Thank you Gwelland for your reply!

Yes a RF looks to be the best alternative. I don't like to walk
in the mountains with a heavy tripod. Even my Minolta har a
rather heavy (and thick) mirror but it's small compared to the one in Pentax 67. Is there any development in mirrors?
What I mean the classical type is both heavy and brittle.
Glass is the best in a lens but a mirror of Al-coated plastic
must be a better alternative.

Best regards/ Per

[Joja]

if youll want to move to medium format, the it isnt necessary to concern about mirrors.
most of the cameras have a mirror lock-up button and if your after the highest quality (thats mostly the reason to use it) then youll should use it all the time !
at least for landscapes with a tripod (which youll normally use) the mirrors in mediumformat cameras are so big that the use of the litle button makes a huge difference !!